We got to speak to Ben and Alizon from Calva Louise about their upcoming album release, band lore, and what the future holds.
You have such a unique and inspiring backstory. Can you tell us about it?
Ben: Yeah. So we all originally come from different places across the globe. We all grew up in different areas. Jess grew up in Venezuela, Alizon is French and grew up in Normandy, and I’m from New Zealand, originally the North Island. I guess the story of the band starts a little bit before I joined because Jess moved to France, met Alizon in school there, and then they eventually relocated to London, where I moved as well with my parents when I was about fifteen and we all met on the music scene there and formed the band in London.
How did you create your musical identity?
Alizon: I think it’s just a mix of different things. I mean, Jess writes the songs. So she’s got the input on the creative process. But I think all our different influences and where we grew up, what we listened to, the different languages….I think it all influences the music in a way. I guess the band started a bit more indie/ punk back in the day, because we were so DIY, and we were kind of trying to figure it out, and then slowly, we managed to grow into our sound, which was always meant to be this heavier side that it is now.
You took a lot of risks early on in your career. What do you feel is the biggest risk you took that had the biggest payoff?
Alizon: There are so many. I think one of the latest ones was probably our latest tour with Bloodywood. So we got offered it and obviously, we were fans already of the band, we love Bloodywood, and they invited us to be part of their tour, I think a month before it started, which was very last minute, and we just had no idea how we were going to afford it. That’s just kind of how we live our life on the “edge of the abyss”. But we were like, we have to take it, because we love these guys so much, and we feel like their audience is already open, so we thought it could potentially work. We really, really wanted to do it. So we said yes, not knowing really how we could afford it, because, you know, even with a minimal crew and like just a van, touring around Europe is extremely expensive.
Ben: It’s a long tour as well. Six weeks…
Alizon: Yeah. But we just went in, and fortunately, the audience was really receptive, and people supported us, buying some merch every night. We had to do a couple of refills on merch, and that got us through the tour just about, which was, you know, miraculous in a way, but we’ve got dozens of stories like that, it’s just kind of the story of the band is just living this way where you have to you take risks, but you have to make the right decisions, because you never know where you’re going to be but you’ve got to be ready.
Ben: Yeah, it turned out to be probably the best (risk) we’ve ever done. You know, absolutely, we made great lifelong friends on that tour with all of the band members and their crew as well. It was just fantastic. So the payoff was there.
Awesome! What sort of things do you miss while you’re on tour? Is there any kind of specific foods or anything like that that you’re like, Oh, I wish I could bring this with me.
Ben: I think the food’s often more varied on tour, actually, especially in Europe.
Alizon: I think it depends on the kind of tour. With Bloodywood it was great because, you know, these kinds of venues provide catering, it’s part of the deal. So the food was amazing, because there was fresh food cooked every day at the venues, but when we’re touring in smaller venues and doing our headlines, for example, there’s no catering, so we have to sort it out ourselves. You know, just find food around the corner. So, yeah, it can be a bit hard to eat well when you’re on tour,
Ben: Yeah, I think that’s probably accurate. I mean in terms of food we miss, and what things we miss, it’s a good question, uh, sleep, yeah, our bed, our own bed, I think, like the feeling of getting into your own bed after six weeks on the road is pretty good.
Alizon is in agreement with this statement!
I can imagine, definitely. There’s a lot of lore behind your music. Can you explain the lore and how you come up with these concepts, and how you then keep them going through the music?
Alizon: So essentially, there’s a whole story that permeates the records and the whole discography. Jess started writing it when she was still a kid, back in Venezuela. The story has existed before even the band started, and it’s been told since the beginning of the band, but it was a lot more abstract at the time because we didn’t have the means to film or do everything so clearly. It’s been a work in progress, and even if you go back to the style of the band, you can see it’s the same story from a different point of view. So now I feel like it’s finally getting clearer each time, and people start to recognize the actors, the characters, the location, and the story starts to make sense and people notice, oh, yeah! Now there’s quite a few videos that are, you know, following each other and part of the same narrative. People do catch up on that, which is great, because it feels like we can finally be much, much more, clear about what’s happening.
Ben: It’s like we’re slowly getting more and more means to solidify the story and tell it in a clearer way.
Alizon: So when it comes to the videos, Jess will write the script, and then we will organize with our friends, to shoot it ourselves, like a little production team. So Jess directs the video, and then all the actors are just friends. You know, some of them do that professionally. Most of them don’t. So, it’s like a big DIY thing, and then Jess will take the footage and spend days and weeks on her computer, editing and adding all the VFX stuff it’s just her and it turns into these crazy massive big production videos. We were really excited about making videos.
They’re super stunning and cinematic. Is Jess self-taught? How did she learn to do this?
Alizon: Yeah, we try to work with people, but you know, we don’t know anybody…..it’s just us. Who are you going to call to make some crazy VFX, and with what budget? So I think that’s mostly where the DIY aspect comes from. You’ve got a project, you can’t just wait until you miraculously find people or the money to do it. You just kind of try and learn yourself. It’s been a process, and we are learning more each time.
Ben: Yeah, I think, it was also sort of born out of the first lockdown and COVID, because that’s when Jess really started diving into all of that software side of things, and the VFX and the 3D and all of that, that’s kind of because no one was able to tour at that time, no musicians were able to get on the road, because everything was shut down. So, I mean, Jess used that time pretty wisely and just started getting into all of that.
Definitely upskilling! I feel like it’s very personal to you, then, since you’re creating it as well..
Alizon: yeah, it’s not like you’re handing the baby over to somebody else, you know?
Can you speak a little bit about the concepts around your new music video?
Alizon: (speaking about Aimless) This one was pretty crazy to do! So we didn’t have the time to make it a narrative video, so we shot it as a performance video where Ben lives. It’s where we practice in the same room. It’s all just places near where we live.
Ben: Yes, pretty much everything in all the videos is us working with what we have, what we’ve got location-wise or whatever.
Alizon: Jess took the footage, we’re like, okay, let’s get creative, and she, you know, set the room on fire! Some of the craziest things are happening everywhere, the rain, the fire, yeah, everything, and then some of the lore. The backstory is that she had to take her computer on tour while we were with Bloodywood. We were not aware- this tour was offered very last minute, and so the video was not finished yet, and she still had at least a few weeks of work on it, because all this VFX takes a lot of time, and she’s got a big PC as a workstation, because you can’t work on the laptop, with the CGI you need a big graphic lifting machine kind of thing. So we had to take on this tour, but also the video had to be ready, in the middle of the tour, essentially.
Ben: Heavy lifting machine!
Alizon: We had to go on tour, but the video had to be ready also.
Ben: It was like- we need to do it, but how are we going to be able to do it? There’s the financial aspect, and then obviously the video deadline as well. So Alizon basically created a mobile case and a mobile rig for the computer to sit in, it had like a lid, and it locked up and it had a screen inside.
Alizon: I just built a giant case for the computer, like an amp that we could just put in the van and then put in the green room and unpack. So Jess still had to keep working in between sound checks and on days off in the hotel rooms. I was just unpacking the computer, setting it up, and she could work a few hours, and then pack it down, put it back in the van for the video to be finished on time.
Sounds like crazy dedication, like multitasking while on tour as well.
Alizon: Exactly, yeah, it was. It was a lot of work. But it was worth it.
Ben agrees.
Your new album “Edge of Abyss” is out on the 11th of July. What makes this album different from your other studio-released albums?
Alizon: We feel like it’s the closest we’ve been to what we wanted to do, in terms of sound and music. I feel like we all get better in time playing our instruments and writing parts for our instruments and Jess for producing and writing and we were lucky to work with Gareth McQuillen, who is the bass player for Pendulum and also from Knife Party, who’s an absolute legend. We are so grateful to have been working with him. He got involved in the album, he co wrote two songs on it, with Jess, and then he co produced it and co mixed it, so that the whole process was a bit different from what we’d done before.
We still recorded everything at home, like we did for our mixtape. It was all done remotely, so wherever Gareth was in the world at that time, he was doing the same, because he’s so busy touring everywhere, doing crazy things, so whenever he had some time, he was working on it. So sometimes we would get a text at like, three in the morning, like, “Hey, anybody up?” then we just all go down and then start working on it.
Ben: and make a coffee…
Alizon: and then just exchange things going back and forth, everywhere. We’re super happy with the result.
Ben: Gareth was just absolutely incredible as well. He was so kind and accommodating as well, and he’s busy. So there would be moments where he would be on tour in the US or Australia or wherever, and Alizon would have a question about something or whatever, and he would just be like, “yeah, call me”. They’d have a chat. And he’s like, “Okay, now I’ve got to go sound check.”..
Alizon: Once I called him, and then we had a quick chat about something, and he was like, “All right, I’m going to go on stage now…”
Yeah, so it’s been amazing, and on top of that, just helping us out with loads of super useful advice about technical things because he knows we only have limited means at home to record so it helped us get the most out of our setup and our basic equipment. So we’re so super grateful to have been working with him on this.
Ben: Grateful, yeah. Shout out to Gary.
Alizon: Dean McCarthy, who’s his brother in law, who mastered it also did an amazing job and was extremely patient and helpful,
Incredible! Who else would be your dream collaboration to work with?
Alizon: That’s good question. There’s so many great artists, and who knows? Who knows what can happen in the future?
Ben: It would be awesome to work with Carpenter Brut or Trent Reznor or something cool. But I don’t know, there’s just so many…
Watch this space! Festival season is upon us, and I know you’re doing 2000 trees, and you’ve also got some kind of tour plans as well. What can we expect from a live Calva Louise show?
Ben: Quite a lot of the new songs from the new record, high energy, lots of jumping.
Alizon: It’s very interesting, we try really hard to, provide the best experience we can at a live show. We really try to connect with the audience. It feels like, because we’ve got so much stuff going on all the time, because there’s only three of us, and there’s so many crazy things to play, we work a lot to be able to free ourselves from, being too much in our own part, in our own performance and like, really connect with everyone that’s out there. I think the music, by essence, is quite diverse, but we also try to keep the set moving in different directions. I think we try to keep it fluid, but also, you know, interesting in a way that it might surprise you sometimes. We’re trying to include some parts of the lore, like introducing a little spoken part from the videos, and more about the story. So anybody who wants to dig deeper can dig deeper, but we’re trying to pour all our energy onto the stage, into the audience, and hopefully get some of it back. And just have a great time because we love what we do.
Ben: I would also add, I think we all feel what we’ve always really enjoyed creating as much of an experience for people in the audience and the fans as possible. It’s not just a recital of the songs. It’s a show and it’s an experience which is as much visual as it is sonic. In the past, we’ve done a bunch of stuff like lighting, or projections.
Alizon: We try to experiment to always have something extra that makes it a bit more exciting and interesting, and something you’ve not seen before.
What else does the future hold for Calva Louise?
Alizon: The near future holds a few tours and 2000 trees, but we’ve also announced a headline tour for the US for September, which is really exciting. We love playing there and can’t wait to be back. Right after that, we’re supporting Stray from the Path in the UK and Europe, which is both really exciting and also a bit sad as it’s their last tour, but we’re part of it, so it’s exciting.
Ben: It’s exciting and it’s a huge honour to be invited, they’re awesome.
Alizon: And the lineup is huge! So we’ve two tours before the end of the year. The album is out on the 11th July and more to come next year as well!
Great! We can’t wait to see you perform live and hear the new album! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Alizon: I always do a Discord plug, when given the opportunity! I like to mention our Discord as its a platform we like using, there’s lots of info on there about the lore and characters and all these details that can help people understand the music videos and the story. Its the place we communicate with everybody if they’ve questions or want to get in touch about anything, like how to play specific songs. People share their covers and their own Art on there, it’s a cool community and we like to invite people who like to dig deeper into the Calva Louise universe.