28 KERRANG!
“But I don’t think that I’m supposed to!”
she laughs today about why she hasn’t taken a
holiday. “I’m into astrology and life paths and
weird energetics stuff, and I feel like I’m wired
to be moving all the time, so I think it’s okay.
I think one of my big challenges is to find
peace and home wherever I am, whether
it’s actually at home or whether it’s on the
road. It feels natural and it feels right to be in
motion and to be finding that centre and that
calmness in all of that.”
She attempts to
assuage any concerns
about her health by
suggesting that her
newfound LA residence
and the chance to
connect with friends
has given her a chance
to relax and have fun,
something she hasn’t
always experienced
when at home.
“I didn’t really get to
do that in New York a
lot because most of my
friends while I was there
were living in LA or back
home in Massachusetts,”
she says. “New York
was a very introspective,
calm, this-is-my-time-
to-be-inward place.
Out here it’s a lot... it
feels really good just to
be able to actually see
friends and feel like a kid
again, honestly.”
Still, the word that
Lynn uses to best
describe her life right
now is “scattered”.
The trio are still
on the hunt for more
collaborators to team
up with as they move
closer to their next
phase, while they’ve also
been making frequent
trips to Nashville to work
in the studio with JT.
Lynn says something
that stood out for her
about working with
the producer was his
enthusiasm to understand
where she was coming
from straight off the bat.
He asked her to send
him a moodboard, visuals, production ideas
and playlists ahead of them working together.
Lynn remembers that her playlist was a mixed
bag that included Radiohead, Niki And The
Dove, The Weeknd, Florence And The Machine,
Bonobo and Zola Blood. She won’t, however,
reveal what was on the moodboard, expressing
concern that it might give the game away.
The singer is carefully guarded elsewhere
about what she is and isn’t ready to reveal to
the world about phase three of PVRIS right
now. She will say that she feels they presently
have at least five songs that they feel strongly
about – possibly even an album’s worth –
but that they’re not working to any tight
deadlines. “But I totally just want to keep
pushing it and pushing it and see if we can
get even better stuff throughout the next few
months,” she adds.Death Of Me was chosen as the lead single
for this new era as, of the new material that
the band have in the bank, they felt that it was
the closest to what had come before – and
were keen not to spook fans. “But at the same
time, it still is really pushing it forward and
evolving,” Lynn says. “It felt like the closest
thing to what should come next, knowing what
we have after this. It’s still big, it’s still gritty, it
still punches a lot, and there’s definitely somenew music that still does that, but then there’s
some that strays from that.” She does also,
however, shoot down the suggestion that we
could be seeing a lighter side to PVRIS.
Death Of Me also finds Lynn at perhaps
the most bold and playful that we’ve ever
found her on tape; it deals with the idea ofgetting into a relationship that, in all
likelihood, is going to end in a bad case of
the ‘shoulda knowns’, but, as she puts it,
“just owning it” anyway.
“It’s about the fact that I always find myself
falling for the wrong people, that I know are
trouble and that I know aren’t healthy for
me, but I just do it anyway,” she says. “I feel
like everybody goes through that moment
before they fully dive in with somebody, where
it’s like, ‘They could
completely destroy me
and break my heart and
ruin everything... but
I think I’m going to do
it anyway.’”
Kerrang! also has
the chance to hear
some more music that
the band have recently
finalised. Some of it
finds Lynn Gunn back in
very Lynn Gunn lyrical
territory, as she delves
into themes of spiritual
realms and the occult.
She explains that one
place that she’s drawn
inspiration from is
author and neurologist
Oliver Sacks.
“I was reading about
all the different types
of hallucinations that
you can experience,
and what scientists
think is behind them,”
she says. “When
people hallucinate,
everybody feels that it’s
their brain stimulating
something that’s really
not there and it’s
something coming from
their brain. And I like
the alternative idea,
which is something
in your brain is being
altered to allow you
to see something that
is there that you don’t
normally see. I like
that unknown and
that uncertainty.”
One thing that these
new tracks share is a
daring and willingness
to push PVRIS’ sound
forward, the strongest
indication of the new mindset that Lynn claims
to be in. But, more importantly, how do they
make her feel?
“I feel happy,” she says. “They feel fun. It
feels like it takes that energy I just explained,
this really chaotic and scattered energy
around everywhere, and condenses it into
something where you can see it, and you
feel like that paid off. And all of that finally
formed into something that makes sense,
and it doesn’t sound as crazy or look as crazy
as it felt.
“In fact,” she adds with a smile, “it feels
really good.” K!DEATH OF ME IS OUT NOW via
WARNER RECORDS. FOR NEWS AND
UPDATES ON PVRIS’ upcoming
third album, SEE KERRANG.COMNap time: serious business
in the world of PVRIS“ONE OF MY BIG
CHALLENGES IS TO FIND
PEACE WHEREVER I AM”
LYNN GUNN