PVA

PVA fuses dance music, industrial, and post-punk into songs with a queer viewpoint and relentless forward momentum. The trio made a name for themselves with frenetic live shows on the south London circuit and honed their sound before releasing 2020′s Toner EP, which snagged a Grammy nomination for Mura Masa’s remix of the single “Talks.” With 2022′s full-length Blush, PVA further refined their driving sonics and poetic, poignant lyrics.
Multi-instrumentalists/vocalists Ella Harris and Josh Baxter knew each other through mutual friends in the south London music scene but didn’t truly connect until talking at a party in 2017. After discovering how much they had in common musically, they decided to work together. Combining Baxter’s “country-fried techno” demos with Harris’ dream-inspired lyrics, the duo played their first show at a multimedia event two weeks after forming. Harris and Baxter performed a few gigs with pre-recorded rhythms before recruiting drummer Louis Satchell, who was raised on funk and soul and later fell in love with dance music.
With their lineup in place, PVA made a name for themselves within the London music scene with their kinetic performances supporting bands such as Squid. Through Squid, the trio connected with Speedy Wunderground, which released PVA’s Dan Carey-produced debut single, “Divine Intervention,” in late 2019. Acclaim for the single and the band’s gigs led them to sign with Ninja Tune, and the label issued the Toner EP in November 2020. Once again produced by Carey, the EP featured the single “Talks,” the Mura Masa remix of which earned a nomination for Best Remixed Recording at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
When the COVID-19 global pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns halted PVA’s momentum, the trio’s members pursued separate projects. Harris wrote poetry, brushed up on her production skills, and worked on solo material as Lime Zoda; Baxter served as a producer for other artists; and Satchell studied African polyrhythms at City University. They also worked on PVA’s debut album, ultimately reconvening at the home studio of co-producer Jamie Neville for a two-week session. Also featuring production by Ben Romans-Hopcraft, October 2022′s Blush presented an evolved version of the trio’s driving electro-rock that reflected the fraught feeling of the early 2020s. ~ Heather Phares