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"We can’t create something we aren’t excited about!”

How do dreams sound? How does the twilight zone of your unconsciousness turn vague visions into melodies? How do you work with computers and contemporary music equipment when not only the pure reason (if something like that existed anyway) is involved, but a revolutionary spirit dictates you to keep on exploring the seemingly endless possibilities? Can a young British band escape the great shadow of the "prog rock” label that it has so often been reduced on, and challenge our listening habits?

You may find answers somewhere in the marvellous compositions on the second full length album "Amor Vincit Omnia” by Pure Reason Revolution. The quartet has in the last years been touring with bands such as Oceansize and Porcupine Tree, but should neither be mistaken as progressive band in the retro-, nor in the state-of-the-art-kind of sense, but without doubt Pure Reason Revolution presents us avant-garde versions of more than just rock music, influenced by various forms from classical to hypermodern art and music styles.

Their songs unfold a spellbinding fascination similar to the pictures of the great Maurits Cornelis Escher whose creations at first weren’t considered as art in the classic sense but which still attract many people by illustrating the seemingly impossible. Like him, Pure Reason Revolution creates unusual perspectives and designs music with an uncommon architecture of beats, textures and harmonies.


Illustration by M.C.Escher

I talked with main composer and producer Jon Courtney who was a bit irritated about my first question hinting at the song "Deus Ex Machina” that the band played on its gigs before the album release and which has already been renamed by some fans…

Let’s start with a question that came up when I read your tour diary on Myspace: has your hit single "The Sex Machine” already reached the No.1 position in the Belgian charts?

Ha-ha! We’re still working on it. It’s a song that gets only played on tour, but hopefully it will become a huge world-wide smash hit. That’s getting in our focus when we’re on the road again: we’ll keep on working on it in the tour bus. It’s a work in progress.

It seems as if the audience wasn’t aware of the original Latin title although it was already released on your live album. But that was only released in the United States, wasn’t it?

Yes, "Deus Ex Machina” is on that one. We’ve been playing the Nearfest in 2007 and the live album was made from that one. It’s released in the States, but I think they mail-order it all over the world.

How satisfied are you with the recording from the Nearfest?

I think it’s pretty good. It was an opportunity: the Nearfest crew said that they could record it for us – so why not? I think it has a raw quality and a different edge than the studio recordings.

With your debut album "The Dark Third" you had concentrated on the time of sleep and the unconscious knocking at the back door of your mind. What made this topic so attractive for you?

I was interested in the philosophy around that topic, in dreams, consciousness and reality, and I read a lot about it. There’s a guy called Gerald de Nerval who had a big influence on it with his book "Aurélia”.

So in how far did you learn more about the unconscious sides of your personality when you composed "The Dark Third”?

I always write down the dreams that I remember in my journal. I take influence from snapshots of my life and other peoples’ lives, so it’s a personal observation – and for me it was a good exploration, I think.

So your lyrics are also influenced by your dreams?

Yes, I write down what I can recollect. So everything is in progress, the lyrics as well as the music. I constantly write lyrics and there’s a push & pull influence between the music and the lyrics.

The lyrics from "The Dark Third” seemed to me like an approach somewhere between surrealism and mythology and reminded me a bit of William Blake.

Oh, I’m a really big Blake fan. I’ve got quite a lot of books and I try to read as much as I can. There’s so much fantastic Blake stuff, for example "Songs Of Innocence of Experience” which is a book that I’m always picking up.

It seems as if with "Amor Vincit Omnia” you address the listener more directly, on behalf of the music and its sound as well as on behalf of the lyrics, for example with a question like "Did you ever feel love”?

Yes, I definitely wanted to be more direct musically and lyrically. I don’t know if it’s apparent what the album is pointing at, because some of the lyrical content is still fairly abstract. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but a development to make things snappier and to give the songs a higher impact.

These days you integrate quite a lot of electronica to your rock music and develop a truly individual style: how much are you fascinated by the possibilities which lie open before you and how much do you sometimes question yourself whether you could loose the right track?

In the studio, that means in the recording process there’s quite a lot of experimentation and we try out if a verse or a chorus works best on piano, on guitar or anything else. I’ve been really excited about getting into programming, synthesizers and things like that. It’s all about experimentation and about getting the right sounds and textures for the songs, really.

This sounds as if you don’t have a fixed master plan before you enter the studio.

One of the manifestos in the beginning of Pure Reason Revolution was that there will be no limitations for instrumental textures. So anything could work, be it acoustic guitars, synthesizers, strings, life drums, programmed drums, exotic percussions or whatever… there are no rules. I think the vocal harmonies are a steadfast feature of our sound, but as artists why should we put any rules or boundaries on ourselves?

That’s not a common attitude. But keep this courage!

I mean in some bands which consist of four people it’s this scheme of drums, bass, guitars and a singer, and that’s it, because they’re a guitar band. But that’s what we never were about. You can limit yourself, but we never gonna do that.

I think this approach reflects in your stunning vocal arrangements since they’re done with so much creativity and attention to details. But I ask myself how many voices are echoing in your heads when you finally fall to sleep after a recording day?

Ha-ha, yes, it can be hard at the end of the day, but I love the Beach Boys and Jeff Lynne and the harmonies he created with ELO. And the harmonies of YES are fantastic… But when I go to sleep, I sometimes think like "could this harmony fit in that song?” and my mind is kicking over…

So the dark third in your private life is still occupied by the music so to say.

Yes, I’m always thinking about music.


(photo taken from the "Live At Nearfest 2007” album)

I read a review by an obviously overstrained music journalist who stated that none of you could sing really well, but that the vocal arrangements are attractive nevertheless. Would you agree that this is a too reasonable perspective on your alchemical music?

Alchemical is a funny word. But how do you define a good singer? Is it someone who has a great range in his voice? I mean it’s hard – was Kurt Cobain a good singer? I think he was one of the best singers of the past 25 years. Just listen to the people at those pop idol shows: maybe they’re good singers and have a great range, but they have boring, generic voices and that’s not interesting. In our band I can’t sing the highest notes or whatever, but Chloë has a fantastic voice and Jamie can sing really well. Perhaps we aren’t technically the best, but we’re a vocal group in which at some point the personalities come through and at another we form a choir. So it’s a funny one: how one shall define a good singer?

I think it’s somebody who can transport emotions authentically.

Yes, that’s it exactly.

In regard to the sound you have improved quite a lot in comparison to "The Dark Third”. Did this happen because you did the recordings and most of the mixing process yourself?

The first record was co-produced by Paul Northfield, but I have an interest and have been involved in recordings for the past decade now, so it was just a natural progression for me to take over the production for this record. Paul Northfield mixed a couple of the tracks and we had somebody else mixing a track because at some point of the process you’re so much involved in, it’s better to give it to somebody else to give it the final pushes. Songwriting and production go hand in hand for me, because I have the visions for the songs and only I know best how they turn out and I know the technology of production, I can achieve that myself much better than with another producer whom I must explain everything.

On the information sheet that came along with the promo of your new album the title was spelled "Armor” instead of "Amor” – isn’t it ironic that love turns into a means of protection?

I didn’t know that. I guess somebody at the label did that. Turns it into quite a different direction.

The name of your band provoked a lot of questions so far and I hope that I don’t bore you when I ask what kind of revolution you think we need these days on the fields of art and life philosophy?

When I was at university I did a dissertation which was mainly on the construction of genius. Among others I cam across Kant’s critic of the pure reason and we put "revolution” on the end of it. It made the monicker complete for us because it fitted to exciting music which might sound revolutionary. It wasn’t a political statement or anything like that.

Last year one of your shows in Germany has been recorded by a film team of the legendary Rockpalast show. Was this a special event for you?[b]

Yes, we really enjoyed Rockpalast. It was a good show with a good audience. I have some friends who have seen it on TV, but I haven’t seen the finished product yet.

[b]You have already played with bands like Oceansize, Porcupine Tree and Blackfield to name but a few. With whom else would you like to go on tour?

It would be great to get a support a tour for bands like Radiohead or Muse. To support someone like Depeche Mode would be fantastic, and there’s a UK band called Hot Chip that’s really cool.

Imagine you walk down the street and suddenly realize that Pure Reason Revolution is on the cover page of all newspapers – which headline would you like to read and which would be horror for you?

Huh, I think we try to abandon the front page news because they mostly deal with scandals, isn’t it like that? I don’t know really… if we made the front page news with the biggest selling album of all time, it would be worthy a headline, so go with that!

When would be the right point for you to retire: when queen mum declares you a knight of the British Empire or when your band gets involved in a Simpsons episode?

Ha-ha, I think the Simpsons: that’s when you definitely made it, and then you can sit back and only tell that you’ve been in a Simpsons episode!

If you consider the development of your band in the last years: which things did surprise you and still make you wonder where this all might lead you?

To me the development is just a natural progression. We have always been about progressing, evolving and making music that is interesting for us. We can’t create something that we aren’t excited about. We have constantly new ideas and keep pushing things. We want to surprise people instead of boring them and thus keep it interesting for everyone.

How has the label manager reacted when you came up with the exciting new album which sounds much different to the last one?

Some people are surprised, but some see the burning inside of us to come out like this. We are aware that we might divide the fan base, but as I said the album couldn’t have been made any other way.

Has anybody ever asked you how many versions of your debut album exist?

Ha-ha, I think we might have heard that question before. There’s an American version, a UK one, and one from Inside Out… so apologies to the people who have collected them all and paid several times for slightly different versions.

Which questions remain open that need an answer from your side?

This is the question I always stumble. If you wanna expand your taste and try something certainly different to a conventional rock band, then come to Pure Reason Revolution!

Thor Wanzek

TRACKLIST: 01 - Les Malheurs 02 - Victorious Cupid 03 - I: Keep Me Sane / Insane 04 - II: Apogee III: Requiem For The Lovers 05 - Deus Ex Machina 06 - Bloodless 07 - Disconnect 08 - The Gloaming 09 - AVO