From a chaotic stage scramble to a packed room that couldn’t fit everyone in, PAVE’s Takedown debut was everything they needed it to be. On the back of new single If It Hurts, Alanya and Kevin talk ambiguity, working with Jon Cass, and why the heaviest stuff they’ve ever written is just around the corner.
Words & photo by Alia Thomas | April 11, 2026
This is your first time at Takedown Festival. What are your thoughts on the festival so far?
Alanya: It’s been a lot of fun We kind of arrived and then we had about five minutes to get on the stage so we were running around the building trying to find where everything was, including our stage!
Kevin: Well, me and Ben were there.
A: Me and Meg were like running around
K: I was there trying to find us and it was like a maze in this building. Everything’s everywhere. I think you came up here trying to find us.
A: Yeah, I was looking around here like where’s the crowd haha, but yeah, so far so good. We saw Lastelle just after our set as well which were really good. We’re looking forward to the rest of the day.
You’ve already played your set here today. What was the crowd reaction like for your first time here?
A: Really good, I think whenever you play a festival especially for the first time you’re never sure what to expect and it’s always like, is there going to be anyone there?
K: We’ve not played Portsmouth before, so we didn’t know what to expect.
A: But it was busy, it was packed, and apparently people were queuing at the doors, couldn’t get in. So we’ll take that!
Your latest single, If It Hurts, was released last week. What was the moment or feeling that sparked inspiration for writing the song?
K: It was just a time that we were in, in our lives. We kind of sparked the inspiration for the concept behind the song. Musically it was just inspired by a lot of bands we were listening to at the time like Fontaine’s DC, and we were listening to a lot of pop music. Kind of a little bit of a step back from the heavier side of things, but also kind of keeping our DNA in it Keeping the guitar and the heavier sound. So that was the inspiration there, and the concept behind it was just how we were feeling.
A: Yeah, I think we were kind of going through a phase of playing around with new sounds again and that’s where the pop came into it. Obviously when you wrote the music it was very Fontaine’s DC. I’m inspired by a lot of pop, so we kind of brought a pop melody to it, and then lyrically, It could relate to relationships, it could relate to the music industry. Just any sort of competitive field where you feel like you’re constantly having to change who you are to sort of fit in and be accepted. So it’s like you can try all you want to become sort of who you think you should be, but it’s just never going to be quite enough sometimes. So yeah It reads as a love song but…
K: It’s very ambiguous.
What’s it been like playing this live? Particularly with this show being one of the first since its release.
A: Today was the first time we’ve played it live since it’s been released. We played it on tour last week but it was an unreleased track so obviously it was really fun watching the crowd pretend to know the lyrics. Maybe they knew the chorus from the snippets online but today was the first time it’s been out and we got to play it.
K: We’re getting a good response, streaming-wise and YouTube-wise. Views, fans reacting to it and comments. Playing it live was a lot of fun because it’s a slower song compared to the energy in the set, but we still got a great response from it. It’s still a hit in a way. It doesn’t feel like a lull. It doesn’t feel like we’ve slowed things down It kind of still has its own emotion.
A: And you can tell when the crowd think that a song is going to be softer. As soon as that chorus comes in it’s like they’re back, so I enjoy that chorus a lot.
You released your debut EP back in 2024, and over the last year you’ve dropped a few singles including If It Hurts. Are we expecting an album on the way?
A: We’d love to do another album. Right now we’re very much in single phases.
K: We’re getting there. It’s more we’re trying to wait until we’ve got conceptually something there, and a body of work and songs that relate to each other. At the moment everything we’re writing is quite single-based and it’s quite isolated to each other, so just releasing them as singles. I think if we do another EP we’d want it to be like the last one where there’s a story, there’s a concept, there’s a message.
It feels there’s a clear evolution sonically from your EP to what we’re hearing now from these singles, but still in keeping with your earlier sounds. Was this planned or was it a natural progression that evolved over time?
A: I think it’s a mixture. Naturally it’s evolved because we’ve been developing as artists, as musicians. Finding our feet and our purpose as a band in the scene, but also we always set out to write something different every time we write a new song, to keep it interesting for us, for the crowd. We love putting a different sound out with every song, and not pigeonholing ourselves. We never want to be a metal band or a rock band. With every song we’re open to becoming a totally different genre of band And I think that’s important Especially at this stage in our career To just have fun.
K: It just goes by what we’re influenced by. We listen to everything, and if we get inspired by one thing we kind of like to do it. If we’re inspired by a certain type of band or genre we want to do that genre and band. Just at the moment we’re listening to a lot of heavy stuff so we’ve kind of progressed that way, but I’ve also pulled back a bit with If It Hurts. I guess we are literally just filtering what we hear. We’re just regurgitating it. We’re just music fans and music performers, so this is just what inspires us.
What has it been like working with Jon Cass on these last few records?
A: We love John Cass, John does all our production for live as well, so all those little intros, the little drum and bass day track that happens before Into The Ether… He did that, but he’s so much fun to work with. He was sort of the first songwriting producer that we worked with, so we learnt a lot from him, and he gave us a lot of insight and knowledge, especially the synth side of things because we’ve got the ideas in our heads but the sounds, we don’t know how to find these sounds but John Cass does.
K: We just want something like this, and he’d be like, “yeah I know exactly what you mean mate leave it with me”. John’s great.
If someone watches your set today and only remembers one thing about PAVE, what do you want it to be?
A: For me, I’d want them to leave saying that it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of community within the feeling. We always try and get everyone as involved as possible and we do it in different ways, whether that’s getting in a mosh pit or putting their arms in the air, singing along. Not everyone wants to get rowdy. Not everyone wants to put their arms up. Not everyone wants to sing, but maybe there’s something a little bit different for everyone, so finding a way to just bring everyone involved and make them feel part of our little world for 30 minutes.
K: Music is like an expression and obviously we want to connect with people. For us, music has helped us through tough times and then obviously what we’re expressing through what we make and produce with our songwriting, we obviously would want them to take it away. I think if they can feel something from what we’ve done today, then that’s a good thing.
A: Actually, when we were doing If It Hurts Today I saw someone in the crowd, they had their eyes shut and they were just really vibing to it and I really hope that person was connected right now, and feeling it. Feeling the spirit.
Who are you listening to right now?
K: A lot of Polaris for me at the moment Yeah, I’m a big fan of Polaris at the moment And Like I say, Polaris, Bad Omens is always fun.
A: I’m into a lot of pop music And right now I’m into a lot of hyper-pop So I’m listening to a lot of Slater and Cobra, and I think that does come into our sound a lot, you know. Those pop melodies. So I’ve been kind of immersing myself in a new pop world a little bit, and of course we’ve got people like Poppy, Architects… We’ve got all them on repeat.
K: For me, I literally just would listen to the same thing. So if you catch me in a certain phase, it’s just like the same three, four songs on repeat, and at the moment, my brain is just saying Polaris and I’m trying to think of other stuff but it’s just like, no, because I’m just brainwashing myself with it.
What’s next for the band? What can we expect in the upcoming year?
A: So we’ve got a few more shows. We’re playing Leeds and Manchester, and we are back in Bristol with Mallavora and Alt Black Era, so we’re super excited for those shows. They’re going to be really good, and we’ve just been in the studio with Dan Weller who we had the best time working with, so we’ve got some new music coming, and it’s a new sound again. It’s the heaviest stuff that we’ve done so far. So it’s an exciting time, and we’ve got some good tunes coming out that we genuinely are really proud of. So yeah, a lot of new music!
Who in the band is most likely to mess something up on stage?
A: Probably you Kevin haha.
K: Just today, If you saw the set, what happened was I was messing about with it at home and I had the wrong tuning on my guitar.
A: And it’s always that song, may I add haha. There’s always something with that song. It’s the tuning, or he just wasn’t quite ready, or we couldn’t hear the click,
K: We couldn’t hear the click, we changed it. It was the tuning that was off today, so I think it’s me, I know. But you beat lyrics as well.
A: Yeah, I’ve done real well though recently. I changed the lyrics today, I felt spontaneous haha.
K: Okay you’re just making it up.
A: As soon as my voice is messed up, we look at each other and I’m like…
K: I can see the wheels in your head.
A: How do I make this make sense now, I said the wrong thing, I know I’m going to deceive you, I’m like, I hope no one in this crowd knows who we are so no one knows that I did that haha.
If PAVE was a group chat, what would it be called?
A: If it was a group chat Oh my goodness
K: Broke boys haha
Dream festival to play?
A: We got to do 2000Trees last year which was one of the dream festivals. I think for me, I’d love to do Reading and Leeds, just because it’s the first festival that we ever went to, so that would be a full circle moment.
K: It’s a cliche one but I would like Glastonbury. I’ve never been. I don’t think I’d ever be able to get there as a fan so this is the only option haha. The only way to get there is to play.
A: We’ll put Download too. We’ll take that.
K: Blaringly obvious.
If It Hurts is out now via UPGRADE
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