Alpha Rev will open for Ben Rector Thursday, May 2 at 8:30pm at The Majestic Theater, where they’ll be showing off their classic American rock style, with just a hint of violin and cello. Their new album, Bloom, was released recently. According to frontman Casey McPherson, it spotlights a lot more mandolin than their other albums and features live recordings.
Alpha Rev is a seven-piece band originating in Austin, Texas. McPherson started the group in 2005 after his former band, Endochine, dismantled. The name Alpha Rev represents this change in McPherson’s life and in his musical style.
“Band names are kind of hard to come up with these days. We decided to use Greek and Latin with the prefixes and suffixes, you know, where our language originally came from, and designed our own word out of it,” McPherson said. “So Alpha being ‘one’ and Rev being a great prefix for ‘revolt’ and ‘revolve’ and ‘revive.’ It’s really been kind of the first change, the first turn; it’s been kind of a mantra of trying to write music that captures those moments.”
McPherson describes his process for capturing these moments as something that differs from day to day.
“Sometimes, you have a hard day or you have a great day and you’re in the moment and you start writing down melodies on your phone that are inspired by certain situations,” McPherson said. “Other times you’re just like, ‘I need to write music today,’ so you sit down. And for me, it’s usually melodies that come first and that tells me what the lyrics need to be about.”
The inspiration for McPherson’s music comes from many places. He explained that the inspiration for the song “Alone With You” came from a time of “not being distracted and not being busy and that feeling of being more in the moment and not thinking about what’s ahead or what’s behind and just what’s going on around us right now.”
He also finds inspiration in many musicians. He is a huge fan of Muse and said that the best show he’s ever been to would be either Muse while on tour for Absolution or Tom Petty for Wildflowers. McPherson also listens to a lot of Iron and Wine and the up-and-coming Austin artist, Max Gomez.
It’s easy to see that Alpha Rev has come a long way since 2005, as they have become recognized by media purveyors such as VH1. Likely, we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future.
“I hope we continue to release records and I just want to keep building on what we have,” McPherson said. “We’re still trying to grow our fan base so we can tour on our own, so I hope we have some progress on that for sure.
Alpha Rev were last in Madison on a previous tour with Owl City. McPherson expressed his excitement to return, saying that he remembers liking Madison. Being on tour with Ben Rector in general has been an exciting experience for the band.
“We’re really stoked to be playing for [Ben Rector’s] fans; they love him a lot, and they’re pretty open to us which has been really nice,” McPherson said.
