“I want the band to mark a moment in time, to celebrate the being of something new; The light at the end of the tunnel,
the first step toward revealing something that needs to be
seen,” says singer-songwriter Casey McPherson of Alpha
Rev. Following the Triple A Radio success of New Morning
(2010), the band’s third album Bloom (March 19, 2013 on
Kirtland Records) is a set of personally transformative and
redemptive songs, born in the spirit of creative expansion,
and a mandate to blossom and grow.
“Alpha Rev is a collective of musicians,” explains McPherson,
“Once you join, you’re never really gone.” On Bloom, Alex Dun-
lap holds down the bass, while Brian Batch (violin, viola) and
Dave Wiley (cello) serve as the band’s string section. The play-
ers were joined in the studio by a longtime friend of McPher-
son's, Dwight Baker (Brandi Carlile, Bob Schneider); he oversaw
the project in his Austin studio. Producer Jamie Kenney (Marc Broussard) also worked with the band for
two songs on Bloom. “Austin is a great city
that takes care of musicians; it helps foster
ideas and creativity,” says McPherson.
Since his beginnings in Jackson, Texas,
where he was classically trained on piano,
McPherson has traveled the distance:
Working in a recording studio by age 16, at
17 he was touring overseas as a keyboard
player; at 19 he formed Endochine, its
name translating from its Latin and Greek
roots as “to explode from within.” Turning
once again to ancient alphabets for his band’s handle, “Alpha Rev is a combination of the Greek word
for the beginning, and the incredible Latin prefix rev, as in re-
volve, revolt, reveal,” he says. The band’s Hollywood Records
debut, New Morning (produced by David Kahne) rose to #3 on
the Triple A chart, reaching an audience 40 million listeners-
strong. The title song and “Phoenix Burn” also entered the charts.
Yet while scaling his own dreams, McPherson lost both his fa-
ther and brother to suicide. Forming in 2005, Alpha Rev, became
a vehicle to grapple with the outpouring of grief that results from
losses of that magnitude. Today, McPherson helps others who've
lost family to depression and suicide as a volunteer spokesper-
son for the National Institute of Mental Health organization,
Mental Health America of Texas [http://mhatexas.org].
“Music changes people,”says McPherson. “We’re trying to find
happiness in music as opposed to self-destruction,” he says. “It’s
my desire, and has always been to be a part of our group, that we
make each other better musicians, we make each other better
men, we challenge each other, we fight and we forgive. Every-
body in the band has really adopted that ideal,” says McPherson.
“Alpha Rev is more than a band name---it’s a motto.”