Earlier this year, Bucks County, PA-based alt-rockers, The Revere, released their inaugural, full-length album, The Great City, as a free mp3 download on Amazon.com. Unconcerned with achieving immediate commercial success, the band hopes to build its fan base by freely sharing its content.
The Revere are mystically bent, using fantastical, archetypal imagery a la 'The Lord of the Rings,' or 'The Chronicles of Narnia' to spin textured yarns based in the world of imagination. The baroque storytelling is set to overpowering, heavy-metal guitar riffs, clanging drums and a driving bass.
The Great City is a concept album. The songs tell part one of a quest narrative that will be concluded in a future work. The story revolves around an old man called, by an ethereal woman in a dream, to lead a group of wayfarers on a journey to a great city and beyond.
The Revere resists attempts, though, to pigeonhole their style. "Our music is a reflection of ourselves," says bassist, Mike Pearson. "We don't try to make any particular type of music; we draw our inspiration from what's going on around us."
When asked to brainstorm a list of their influences, the band members eschewed the standard litany of direct stylistic forbearers, in favor of a quirkier set of unrelated personal and cultural phenomena, like dreams, movies, visual art, nature... even the works of Russian romantic composer, Peter Tchaikovsky.
"In the past, we've framed songs around single words, like 'juggernaut' and 'metamorphosis'-colorful words with distinct meanings," says drummer Pat Kelly. He explains that while such-and-such a word may not actually appear in a song, the band works hard to distill the essence of that word into something listenable.
"We try to use a full range of melodic and lyrical means to conjure certain distinct mental images for the listener," says guitarist Sean Kelly.
"Music is a synesthetic experience," says Pearson. "It works on all the senses at once. Sometimes, when we play together, one of us will see something, other times someone will taste something-all of this becomes the basis for our music." Pearson is also a creative visual artist, who designs the album artwork and much of the band's promo material himself.
The three bandmates are childhood friends who share a friendly, democratic group dynamic. Their only release prior to The Great City was an 8-song EP, The Light Makes It Easier to See, in 2007. Now, with a professionally recorded album under their belts, The Revere are looking forward to broadening their horizons. "We're trying to play more venues in the city," says Sean.
The framing idea around which The Great City is built is one of 'celebration.' "We like to think of this album as a call to celebration," says Pat Kelly. The album is bookended by two celebratory songs, the first of which, "Sleep is a Celebration," is self-explanatory and the latter of which, "The Great City," heralds the travelers' arrival in The Great City and the transition into the next phase of their journey.
"Celebration is important to us," says Sean. "We are constantly reminding ourselves that life's supposed to be a celebration. We wanted to share that attitude with others. That's what this album is really about."
