PVT: ‘We Always Feel Like The Best Is Yet To Come’

Four albums into a career that’s taken them from Warp-signed instrumental act to vowel-less, vocal-led free agents, PVT’s Richard and Laurence Pike react to ‘lazy’ comparisons and discuss the process behind ‘Homosapien’. Interview by DOUG WALLEN.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] It’s not by accident that PVT’s fourth album is populated with song titles like ‘Cold Romance’, ‘Shiver’, ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Nightfall’. These guys are fascinated by flux and contrast, whether it’s a shift in time or temperature, a violent kick to the senses (see the video for ‘Window’) or the intertwining of man and machine. The album is called Homosapien, after all, and it continues the fusion of electronics and rock instrumentation that’s gotten the Sydney/London trio compared to both Radiohead and Depeche Mode (more on that later). Notably, Richard Pike has emerged as the frontman of a band that was once purely instrumental, making his voice and lyrics a vital part of their sound.

Which brings us to the most telling title of all: ‘Evolution’. Here’s a band that puts itself through a series of growing pains with each album, always pushing for something new and challenging over settling for a comfortable plateau. Homosapien isn’t comfortable by any means, instead sifting through fragments of sound and genre even as the songs grow “song-ier” than ever. Pike – eventually joined by brother and bandmate Laurence – weighs in on that unusual trajectory.

The press release said you recorded this album at a “remote location.” Where was that and what was remote about it?
Richard: We went to a place just outside of Canberra. Well, just outside of Yass, actually, the nearest town. It was just an old, kind of turn-of-the-century mansion. “Mansion” sounds a bit elaborate, but it was a big place, very old, and it was really quite isolated. There was nothing around. We were overlooking a sheep station basically. So we’re surrounded by sheep and we were looking at a little hill. It was all a bit Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Why did you choose that location?
Richard: We’d always done albums in the city, and that usually means that you’re on the clock in terms of studio time. What we really wanted to do was do the Rolling Stones thing, going somewhere remote and being in a house and being able to set up wherever we wanted in the house and do that kind of thing. We’d never done that before, so that was really exciting for us. We had some friends who had done some records in this place, so we thought we’d give it a go too. Jack Ladder did a record there and Laurence actually played drums on that record, and Gareth from The Drones.

Yeah, I did an interview with Burke Reid where he talked about that space…
Richard: Great, awesome. Well, we worked with Burke two albums ago now – no, sorry, one album ago now. We did two records with him.

And you guys self-produced this one?
Richard: Yeah, that’s right. I think usually what happens is we start writing, start demoing and then just kind of move into recording without anyone else around. And then before we know it, we’ve got a bunch of ideas that are pretty solid. When we went to the space in Yass, we brought a bunch of fully formed ideas and we just started doing it with our engineer Ivan [Vizintin, formerly of Ghoul], who we hadn’t done anything with before. He’d never gone away with a band or done that sort of thing either, so that was exciting for us. In retrospect, maybe we needed an outside source to keep our heads in the game, because it does become a bit Groundhog Day. Being there for quite a while, we didn’t really give ourselves weekends, which in retrospect made us pretty weird.

How long were you there?
Richard: Well, we were there for three weeks and maybe a little more. But when you’re getting up and doing that same thing every morning and there’s no outside interaction, it’s pretty bizarre after a while. There wasn’t any distraction with TV; there was internet there, but it was really slow so we didn’t really sit around on the internet much. It was literally quite isolated.

Did you have to really get used to that space, which would be pretty unconventional compared to a studio?
Richard: Well, there’s one room there that sounds really fantastic, and we did most things in that room. It’s kind of the centre of the house and it’s got a great stairwell going up. You can get quite a big sound in there. Towards the end I thought we needed to record some more intimate-sounding drums, so we put some drums in the side room and did that. We got to experiment with the space a little bit. I recorded some guitars outside, things like that. We had the privilege of doing that. It was really fun.

You produced yourselves, so it’s almost like having three producers. I imagine it would have to be democratic. How did you come to decisions?
Richard: It’s a good question and I probably couldn’t give you quite a straight answer of how it works. We all have roles and I guess my role is pulling it all together. So maybe in some regards I’ve got more experience producing in terms of knowing the ins and outs of mixing and understanding things like that. We try and keep it as democratic as we can. Initially it’s just Laurence and I that end up arguing.

“We can’t recreate the sound of a band playing together when we separate. Having that space is a real luxury.”

Yeah, well, you’re brothers.
Richard: Being brothers, you know. Aside from that, we didn’t really have any huge arguments. When we moved the drums into the smaller room, there was a bit of a thing about that. Laurence was basically going, “I don’t think it’s worth it.” So that was the biggest argument that happened – me trying to make him do some drums again. My whole point was, “If it all sucks, you’re right and I’m wrong but we’ve got this time here now. Let’s see what happens with it, rather than walking away and going ‘Oh we should’ve tried the drums in that small room’ and never knowing.”

A lot of that material ended up on the record, so I’m glad we did it. The big thing is, we can always go away and mess around with electronics all we want. We can chop things up, we can program drums, I can do vocals at home – I did most of the vocals at home in the end – but we can’t recreate the sound of a band playing together when we separate. Having that space is a real luxury. That was the big thing: let’s get as much as we can. If we want to tweak 808 snare drums, we can do that later.

Because you’re still divided by geography pretty drastically, right?
Richard: Yeah, but we end up touring enough that it doesn’t really make a huge difference. I’m going to be back in Australia in about three weeks, and I’ll be there for two months and then I’ll come back here [to London]. Over the last four years I’ve been in Australia about a third of every year. I’ve been really lucky that I’ve been able to do that; it’s the best of both worlds. I get to come hang out in the sun for a while and then I get to come back to gloomy old London for a bit. It hasn’t really been a problem, and we’re such electronic nerds that we just end up sending files to each other. It’s hard to explain but it works. Trust me, it works.

Why did you do so much of the vocals at home?
Richard: I guess the big thing – not just with the vocals but with everything we do – development is really important for us, electronically as well as doing something like vocals and lyrics. We spend a lot of time getting things right and getting them feeling right. A lot of stuff goes on the cutting room floor. Some of the vocals on the record are the very first demos that stuck, but a couple of tracks were really layered over till it just felt like it’s correct. I guess that’s why we produce our own stuff: our big aim is to make something really original and unique. The songs get to a point where it just feels that way. If it doesn’t, you just scrap it.

We’re very proud of all the songs in that regard. It doesn’t really sound like anything else. People are going to pull out comparisons, but I think they’re just being lazy because I think it sounds very unique. I actually read our very first review of the record and the first few sentences mentioned Radiohead, and I was like, "You know what, that’s just lazy.”

So you guys aren’t influenced by Radiohead, or you don’t think about that when you’re making this stuff?
Richard: If anything comes out that reminds anyone of Radiohead, we scrap it. It’s a rule.

Laurence: Hello, I’m here by the way. Can you hear me?

Richard: Oh hello Laurence, I didn’t know you were there.

Laurence: No, someone just dropped me in in the middle of your conversation.

Richard: I was only saying nice things about you.

Laurence: Sure. No, I think it’s a good point about Radiohead. I think it’s completely fucking lazy, because Radiohead have become this touchstone for anything that exists outside of … well, anything that’s adventurous immediately gets compared to Radiohead in some way. It is like an easy way out. I don’t think I’m influenced by Radiohead at all, to be honest.

Richard: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is a funny thing that happens; it’s like, “Okay, you’ve got live instruments and you love electronics: Radiohead.” Come on.

Well, without you ganging up on me now that you outnumber me, there was an occasion or two on the record where I heard Depeche Mode. Is that a touchstone for you guys?
Laurence: I think so.

Richard: Yeah, I mean, that’s something we’re going to be less upset about.

That’s good. Less upset is good.
Richard: They’re one of those bands that have a really original sound and a nice balance between a lot of things that we love. Obviously, you know, electronics and rock. I didn’t really discover – well, I say discover but I mean get into – Depeche Mode until someone pointed out that our last record, Church With No Magic, reminded them of Depeche Mode. They played me Songs of Faith and Devotion and it took a while to get into. It was something I discovered from making music that someone said sounded like them; a bit of a strange way to discover them.

“Just being a caricature of a band is not something that excites us. It’s not what gets us out of bed in the morning.”

Laurence: I like the uncompromising edge of what they do, in terms of them establishing their space and having platforms for what they do. Irrespective of where or when, they’ve always done that throughout their career. They’re survivors as well, you know, they’ve been doing it for a long time. I think I find a lot of solace in that. I feel like we’re a band that plays the long game. We do our thing and we find the space in our lives and we’ll keep doing it, given the opportunity.

Richard: And that’s the big thing, that we’ve been given the opportunity and we’ve always stuck to our own thing. That’s a hard thing to do in Australia to be really, really honest with you. It’s a very hard thing to do in Australia and it’s a hard thing to not give into a lot of elements in Australia. It’s hard to survive if you don’t get on the festival circuit and don’t get the big airplay and all of that kind of thing. So we have to find record labels outside of Australia.

Also, you guys have very much evolved your sound from album to album, which a lot of bands don’t do. A lot of bands just find what works and then repeat it.
Richard: We’re kind of never satisfied and we’re always curious and we always feel like the best is yet to come. I think the older we get, the more stubborn we are about trying to be unique and not trying to fit into any…

Laurence: I don’t think it’s so much a question of unique, I think it’s a decision to just do what excites us. Just being a caricature of a band is not something that excites us and that’s not why we do it. It’s not what gets us out of bed in the morning. That’s never been a question.

Richard: I just don’t think we’d know how to do that, either. We have this sort of strange kneejerk reaction. Like I said earlier, if we do something that sounds a bit like whatever, we’ll avoid it. In the same way, if we do something that sounds like our last shit, we’ll avoid that too. It’s just something that’s ingrained in us for some reason.

On the title track I heard something that sounds a bit like table tennis. Is that usually how songs start, with a loop?
Richard: Oh, I think that comes from any number of angles. A lot of the time it’s loops. Actually, most of the time it’s loops, but sometimes it’ll be something else entirely. I always scribble words, we always scribble ideas and I try and pull it all together. I think it comes from a number of angles, but that loop that you picked out there – yeah, that was definitely the starting point for that song. You’ve picked that one correctly.

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‘Homosapien’ is out now through Create/Control. Read Barnaby Smith’s review. PVT tour with Collarbones in March, presented by M+N.

Fri, Mar 22 – The Zoo, Brisbane, QLD
Sat, Mar 23 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
Thurs, Mar 28 – Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney, NSW
Sat, Mar 30 – The Bakery, Perth, WA
Sun, Mar 31 – Ed Castle Hotel, Adelaide, SA