Age of The Nerd
Eight piece rock and rollers The Revivalists have returned with a brand new album “Pour It Out Into The Night”, along with the stellar new single “Kid” via Concord Records. “Pour It Out Into The Night ” is a life-affirming album. Offering an unburdening and an appreciation for living in the moment, the new music was fueled by lessons in gratitude and life realizations that came from personal experiences over the past few years as the world came to a standstill.
As band members became fathers for the first time, got married, and navigated the challenges of lockdown, the things that truly matter in life came into sharp focus, and they brought that clarity of perspective into the creative process. This is the band’s fifth studio album and their most self-guided one yet, produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Rich Costey [Muse, Foster the People, Death Cab for Cutie] with co-production from David, Zack, and the rest of the band.
On the hopeful and cathartic hit lead single “Kid,” piano peeks through bright acoustic guitar with an infectious melody and intricate layers of the band’s distinctive instrumentation powering a euphoric chantable chorus about self-belief and “living for the spirit.” Stand out track “Good Old Days” – about recognizing the beautiful, fleeting moments in life as they are happening – builds towards a breezy refrain punctuated by rapturous horns, a shuffling rhythm, and a soulful group harmony.
The propulsive, frenetic instrumentation of “Don’t Look Back” pulls sonic inspiration from front man David Shaw’s early punk-rock days and reflects the urgency of the song’s message of perseverance and moving forward. A gospel-style chant gives way to a punchy groove on the politically charged “The Long Con” which acknowledges the deep divisions in our country with the hope that we can hold onto the power of love. The mini-family epic “Down In The Dirt” features a stark, driving guitar line, a rootsy melody, and warm melodic vocal harmonies. Between sparse keyboard murmurs, “Only You” is a confessional tune David wrote when he was in a tough place mentally, spiritually, and physically. On the pensive and powerful “Alive,” horns swoon in between skyscraping piano. Title track “Pour It Out Into The Night” seeing dusty acoustic guitar and warm strings break into what feels like a sunrise, a reminder that all is not lost.
Streaming link: https://found.ee/TR_PourItOut
We recently had a chance to catch up with The Revivalists bass player George Gekas to chat about the new album, the band’s recording process, upcoming touring plans and so much more!
How happy are you with the feedback that the new album “Pour It Out Into The Night” has been receiving? The single “Kid” really appears to be resonating well with listeners?
It’s been fantastic, you never really know what’s going to click or gel or what the fans are going to be receptive to. And it’s, it’s funny, because you have two specific songs there with “Kid” we knew, you know, when we were shedding it and doing pre-production and getting it all under our fingers. Collectively, this is you know, October /November 2020, that we were going to have something that was great. And we knew there was going to be something a producer would want to work with, in terms of more of like a traditional single for alternative or alt-radio, and then a song “Don’t Look Back” where, you know, like, we’re able to kind of hodgepodge it and throw it together enough to where you just started playing it live. And this was being played last year on tour is one of two or three songs that we are actually debuting live before the record and the crowd reception was so good from it, I don’t think originally, we were going to even record that song for the record. But we had to fight with the producer to be like, no, this one has to make the cut. Now just because it’s become a fan favorite.
And, you know, we’re, we’re aware enough to know, you know, you can feed off the energy of the crowd, what songs they’re really feeling or not. And, and the ones that they continue to, you know, scream out for and get really hyped about weren’t playing are the ones that will usually stay in rotation for the live show. But overall, we’re very happy and blessed with the reception that it’s received.
When reading through the comments on YouTube for the “Kid” music video I saw one that really stuck out. The person said, ‘This song picks you up instantly and never lets you go’ and I could not agree more! Was it hard for the band to decide which song was going to be the single?
It’s a culmination of having all the right components together, where part of that aspect is just having a really good song that comes out with a great, massive pitch. The second part of that is having a recorded collectively and individually as a band and having the right producer to, to make it sound to the best of its abilities and create the best song possible. And the final part of that is live. And, you know, if you want to have a great song, and be a great band, you need to be great in the studio and great live, and we just knew that it was going to be super fun to play and that the crowd would really get behind it and really love it. So, it’s a combination of all those things. Absolutely.
Can you talk a bit about the recording process for the new album? I did read that it was recorded up in Vermont, correct? How much does location play a factor?
Oh, for sure. So, this was the first record where we had ever, quote, unquote, gotten off the grid. We you know, we’ve traveled to other locations outside New Orleans record records before, but it had always been either in a city or within earshot of a city. So, what we would do is it was like a job, you know, you’d show up to work and then you leave and then you can either we either get dinner or go out on the town or do whatever. But we recorded the studio called Guilford town in Guilford, Vermont, which is right out of this little ski town called Brattleboro. And it was about a 25-minute ride to get to the gas station. So, it allowed us this intense focus, and we did it in the middle of winter, that it holds us up and it allowed us to only really focus on making that part of the record for the three weeks we are there, and I think we tremendously benefitted from that! Plus, it’s something I always wanted to do. I thought it’d be a great idea for us to get off the grid. And I know, logistically, it can be a little bit of a nightmare, you know, having partners and spouses and children to be gone that long. But I think the project benefited immensely from it. I think part of the reason the record is so strong outside for the quality of songs and material musicianship that producers that we use, it was that we decided to get off the grid, and focus on getting everything right, and not worry about time constraints for it.
Oh, it definitely shows! I love that all of your albums each seem to really have their own voice. Each is a little different from the last…how important is that each album be able to stand on its own?
Oh, yeah, you know, like, at each record, you’re at a different point of your life. And what goes along with that is, you know, your tastes change as you change. And you can’t keep trying to rehash the same thing over and over, you know, because even if you do, we’ve been fortunate that from radio success, even if you try and recreate what you did the last time, it’s not going to go over as well. And it’s probably not the most heartfelt and artistic endeavor to do it that way. So, we’ve tried to stay true to ourselves. And there’s no limitations, or governors put on anything musically, when we do anything. We’re fortunate that Dave as a great vocalist, kind of ties everything together with his sound. So, we can make any sound we want that we can really come up with, if we have, you know, everybody behind it passionately in the right individuals, creating the tones and making it sound great. So yeah, I would suspect that the next record is going to sound completely different from the last record. And you know, the record after that will sound different to and it’s, and it’s not a matter of saying, hey, we need to do something different. It’s just a natural evolution of us as people and as musicians.
Did you have any leftover material from the recording sessions for this album that didn’t make the cut or you are still toying around with?
There’s without, without divulging too much there two or three tracks that we recorded that and, you know, fans reading this when it comes out, they’ll do some detective work, they can check in setlist from the previous years and various, like, soft releases we’ve done but yeah, there’s about three songs that we recorded that didn’t make the album cut that will see the light of day in some capacity at some point. Maybe sometime later this year, maybe sometime in the future. But yeah, I don’t want to give too much away. But yeah, that tends to happen when you do this, like, there’s just not enough space and time and room to fit everything. But yeah, and some of your songs were tracks when we started this whole process, we would have guaranteed would have made their record and it just didn’t come out that way. That doesn’t mean that they’re not good songs, they can stand on their own. But more so with like the flow and the cohesion of what we’re trying to do with the record. It didn’t make sense. Yeah, there’s, there’s definitely some little nuggets out there that we’ll get around to in the future.
Absolutely! I’ve heard many artists describe their songs as their children and it is always hard to choose a favorite, as each song has a special place in your heart for a reason.
Of course, and the flip side of that, too, is you can, you know, say that they’re kids, but soon you also gotta let them go away and go to everybody else. Because once you send it out into the world, it’s no longer yours. whoever’s listening to it, it’s up to them to interpret on their own. So yeah, it’s not like we’re intentionally trying to hoard stuff to come out with like a B-sides record in full. No, it’s just sometimes there’s, there’s so much music coming out constantly, that it makes sense to hold on to some stuff.
I can imagine! Being that you have been a band since 2007 and have obviously seen many changes within the music industry occur. It seems that now fans almost demand things instantaneously. Does that put more pressure on the band, or do you guys still prefer to take your time and go with the flow?
We kind of go with the flow and saying, I know that like the advent of a rock band and kind of like, in a traditional sense It’s, it’s almost become like a lost art where, you know, things are more made up of individuals or producers/songwriters, instead of collectives like we are. And because of that, because of the easy access to creating music through these wonderful, all you need is a laptop now, I now can make use it. And the beauty of that is you can have an artist come out of nowhere on SoundCloud and become a superstar. But the flip side of that there’s, there’s 100,000 plus people trying to do the same exact thing that just are not going to get to that point, you know, stars are born, they’re not made. And to go along with those lines, like we’re, we’re an album based band. And when we it’s funny, because you know, a lot of people now they’re, they either released EP’S, or some people are just going straight to singles. When we first started this band, the vinyl was kind of just slowly making its comeback. Yeah. And now in from 2007 to 2023, vinyl, vinyl is such a vital part of music for people that it’s come back, it’s coming full circle. So, we’re we pride ourselves on being an album band. That doesn’t mean we might not release singles and stuff like that in the future, but we prefer our music to be listened to in full form. Is that an option?
I’m glad you mentioned the vinyl thing, as I am so happy it is making a comeback. There is something brilliant about that perfectly imperfect sound that comes from listening to vinyl. I’m happy it’s made a comeback.
You know, it’s one of those things where, you know, vinyl and even CDs where it was this tangible thing that you held, and there was this artwork, and you would open up. And you had the lyrics and these liner notes and stories and pictures of the band. And some like, I was just talking about this way back in the 70s. Right? If you picked up Led Zeppelin “II”, unless you saw a print interview with them, or maybe like some very brief thing, you would see their picture in your record, and then you would go see them live and they’re in front of you. That’s it. Completely changed now where everybody wants to know you’re having for breakfast, let alone have any mystery of what’s going on. But people are starting to understand that. That feeling you get from owning a record is. It’s not. It’s not something for a public consumption. Like technology, if you will. It’s something that true music lovers and aficionados hold near and dear, it’s a point of pride saying, Oh, I have 5000 10,000 20,000 records. And not to mention that you take a record like, I’ll use Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, for instance. That record sounds best on vinyl. And it doesn’t matter what kind of sound system, how many times it’s been remastered, if you have the first edition vinyl that goes on through an incredible Macintosh speaker system of the era. That’s what it was intended to do. And, you know, like, I’m talking to you on my phone in the car right now. And I have access to an infinite amount of music and songs. But the real audiophiles, the aficionados, their preferred method of listening, they’ll definitely want vinyl in all or, or you can you know, bring your vinyl on the road and have a portable one if you want to do that.
The Revivalists are definitely known as road warriors with a lot of touring under your belt and seem to enjoy being out in front of a live audience. What can you share with us about your upcoming touring plans?
Yeah, you know, just to talk about touring. It’s the way I put it. It’s like we’re sailors on the concrete sea, and it’s something to get on. It’s the lifeblood of the boat. The live show is the lifeblood of the band. And we love playing shows more than anything and we pride ourselves on being top class, live act and we’re going to show that all summer and it’s something that we love to do and as a result of the pandemic when it was taken away from us and only makes us love it and appreciate and have gratitude to do it even more. So, we’re incredibly excited for every day. We’re going to play every show like it’s our last!
I remember talking to people about the band after seeing you guys perform at Voodoo Festival in New Orleans several years ago and being absolutely blown away by your live show!
That was a while ago, we’re still you know, hungry, definitely hungry and cutting our teeth and trying to put bodies in front of us and demanding people’s attention when we were playing and, you know, we’re fortunate enough to have a great amount of success but that didn’t come out without a lot of hardship and hard work leading up to that. And we’re definitely not removed from that… we understand how lucky we are to be in this position. And, and not to mention how expensive it is to go see shows now. So, we want to make sure we put on a world class rock show every time you come and see us.
Can you speak about the charity work that you guys are involved in with Rev Causes? I see that you work with a wide variety of charities and causes.
Yeah. So you know, I want to say, I don’t know exactly the year it was formed maybe 2017 or 2018, but it got to a point where we realized that we are in a position to start giving back to some different philosophies and charities that are near and dear to our hearts so that the concept from the get-go is how can we help. That’s, you know, the 30,000-foot viewpoint. So, from every one of our concerts, we donate $1, to an assortment of charities that every year, we go and switch to kind of spread the wealth, and they vary from you know, mental health, to environmental to social justice, we try and cover all bases in terms of the charitable arm of our organization. And by doing that, we have this platform, we might as well try and put it to good use. So, it’s something we’re all incredibly invested in and proud of as individuals as a band to help on the local and the national level, because we try and make sure we have some organizations that are New Orleans space, and then also have some stuff that are a little wider scope as well.
I think it is a beautiful thing that you guys are doing!
Thank you!
As a just for fun question for you, what is something that you “nerd” out about in your spare time that we might be surprised to learn?
I’ll tell you a funny little story…from a few months ago when we did like a panel when we shot our video. And everybody named one of their most favorite things to do outside of music in the band. And I mentioned that I’m obsessed with European soccer. That is like, outside. And I’ve had friends that have known me for a very long time that would have never guessed that would have said that. That just because we don’t share that mutual interest. So, if I have the prongs in my life, there’s my family, my wife and kids, and my extended family, there’s the band. And then there’s my health and the health of people I care about and then there’s soccer and it goes in that exact order… that’s like everybody has their one obsession and I’ve gone through ebbs and flows of it, there was a period where I wasn’t watching as much but there’s only so many man hours a day you can do with something to use your bandwidth. And in terms of leisure that’s yeah, that’s the one thing I’ve said that I like I’m on in text groups with my friends talking about transfers, and it’s just I’m already plotting what I’m going to do for the World Cup when it’s here in 2026. And it’s just a passion I grew up with and it’s yeah, that’s definitely my thing that I nerd out the most on!
Understandable! Soccer is such a huge sport, especially in Europe and South America!
My father’s from Greece. So, I definitely grew up with this European mentality, European scope on just life in general. So, you know, I grew up with a ball and it’s the way people would watch…you know, like the NFL in their house. I’ve been watching these leaks on satellites, since I was like six. So, what’s becoming relatively new here has been a lifelong passion and pursuit of mine and it’s something, I’m going to continue to do it. Even if my kids don’t want it. I’m not going to vicariously try and force it on them. But yeah, it’s a, it’s something that, you know, it makes me happy. You know, I’m passionate about it.
The Revivalists are currently out on a co-headling tour with The Head and The Heart and Band of Horses! Be sure to check out a live show when the band comes through a city near you!
07/03 – Cedar Rapids, IA @ McGrath Amphitheatre #
07/05 – Selbyville, DE @ Freeman Arts Pavilion #
07/06 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater #
07/08 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion #
07/09 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony Summer Stage !
07/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage at the Mann #
07/14 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater #
07/15 – Gilford, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion #
07/26 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY %
07/28 – Chautauqua, NY @ Chautauqua Amphitheater ^
07/29 – Indianapolis, IN @ TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park ^
08/01 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater *
08/03 – Oshkosh, WI @ Leach Amphitheater *
08/06 – Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion *
08/08 – Portland, ME @ Thompson’s Point ^
08/10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Prospect Park ^
08/11 – Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion ^
08/31 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre *
09/02 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield Amphitheater %
09/06 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas *
09/09 – San Diego, CA @ Gallagher Square at Petco Park *
09/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre ^
09/14 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
# = w/ The Head and The Heart and Jaime Wyatt
! = w/ The Head and The Heart
^ = w/ Band of Horses
* = w/ Band of Horses and The Heavy Heavy
% = w/ The Heavy Heavy
