Rev Gusto prepares for the next phase

I last spoke with Rev Gusto in the spring of 2014, just as the band was getting ready to release its first vinyl — a 7-inch, put out by Sid Sowder under his Too Much Rock Singles Series umbrella. Back then, the band’s five members — lead singer and guitarist Jerry Frederick; his brother and bassist, Sam Frederick; drummer Quinn Hernandez; guitarist and trumpeter Shaun Crowley; and guitarist and keyboardist Peter Beatty, all between 20 and 24 years old — emanated a sort of wide-eyed elation about their place in the local music scene. Big things, they agreed, were coming soon for Rev Gusto.

About a month later, the band was scooped up by local label High Dive Records, and work on an album soon began.

Just over a year later, Rev Gusto is at last releasing Burnt Out Friends — which stays true to the low-fi, rough-hewn pop that the band developed in basement practice sessions five years ago. Ahead of the band’s album-release show Saturday, July 25, at Harling’s Upstairs, I spoke with Crowley about this milestone in Rev Gusto’s career.

The Pitch: What has being on a label been like for Rev Gusto?

Crowley: It’s been definitely a learning experience, to say the least. You definitely learn how long it takes to make a record when you do it through the real process instead of doing it on your own. You don’t think about all the details that a record label thinks of, and it’s nice to have them to guide you through everything.

Another thing is that, when we kind of started working on this record, we all moved into a house together. So there was a lot of pressure around that, and then there was having deadlines for when things needed to be done, and that was new for us. We’re a bunch of young dudes, so being on time is not always the easiest things for us. But we became very anxious with this record.

How do you mean?

In the earlier stages of living together, and especially when we just moved in, we wanted to get the record done as fast as we could. And there was definitely tension because everyone wanted it to be perfect, and you never got to get away from anyone because we lived together.

We realized that certain things were out of our control, and that really put us at ease — knowing that we were all on this ride together, and we all wanted the same things, and we have to all work together for this album to be successful. But it was also nice having everyone in the house when we wanted to get stuff done because I could just go to their room instead of call them.

Having the vinyl in hand now feels so great because it means the hard work of the last year and all the pressure of recording is finally over.

One of my favorite things about Rev Gusto is that you guys have a really approachable sound, and then there’s the occasional trumpet. It’s a very pleasant surprise on record.

Yeah! We get a little bored with guitars, to tell you the truth. We try to stay away from that redundant sound as much as we can. Honestly, though, one day at practice, Jerry asked me to play melody with trumpet in it — I used to play trumpet in high school — and it sounded great, and that’s something we wanted to revisit on this record. We really wanted to push ourselves to play new instruments and try new sounds.

When Rev Gusto first started, most of the band members couldn’t even drink. It’s rare that a band as young as you all were when you started has stayed together.

It’s weird how long it’s been. The biggest difference I can think of is how easy it’s gotten for us to write songs together. It used to take us a couple practices — Jerry would bring us lyrics and chords, and we’d have to take it through a couple nights — and now we can practice once every two weeks for 45 minutes and still get something done. Now, we don’t even have to think about how our music sounds when we’re onstage. Instead, we can think about the presentation versus what notes we’re hitting, and that’s helped us create a far more energetic live show.

Especially now, with this album, it finally feels like it might actually be paying off. It’s like a big breath out for everyone. We’ve accomplished a big goal, which was to get a full-length release out. And after the Harling’s show, we’ll go on a three-week tour with [local band] Scruffy & the Janitors. That’s going to be a thing for us, bringing our music to different cities.