The Next Turn

Since formation, PVT have existed between categories. Formed as Pivot in 1999, an electro-acoustic free-improv ensemble (later abbreviating their name on account of copyright), the band have seemed thoroughly devoted to experimentation from the outset. Yet, since the release of debut album Make Me Love You in 2005, they've also showcased a pronounced populist streak. Audiences have never quite figured them out.

“That's good, that's great; that makes me very happy to hear, to be honest,” guitarist and vocalist Richard Pike laughs. “It's exciting when you hear music that confounds you. It's exciting when you hear new music and you have no idea how they made it or where it's coming from. It makes you want to hear it again and understand it. If we've achieved that, that makes me very happy. Personally, I don't think we have.”

It's a divide in no small part conjured by the band's heritage. Each of the band's current members have served time within the experimental underground. Drummer Laurence Pike was a founding member of Leaf Label experimental jazz outfit Triosk. Richard Pike produced two albums for Triosk and performed with legendary electronica act Flanger. Laptop artist Dave Miller is an internationally acclaimed sound artist. The dynamic is further complicated by the association of group's former record label: Warp Records. Synonymous with electronic visionaries and innovators like Aphex Twin, Autechre and Squarepusher, Warp Records are so intrinsically linked to experimental music that, upon signing, PVT were immediately bombarded with references to the label's history by journalists. It's one of the reasons for the band's departure from the imprint.

“There was nothing really bad,” Pike explains. “I had a great time being on Warp and it was very exciting for us in a lot of ways. And we will always have that. You know, we've got a couple of albums on that label and it's an amazing label. The flipside of Warp is that they have this really cultish following that goes way back and it got kind of tiresome living in the shadow of that. Even Steve [Beckett, CEO], the label boss, feels that.

“You know, we'd do interviews and people would always ask us about Aphex Twin or Battles,” the guitarist laughs. “Your ego eventually kicks in and you just want to talk about your band. I mean, when we first got signed, all we got was 'Oh, hey, it's Battles Mk II' and I was just like '...what the fuck?' I mean, Battles are a fantastic band. I just think we're coming from two very different places. All we have in common is that we have a guitar.”

However, PVT have never been a particularly abstract or avant-garde act. If anything, they've grown progressively more accessible with each release. Even in their infancy, PVT/Pivot were hardly clinical experimentalists. Recorded as an instrumental five-piece, Make Me Love You glows with jazzy melody and groove. Abstraction and complexity abound; but never define.

“Man, that album feels like ten years ago,” Pike laughs. “It was totally different. I mean, the band was different. There were three other people in the band who were gone by the next record. We were basically a jam band at that point. I think you can still hear a thread, though. We're still the same people who wrote those songs and we still write those kinds of songs. That DNA is still there, if you know what I mean.”

Those values are only underscored by their subsequent records. O Soundtrack My Heart, released in 2008, saw the band crystallise their line-up and aesthetic. A blend of angular instrumental rock, leftfield electronica and vintage synthesiser fetishism, Soundtrack is highly experimental in composition but fundamentally accessible in presentation. Still instrumental, its arrangements are nevertheless stripped-back and concise.

“In the past, I probably would have described us as an experimental band. In fact, I would say yes now,” Pike reflects. “It's hard to be creative and objective about what you do, though. I still think what we do is experimental, but I also think we write pop songs as well. That's the thing, though. I thought we wrote pop songs with Make Me Love You. I don't really see any difference.”

In fact, PVT are an experimental act with a populist outlook. Or vice versa. It's why their career has proven so confounding. Even as their work has gotten more accessible, their outlook has remained largely unaltered. Richard Pike, for example, seems genuinely surprised that audience perceive a distinct difference between vocal-heavy records like 2013's Homosapien or 2010's Church With No Magic and the instrumental Soundtrack.

“Was I scared? Do you mean, did I have a moment where I went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and said, 'You're gonna sing, dammit?'” Pike asks with a chuckle. “I think it was a real gradual thing, with me and with the band. I've always sung, I've always written songs. I think it's just a matter of becoming more comfortable as a singer and getting better as a songwriter. It's not that new for me, even if it seems new from the outside.”

Put simply, PVT don't buy into popular music mythology. Richard Pike seems largely ignorant of it. Their latest album Homosapien is their most accessible work to date. Pike sings on every song bar one and, in arrangements and instrumentation, it's effectively synth-pop. Yet, Pike doesn't see it as anything other than another experiment. Selling out, streamlining; such pop-driven concepts seem largely outside his vocabulary. “I don't know. Measuring success is a really weird thing to me. I wouldn't know how,” he reflects on the band's trajectory. “I guess my measure of success is that we haven't been forced to stop what we're doing as musicians. We have a following and we're allowed to keep going because of that. You know, we've never had a hit single or anything like that, so that's the only definition of success I can really comment on.

“You know, we did a lot of jamming on the previous records. We had some ideas and loops but, really, a lot of it was us jamming out those ideas,” the guitarist says. “The problem with that approach is you just end up with hours and hours of material to sort through. This time, we wanted to do it the other way. We wanted to walk in with more material under our belts and firmer idea of our direction… I mean, you never really know what you're aiming for, but we wanted to have some kind of ballpark area in mind for this album.”

PVT will be playing the following dates:

Friday 22 March - The Zoo, Fortitude Valley QLD
Saturday 23 March - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 28 March - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Saturday 30 March - The Bakery, Perth WA