Every now and then, I come across an artist and find myself wondering how on earth I’ve managed to miss them. Revelle27 was one of those discoveries. What started as a scroll through social media turned into a rabbit hole of connections. Laurie Revell grew up in Kettering, practically on my doorstep. He’d played Music Barn Festival a few years ago. And then came the revelation that he was one half of Just Kiddin, the dance music duo whose records had travelled far beyond Northamptonshire. But it was discovering his solo music that really stopped me. His album REVELATIONS was approaching its first anniversary, and after listening, I was even more intrigued by the person behind the music. I wanted to get to know Laurie, understand his journey and what had brought him to where he is today.
Long before Revelle27, Laurie was a relatively shy kid growing up in Northampton, surrounded by music. His dad had booked bands while at university in the seventies and took him to Jethro Tull concerts, where Laurie became fascinated by percussion. His mum was a rocker too, complete with leather jacket and Harley-Davidson.
When the family moved to Kettering at the age of ten, Laurie found friends who shared his obsession. Although he wasn’t allowed to study music at A-level, that didn’t stop the band practices, constant swapping of discoveries and hours spent playing drums.
“Growing up around people that were also excited about music inspired me to be a part of that on a bigger scale,” he remembers.
Initially drawn to nu-metal and heavier sounds, Laurie found himself equally fascinated by electronic music after discovering Aphex Twin. The contrast of harshness and beauty, darkness and playfulness, felt familiar, even if the way those sounds were created was completely mysterious.
“I was always drawn to energy,” he explains. “When I began making electronic music the only thing I really understood was rhythm. Everything else around that was like playing a game, trying things out and throwing things around until it made any kind of sense.”
That curiosity eventually led to Just Kiddin, the duo Laurie formed with his friend Lewis Thompson. Their early studio sessions were less about plotting a career and more about two mates spending time together making music.
“We just loved it. We were really good friends so ‘studio sessions’ were just how we hung out.”
After putting together around ten tracks, Lewis sent them to labels. Eight were signed, forming their first two EPs. Before long, the pair were playing shows across Europe and eventually America.
“It was pretty surreal,” Laurie admits.
Those years brought opportunities neither could have predicted, alongside a considerable education in the realities of the industry. Laurie describes it as a wild place to navigate, particularly when it comes to protecting yourself and understanding the business behind the music.
Creatively, though, he was still experimenting. Working within a duo had given him incredible experiences, but there were ideas and emotions he wanted to explore independently.
“Doing something solo as a producer really does open things up. That allowed me to express myself in a much more personal way that wouldn’t have been possible as a duo.”
Revelle27 first emerged in 2020, initially as a way to put his own name to collaborations. Originally releasing as Revelle, he added the 27 after a German singer with the same name kindly asked him to make an adjustment.
At the time, it was simply another creative outlet. Laurie couldn’t have known how important it would eventually become.
Life changed profoundly when he stepped away from music while caring for his mum, who later passed away. The experience altered not only his relationship with creativity, but his understanding of what music could offer.
“I’ve always been moved by the power of art,” he tells me. “And the more you’ve been through in life, the more susceptible I think you are to it. The more meaning you will find in it.”
He had already been working on music that would become REVELATIONS for around a year before losing his mum. Without consciously setting out to make a concept album, he had begun exploring his thoughts and emotions through the tracks.
“Without any real planning or intention, I was beginning to tell the story.”
What followed was an album that holds grief, love, vulnerability and hope together through electronic music. And perhaps one of the most moving parts of Laurie’s story is understanding why he chose dance music to express something so deeply personal.
“Dance music gave my mum joy, energy, a distraction from her pain,” he explains. “There’s something therapeutic about the repetitive groove and emotional journey.”
For Laurie, grief was never going to fit neatly into sombre melodies or a single emotional state.
“Grief isn’t a strictly sombre experience, it’s a clash of many intense feelings. I wanted to create something where I was able to express all my emotions, but also feel energised or elevated.”
It’s something I found myself thinking about while listening to REVELATIONS. Dance music has this extraordinary ability to hold completely different feelings at once. A track can make you want to move while simultaneously bringing something deeply emotional to the surface. Laurie’s music seems to understand that those feelings don’t have to contradict one another.
But perhaps the most unexpected part of creating REVELATIONS came after sharing it.
The album has now been out for a year, and the songs that began as a way for Laurie to process his own experiences have gradually taken on meaning for other people. Listeners have reached out with their own stories of grief, finding something familiar in music that was originally so personal.
“When you share anything you’ve been through with someone, if they’ve been through something similar it creates a really deep bond,” he says.
“I never thought I had any answers, but the fact that these songs created by pain and anguish now serve to help others navigate that is something pretty extraordinary.”
It was releasing Mother that first made Laurie recognise the wider potential of the project. What began as something he needed for himself was becoming something other people needed too.
“That’s really where my drive comes from now.”
That understanding sits at the centre of Dance Music Therapy, the label and wider concept Laurie is developing around emotionally resonant electronic music.
“The name helps to guide me in the right direction and keep me in tune with what I’m doing it for,” he explains. “It’s not about me, it’s more important than that.”
Alongside releasing music, he’s exploring how Dance Music Therapy might develop into an experience of its own.
For someone whose career has taken him around the world, Laurie also remains connected to the smaller community where it all began. He remembers Kettering as somewhere that made getting involved feel possible, whether through mutual friends, new nights or simply knowing somebody who knew the organiser.
“It didn’t feel like a big deal or a big risk to try new things or put on an event,” he says. “I think that’s a good mindset.”
Many of those early friendships remain, and there’s something rather lovely about that continuity. The kid discovering music with his mates in Kettering is still very much part of the producer making records today.
And speaking of records, there’s a particularly good reason to discover Revelle27 right now.
His new single Force of Love arrived yesterday, 21 October, through Dance Music Therapy, marking the latest step in a project that continues to grow beyond REVELATIONS.
Laurie isn’t looking to recreate the same album indefinitely. What making it taught him was the importance of being emotionally truthful, whatever direction the music takes next.
“It just feels more important when it’s true, when it’s real.”
And despite the many versions of his musical life, the feeling that keeps bringing him back hasn’t really changed.
“I still get the same buzz when I’m locked in the creative process as I did when I was sat behind the drums in my bedroom playing endlessly,” he says. “Creating music is an emotional process that I would be doing even if it was just for me.”
When I ask what he has learned about finding purpose again, particularly when life has pulled you away from something you love, his answer is wonderfully grounded. It starts with understanding what matters to you and accepting where your energy needs to go, rather than forcing everything to happen at once.
“The weeks where I’ve created something new that I’m excited about, the rest of life feels a bit lighter.”
I think that’s what has stayed with me most about Laurie’s story. Not simply that he found his way back to music after an incredibly difficult period, but that the very thing which helped him through it has become a way of reaching other people.
From a bedroom in Northamptonshire to dancefloors across the world, music has taken Laurie to places he could never have planned. But perhaps its most meaningful journey has been the one that brought him back to why he loved creating in the first place.
And now, through Revelle27, he’s making space for others to find something in it too.
Listen and follow Revelle27:
🎧 Click here to Stream Force of Love and explore more on Spotify
🔗 For socials and everything else, head to:
https://linktr.ee/Revelle27
