Memphis Music Feature: The PRVLG

How would you describe your music style?

Christian: The greatest thing to happen to music. 

Christopher: You’re dehydrated and you need that real cold, icy cold glass of ice water and you finally get it, and you go, “Ahhhh”. 

Christian: Sonically, we always say if Prince was from Memphis. Our music has a lot of elements that Prince originated…and then it just has our energy with that. If Prince had some Al Green in him or Memphis in him.

Is there a song of yours that’s particularly special? Why? 

Christian: We can highlight that on a current track that’s about to come out, our father played guitar on it. “Good Stuff” Nathaniel Underwood

What about Memphis inspires you creatively? 

Christian: The water is in our bodies and the air is in our lungs.

Christopher: The fact that everybody is cold as s***. If you want to fit in and be apart, you’ve got to be good too. You can’t be soft. You can’t be a scrub….Everybody in Memphis is very creative, everybody can sing. 

Christian:  Respectfully, I’ve gotten fired from gigs, because I was a scrub. But we’re not scrubs...Every major artist has someone from Memphis in their band. We automatically get a hell of a lot of respect when people find out we’re from Memphis…Being from Memphis holds weight everywhere. 

Why should people pay attention to Memphis music? Why should it not be overlooked?

Christopher: It’ll make you feel things.  

Christian: Okay, it’s being overlooked, but Glo is sampling old Memphis…People are still sampling old Memphis stuff. So it’s still here, even today.

Christopher: I don’t want to even say it’s being overlooked. I feel like just a different genre of Memphis music is being highlighted more than the soul.

Is there a story that changed you or a moment in time that moved the needle for you? 

Christopher: The first thing I would say is in 1998. Christmas Day. We were led up the stairs to the game room. On Christmas Day, I was presented with a drum set. A real one. Not a toy. And Christian was presented with a guitar. And that pretty much put us in this direction. We didn’t know to what capacity it was going to put us in this direction, but it put us in this direction. Just being born from our father, too, because our father played guitar and bass. 

Christian: Getting fired from gigs in Memphis was a game changer. That made me not wanna suck no more. 

What’re your goals and purpose for your music? What motivates you? 

Christopher:  We’ve come to save the day. Technology has made it to where music is so accessible that people are not putting the work in anymore. It sounds like it, and it looks like it, and it feels like it. And we are playing instruments, and making ‘putting the work in’ cool again. We are making “being the channel” cool again in the wake of Midi Chord Packs, AI, and Suna. In the wake of all of that, there’s us. Analog and old school…Where we are musically as far as projects and songwriting, this is the era of the Lover Girl. Yearning, we’re putting that back in the mix. 

Christian: I’ve literally heard women say “I feel like men don’t like women no more’...We are making music for [women]. We feel like there is a void of music for women. 

Lastly, fill in this blank. “You haven’t been to Memphis if you haven’t..”

Christian: You have not been to Memphis if you have not listened to The PRVLG…if you don’t know what “mane” means…the BBQ. They be saying [in LA] they eat BBQ and we’re like “Are you sure?”

Christopher: You ain’t been to Memphis if you ain’t been to BB King’s…had you a Gibson’s Donut. You ain’t been to Memphis if you ain’t been clowned for doing something good before.