About to Break: Anavae

FFO the kind of dark pop PVRIS excel in, Anavae’s debut album was a bit of a mission for Jamie Finch and Becca Need-Menear. Thankfully they battled through, and the result - the bewitching ‘45’ - is bloody massive.

You're based in London, right? Did you both grow up there?
Becca: We're both South East London babies.
Jamie: I grew up in Greenwich (best part of London btw), but have lived in nearly every corner of London over the years.

When did you first realise you wanted to be musicians? Is it living up to the hype so far?
Jamie: I always thought that the cool part would be touring, playing shows and rocking out. But it's really not. The only real joy I get out of it now is seeing people's reactions to the music we're creating - and knowing that there are people out there listening to what we put out.
Becca: Making and releasing music happened quite accidentally for us, I think. The very early years were filled with free experimentation, imitation and basically, seeing what we could throw at a wall. I think avoiding grand expectation has made it somewhat easier to deal with many of the difficulties we've faced over the years. Most recently, we didn't receive a great deal of the money we raised through our Pledge campaign, which would have been enough to cause anyone to have a breakdown, but we both mutually thought, "ha, well, of course, that didn't work out."

How long have you been working on your debut album for, and what was the creation process like? It sounds like it was a bit of a rollercoaster.
Becca: The idea of a "debut album" ended up feeling like a phantom, or some dream that would never become a reality. We'd often say "...oh we'll finish that song when we come to do our album." So being on the other side of that now is so surreal.
Jamie: Some of the songs on the album are five+ years old. Some were written at the very end of the recording process. Looking at the tracklisting for the first time was a pretty daunting experience... seeing a large chunk of my life all slapped down into one place, ready to be burned onto a CD. I still can't quite get my head around it.

What do you most enjoy writing songs about?
Jamie: Aliens.