Student artist profile: Erinn Reville finds her voice

Erinn Reville, a senior at Kennett High School, is the daughter of singer Holly Reville and sister of theater regular Shannon Reville. She has appeared in Arts in Motion’s “Disco Inferno” and “Guys and Dolls.” She will be joining Rafe Matregrano as the opening act for The Mild Revolution at The Starving Artist in Keene March 2. For more information visit thestarvingartistcollective.com and themildrevolution.tumblr.com.

You grew up in a musical household, what was that like?

Well, as a child, I’ve always liked to sleep a lot and my mother would always wake me up in the morning with music and so I sort of grew accustomed to that at a young age of always being around music. She was in a band, so I was around that a lot as well and that kind of formed how I am today with how I perform I think.

When did you first start singing?

I sang ever since I was a baby actually. I used to go in the shower with my mom and just sing notes. I was kind of shy with it when I was younger. Then I just blossomed and didn’t mind other people listening to me.

What was your first public performance?

Well, I guess in a play, “Guys and Dolls” and I was in “Disco Inferno.” In those I just sang along with others who had done plays a lot more and that opened me up a little more. My first time just singing alone was in “Guys and Dolls.” I had a solo part, which was interesting to sing.

Having an older sister that also performs, did you feel any pressure following in her footsteps?

Sometimes it was like that because everyone was like “Oh, Shannon is such a great singer. Shannon performers and she does so well.” I wanted to be like her, but then I realized that we are two different people. We both flourish in what we do and like to do what we do in different categories, so I think I came to terms with the fact that we are different in the things that we do. We just complement each other for what we do.

How long have you been performing with Rafe?

I’ve known Rafe since I was in seventh grade. I always looked up to him. He always brought around a guitar. We were friends, but we really didn’t sing together. Over the past probably year or two we’ve been getting together to sing a little bit, but it has been a lot more just this year getting together and performing. We write our songs together, too. That’s nice. Stay up all night.

How did this performance at Keene come about?

Over the summer I started working at Pac Sun and I met a friend of mine, John Remmetter, and he went to Kingswood. He introduced me to this band that he knows personally, which is The Mild Revolution. I did a cover of one of their songs with Rafe not knowing if they'd see it or not. The lead singer, Morgan Little, contacted me and we’ve been in contact now for a few months and he was like “Hey, I want you guys to come open for us. Just come down and we’ll make sure you get a 45 minute set.” So, Rafe and I are just pumping songs out just making sure we have enough to perform with.

Would that be a mix of originals and covers or is it all originals?

We are trying to hope for more originals than covers. We don’t want to just be that band that shows up and just plays other people’s songs. We will play one or two covers, ones that we like to make our own, like really unique, nothing that just sounds the same because we want everything to sound like us.

What would you say your influences are in terms of music and songwriting styles?

We really like The Civil Wars. They have that sound that we are going for of more like folky, airy, but at the same time dramatic, so I’d say that one is a pretty big influence. The Deer Hunter, we have been doing a lot of covers of those lately, which has really helped as a lot with our song writing at least because we have this little image going on.

What are your plans after high school?

I still want to perform, but I want to be a surgeon some day, so keeping everything that is performance-wise on the side, but keeping the dream in mind as well. That’s my goal in the end, but I am always going to have time to sing and if something comes up that way, matters well go for that, too.

Do you have any final thoughts of why you perform and what it brings to you and your life?

Performing for me is something that is almost indescribable in the fact that I just get to let out so much and express myself in a way that could be interpreted differently from other people like some people might take a lyric that I sing as something that is sad, while another person will be like “Wow, that is really inspirational.” That’s kind of what I go for. I don’t want just one meaning to a song or I don’t want just one meaning to what I say on the stage. It is how I feel and it doesn’t really matter who is watching either because I know that in the end I am making myself happy by doing it.