PREMIERE: Plovers - Positive Reinforcement
Explosive, intelligent and rammed full of an overflowing sense of urgency, Positive Reinforcement, is the debut EP of Melbourne band Plovers that you need to hear.
Positive Reinforcement’s opening song, Not Australian, grabs its listener in a truly visceral introduction. Vitriolic of the treatment of people of colour in our country and written from the perspective of a new Australian’s day to day existence in the face of Australia’s not so casual racism. Not Australian is lashed with potent, powerful song writing and delivered in the same way. The perfect opener to a brilliant release from Plovers.
Hard to pin a sound on, Plovers, jump between influences. Spacious guitars, driving bass and ever present, thumping drums create a platform from which explosive front-person Jared Chappell launches an audible onslaught. The soundscape created is challenging, ever interesting but ultimately brilliant.
Asked of the writing process behind Positive Reinforcement Chappell states:
I usually tend to write by taking a narrow part of myself and caricaturing it until it’s an identity of its own, and while these songs weren’t deliberately written with an overall theme in mind, most of the songs concern men struggling with the expectations of their own masculinity. There are so many toxic behaviours that our society accepts as being innately male that are absorbed and internalised from an early age, and while exploring that definitely doesn’t create characters that are always likeable or even defendable, I guess I just gravitate toward exploring the negative emotion and damaging behaviour that men experience when they’re struggling with their mental health but are too afraid to properly self-reflect or challenge the way they treat themselves. In a cynical way, that’s where the title of the EP comes from – the way that society drills behaviour into your subconscious before you’re old enough to recognise it.
Thematically flushed with potency to match it’s musicality, Positive Reinforcement, is essential listening.
If you’re in Melbourne be sure to catch the Positive Reinforcement’s Launch Friday 9 November at the Grace Darling.
Otherwise follow along with all things Plovers right here.
