With a new album that just came out and a co-headlining tour underway, The Revivalists are ready to bring their soulful sounds to the City of Brotherly Love this week. And before their show on July 12 at The Mann Center, the band’s guitarist Ed Williams sat down with Metro to chat about the time spent during COVID to make their latest tracks, what has changed in their shows, and really, what hasn’t changed in terms of passion for their music.
What went into creating this latest album, ‘Pour It Out Into The Night’?
Well, it was kind of a weird time to really make an album because really, if what happened didn’t happen, we would’ve made it probably two years earlier. I kind of had this mentality of not really knowing what was going to happen, but then, that fear turns into hope eventually. I just tried to hold onto that hope as much as I could going into the studio. And we also had a lot of preparation—I think this is the most prepared we’ve ever been because we did have all that time to kind of pause.
We’ve been a band on the move basically since we started and we’ve never really taken a pause. We’re constantly recording, writing and touring all at the same time, and this gave us a chance to separate those out a little bit. I think it really helped us to [create] what I considered to be our best material so far.
Taking that time off of performing during COVID, when you were able to come back, did performing live feel any different for you?
I appreciate it more now because it was almost taken away from me, if that makes sense. We all got separated from each other and we weren’t allowed to see each other… you know, we’ve been brothers touring for 15 years together [and then] we weren’t even allowed to be in the same room. But the second we [could], it was like we didn’t skip a beat. So it was a lot of fun when we finally got together and then when we finally started doing shows again, we were ecstatic because that’s what we really love to do—take part with the audience.
Is there a song from the new album that you really enjoy performing live or are excited for audiences to hear?
That’s an interesting question because even before the album came out, when we were testing them out, [there were] ones that kind of jumped out as fan favorites. Mine was ‘Don’t Look Back’—that was one of the first ones we started playing live and the crowd immediately loved it. It’s high energy.
There’s still one that we haven’t done live at all. But ‘Only You’ goes over pretty well, so I would say ‘Don’t Look Back’ and ‘Only You’ are the ones that are pretty popular with the crowd right now. But we’ll see if that changes.
So for fans who are coming out to see you at The Mann Center this week, what would you tell them to expect from your show?
You’re going to hear a lot of the new material, it’s brand new, and like I said, there are some songs that we haven’t even performed in front of people yet. So maybe you’ll catch that one at the show because we gotta do it eventually. But you’re going to see a lot of the new tracks and it’s a much bigger production now.
We took a lot of time to really focus in on making the songs really great live and we don’t just do what’s on the album, we throw things in here and there and double things…We take a four-minute song and we make it 14 minutes. But really, you’re just going to get a lot of energy and a lot of new material.
You’re on this tour with The Head and the Heart—how did your bands link up?
We’ve been fans of theirs for a long time. I remember listening to a couple of their hits on the radio a long time ago before we were even anything, and now I think we’re at a good point where we bring a good audience that maybe they haven’t gotten in front of before, and the same for us. And then with our kind of powers combined, we’re going into these bigger rooms with a bigger production and it’s just going to be a bigger show in general.
So I think it’s just more bombastic this way getting into these big venues. I think us powering up is going to put a great show together, because our crowds probably do intertwine a little bit, but there’s definitely going to be good mingling there.
Over the years of touring and recording and creating music, how has the band evolved in your eyes?
We’ve basically lived half of our lives together. It’s been a long time and we’re not friends, we’re brothers—brothers fight, brothers hug, brothers, do all sorts of stuff. As individuals we’ve all gone through these life changes. When we all met, none of us were married and no kids, and now most of us are married with a lot of kids… so, things have changed. But the music and the feeling hasn’t, because the personal life is on its own journey and your musical life is on its own journey too.
You have to nurture both of them together, and it’s hard to say how we’ve changed because I’ve been in it, you know what I mean? I’m in it every day. We’ve all gotten older, we have families now, but the music is still something we really care about and we always will.
And lastly, what can you tell me about your philanthropic umbrella fund, Rev Causes?
Rev Causes is a charitable outlet for us. We take a dollar from every ticket and we usually pick about three or four charities a year. One of them is gun control, and we also like to keep one of them local to New Orleans, the city that’s really done so much for us. Every year we’re kind of like, okay what do we think we want to help with this year? And we’ll all talk about it and we all pitch our charities and then we’ll choose the ones that make sense. Music is important, but there are lot of other important things out there too. So we try and help as much as we can.
Catch The Revivalists with The Head and the Heart this Wednesday, July 12, at the Skyline Stage at the Mann Center. To stream their latest album, visit found.ee/TR_PourItOut . And for tickets, visit manncenter.org
