Brooklyn newcomer examined...
Devin could easily be mistaken for an artist in his heyday during the dawn of rock 'n' roll. The cover for debut album ‘Romancing’ (released 30th April) portrays him in black and white with a quiff and a vintage looking suit. Don’t worry, this isn’t an album of throwback horrible Baseballs-esque cover songs, there’s actually some substance to this style. With no intention of making this album and with only a very limited amount of guitar skills, Devin’s naivety provides tunes that modern rock ‘n’ roll rarely produces: fun ones. The man himself talks to us from his place in Brooklyn, taking us through his new album and being thrown in the deep end at such an early stage.
Clash: Catchy guitar music has made a comeback recently. Why do you think that is?
Devin: Maybe it’s an every ten years sort of thing. I think it needs it right now, there’s just a void and that kind of lack of guitar rock right now. But it always comes around.
C: Do you still find modern guitar music exciting?
D: The Vaccines are cool. When we were over there - we were in London for a week - I was surprised at all the good radio because there’s no guitar bands; no real rock ‘n’ roll on the radio in the US. Definitely not in New York. It was crazy to hear actual rock on the radio. It’s inspiring.
C: Your music nods to a simpler time. Are you nostalgic towards the past?
D: I like - like everyone else - music from the beginning of rock. If you’re doing rock now you’ve got to at least know where it came from, listening to all that stuff from the beginning of rock from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ’70’s, ‘80s. There’s great stuff in every decade and you have to deal with all of them to make music now.
C: Brooklyn has an array of eclectic music scenes. Has the place inspired you?
D: The scene is that there’s no scene. You can do whatever you want and the people at the show will decide if it’s listenable or not. You could try out whatever you want without feeling scared or insecure, you’ll know right off because Brooklyn audiences; New York audiences are real direct. They’ll let you know if it’s good; if it’s working or not working.
C: Did you teach yourself to play?
D: I got a guitar and I went to lessons at the music shop when I was young, but I hated it. I’m not the best guitarist anyway, I don’t have the patience to really practice. The songs; the music part; the guitar part are pretty much all directly, a lot of the time, taken from other songs; from rock formats that have been around. So I don’t like to think about every song, I wanted to take those things and just kind of work on the lyrics and use those traditional formats. At least four of the songs out of the twelve on the album have the same exact progression, but they’re completely different songs. There’s different rhythm changes and obviously the lyrics and the world of the song is completely different.
C: What equipment did you use on the album?
D: The demos I did in my bedroom on Pro Tools, but after French Kiss signed me, they gave me to Chris Zane who they worked with before. He has a great studio in downtown Manhattan. That was the first time I was in a real studio. It’s still pretty simple, me on guitar, Steve on bass, Matt who plays drums on the record, and that was it. Chris was the only guy in there, it was real tight; real simple. I used my guitar and my amp for the most of it and Chris did whatever he had to do producing wise.
C: Has your debut got any sort of message or is it simple no-fuss rock ‘n’ roll?
D: I don’t think it has any specific message, it was just learning how to write a song. I had no idea it was going to become a real album and I didn’t know I was going to be signed. I wrote most of the songs before I met anyone at French Kiss. The next one’s going to be different, but I had no idea that it was going to be released or anything. So it’s a more personal album and learning to write songs sort of thing.
C: Do you see yourself playing anything but guitar music?
D: No, I would like to stick to it as long as possible. I think for the next album there’s some things I don’t want to do. I don’t want to do that progression, I think I’ve done it. There’s things you out do, I want to mess around with tempos and stuff, but I want to stick to it for as long as possible. Just high energy rock.
C: You live in Brooklyn, you have an image that’s stereotypically associated with leather jackets, excessive drinking and drug taking. Do you adhere to that?
D: Yeah, that’s what we do! Definitely if you’re here. We haven’t travelled that much with the band, but I think every place is basically the same. If you’re playing rock shows at night, that’s what everyone’s doing.
C: You recently supported The Drums at the Roundhouse. How was that?
D: We walk in when The Drums are doing soundcheck on stage and they sound unbelievable in this huge space. It’s completely empty so it looks even worse. That was our first show in the UK, I’d never even been to the UK before.
C: What’s been your best show?
D: Best show? I don’t think we’re good enough to have a best show yet. The first show was great, which was at Shae in Brooklyn. I don’t remember much of it, but I’m sure it wasn’t that good technically, but it was fun. I guess it doesn’t matter technically how good it was, as long as people had fun. The Shacklewell Arms, when we went over to London, that was definitely the best in London. I loved that place.
Devin returns to England in May to play Camden Crawl (4th-6th), Live At Leeds (7th) and The Great Escape (10th). New album ‘Romancing’ is released April 30th via No Evil.
Words: Jamie Carson
Clash: Catchy guitar music has made a comeback recently. Why do you think that is?
Devin: Maybe it’s an every ten years sort of thing. I think it needs it right now, there’s just a void and that kind of lack of guitar rock right now. But it always comes around.
C: Do you still find modern guitar music exciting?
D: The Vaccines are cool. When we were over there - we were in London for a week - I was surprised at all the good radio because there’s no guitar bands; no real rock ‘n’ roll on the radio in the US. Definitely not in New York. It was crazy to hear actual rock on the radio. It’s inspiring.
C: Your music nods to a simpler time. Are you nostalgic towards the past?
D: I like - like everyone else - music from the beginning of rock. If you’re doing rock now you’ve got to at least know where it came from, listening to all that stuff from the beginning of rock from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ’70’s, ‘80s. There’s great stuff in every decade and you have to deal with all of them to make music now.
C: Brooklyn has an array of eclectic music scenes. Has the place inspired you?
D: The scene is that there’s no scene. You can do whatever you want and the people at the show will decide if it’s listenable or not. You could try out whatever you want without feeling scared or insecure, you’ll know right off because Brooklyn audiences; New York audiences are real direct. They’ll let you know if it’s good; if it’s working or not working.
C: Did you teach yourself to play?
D: I got a guitar and I went to lessons at the music shop when I was young, but I hated it. I’m not the best guitarist anyway, I don’t have the patience to really practice. The songs; the music part; the guitar part are pretty much all directly, a lot of the time, taken from other songs; from rock formats that have been around. So I don’t like to think about every song, I wanted to take those things and just kind of work on the lyrics and use those traditional formats. At least four of the songs out of the twelve on the album have the same exact progression, but they’re completely different songs. There’s different rhythm changes and obviously the lyrics and the world of the song is completely different.
C: What equipment did you use on the album?
D: The demos I did in my bedroom on Pro Tools, but after French Kiss signed me, they gave me to Chris Zane who they worked with before. He has a great studio in downtown Manhattan. That was the first time I was in a real studio. It’s still pretty simple, me on guitar, Steve on bass, Matt who plays drums on the record, and that was it. Chris was the only guy in there, it was real tight; real simple. I used my guitar and my amp for the most of it and Chris did whatever he had to do producing wise.
C: Has your debut got any sort of message or is it simple no-fuss rock ‘n’ roll?
D: I don’t think it has any specific message, it was just learning how to write a song. I had no idea it was going to become a real album and I didn’t know I was going to be signed. I wrote most of the songs before I met anyone at French Kiss. The next one’s going to be different, but I had no idea that it was going to be released or anything. So it’s a more personal album and learning to write songs sort of thing.
C: Do you see yourself playing anything but guitar music?
D: No, I would like to stick to it as long as possible. I think for the next album there’s some things I don’t want to do. I don’t want to do that progression, I think I’ve done it. There’s things you out do, I want to mess around with tempos and stuff, but I want to stick to it for as long as possible. Just high energy rock.
C: You live in Brooklyn, you have an image that’s stereotypically associated with leather jackets, excessive drinking and drug taking. Do you adhere to that?
D: Yeah, that’s what we do! Definitely if you’re here. We haven’t travelled that much with the band, but I think every place is basically the same. If you’re playing rock shows at night, that’s what everyone’s doing.
C: You recently supported The Drums at the Roundhouse. How was that?
D: We walk in when The Drums are doing soundcheck on stage and they sound unbelievable in this huge space. It’s completely empty so it looks even worse. That was our first show in the UK, I’d never even been to the UK before.
C: What’s been your best show?
D: Best show? I don’t think we’re good enough to have a best show yet. The first show was great, which was at Shae in Brooklyn. I don’t remember much of it, but I’m sure it wasn’t that good technically, but it was fun. I guess it doesn’t matter technically how good it was, as long as people had fun. The Shacklewell Arms, when we went over to London, that was definitely the best in London. I loved that place.
Devin returns to England in May to play Camden Crawl (4th-6th), Live At Leeds (7th) and The Great Escape (10th). New album ‘Romancing’ is released April 30th via No Evil.
Words: Jamie Carson
