Brutiful_ViXn
Reign In Metal
Zodiac :  Metal Reputation : 88
Join date : 2012-01-05
Location : Vacationing in Hell
 | |  deVIence- Interview (At Rock and Metal Circus Festival 2013) | |
 deVIence- Interview
Rock and Metal Circus Festival Saturday 21st September 2013
deVIence: Brutiful?
Rick: Yes, Brutiful Metal Radio, it's a US based Internet Radio Station!
deVIence: We like that!
Rick: Thank you, I write reviews for them and this is the first time I've covered a live event. That was a brilliant set guys.
deVIence: Yeah! Did you enjoy it?
Rick: Apart from the technical difficulties.
deVIence: Yes, the technical difficulties. Two times in the same place of the same song, I couldn't believe it! (The power cut and the band restarted the song only for the same thing to happen again)
Rick: I couldn't understand where the guitar was!
deVIence: The same cord, the exact same cord. It was déjà vu, I was worried we had tripped the power
Rick: It was just the guitars though, why was it just the guitars?
deVIence: The bass was still going wasn't it?
Rick: The bass was still going yeah!
deVIence: I think they split the power yesterday and yeah so! Anyway we recovered!
Rick: Yes you did and you were excellent!
deVIence: Thank you.
Rick: To me, your music has the sound of Guns n' Roses, Alter Bridge and I think Dynazty as well! I don't know if you've heard of a band called Dynazty but it's cracking Rock and Roll.
deVIence: Thank you very much
Rick: It has a real groove.
deVIence: Exactly what you said is exactly what we're going for. Add a bit of funk in there and a bit of rock and roll!
Rick: And blues.
deVIence: Absolutely yeah!
Rick: I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with you and this is the first time I've seen you!
deVIence: That's alright.
Rick: So if you can give a brief history about the band and how you came about and we'll take it from there?
deVIence: Yeah, of course. We established back in 2008 and it was just myself (Lead Guitarist 'Jim'), Gio (Vocalist Giovanni Spano) and another guitarist! We started writing some material, none of which is the material we play now and the journey just kind of went on from there. I went into a pub one night met Donnie (Roulstone, Lead Guitarist), asked if he knew any bassists and we found 'Benno' (Ben Porter) who literally lives around the corner from me in Ruislip! We live in a suburb in North West London!
Rick: I use to live right near Ruislip.
deVIence: (Laughter) There you go, whereabouts?
Rick: Actually we use to be in Ruislip as well! We used to live in South Ruislip and I lived in Northwood Hills as well!
deVIence: Wow, well there you go, I went to school in Northwood Hills (more laughter). That was the posh part wasn't it?
Rick: (Trying not to laugh) Oh no no no! It wasn't that posh!
deVIence: So I met 'Benno' and we started playing, writing and we did a few gigs etc. Then we went over to Los Angeles you know? For all you American guys we played 'The Viper Room' and 'Whiskey A Go Go' to massive, massive crowds which was amazing, Sunset Boulevard was amazing, we wish we could have done more in America but...
Rick: How did that come about that because that's a pretty amazing thing for a young band from the UK to be able to do?
deVIence: Yeah (Giovanni Continues), basically one of my best friends lives out in the States and he said that he would put us up and get us in touch with some good contacts out there as he is a little bit of celebrity over there so, well actually he's quite a big celebrity, you know, so he did that for us. I would wait up every single night to about 3-4am in the morning just making calls to instrument hire companies and venues! We rehearsed at SIR as well which is really cool. We did a showcase there. It is a legendary studios for rehearsing in you know? I mean 'Thirty Seconds To Mars' were on the bill as well, like rehearsing after us later that day. 'Robin Thicke' was in the studio next door to us and he came in and he saw us play. Shannon Elizabeth, the actress from American Pie watched that showcase, you know she played Nadia for all you boys out there. Yeah it was splendid yeah and then we came back and we had some dead weight that we needed to get rid of, i.e. a couple of guitarists and then we bumped into these two boys, they graduated with a law degree and a music degree and we got Donnie & Jim. Olli (Carter, Drums) stumbled upon us! He's the silent one (laughs)
Rick: There's always a silent one! Was there a drummer before Olli?
deVIence: Yeah, there was a drummer before Olli, but certainly he doesn't need to be mentioned. Yeah so we just started touring basically we were trying to establish our fan base within and around London and from there we've decided to kind of branch out. We've now signed with a new manager which is going really good. It took us a while to get this sound going as well. You know as a five piece we're...I feel like we're solid. Every day we grow closer and yeah we've got a good bunch of lads now you know!
Rick: I was gonna say it seems like you all get on really well and have fun!
(I am then told how a certain Donnie went out the previous night to 'party' and ended up, by himself, in Birmingham, having to get the train to Bromsgrove that morning!)
deVIence: So yeah, we're basically writing new material till the end of this year and in the New Year we're going in the studio and we're gonna work on a new Album and release that via our manager, you know it will be available on iTunes etc, but we do have the 'New Blood EP' available at the moment. (Here is the link to my review and it is indeed an excellent EP https://brutifulmetalradio.forumotion.com/t470-devience-new-blood-ep-2013-review). There are some great tracks on there and you can get that via our Facebook or Twitter pages. Just get in contact with us via those with your postcode or your zip code and we'll send it over. Yeah that's basically our story really and you know we're just enjoying playing at the moment and just getting out there to as many people and fans as we can!.
Rick: What have you got planned gig wise for the rest of the year?
deVIence: For the rest of the year we're just booking up now. Our manager has just taken us on and he said "I'm gonna do this and this with you", and it's just establishing the right look and the right sound as a new five piece with a new manager you know, so it's cool!. We'll be playing a couple of gigs, doing a lot of writing and getting ready for the New Year. Hopefully 2014 will be our year where we'll have the new album and can do the festival circuit!
Rick: Brilliant! There are a lot of these smaller sized festivals popping up now. Do you think that that's a good thing?
deVIence: This is great, we love it. Yeah, we didn't know what to expect but it's great, it's a really good set up. We were surprised by the sound and everyone's been proper professional. The more that live music get's endorsed around the world...well little festivals like this are great for bands like us.
Rick: For bands like you? Unsigned or independent stuff is that what you mean?.
deVIence: Absolutely! Hopefully we'll come back next year and we'll be a bit higher up the bill.
Rick: That would be great!
deVIence: Do you know what? We enjoyed being the opening band, thought it was cool!
Rick: Well, there wasn't a massive crowd but it was very early
deVIence: No, but everyone enjoyed it...I saw you during 'Hold The Line'. (deVIence played a fantastic cover of the Toto hit during their set)
Rick: That was an awesome cover!
deVIence: Was that you at the front, was it?
Rick: (Laughs) Yep that was me. That gave everyone a kick in the teeth, I don't think people were expecting you to be that good. When the first band of the day really knock you back and you think 'wow that was great', well that really helps start the day off well and get's everyone up and energised...
deVIence: Well we had fun, we loved it, it was great and that's kind of our ethos you know? We have fun on stage and hopefully it branches out to the audience and they have a good time. We love the music side of things obviously, it is absolutely incredible, but you've really got to focus on the show, it's got to rock. You have a good time and the crowd have a good time. If they have a good time, you have a good time. As long as the audience are feeling our vibe, you know, we literally bounce off each other and hopefully the people in the audience will have a good time, they bounce off each other and they come back to us and then we go back to them and you know it's just a great circle of entertainment!
Rick: Well, what I thought you did very well was dealing with the sound issues. We were all still looking at you because you were having a laugh and made it funny!
deVIence: Yeah, you've got to make the best of a bad situation, no matter how bad it is!
Rick: I've seen bands where similar things have happened and they just sort of stand there and put their heads down or they storm off!
deVIence: Yeah, but it happens, you know? In an ideal world it wouldn't happen but this is not an ideal world!
Rick: But I've also seen bands, like yourselves, that make the best of it, make the most of that opportunity, have a joke and things like that and it works. Then I think people engage with and appreciate you more!
deVIence: Yeah, exactly why not, and you know, next time it happens I'm gonna have a little a capella song ready for you. I'm gonna figure something out (laughs). We'll have the acoustic guitars ready and do something like 'Old Man River' (more laughs)!
I then set about asking the guys how long they had been playing their instruments. Answers of between ten and eighteen years was the response and, considering they are still young. shows their level of dedication. More laughs were had with comments such as "He looks old today coz he's hung over", but that question did lead to me learning a bit more about vocalist Giovanni. He really does have quite a voice and his career has been pretty interesting!
deVIence: (Giovanni continues) I've been singing for a long time, since I was young. I was in 'Jesus Christ Superstar' (he played the character 'Simon Zeolates' in the Arena Tour of the show, which included a huge Wembley date!)
Rick: Wow, What else have you done?
deVIence: I've just done the tour of 'Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody' show with Nathan James (vocalist who sings with The Trans Siberian Orchestra),and a few bits and pieces like that, also a few TV shows!
Rick: So it's always been in your blood?
deVIence: Yeah, a bit in the blood, but I didn't sing rock music until I met these guys. Initially it was me just grabbing musicians and then I met all these guys and like just fell in love with the whole idea. All the music they've introduced me to, there are some incredible things and I've introduced them to some hopefully incredible things and we've kind of just moved forward and I feel like we're now so much more of a family than I ever have been in!
Rick: That 'family feel' friendship you all have comes across very strongly!
deVIence: That's kind of what we're going for and I think if we have that unit now as a foundation then there isn't anywhere we can't go! What do you think Olli?
Rick: Is he always this quiet?.
deVIence: The silent one, I told you, we have a mute. (Olli finally speaks) "I wouldn't say mute just a silent bard" (lots of laughter
Rick: Haha, brilliant stuff!
deVIence: Hopefully the microphone did pick that up? (more laughter)
Rick: I'll make sure I turn the volume up when playing it back! That's fantastic guys thank you, it's been a great chat!
My better half, Helen, who unfortunately had missed the guys set thanks to someone giving her dodgy directions to get to the shop for supplies then said "I have to say that as soon as I got back Rick said you've just missed the most awesome opening band!"
deVIence: Oh really that's fantastic. No-one wants to get lost in Bromsgrove though, in fact you could well have seen Donnie walking down the road with his thumb out, you could have given him a lift! (cue lots more laughter).
With that, deVIence were off to their next interview (It's fair to say lots of people wanted to chat with them after such an excellent performance). They are extremely friendly and very gracious guys and thoroughly deserve more people to know the name. As they mentioned themselves, let's hope that 2014 is indeed the year of deVIence!! https://www.facebook.com/pages/deVIence/55006728621
https://twitter.com/devience
https://myspace.com/devienceuk
Interview done exclusively for Brutiful Entertainment by Rick Tilley
www.facebook.com/richard.tilley.351
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