Photo Credit: Henry Calvert
At 2000trees, we sat down with Mascot Records signees Calva Louise to talk TikTok, storytelling videos and what’s next to come from the trio following their 2023 album Over The Threshold.
Hi Ben and Alizon, welcome back to 2000trees! You’re playing a really interesting set tonight in the forest for the silent disco. How are you feeling about it?
Ben: I’m excited about it.
Alizon: Yeah, I think we’re excited. We’re curious because we’ve never, I mean, I don’t think any of us have experienced a silent disco.
No way! They’re one of the highlights of 2000trees.
A: A very new experience for us.
We’re intrigued to find out what it’s like for bands with the crowd singing along in a sea of headphones bopping along.
B: It’ll be really good.
You’ve just finished a UK headline tour, do you have any fun stories from across the tour?
B: Hmm. It’s been pretty, boom, boom, boom really. Quite efficient, just gig after gig. All of this is coming off the back of over two months of touring, shows and bits and pieces. At the moment we’re kind of just in it.
A: Everything’s been great, we’ve had the chance of having a different first support every night which has been more of a special guest. So most of them were friends like Cody Frost and Tropic Gold, that we invited for the specific show so it was great to catch up with them at the shows and play it with them so that was really nice. That was a nice highlight.
B: Yeah, hanging out with them has been a nice highlight.
Have you been able to catch any bands since you’ve been here?
B: Not really yet. I saw some of Loose Articles after Bobby’s set, (Bobby Wolfgang) as Bobby was supporting us on our tour we were sort of helping him load the stage and stuff so we watched his set and the band who played afterwards (Loose Articles) they were pretty cool. But hopefully today we’ll have some more time after press and before our set at midnight so we can maybe catch some other bands.
Have you got any names in mind? Any headliners? Who are you thinking?
A: Personally, I just really want to walk about and like look at everything. You know get drawn in by the noise and the sound of the stage. Get the festival experience!
B: I wouldn’t mind seeing Frank Turner. I’ve seen him before but he always puts on a wicked show. Don Broco, Death From Above 1979.
We’ve heard had a lot of recommendations for Death From Above 1979. So let’s talk about your new material. We’ve got Under the Skin and we’d love to show off our Spanish and pronounce your new single but we’ll leave that to you…
A: Right. Well, we’re not Spanish speakers either. But it’s called La Corriente.
Yeah, our pronunciation wouldn’t have gone well! Can you tell us a little bit more about the track and response?
A: It’s been really good. Like these two singles are from the new album title and a new body of work cycle, and the response has been amazing. It’s also a new way to work that we’ve been working with Gareth (McGrillen) from Pendulum on these who’s co-producing and he co-wrote Under The Skin as well with Jess. So that was very, very special for us to have such a person that we admire and such a mentor you know, work with us and being so available and you know a great all around person. So yeah, it’s really, really exciting and the response has been amazing as well on this tour, people have been loving Under The Skin and La Corriente is all in Spanish as well and people are there for it. Like everywhere on YouTube, you see all the comments, people like ‘I don’t know what it says without the subtitles’. But people can see the translation and the response has been amazing. You know, I don’t know.
You kind of already mentioned it as our next question was going to be you worked with Gareth on the track and how did the worlds come together?
B: Well, I guess it started on his TikTok. Like he just kept getting videos from us up on his feed.
A: The thing is the video is like there’s a big video aspect about what we do, where recently, well the last years Jess has been working to get to a point where she can like do 3D graphics and 3D animation design with Unreal Engine and Blender and all these things and so it’s really to tell the bigger story that’s behind the music that’s been there since inception of the band. You know, getting better at telling it more explicitly, but she’s been doing those crazy videos, and she’s also doing social then posting loads of things on TikTok about it and Gareth like Ben said kept seeing it on TikTok and he doesn’t even have an account, he was opening the app and it was coming up. So he reached out!
That’s the algorithm working how it should!
A: Well yeah, Jess’ videos really made a different impact for the music.
B: Then he got in touch with Jess on Instagram and that’s kind of how it all started.
And the rest is history. So can you come up with your sound in five words?
B: Five? Oh jeez.
We love asking people this, it’s interesting to see the words they choose!
A: This is a hard thing to do.
B: Loud
A: Authentic. We’re very DIY. We do everything ourselves and we make everything we do in the most honest and authentic way possible. Not sort of hiding anything or making it something it’s not. I think it translates into the sound somehow.
B: Melodic. Heavy.
A: Multi-cultural.
We’ve got five! We know this might be something best answered by Jess, but a lot of the visuals link together so is this working to create something massive?
A: Well yeah, I mean that’s the idea. Even the older releases are part of the same universe, it takes it from different points of views because we’re limited by our means especially at the time when it was just us with a camera trying to make sense and tell a story. While we get better of it, especially Jess we focus on different points of view that are easier, and we can actually do. Everything is connected.
We feel like you need to watch the videos to understand the music a little bit more and brings it so life. I think it was Under The Skin where you have the introduction where we sat and thought ‘wow’ as it lifts it us.
A: Hopefully there’s enough for everybody as we know not everyone’s going to be interested in sitting through the videos, as people can only listen to the music if they want but it goes really deep. So anyone’s that willing to explore or that’s interested, there’s a lot of layers to it. We’ve got a Discord with loads of articles about the lore and all the stories. There are loads of layers for anyone that’s interested.
(Jess arrives) Hello, hi!
A: We’ve talking through the videos and the stories and that’s there’s more than just the music layers. A lot of layers.
Talking about Over The Threshold, when can we expect a follow-up or a bigger release? Is that going to be on the cards?
B: The songs are being mixed at the moment and they will be ready at a point. But yeah, eventually there will be a follow-up.
Who have you been working with? Can you give us a taste of what we can expect from the sound?
B: So I mean, we touched on it a little bit before, but we’re working with Mazare, our good very good friend and producer and this time we’re also working with Gareth from Pendulum and Knife Party. For Over The Threshold we worked with Mazare so with the next instalment we have Gareth on board for the next part.
Do you feel like the singles have given a taste of what’s to come or is it going to be a total curveball?
A: These are the first singles of the bigger body of work that’s coming so they’re all in line with what’s to come and Gareth is going to work on the whole thing not just these songs.
Do you have any stand out or favourite lyrics from any of your releases?
J: Well it’s in Spanish but I need to translate it in my mind. In Spanish it’s ‘Lucho por el momento en que ya no me duela más que me quieras controlar’ and in English it’s ‘I fight for the moment when it doesn’t hurt anymore that they want to control me’. It’s always going to happen, people are always going to want to try and control you but it’s like I just don’t want to be hurt by feeling and seeing it. If you’re in the wild and a lion wants to eat you, you’re not going to be offended by it. You know you need to find a solution to not be eaten alive and I’ve tried to see that with people all around and not feeling offended and hurt by that as it adds an extra layer of hurt to yourself. But more of how to see people aren’t strategically against me it’s a their issue not mine but don’t kill me.
(All laughing)
We’re at 2000trees today. What would be your dream festival lineup? You’ve got to play it, but you can have artists dead, alive. Any sound just go wild and with no budget limit.
A: There are so many bands. System Of A Down for example have always been a massive influence. Pendulum and Knife Party with Gareth.
B: Queens of the Stone Age. Put 3Teeth on there as well. Ghost.
J: Put all the people that we love on there like Cassyette, Vukovi, Cody Frost, Bobby Wolfgang.
B: Tropic Gold… and Nirvana. But they’re going to open!
Last but not least, what’s next on the cards in the Calva Louise world in 2024 and beyond?
A: Actual cards? Yeah, we’re actually working on the second prototype of the card game that we’ve been working on, yeah.
J: It’s about the lore and that’s the thing
A: Well, we’ve got another festival Burn It Down at the end of the summer and more releases.
B: Just finishing off the mixes for the new songs and continuing to work on those is the next focus.
A: We’ve just finished a really heavy period of touring since the start of the year.
B: Actually our show tonight kind of marks the end of a solid two months of tours, video shoots and all sorts of different things.
J: Well no, I mean I’d say since January. We did Under The Skin in February. Then I was editing on that for two months.
A: We forget how real time is like
J: I don’t even know my name anymore.
A: Or the day of the week as there’s so much condensed into every day.
J: It’s not that there’s too much to condense, there’s too much on our plate every day. Every day. Like for example, we were late for our first interview because he’s tour managing, driving.
A: We drove for four hours without stopping to be here in time
J: I was doing my make up and it was like ‘fuck it, fuck eyeliner’ but the three of us do the job of I think fifteen people. We love doing the job but we would love to just focus on the creative side. But I even create the TikToks and social media, we do that too but not driving, that’s the worst.
We hope you can now relax a little before your set tonight and have a lovely rest of your day!
All: Thank you so much.
Interview By: Nicola Craig
See Calva Louise live at the following dates:
August 2024
Sun 18th – EINDHOVEN, NL – Dynamo MetalFest
Fri 30th – TORQUAY, UK – Burn It Down Festival
January 2025
Sun 19th – MIAMI, FL – Shiprocked
Tickets are on sale HERE.
