Interviews

Witnness 2002

What Colin and Peter Devlin do is deceptively simple. A blend of striking lyrics and bittersweet melodies, their particular take on alternative pop has seen them attract a huge following in Ireland and go from strength to strength overseas. The very definition of crowd-pleasers.

Peter from The Devlins took some time out to tell us why he loves a good festival and what he'll be up to at Witnness.

Q: What's your most memorable festival experience?
A: Watching Jane's Addiction at the first Lollapalooza festival. Ice T, Nine Inch Nails and Butthole Surfers were also on the bill. I remember a lot of firearms and strippers on stage.

Q: Who will you be checking out at this year's Witnness Festival?
A: Cornelius, Melaton, Foo Fighters and The Hives.

Q: What would be your ideal rider?
A: I'd have the entire Spaco's restaurant (Sth. Anne St., Dublin) and staff moved to the festival site, that should cover it.

Q: If you were staying in a tent, who would you like to share your tent with?
A: Destiny's Child.

Q: If you could collaborate with another artist at this year's Witnness, who would it be?
A: Basement Jaxx - but only if we could be included in a reshoot of the video for "Where's your head at".

FeamZine: The long awaited interview with Colin Devlin!

Interviewer: Cecilia Populus-Eudave, October 1997

So it’s kind of nerve racking waiting to be walked downstairs to the "meet and greet" area at the Warfield. The security folks immediately start telling you what you can and can’t do with your drinks, and where the imaginary boundaries, that when crossed will automatically toss you out, are located. It’s like this game where the rules are made up as you go along. The main rule, however, is "act like you belong". Luckily I had spoken with tour manageress extraordinaire, (Jocelyn, you are the one!) and she was keeping her eyes on my recorder for me.
Most of the crowd at the Warfield was there for Paula Cole, but not surprisingly, the DEVLINS had the place engulfed in melodious fire before their set was done. The band loves what they’re doing, and the sheer joy of playing is obvious. This passion wasn’t lost on the attending crowd, which responded with thunderous appreciation.
After their great, but short, set FEAM stumbled downstairs for a quick chat:

(FEAM) It’s been four years since we last saw you touring. How does it feel to be back on the road?

(Colin) It’s wonderful! We’re on tour now with a new recording deal, Universal records, and we’re being managed by Network Management, Terry McBride who manages Sara McLaughlin, and that all came about in a very organic way, because we toured with her before. Also, we have a couple of new members in the band, the record (Waiting) sounds amazing…and I just feel really good about it! The time is right!

(FEAM) You seem to link up with women headliners.

(Colin) Yeah, we get to tour with beautiful and intelligent women, it’s great!

(FEAM) Maybe we’ll see you on the Lilith Faire…

(Colin) Well, you know…maybe if I shave my legs!

(laughter)

(FEAM) Both producers on your two albums have been musicians, has this helped or hurt the band in any way?

(Colin) I don’t think it’s hurt in anyway. Musicians have a great feeling for songs and songwriting, so it only enhanced our record. We’ve actually been really luck that they both are keyboard players, they added beautiful and subtle textures, we’ve been so lucky with producers.

(FEAM) What ever happened to Niall? (keyboard player on Drift)

(COLIN) He’s doing a lot of his own production work, and has for the past year and a half. Peter, Sean and I live really close to each other so we’d just get together and jam. Niall is happy to do his own thing, he lives in London with his girlfriend who is very much in love with, and he just didn’t want to come on tour for 2 or 3 years.
{Colin is handed a note written on a cocktail napkin, he pauses to read it. "mmmm…possibly" is all he says, I don’t ask.}

(FEAM) Are the two new members committed to the band or are they just with you on this tour?

(Colin) Oh, no. They’re totally committed. They are so into it, it’s great!
{last time we saw the DEVLINS they were back to a trio: Peter, Colin and Sean} ed.

(FEAM) We are so ready to see the DEVLINS headline. I mean, we were lucky here in San Francisco to have had the chance to see you headline when Sheryl Crow canceled due to laryngitis, so it’s really hard to walk away from a 45 minute set! We need a headlining show Colin!

(Colin) Well the thing about it is that we haven’t had a record out for 3 and ½ years this tour is great for us to do because we love playing theaters, the band sounds great, and in a theater if you’re crap everybody knows it in 5 minutes! You have nothing to hide behind. Whereas if you’re good, people really appreciate you. So this is a wonderful platform for us to go and tour around the country with, so the next time around we’ll be with a bigger act, or on our own.

(FEAM) Something to look forward to! Now your song "Kill With Me Tonight", any influence from the A. Rice Vampire Chronicles?

(Colin) No, not all. It’s about an all consuming love….

(FEAM) Exactly, this is why I thought the song had something to do with her books, because she Anne Rice writes about an all consuming need, love even, throughout the Vampire Chronicles. Since one of your songs appears on the Batman Forever soundtrack (Crossing the River) I thought this song would be a perfect fit for the next Anne Rice Vampire film.

(COLIN) Well, we’ve been on 6 or 7 soundtracks already, Kill With Me Tonight was used on a small film called the Black Circle Boys it was a big hit at the Sundance Film festival this year. Someone heard it before the album came and insisted on using it. Surrender was used on a short film too! This all happened before the album came out, so I think that when more people hear it, more songs will be used in film.

(FEAM) I really love your style of writing, very personal with hardly a punch pulled. Do you use your writing a as form of personal therapy?

(COLIN) Yeah, it must be. The older I get, the more songs I write, I have no idea where it comes from!

(FEAM) When we saw you during the Drift tour, the song that translated the best in our opinion was Turn You Around. Which song from Waiting do you thing translates really well live?

(COLIN) Actually, I think the title song goes over really well, even on a bad night it’s good.

(FEAM) How to you cope with the people who are there for the headliner, and they’re talking and carrying on during your set?

(COLIN) Well, you just have to concentrate on the ones who aren’t talking. You get that even when you’re headlining, and you know, you just get on with it. There advantages and drawbacks to supporting. I mean obviously we’d rather be headlining tonight at the Warfield Theatre, and I hope within the next year or year and a half we will be doing that.

(FEAM) I guess that will be about the same time that you’ll be doing the Letterman show, so are you going to let Paul Shaffer play with the band?

(Colin) (laughing) If our keyboard player Jeremy isn’t there Paul will have to do it because Paul was in Spinal Tap! I actually met him at the Letterman show when Sarah was taping it. And I called out to him, and he came back, this was after the show, and he shook my hand just like Artie Folkin! He came out with a little black case and his coat, just like Artie Folkin, it was wonderful! (more laughter!)

…end tape…

At present the DEVLINS have been slotted as the opening band for other more (slightly) recognizable acts: Paula Cole, Mono, Bare Naked Ladies, and as part of the line up for a Summer’s Celtic Music Festival, but with the heavy touring schedule they have set for themselves in support of Waiting, they stand to reach enormous heights.

For fans of the DEVLINS it’s been difficult to simply enjoy them for the 45 minutes they are allotted on stage, but at this point we’ll take all we can get, still for those of us who want to see them headline, and play for at least an hour and a half, the WAITING continues.

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