Words: Ruby Anderson
Listening to Devon’s music gives you an immediate rush of dopamine. His punchy indie-pop tracks communicate a sense of unrelenting vitality and cheekiness, with lyrics such as “Why do we hate when all the weirdos break the mould?” transporting you to a place of nostalgia for your own teenage youth. His music can be categorised through its almost punk-esque fast pace, coupled with stick-in-your-head choruses and upbeat chord progressions. Following a summer of festival performances, Devon has just signed to Universal - we spoke to him on the day of his first-ever headline show at London’s own Camden Assembly.
Devon describes his style as emerging organically and circumstantially, the artist working with what he had in his small town. This means a lot of the process was down to him alone. “I live in the Forest of Dean, which is in the middle of nowhere,” Devon explained. “There were no producers around me when I started, no recording artists. I found out how to record from a friend, and then when my sister moved out I moved all my music stuff into her old bedroom and just kept recording music out of there.” Deon sings and plays guitar in his band, accompanied by a drummer, bassists and loop pedal. “Once I’d started to get the hang of producing, I started using sonic sounds. I really got into using soundscapes and I think that’s how my sound today has come together.”
Devon attributes his interest in sonic sounds to bands like Tame Impala and The 1975. At his Camden Assembly gig, a recorded ad-lib or soundscape was played in between each synth-heavy song the band performed, keeping the audience in suspense even when a guitar was being changed or a microphone adjusted. “I’ve always known my band from my local area - everyone in the room next door except my manager is from the Forest of Dean”, Devon tells me proudly, gesturing to the green room across from us where his band and camera men were. “I met them through what little music scene there was there, which was some open mic nights, some old people playing Johnny Cash”.
Despite this, Devon is still a firm believer that a song should sound completed in its purest acoustic form and that electronic elements and sonic sounds should only work to enhance the song. “When I write a song, I set boundaries for myself: I won’t bring something to the computer at all until I’ve made sure it sounds good on the acoustic guitar. My manager always says the best songs are the songs that you can play smashed out your face at a party on an acoustic guitar. I don’t get drunk,” he laughs, “but I can see the value in that.”
Like so many artists today, Devon first started releasing music on Soundcloud. “I originally put out a real bad demo. I wasn’t one of those artists that blew up immediately from one song. After that, we took a year or two to write songs and release them gradually. We didn’t want to put out loads of stuff because it’s easy for people to get bored of you and fob you off. Especially in today’s climate in the music industry, artist development is so important”. Devon tells me about how conscious his manager was of the sheer quantity of stuff being released on music platforms at the moment. “That’s why I’m so glad I get to work with him, because he really nailed me down. If it was down to me, I probably would have written a song then released it, then written another song and released it.”
Devon’s biggest piece of advice for other emerging musicians is to “be patient”. He relates this to his own experience when he said to me “I know you’ll look on social media and you will see the occasional new artist that will put out one song and blow up massively just from that, but that’s them and that’s luck. A lot of people have to graft”. Much like he did before releasing anything, he advises spending a lot of time in your room perfecting whatever you have. “Don’t show it to the world yet,” he says. “Show it to your friends and when they’re absolutely blown away by it, then show it to the world. You want to go straight out there and say ‘Yeah, I’ve been working on this for three years’, and be confident in what you’ve made. As boring as that seems, that’s how it works.” Being at his gig was testament to how this has worked for Devon - some audience members arrived so early they had time to sit on the floor before the gig started, and almost every word Devon sang was chanted back at him.
Devon’s debut music video for I DON'T WANT 2 B UR FRIEND, is two minutes of dreamy pastel-coloured joy which celebrates love in every shape and size, a message of acceptance paired with an energetic electric guitar banger. Devon explains that director Henry Dean took the lyrics of the song and applied them to modern day relationships more universally. Footage of Devon playing his guitar (his electric pink eyeshadow contrasting his white suit for Bowie-esque visuals) are cut with shots of real couples interacting. The couples are a diverse group of all genders, races and ages. “Henry wanted to show the barebones of modern relationships”, Devon explains. “We knew that watching it would make certain people feel uncomfortable, but we wanted that, because that forces them to realise what’s real, to realise that what they’re seeing is normal.” Henry also filmed interviews with couples, asking them to talk to the camera about their relationships and what it means to them. Devon tells me about how he remembers walking into the main studio while an interview with Tracey and Andrew, the video’s oldest couple, was going on. “There were probably 30 people in the studio, dead silent, listening to Henry ask them questions. Honestly, people were welling up, I wanted to well up!” This sense of genuine love is palpable even just by watching the video.
Whilst Devon credits Henry Dean with his video’s stunning aesthetic, Devon is also interested in the visual side of things himself: “My cover art, posters and stuff is all me. As my day job I work as a graphic designer, basically designing packing for a stationary company. Again, I didn’t know any graphic designers because of the area where I'm from, so again circumstance meant that I was the one creating these visuals”. Despite not seeming to offer him much artistically, Devon still seems to have a huge love for his Gloucestershire roots - he performed at the Camden Assembly wearing a FOD t-shirt, FOD backdrop behind him and FOD merch available to buy at the back.
Devon’s recent signing with Universal was a “bit of a random one, really.” He explains that prior to this he hadn’t had much label attention, and that he received a call from his manager after releasing I DONT WANT 2 B UR FRIEND. “I really liked how intimidating the interview was. They weren’t saying that they were going to get involved in this and change anything, because I’ve got my music to where it is. They just wanted to get behind me and push me. It was a good feeling.”
With another headline show at Rough Trade Bristol coming up, it seems Devon will be spreading the FOD love across the country. Although hopefully he’ll be returning back to his sister’s old bedroom at some point to deliver us some new tracks.
Image sourced from Devon's Facebook page.
Comentários