RAVEEN is a three-piece Montreal-based band whose music tastefully straddles the line between synthy electronica and live instrumentation. Described as “dark, yet earnest pop-electronic music with some serious R&B undertones,” their dynamic sound is tied together by crisp vocals and a lush, immersive production style. Graphite’s Thaïs Martin got in touch with members Eric Seguin, Stokely Diamantis, and Peter Colantonio to learn more about what inspires the trio’s creative approach and drives their rising success.
Where are you guys from? When and how did music come into your lives?
Eric: Ontario. I asked my parents for Beatles “1” in 1997/8. I guess that was the first time I actively sought out music.
Peter: Toronto. After constantly playing the “couch-piano” along to my favourite TV show theme songs, my parents put me in piano lessons at age 7. Continued to play and take lessons until I started to learn drums to get into an arts high school.
Stokely: I was raised deep in the woods of Vermont. I took piano lessons as a child but music didn’t really “click” for me until high school, when I started playing bass and experimenting with music production and sound synthesis. Playing and improvising with friends as opposed to the rote learning classical sheet music was a revelation for me.
How and when was Raveen born?
E: 2013, Stokely was in a band called VLVBVMV and I was opening for them pretty regularly as a solo artist. We were both working in genres that we loved but wanted to explore new territory. Raveen was born from scratching that itch, in a manner of speaking.
S: The modern incarnation of Raveen definitely came about when Peter came aboard last year, we first met filling in on drums and bass for a mutual friend’s project that summer and got to talking about electronic music at the exact moment that Eric and I were looking for a percussionist! It all just followed from there.
P: I met Stokely (and Josh Spencer, our manager) in August 2014 when we accompanied our friend Antoine Martel at McGill’s Open Air Pub. At this point I had been curious about fusing drums with laptop music, so when I found out Stokely was working with Ableton in addition to playing bass, we got excited about jamming together in this format. A week or so later he asked me if I was interested in joining this band he was in, which turned out to be Raveen.
Who are your creative inspirations, music and otherwise?
S: I love watching bands play live. I feel like there’s always something you can learn from a performance, and nothing inspires me more than seeing a live act translate their studio material to the stage in a compelling and emotive way.
E: Anytime I read or hear about process from David Lynch or Frank Zappa, I’m inspired to work. Also, I’ve been loving Luc Ferrari lately – he really gets me excited to work with sound. Then of course, Karneef’s “Any Better”
P: In general I’m inspired by musicians who keep an open mind to different genres and don’t conform to the “I’m a jazz musician/I’m a rock drummer/I only do this” mentality. From a drum perspective lately I’ve been into drummers that take electronic music influences and turn it into something organic and exciting. Guys like Mark Guiliana, Jojo Mayer, Chris Dave and Zach Danziger. I’ve also been fascinated by Aphex Twin because he creates drum patterns with a certain level of nuance and musicality that makes it sound like a real drummer.
Describe the sound of Raveen.
P: On the outside, a unique musical collaboration using electronics and live drums.
E: A gateway to feeling the things you’ve been putting off feeling for a while.
S: Music to stare at the clouds to.
What is the theme/story of the Raveen EP? Any anecdotes about the creation process?
E: The first EP grew out of me and Stokely improvising in his bedroom – this was in our liberal arts days. At the time we were listening to a lot of hip hop and R&B. This was before the Weeknd went pop and Drake was seemingly everywhere all at once, so it felt novel to be making R&B inspired music with lo-fi gear in Montreal. That aesthetic has definitely been taken in some interesting directions since that EP by some very different artists, and since bringing Peter on board in 2014, we’ve really expanded our palette. Three people bringing influences from worlds of Electronic, Electracoustics and Jazz necessitates a very democratic approach (and has lead to a lot of growth for all of us), but as committed followers of hip-hop, we all have references to records where those three worlds have collided seamlessly before.
S: I remember the brainstorming for a project name as being hilarious and increasingly frantic, we had a hard deadline for an EP release show and no name set in stone! We dodged so many bullets retrospectively.
What’s your favorite song of yours? Why?
S: Penumbra. It’s been quite a while since we released this track, and our sound has since evolved a whole bunch. We don’t even tend to play it live these days! But I still remember it as being one of the first bedroom demos that me and Eric finished roughing out that had that moment of “oh, awesome!”, where the spark strikes and the track seems to just fall into place before your eyes. For me it kind of represents how far we’ve come, as well as how far we can yet go.
P: Probably Leave You In The Woods. I love the darkness! *Laughs*
But seriously, the end chorus is a real high point in the live show, where we all let loose and feed off each other’s intensity level. I get excited even thinking about playing it! Its still unreleased so come to the live set if you wanna hear it.
E: Another unreleased for me - Almost Nothing. Its very simple, lyrically and musically. Simplicity is always something to strive for. One of those moments where the meaning of the words I was saying weren’t revealed until the song was complete, which happens more often than you’d expect.
What are your plans for the near future? Where and when can we next see you live?
E: We’re recording alot in 2016 so you can expect releases, live videos and generally new things from us this year. Our next show is at Fairmont Theatre on April 22nd with the wonderful Motel Raphael.
Proust Questionnaire!
Which 5 people, dead or alive, would you invite to your cook-out?
E: Larry David, Andrea Dworkin, Danny L Harle, Bernie Sanders and my Grandma
S: Johnny Greenwood, Tom Jenkinson, Miller Puckette, Don Buchla, Pino Palladino
P: Eddie Izzard, Steven Wilson, Tony Williams, Geddy Lee, Steve Gadd
E: We’d all invite Karn, too, obviously.
If you were to die and come back as someone or something, who/what would it be?
E: I’ve heard they can plant you in the ground after you die and you quite literally grow into a tree. So I’d come back as a tree or whatever my next step towards Brahman is, I haven’t read about Buddhism for a while so I forget how that works.
S: Some kind of tropical bird, they seem like they have it all. Really just anything that can fly.
P: I’d go with something that could fly as well, maybe like that super fast peregrine falcon.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
S: Paul Atreides, from Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series
E: Clamence from “the Fall” by Albert Camus
P: Sherlock Holmes, I like the way he thinks.
Your all-time favorite hip hop album?
E: Maybe in a few years I’ll look back and name one of the classics, but for now, To Pimp a Butterfly. It took everything that was happening in the world of media politics, artistic podcasting, future funk and hip hop and used it as a pallette to paint a picture of a very immediate feeling. I still listen to it a couple times a week.
S: Ditto! Probably the truest hip hop ‘album’ in recent memory.
P: I’m a little bit of a newcomer to old school hip-hop, but I can say that To Pimp A Butterfly is an album that we as a band have really connected on together. All the things that Eric mentioned plus the level of production quality make it very special. That being said, I also love Robert Glasper’s Black Radio.
What is your current state of mind?
S: Seeking to attain more creativity and productivity in my day-to-day.
E: Currently in mixing/choreographing/directing/composing/essay-writing mode so all over the place!
P: Scheduling and planning the next few weeks with rehearsals, teaching and other gigs. Also looking forward to playing the fairmont theatre gig!
RAVEEN will be performing at Fairmount Theater alongside Motel Raphaël on Friday, April 22. You can grab tickets or find more information here.
Follow RAVEEN on Soundcloud, Facebook, or Bandcamp.
