Premiere: PANES - Bones Without You (Actress 'Constellations on the Wall' remix)

PANES are a band from London comprised of two people, Tyson McVey and Shaun Savage. McVey is the group's vocalist and comes from a very musical family, while Savage is a bit more producer-y and is a member of the Hackney-based Flesh & Bone collective. Together, McVey and Savage write immaculate pop songs that take inspiration from UK soundsystem and pirate radio music, as well as classic pop, R&B, and rap.

Their debut EP came out last month on Brown Rice, a new sublabel of Smalltown Supersound who also put out Oscar's debut EP. One of the songs on that EP was called Bones Without You, which has now been given a complete overhaul by the shadiest of dudes, Actress. You can stream Actress' remix below and read a short Q&A with the band to get to know them.

Hello, PANES! Who are you and what do you do?

Shaun Savage: "Hello, we’re a boy and a girl from London via Bristol and Stockholm who make music together."

How long have you been making music together?

Shaun Savage: "Around a year ago was when started properly writing, I guess. We’ve known each other for a while from just being about, but it was only when we were both aware that each other was keen do something, and that we had an uncannily similar taste pallet, that we sat down and wrote some songs.  The process is actually really quick but keeps getting interrupted by my recording work and Tyson’s studies, so we’d like a bit more time on it really."

Tyson McVey: "It seems like it's been longer, because we're both impatient, I think. We actually started writing before we knew each other that well. It was sort of through the process that we figured out we were coming from similar places and aiming for the same thing. It was a successful experiment I guess. That's easy to forget but I think it's an important part of our 'sound' or whatever you want to call it."

What's the best show you've ever played?

Tyson McVey: "It's hard to say, we've only played a few so they're all important in a way so far. The first one was crazy and probably so far the best we've played because of the buzz. It was sort of magical even though that's a cheesy thing to say. But I'll never forget it. We've played two festivals so far: Field Day, and at Creamcake at Luzia at a May Day festival in Berlin, and both were really exciting. I think they opened our eyes to how we want the set to work."

Shaun Savage: "I enjoyed Field Day the other week a lot, 'cos it was a bigger stage and I think there’s a certain amount of ambition to be in and around those kind of events. But to be honest the first one is when I guess we thought, 'Yeah, we can properly do this', plus it was rammed with friends but also some people who’d heard our music and bothered to come, which I guess is the point of it all really. It was a good partisan room."

Tyson, it goes without saying that you're part of a very musical upbringing. What's your first memory of music-making?

Tyson McVey: "My parents wrote everything on this little ancient Casio keyboard with auto-chord buttons. I remember them sitting on their bed humming and writing tunes together, which is pretty sweet now I think about it. Anyway, I used to try and copy them when they weren't home when I was little. I think I got banned for nearly breaking their precious toy, so I knocked that on the head. When I was a teenager, I used to write really cheesy R&B ballads a cappella in my bedroom. I'm really happy I didn't save any of those. The three year old auto-chords were probably better."

Shaun, you are part of the Flesh & Bone collective, but what exactly is the Flesh & Bone collective?

Shaun Savage: "We’re a group of friends who make music and audio-visual projects for ourselves and other people. We have two studios that we built in Hackney and we’ve been fortunate enough to work with a load of really really good artists there. It’s very much both a power in numbers type thing and a labour of love. I think that stuff about not going into business with friends has more to do with other peoples friends rather than your inability to achieve anything with your own."

So we've got this Actress remix here. I read that you handpick your choices of remixer. Did he do a good job?

Shaun Savage: "Yeah, we do. I think we get a certain excitement from seeing something reworked or re-directed at the dancefloor or into a completely different realm. I feel really blessed to have had his rework of Bones Without You 'cos I think Actress is incredibly talented, and for me he was absolutely top of the pile when we thought about who might do it. I’m just chuffed he wanted to."

Tyson McVey: "Yes. It's a big honour to have someone whose tunes mean a lot to you to remix one of yours. I think he's reworked into something totally his own rather than just remix it and that's what's great about it. I love it."

What are your plans, hopes, and dreams for the future?

Tyson McVey: "I'd like to work a lot on the live set. I think we've got a lot more experimenting to do. Playing a lot is definitely important, and something I really can't wait to do. I guess we'll grow the more we do it. I'd love to write as much as possible too, and try and keep things coming out. The dream is to be able to do this and nothing else. It might take a while though!"

Shaun Savage: "We’ve got a few shows coming up and I think we’re looking to put out a couple more bits towards the end of the summer. We’ll be writing a lot more, doing some remixes and I guess ultimately put out a long-player of some description, although that’s probably a while off yet."

Brown Rice released the 'PANES' EP on May 18th 2014 (buy).