Provoker lets the spirits guide the sound

The LA-based trio are a synth-soaked pop labyrinth with albums that tote expressive conceptual DNA and narratives. But it's an innateness that allows them to be created. No pin boards of string, or production meetings - just green rooms on tour, practice spaces, and exchanged emails.

With no musical study, Provoker runs exclusively on instinct. Initially conceived as a project by Jonathan Lopez, the producer had ambitions of film scores, composing his own for fictional horror films. After meeting R&B vocalist Christian Crow Petty at a film screening, Provoker came to life.

With bassist Wil Palacios joining their ranks in 2018, the lineup was complete. Their debut album Body Jumper came in 2021 on YEAR0001 records – home to Yung Lean and Bladee – where they firmly established an MO of expansive, soundtrack-worthy synths. Followed by 2023's Demon Compass, they fully embraced the slick, narrative-laden hallways they inhabited.

There's an underlying darkness that Provoker have attached to them. They've already minted two paranormal-toned titles, and their third album, Mausoleum, proves to be a grand title for an equally grand outing from Provoker, as well as a place for its fictional inhabitants to coalesce in their resting place.

Mausoleum's beginnings, subconsciously anyway, reflect Crow Petty's childhood. His parents were very spiritual. While having no religious attachments, they delved into the search for a higher power, particularly during a rough patch they were going through.

"I remember my dad came into my room, and he was showing me this spirit entering his body, like he would let the Spirit take his body and then contour his face, all crazy...showing me that the Spirit took control of him," Crow Petty tells me. "They were also trying to teach me spirit writing...I don't know that was a weird time," he pauses. "I'm super skeptical about it. Even when I was a kid and I was doing the ghost writing stuff, I would ask it questions, and then I would let it take control of my hand, and it would write some stupid question, like, Am I gonna have money or something when I'm older? And then the ghost would say, Yes. I was thinking, like, Man, this is bullshit. I'm just writing this myself, but with bad handwriting, but I still kind of believed it."

While a dubious set of circumstances, there's no denying the thread that runs concurrently between his delving into fantastical and spirituality throughout his creativity. The spirit writing parallels the idea of storytelling, where he channels an idea, living in a fictional world :"They're not super personal," he explains. Although he is consciously aware of the subconsciously planted seeds, these crazy, fantastical stories are the heart of Provoker's world-building: "Like, say, I'm feeling like regretful of something, and that'll come out in a song about some guy preserving his wife or something after she's dead, and keeping her body, that translates to wanting to hold on to something."

How these tales come to light is less plot planning and more divine intervention. If an image comes into Crow Petty's head, he'll follow it to its end, be it grisly or down a darkened metaphorical alley. "I'm never thinking of how the songs would work together in an album. I'm just trying to write stories," he says. "A random image will come into my head, or whatever, writing a song, and then I'll just write a song about it." Piecing these ideas together is where the albums then find their body building, and the most organised aspect, with a document lining up the themes to bring them all together.

The bulk of the album was written while Crow Petty was living up in Lopez’s attic. It was here he found the spiritual, ghostly element coming to fruition. "I would walk around up there, and I'd imagine his roommates would hear like little creeks in the ceiling. I would be singing up there, so you would hear me moaning or something. I just felt like a ghost up there," he tells me.

Putting Provoker projects together isn’t normally as wholly lived. Having been creating as a fully fleshed-out unit for almost a decade, they've become adept at knowing exactly what it is they need and want from their sessions. Lopez mentions it nonchalantly as being as easy as going into the studio, writing stuff, "And if we like it, we'll keep it, otherwise, shelve it," he shrugs. Compared to their early days discovering the extent of the band, they're now less precious about their craft. "We've gotten better about seeing what the song will be, and just faster in general," he explains.

For Crow Petty, he doesn't see it as being easy; he sees it as a puzzle. "Finding what's the catchiest thing I could sing on this thing? What's the catchiest possible way to write the song, what's the funniest concept or theme, or what's a good story to tell? It's always a challenge for me, but a fun challenge that's rewarding to me," he explains. "I think the process becomes easier, but we're still trying to come up with ideas of what to fill that formula with," Lopez adds.

This time around, they've invited more names into their maze of tricks. Most notably, Kenny Beats helmed some production. Resulting in a fuller, richer bodied sound, Lopez explains it simply: "We're essentially doing the exact same thing, but maybe through different lenses, with some friends. It's not terribly different."

Being in the same room with collaborators is no different to how they've always done things – it's all the name of giving Provoker a body. With the two still at the helm, they're markedly in control of everything, where instead of searching for external inspiration or a new way of doing things, they've found that people entrust in their vision and want to add their touches. "Obviously when other people are involved, it's going to sound a little different than when it's just me and Christian. And you can kind of see that on some of the songs on the songs on the album, like there's some songs that are just me and Christian and Kenny, but yeah, for the most part, I think it sounds like us, maybe just a little different," Lopez says.

Provoker are keenly aware that they have a unique relationship: they entrust each other and the process and this offers them the chance to let things just happen. It's why Mausoleum has been prepped and ready for the last couple of years – the pair do not stop. "Technically, I think we started writing these songs, like at the end of, or before, the last album came out,” Lopez explains. “These songs have been done for maybe two years or something. Even now we're still writing, but it's going to be for whatever's next. I think that's just how it goes," Lopez explains.

Their partnership has always been a good fit for the pair. Since their first meeting and putting his voice to Lopez's instrumentals, Crow Petty has found a more comfortable self. After his early career as an R&B singer, finding the right voice for the more cinematic, expansive, and immediate music Lopez crafted took a moment. He recalls wrestling with it when the band first started. "I was struggling with whether I wanted to sound like an R&B guy," he explains, "but it just wasn't matching in my head. I'd send John some ideas, and you'd be like, Oh, that's too much, or something. So we found it together. It's easy now I've found my voice, and I think John found his thing too, but I couldn't have done it without him."

The first song they made together ("Sex With My Ex") unlocked the subconscious and effortlessly driven potential of the pair. "Since then, I've just had a really good feeling about it," Crow Petty says. "And I think John has too. We dedicated all our time into it. It always felt like it could be something...I mean, it's not anything now, really, it's still very small, but it definitely feels like this is our main thing now, which is really cool," he smiles

Having put the graft in, and the reward of a budding catalogue of albums each as impressively immersive as they are welcoming, from their early DIY years honing and fine-tuning, to the release of their debut, which is where Lopez nods to the ball truly rolling, Crow Petty admits they were "Irresponsibly devoted to it," with a chuckle: "It's interesting to see where it's going. It's growing into something bigger than just, like Christian mentioned, us in our apartment writing songs by ourselves," Lopez explains. "It's interesting to see how big it's gotten, and talking to fans at shows and talking to producers that want to work with us, it's really flattering, and it motivates us to keep at it."

Ambitious without overthinking it, Crow Petty's prize lies in the work they release. Being able to put out all killer, no filler albums is something he aims for – and is in full belief they've continued to achieve. Calmly confident, it's hard to argue with such a body of work representative of two creative minds meeting in the middle – the storyteller and the composer. "I feel pretty proud of the fact that there isn't in my eyes. I know people have differing opinions on the songs or whatever, but I couldn't say I dislike any song that we've made, which is cool," he smiles.

As for Lopez, it's back to vibes. "I just want to keep writing albums, I don't really have an idea of what type of albums," he quietly muses. "I think we're just writing songs and putting them out." Overthinking is for chumps.