You know, I have a very broad taste in music, including many more straight-forward genres...but I've always had a hunger for things more complex as well. And one thing I've learned over the years, is that complex music isn't necessarily deprived of great overall melody. This, I must stress, is certainly the case with this London-based, seven-headed outfit, which has generally been categorized as Post-Rock but which, through the integration of glockenspiel, trumpet, keyboards, cello and violin, combines that with elements of gypsy marches, Klezmer, Gospel, and movie soundtrack-ish music. In the couple of ballads they play, an element of interesting Folk even comes to the surface.
Originally Revere (the name taken from a comic-strip) was started by lead singer/ guitarist/ songwriter Stephen Ellis in the first days of this new millennium, and performed with a rotating line-up. In 2005 however, Ellis relocated to London, and soon after guitarist/ songwriter Jonathan Fletcher joined the band as the first of its permanent line-up. The band almost immediately recorded the acoustic EP As The Radars Sleep, and followed that up with the non-acoustic Chloroform EP before the end of the year. During 2006, singles for the tracks “Skin” and “Learning To Breathe” saw the light of day, and during 2007 the band not only worked on the material which would be on their debut album, but also released a second EP entitled A Soundless Tree, and added three more permanent members to the team: keyboardist/ backing singer Nicholas Hirst, cellist/ backing singer Kathleen McKie, and violinist/ backing singer Ellie Wilson.
2008 was spent mostly on the road, and also saw the band break through to a broader public as, after getting to the finals of the Glastonbury New Talent competition, they were also invited to play at the main festival event. As a direct result, they also played at the Standon Calling festival (their first appearance there in a row of 4 years running). Then, in September, Ellis supported Al Stewart on his US and UK tours. Towards the end of the year the band performed several headlining shows, and also released a single (accompanied by a fan-funded video) for the track “The Escape Artist” as a lead-up to their full-length. Somewhere in the year that followed the band relesed a second single (“As The Radars Sleep”) and also recorded an in-studio session for BBC Introducing. The band then recruited its current drummer Marc Rollins, and spent April 2010 touring the UK to promote their new single “We Won't Be Here Tomorrow”, of which a video was released on May 31. The album, entitled Hey! Selim (taken from the Theo Angelopoulos directed movie Eternity And A Day) was finally released in September 2010, and the band rounded off the year after another set of gigs in promotion of the album's release, with a special show at London's Tabernacle, during which they reworked many of their songs in a more orchestral mood, supported by The Shadow Orchestra.
Following a short break in early 2011, the band reconvened to write and rehearse new songs, which were subsequently played at shows (including the Wychwood Festival), and a new song entitled “What Am I If I'm Not Even Dust” (a ballad written by Ellis) was performed on BBC Radio London's Sunday Sessions. “These Halcyon Days”, a very uplifting song, became the new album's first pre-cursor, released on single in October. It was promptly licensed by Sky Sports for their weekly show Goals On Sunday. Earlier in the year, the band had also sent out songs to their musical peers, with the intent of having 'em remixed and/or reworked. In October 2011, that reworked material was released in the form of four 4-track digital EP's entitled Revere: Reworked (followed by #1, #2, #3, and #4). During November, the band toured the UK as support of Malian musician Toumai Diabeté, and toward the end of the sold-tour the two recorded several tracks (including a cover of Joy Division's “Love Will Tear Us Apart” , which was featured on the covermount CD of Word Magazine, and got rave reviews from the such unlikely broadsheets as Guardian, Financial Times, and Herald) together. In early 2012 then, Revere won Channel 5's Send Us Your Music competition, the prize of which was the filming of a video (which debuted in Sept. 2012) for their new song “Keep This Channel Open”. Following a couple of “unplugged” festival appearances in early 2012, the band took off some time to film a video for “These Halcyon Days”, before heading off on the road towards more festival performances, but eventually, it would be the track “I Won't Blame You” which would act as second single (released June 2013) off the new album.
Somewhere in between, the band finally found a label to release the album in Holland's V2 Records, who would distribute the band in the BeNeLux. As a result the band crossed the Channel (for the first time?) for some shows in Holland during September, returning for the album launch shows in October, and put in an extra Benelux December Tour (consisting of 2 Dutch and 2 Belgian shows – none in Luxembourg, mind you!). Those who missed the band those first time around, can go see 'em at Brussels' Ancienne Belgique, on May 4! Meanwhile, news has reached us that a UK release of the album is imminent (the date being April 7th). The 7-piece band...which, by the way, is completed by lead guitarist/ backing singer Seb Pidgeon (replacing Jonathan Fletcher) and bassist/ backing singer Russel Cook)...must be certainly worth witnessing in live conditions, a thing you might convince yourselves of by listening to what's posted at (www.) facebook.com/revereonline or at the band's own webspace (www.) revereonline.co.uk!
Personally, I loved what I heard, and am therefore adding My Mirror / Your Target to my 2013 year-lists without second thoughts!