Introducing the darkwave world of GIVERNY and his new single, Plotholes

Sydney-based artist GIVERNY has recently expanded his musical portfolio with the release of Plotholes, a nice slice of dramatic pop we're gonna lovingly coin "darkwave". He's an exciting young artist with some cool ideas, and this is his first solely electronically-produced single. It'll lead in to some new shows and new live formats, which you can read up on further below in a short Q&A, after you've tucked into Plotholes.

Tell us about about yourself?

I grew up in a country town and always felt quite isolated, I remember watching recorded cassette tapes of Rage after school and discovering Nirvana’s Lithium. That was the first real connection I had with music and I knew that I wanted to write songs. Playing in bands and performing were the only real social interactions I had and I ended up learning how to relate to people this way. In early 2016 I released my first three tracks under GIVERNY with an EP called Liabilities. Since then I’ve been writing singles and playing solo performances supporting some unbelievable Australian acts such as Oliver Tank, Nocturnal Tapes, BATTS, Electric Zebra and many more. A month ago I expanded my solo performance into a 3x piece band.

What kinda tunes we talkin’?

I’ve heard some pretty funny ways people have described it, my favourite being "Dark Futuristic 80s" but if I had to settle on one it would probably be dark pop – ambient futuristic pads, raw programmed drums that are rough around the edges, ugly guitars soaked in reverb and like any pop song – as many vocal hooks as I can. I’m trying to set the groundwork of writing all types of music the same way bands like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and New Order do where they can release a rock single one week then two years later release a solely electronic album.

Production/writing process:

All songs are written and recorded in my bedroom studio then kinda sat on for a month of two so I can nit-pick each sound I want. I usually start off with an ambient pad or two made by a Roland Juno 60 plugin (by TAL) then throw a ton of delay and reverb on it. I’ll add guitar in a similar fashion and build an atmosphere then watch the rest grow from there.

I usually end up with something ridiculous like a 7-minute song and work my way cutting it down to 3-and-a-half minutes. Some times I’ll cut it down and it's just reverb and delay and I’ll realise "there isn’t much of a song here at all". I’ll then reach out to David McCann (Sydney Techno DJ) for a polish on drums and percussion and give him the messiest Ableton live set he’s ever seen. I call it organised mess but apparently its just mess.

Can you tell us about your new single, Plotholes?

Plotholes is my first solely electronic single that I wrote about the end of the world. I really wanted to recreate something similar to Dead or Alive’s You Spin Me Round, with programmed drums, in your face leads and at a decent uplifting pace. I also wanted to add a dark flair, as I feel Dark Pop is interesting to me as it’s so contradictory to itself.

I ended up writing vocals that gave me chills and made me question where I stand in the grand scheme of things, that things could change any minute, that I could end up moving slowly down the food chain. It would probably suck, but hey the mystery of it all is quite exciting.

Any shows coming up?

I’ll be playing in January with a full band alongside WAWAWOW at The Lady Hampshire for a Midnight Lady performance (Starts at Midnight).

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

Winding down a bit to have a strong start to 2018, where more singles will continue to come and more performances in NSW and maybe elsewhere…

Where can we hear more of your music?

Soundcloud, Spotify.

Follow GIVERNY: FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM