"Its always a struggle. The instruments are wearing out, the guitar gets harder and harder to tune, the tape loops get sicker and the batteries get flatter, but Pumice perseveres." - Stefan Neville

Following a mammoth tour of Europe, Japan & the US in 2007-2008, Stefan Geoffrey Neville took a sabbatical from Pumice. After a silence of several months, Stefan slowly began to re-emerge in New Zealand, playing (the drums) with a few bands in Auckland. Slowly, a few proper Pumice gigs were played & soon thereafter, in January 2009, Neville started work on a new batch of recordings. One of those found a home on the split single with Grouper, while the others, appear on Persevere; a befitting title for Neville's first new grip of songs following his hiatus. Three songs comprise Persevere: 'The Dawn Chorus of Kina,' an ode to (alleged) singing sea urchin, and covers from two vision-sharing kindred spirits: The Axemen ('Pacific Ocean') and Michael Hurley ('Open Up'). Persevere is released in an edition of 500 copies, housed in textured paper sleeves adorned with Neville's signature dog drawings.