The sprawling story of Calva Louise, the band that found each other from opposite corners of the world - whose combined influences and experiences created a myriad of captivating threads entwined into their existence. Metal, punk, electronica and art rock weave through grandiose narratives and cinematic storytelling with a mindblowing visual delivery - Welcome to the Calva Louise Universe.

You can trace the Calva Louise project — the ‘origin’ story, if you will — all the way back to ten-year-old Jess Allanic drawing in her home in Guarenas, in the outsides of Caracas, Venezuela, where the genesis of the idea for her story about a hidden world intertwined with our world, began.

"Growing up as a rock fan, I dyed my hair black and they called me 'the black stain' at school" she recalls, because during the most disastrous economic and social crisis in Venezuela, the alternative scene was disappearing.
 
"I convinced my parents that I needed to leave the country”, Jess says. "We didn't have too much there, so nothing to lose. At that time, we moved from Guarenas to Caracas, where we lived on the upper floor of a shared house, but I didn't have a real room. My mom built a bedroom for me by splitting the living room (which had very large windows), with two thin drywall panels that I painted with a landscape of the story I was creating.

My mom always made me feel like everything I wanted to do was possible," Allanic explains, “I really wanted to come to the UK since I was 12 years old, so I stared lo learn English reading books before asking to be transferred to a school in Normandy which is close to England."

So about to turn 16, and with the support of her parents, she made the courageous decision to move more than 7,500 Km from Caracas to Rouen in France, where waiting for her parents to restart a new life together, she was to live in a convent run by nuns beside her new school in Rouen.

Settling into the convent, she was the youngest of the students and built herself into a community of young women who mostly studied medicine. Allanic continued to pursue music. "I was into a System of a Down a lot. I remember trying to play an unplugged electric guitar along to their songs in my room, and a nun would knock on my door and say 'stop making noise'" Jess laughs. Next door to the convent was her new school, built in the 1600s.

"I was focused on the idea of being in a band" explains Alizon, "I taught myself the guitar when I was 13 after learning cello at the Conservatory of Rouen since I was 6 years old. At 16 I felt ready to start to look for a band, and that’s exactly when Jess arrived in my class at our school (which Jess rightly called “Hogwarts”).

Before long Jess and Alizon formed a band and began playing in rock band contests at their school (and around France driven by Jess’ parents). But they were eventually able to start making the transitional trips to the UK when Alizon got his driving licence and his dad’s Renault Twingo. Jess continues: “My plan was always to go to Britain, where the bands I listened to and the experiences I wanted to live were, even though Alizon didn’t speak English and I didn’t too well either, we had a vision and we pursued it”.

As they didn't know anyone in the UK, they took every experience presented to them - and the consequences that came with them. "We stopped in every city, every little place where we saw a pub and gave them a demo CD" Jess remembers.

Starting as a duo they would perform at every venue that they could. By their early 20s, they regularly came to the UK and encountered more than their fair share of troubles - robbed, scammed and taken advantage of. Alizon learned English from working as a freelance for a furniture fitting company. "I had to call people every day to make appointments and I was terrified because I couldn't speak English at all and I slowly learned using a translation on my phone" he recalls.

They had nowhere to live. They stayed in garages, on sofas, and with "friends of friends". They stayed in £10 motels that were sometimes surrounded by rats. Jess recalls, "we slept in weird places and met some very weird people”. But Allanic's goal was to come to London and make music, and Taho's dream was to form a band - this had happened... they had made it this far.

They were on a hunt for a drummer, and it was when they were performing at a venue in East London that they met Ben Parker, who grew up in New Zealand. Parker himself moved to the UK when he was 14 years old with his family, and after meeting the duo, they immediately built a captivating relationship. All three had moved to the UK from overseas and found each other.

Keeping with their run of luck, they had been robbed, but they refused to let this hold them back and took the situation as a sign to ask for an opportunity to record in a major studio through a friend who lived in Germany. Ben recalls "I had been in London for 12 years at this point and was ready to do something else, so I went to Berlin with them. Nothing really worked out from that session, but it made us stick together and develop a friendship for life".

Alizon honed his skills as a sound engineer. They started developing their live show and picked up support tours. It was through those experiences that they understood how the music industry works. "We would say yes to everything. Because every experience that we were offered, we wouldn't know if it was good or bad. But we would take the risk” Jess says.

They sofa-surfed and crisscrossed the country, playing shows everywhere, meeting amazing punk people that offered them somewhere to stay. They would often have to move at very short notice. "I had one suitcase and my guitar" Allanic says. "I needed to write music and when we got signed for the first time, we weren't ready to make an album”. They struggled to take hold of their musical identity but were steered away from being heavy, "Nobody wanted us to scream, we were told. Even though we were into bands like System of a Down and Muse. We went with it because, at the time, it was like, what are we going to do?".

"So our new album is called The Edge of the Abyss because that's how we lived. One misstep and everything could fall apart" Jess says. "We were dealt cards that could be way worse, so we're grateful for those”.

I emigrated twice, so I've already had a culture shock twice, but this hurts a little less because this is where I want to be. I have nowhere to go back to" she says. But finally they've found their home near Blackpool and developed a fiercely independent D.I.Y. spirit. "We need to do it ourselves because we don’t have any money to pay for it”. The band developed the skills, reputation and confidence to take their destiny into their own hands and start taking control of their lives.

The band builds their own stage set up - Allanic's sliding keyboard stand, built by Taho, went viral on TikTok several times - and Allanic taught herself VFX and video editing, to create their stunning cinematic sci-fi videos, such as Third Class Citizen, Over The Threshold, Under The Skin and WTF.

They built a formidable reputation on the live circuit, with sold-out shows across the UK, a headline performance on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading and Leeds festival in 2021, along with tours with the likes of Albert Hammond Jr, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Razorlight, Boston Manor, Slothrust, and electrifying  performances at Riot Fest (US) and SXSW (US).

They previously released the studio albums Rhinoceros (2019) and Euphoric (2021). However, it was their breakout mixtape, Over the Threshold (2023), which caught the attention of the wider world and Pendulum's Gareth McGrillen, who sent them a message via their Instagram profile.

Over The Threshold was where Jess' creativity truly exploded, showing the conflict between the two sides within the human experience. From the Traveller side, there is an exhausting fight like a Third Class Citizen to reach the energetic source of their willpower, and from the Double side, there is a craving to monopolise the energy for itself. The story plays out through an incredible cinematic sci-fi experience in the videos for Feast Is Over, Oportunista, Square One, and Over The Threshold.

In 2024 they announced that they had signed with Mascot Records, which became a big year for the band. They went on a co-headline tour in the US with Vukovi and played festival slots at Welcome to Rockville, So What? and Sonic Temple. They pulled off phenomenal performances at Download Festival (UK), 2000Trees (UK) and a breathtaking UK headline tour. They played Shiprocked (US) in January 2025 and went out on a European Tour with Bloodywood in February and March.

"Our willpower never dies, that's the thing. It's been hard learning every day but look at the friendship we have. We say that it’s like the path of the warrior".  Allanic exclaims. 

When McGrillen invited the band to dinner and to visit Metropolis Studio in London, a friendship blossomed. He wrote two songs with the band that would appear on the new record. And along with Allanic and electronic artist Mazare, the three of them produced The Edge of the Abyss. McGrillen has been there throughout the band's process. "The most amazing thing would be when I called Gareth to ask him for advice," Alizon recalls, "and he's about to go on stage with Pendulum and still takes the call to talk about gear".

The album continues with another chapter of the story told through each of the songs, where science fiction is sometimes tinged with thriller. The story revolves around the main character, Louise, who discovers a parallel world hidden from our perception, where each of us have a counterpart called "Double", the story that Jess began to develop in her room in Guarenas.
 
The album videos show different times and worlds where some characters have encounters with their doubles. WTF is the prequel of the previous singles: La Corriente (The Current in Spanish) and Under The Skin.

'The Edge of the Abyss' sees characters travelling between different dimensions, worlds with people who mysteriously resemble doubles of each one of us, like shadows that seem to stalk us but who in reality seek to communicate with us. Who are these beings? What do they want from us? How can we reach them?

The band have picked up support from BBC Radio 1, including spins on the Rock Show, Introducing Rock, Future Alternative, and Future Artists, playlisting at Kerrang! Radio and Primordial, as well as support at Metal Hammer, Rock Sound, Kerrang, and Revolver magazine who in November delved into their multiple-worlds-spanning story.

The 10-year-old girl in Guarenas, drawing the first paintings of her sci-fi story was linked by destiny with the young French child who was dreaming of forming a band and then, years later had the chance to meet the New Zealander in London, that had picked up the sticks also aged 10, with the plan to be a great musician - they finally have found their way and their home together. Calva Louise, the British multicultural band, started with a vision that they passionately continue to grow creating a fresh and unique experience with each release.

Calva Louise are Jess Allanic (Vocals/Guitar/Keyboard), Alizon Taho (Bass/Backing Vocals) and Ben Parker (Drums/Backing Vocals).