Tunes Tuesday: Ravi Shavi

Ravi Shavi frontman Rafay Rashid. Photo by Christopher Mongeau.

Tell me about how the sound is different on Wild Rock Dove compared to your other albums?

I would say it’s a bit slower and a bit more patient in terms of how the songs unravel. I think there’s also a wider range of influences. There’s a lot of influence from ESG, No Wave, Roxy Music and some of the great late 70’s early 80’s punk bands that I grew up listening to with funk and minimalism vibes. I would say it’s a continuation to older albums and almost a return to form but with the old added layer of maturity that comes with age.

Where does the album name come from?

So Wild Rock Dove is a reference to pigeons and pigeon was sort of my nickname. I had self-appointed myself the mascot of the unofficial soccer team that formed every recess during elementary school. I would sit on the hill and watch the other kids play, not really knowing how to insert myself and feeling a bit like an outsider. I would run through the field sporadically, once every few days and kind of flap my wings like a pigeon. I don’t know why but that memory always stuck with me and I feel like my music and art making has been sort of a process of figuring out my relationship to what it means to be a mascot. As a brown person in America, I’m always kind of representing my people in a way, so there’s that meaning of mascot too.

This release marks six years sober for you. How do you think your sobriety has helped your music career and songwriting process?

I think it’s a lot more embodied now. I’m able to actually dial in on what the song feels like as opposed to what the alcohol and drugs may have felt like in combination with the song. I think it goes back to letting the songs sort of take their time in terms of settling into a groove and not feeling like everything has to be so angular and charged and sort of tense.

Can you take me behind the scenes of the Moneyback music video? Was that shot in NYC?

 Most of it was shot in New York by Luke Politelli, who also did our guitarist Nick Politelli’s music videos. It was shot in New York which felt like a homage to my family because New York is the first place we moved to when we moved to America from Pakistan in the 90’s. Pakistan, New York and Rhode Island are sort of the trifecta of what constitutes home for me. There’s a bit of a gambling scene that goes down at Nolan’s, which is sort of the unofficial clubhouse of our little scene in Providence.

What made you choose that song to be people’s first impression of the album?

 I think because it’s a departure from a previous work and it feels like a new stage and new era for the project. I felt it was more appropriate to use that song than say, something that was a bit more reminiscent of earlier work. We had also gotten positive feedback while performing it out, so the momentum was already there.

You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that Ravi Shavi started off as a moniker but then became a band once your guitarist Nick Politelli joined. What does each band member bring that completes Ravi Shavi?

 Everyone sort of brings their own element. Nick for this record was getting very into Tuareg, like West African style guitar playing, which is also a continuation of his exploration of ragtime country blues. Shahjehan Khan, you know, his influence coming from both his band in The Kominas but then also more traditional Pakistani music. Chuck is a bit of a savant and is a great encyclopedia of knowledge of experimental rock and roll and underground music in general. His dissonant guitar playing was the perfect match for the cleaner more repetitive and accessible rhythms and grooves that were being established by the drums and bass. Ben Tucker, who played drums on our first two albums, played with us for the first time in almost a decade which was pretty cool.

Including yourself there are four guitarists on this album. Why all the guitars?

 (Laughs) So thankfully all of them are never playing at one time. I played a lot of bass on this album and anytime I wasn’t playing me and Chuck would switch off on bass. Part of it is just that I love hanging with everyone in the band.

You’ve been in the Rhode Island music scene for a long time. What’s your favorite venue in Rhode Island?

I still love the main stage at AS220, it honestly just still feels like home to me. I really like the new DIY spots that are popping up as well. It’s funny to be but still to this day I really love the AS220 main stage lot. That’s where I feel most comfortable.

Wild Rock Dove album cover.

You mentioned loving to hang out with everyone in the band, who is a musician you want to work with in the Rhode Island music scene that you haven’t yet.

 Good question. There’s so many. I always want to collaborate with everybody so it’s hard. I’d love to do some sort of split record with Joy Boys at some point.

 Was it important to you to have the photo your father took of your mother on the album cover?

 It just worked somehow. The colors from that photograph really seemed to parallel with what I was hearing when the record came together. It was also taken the year that I was born, which I didn’t realize until after I chose it, which I thought was a pretty wild coincidence.

Who do you think this album is for?

 I think it’s for people like me. Anyone who feels like a bit of an outsider from any one particular genre or classification or type of person. People who are into like some kind of exploration outside of the standard categories. Anyone who has any experience trying to overcome being othered in this world.

 Are you planning an album release show?

We have a big show coming up with Spoon on June 19^th that will sort of be our personal celebration. We will probably throw a party this summer to kind of officially celebrate, but venue is TBD.

To listen to the album on June 12th and hear the rest of Ravi Shavi songs, visit their Spotify page here. 

Moneyback music video down below: