Jess Allanic knew she wanted to be a musician from a young age. Growing up in Guarenas, on the outskirts of Caracas in Venezuela, her mum enchanted her with stories about rock legends.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me these amazing stories of going to see Queen<\/a>, Van Halen<\/a>, The Police, Guns N\u2019 Roses<\/a>\u2026 all these amazing bands who came out there to play,\u201d she says. \u201cI was 10 or 11 years old, and I would just study everything I could about it. At school I did a presentation about Black Sabbath<\/a>! I knew I wanted to move to the UK\u2026 that\u2019s where my heroes were from.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But Jess didn\u2019t move straight to the UK. First, she persuaded her parents to let her relocate to France when she was 16, and lived in a convent next to her new school. There, nuns would tell her off for making too much noise as she practised electric guitar.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n It was in France she met future Calva Louise bassist Alizon Taho. Her grand plan was still to move to the UK, although neither she nor Alizon could speak English. That wasn\u2019t going to hold them back, though.<\/p>\n \u201cI learned by watching English shows with subtitles,\u201d Jess remembers with a smile. \u201cI would put a book over the top to cover them and practice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI got a job for a furniture company,\u201d Alizon recalls. \u201cI had to phone people to make appointments, so I just learned a script.\u201d<\/p>\n The pair\u2019s shared love of music meant forming a band was almost inevitable. When Jess found out Alizon had been learning to play the cello since he was six, she was thrilled; it reminded her of the Jack Black movie School Of Rock.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018You play cello! Have you seen School Of Rock?! ‘Cello, you\u2019ve got a bass!\u2019\u201d she quotes.<\/p>\n Jess and Alizon eventually moved to the UK, and found their final co-conspirator in drummer Ben Parker, originally from New Zealand. Ben\u2019s dad had also raised him with a love for classic rock, much to the annoyance of his neighbours.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d drive them mad,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cI\u2019d just be hitting pots and pans in the garage. Stealing my grandma\u2019s cake tins and whacking them with spoons!\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The trio formed Calva Louise in 2016. Hailing from Venezuela, France and New Zealand, they\u2019re proving that music transcends national and cultural barriers. While their 2019 debut, Rhinoceros, sat more in the field of indie or alt rock, 2021 follow-up Euphoric added a spiky, dance element that\u2019s still apparent in their songs today. With 2023\u2019s Over The Threshold, they hit a more metallic note that they expanded on with 2025’s exceptional Edge Of The Abyss.<\/p>\n Their sound isn\u2019t the only thing that\u2019s evolved. Watch the stunning, futuristic music videos for songs such as Third Class Citizen, Over The Threshold, Under The Skin and W.T.F, and you might think there\u2019s mega-money behind them, but Jess taught herself VFX and video editing. It paid off when the band started blowing up on TikTok, some videos earning more than a million views.<\/p>\n One attention-grabbing move is when Jess flits between playing riffs to rival Matt Bellamy on her guitar, and playing a \u2018sliding keyboard\u2019 that she can swing around towards her, seamlessly switching between instruments without breaking her flow. Thankfully, Alizon and Ben have helped bring Jess\u2019s wild ideas to life.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019ll phone me like, \u2018I need a door\u2026 a door that can open in the middle of the room\u2019,\u201d Alizon says with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ll just look at the ideas and make a list of props.\u201d<\/p>\n On Edge Of The Abyss, Jess sings several songs in her mother tongue of Spanish, so she wouldn\u2019t be restricted creatively.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Spanish songs just came out that way uncontrollably,\u201d she says with a shrug. \u201cIt was what was in my heart. Previously, I\u2019d stop myself and think, \u2018No, it has to be in English\u2019, but I knew I had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve genuinely had fans tell me I\u2019m their Duolingo,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey\u2019re learning the language from listening to our songs.\u201d<\/p>\n Blending metal with jazz, blues<\/a> and Latin American influences \u2013 the Puerto Rican alternative hip hop band Calle 13 is a favourite \u2013 the end result sounds truly unique to Calva Louise.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my biggest Latin influences for the album was actually a Venezuelan artist called Sim\u00f3n D\u00edaz, who was not rock or metal at all,\u201d explains Jess. \u201cHe played the cuatro [a four-stringed instrument] a lot. We were listening to him religiously. He made a type of music called joropo with odd rhythms and timings. It\u2019s traditional folkloric music from the plains. \u201d<\/p>\n