Today, October 11 Aotearoa band Revulva release their hotly anticipated self-titled album.
Following on from their first EP, Girls Gotta Eat (2022) and the road-rage jazz-funk and orgasmic uptempo R&B of recent singles ‘Beep Beep’ and ‘Bush Bash’, Revulva’s self-titled debut album is a musical snapshot of the hijinks, realisations and adventures they’ve lived through over the half-decade. Recorded at Doctor Lee Prebble’s Surgery Studios in Wellington, its ten-song tracklist captures the dynamic energy and juxtapositions that power their percussive grooves, spellbinding horn section and Johnson’s silky smooth songcraft and spoken word strut.
Described by Rolling Stone Australia as “strangely alluring,” the femme-fronted eight-piece formed in Wellington under the de facto leadership of the composer, lyricist, bassist and vocalist Phoebe Johnson in 2019. Since then, Johnson and her clown van full of hyper-busy musical collaborators, Lily Rose Shaw, Toby Leman, Hector McLachlan, Kaito Walley, Lennox Grootjans, Mysty Cooke, and Zane Hawkins, have won over bar, nightclub and festival audiences across New Zealand.
“This album is the culmination of five years of growing pains and hard work” shares Phoebe Johnson. “I started this project in 2019, as I wrapped my honours year studying jazz bass at Te Kōkī / New Zealand School of Music. I had written these songs primarily around frustrations I was having. At the time the jazz school had a male heavy cohort, and there were no female tutors - I felt like I had travelled back in time. Most bands I was seeing perform in Wellington had no women in their lineups. I wanted to make something that I wanted to see - a funky, exciting, fun, live set that was led by a woman.”
For five years the band have played live shows across the motu, refining their sound, and nuanced vibe, and becoming better friends each step of the way. “Each of the members is jazz-trained, and their incredible ears, musicality, empathy, and trust have shaped this project into something more layered, funky, and beautiful than I could have imagined" shares Johnson. “Even though we share a musical language, each of us comes from a different tasting palette - this has expanded the sound beyond anything I could have forged on my own.”
Like TLC, Revulva is CrazySexyCool, but they’re also puzzled by driver behaviour, mad at landlords, cheeky jokers, unashamedly feminist, and all too well aware that sometimes CrazySexyCool ends in CrazySexyAwkward.
The final single is the closing track to the album ‘Nigel’. ‘Nigel’ is based on the gannet of the same name from Mana Island, off of the north west coast of New Zealand (opposite Kapiti Island). Nigel was a lonely gannet selective about the friends he made, and refused to befriend any sea birds. Only a concrete gannet, that the Department of Conservation introduced, would Nigel hang out with. He died in late 2018 surrounded by the replica birds on the uninhabited island.
Johnson, draws comparisons to the experiences of being in your mid-twenties and seeing all your friends leave the town you spend your early adulthood in - to that of Nigel's. “The song explores themes of grieving a chapter of your life, feeling behind, but also contentment in learning to accept loneliness.”
Taking cues from Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Jamiroquai, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, Minnie Ripperton and Prince, Revulva reimagines the anything-goes energy of New York City’s 1970s downtown scene and London’s 1990s funk and soul renaissance through an antipodean lens informed by the deadpan humour and the realities of 21st-century life in New Zealand. The result is a hedonistic whirlwind of acid jazz, avant-funk, disco, AOR and art-pop, where polished playing leaves room for improvisation in the heat of the moment, and real statements come bundled up with just enough laughs to soften the snarl.
To celebrate their self-titled album, releasing on October 11, Revulva will play a nationwide tour this October and November.
REVULVA NZ ALBUM RELEASE TOUR
31st October - Space Academy, Christchurch
1st November - Yours, Dunedin
2nd November - Secret Garden, Hāwea Flat, Wānaka*
*address to be released to ticket holders upon purchase
7th November - The Yard, Raglan
9th November - Neck of the Woods, Auckland
16th November - Porridge Watson, Whanganui
23rd November - San Fran, Wellington*
Tickets are on sale from undertheradar.co.nz & *Moshtix for Wellington
The album release is accompanied by a run of 200 records via Holiday Records' new crowdfund campaign. The record comes with a 12 page photo/lyric zine designed by the band’s close friend and designer, Daniel Kingston. The band will also be doing a small run of DIY CDs again, after selling out their run of 100 Girl’s Gotta Eat CDs in 2022.
Revulva’s self titled album is out now. (October 11)