{"id":3883,"date":"2016-10-17T14:08:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T13:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/if-we-meet-today-a-conversation-with-kevin-devine\/"},"modified":"2023-01-04T14:33:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T14:33:07","slug":"interview-kevin-devine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-kevin-devine\/","title":{"rendered":"If We Meet Today: A Conversation with Kevin Devine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe older I get and the deeper into my career I get, the more I see just how difficult it is to sustain a visibility or relevancy. But, if I was to be so bold as to examine my own career, I feel like I\u2019m in a unique position among some of my peers. I feel like my career has gotten more relevant as I\u2019ve aged. Not that it has ever resulted in barn-burning commercial success, but I\u2019m not necessarily a nostalgia act.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Kevin Devine<\/b> \u2013 alongside the likes of John K. Samson and Mike Kinsella – has been a near constant in my life for the best part of 16 years \u2013 nearly half my life \u2013 after I picked up the Miracle of 86\u2019s brilliant self-titled album back in 2000. But he\u2019s right; he\u2019s acquired fans throughout his journey and everyone has their own favourite album, be it \u2018Brother\u2019s Blood\u2019<\/i> (\u201cthe closest I have to a consensus album,\u201d<\/i> he muses), \u2018Make the Clocks Move\u2019<\/i>, \u2018Put Your Ghost To Rest\u2019<\/i> or \u2018Between the Concrete and Clouds\u2019<\/i>. <\/p>\n

The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter is now back with his ninth solo effort, \u2018Instigator\u2019<\/i>, an album that mixes the political and personal to make yet another high-point in a career that has many standouts. It represents a return to a more traditional style of song-writing and structuring, after 2013\u2019s Kickstarter funded \u2018Bubblegum\u2019<\/i>\/\u2019Bulldozer\u2019<\/i> efforts and 2015\u2019s split single series. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll always circle back to a collection of songs in an album format as the main vehicle,\u201d<\/i> considers Devine<\/b>. \u201cI think that\u2019s because of my age, how I grew up receiving music, how I thought about making it, so the idea of settling back into something more conventional felt appropriate and comfortable.<\/i> <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I feel I wouldn\u2019t have gotten to this record aesthetically if I hadn\u2019t tried to do the \u2018Bubblegum\u2019<\/i>\/\u2019Bulldozer\u2019<\/i> thing, where I split the brain. I think this record has the fuzziness \u2013 or is tuned to a very certain type of rock music that was all over the \u2018Bubblegum\u2019<\/i> record \u2013 but it has got the smoothness, to me, and the precision, of \u2018Bulldozer\u2019<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOn this record I wanted to strategically place the acoustic moments as breaths or palate cleansers of the rock songs. So instead of giving each one its own form, I wanted to bring them back together to see how they spoke to each other.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The results is a mature indie-rock record, and one of Devine<\/b>\u2019s most assured albums to date. Although a \u2018classic\u2019 Devine<\/b> album, it\u2019s coloured by the experiences of the United States \u2013 the Black Lives Matter movement and the impending election \u2013 and changes in Devine<\/b>\u2019s own life, such as becoming a parent for the first time, to a baby daughter. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been someone for who writing is a filtration process and creative exercise around how I am receiving the world,\u201d<\/i> says Devine<\/b>. “And she has absolutely altered how I even define the world.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cSince she\u2019s been born I\u2019ve only written and completed one song from front to end, and it\u2019s informed by the current political climate in America. I\u2019d say it\u2019s certainly informed by how that world relates to the three- or four-month-old that is sleeping in my lap. There\u2019s no way to avoid it if you\u2019re communicating with yourself in any real way.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Although written long before the birth of his daughter, the song \u2018Freddie Gray Blues\u2019<\/i> emphasises just how Devine<\/b> sees the world. Horrified by the treatment of black communities in America, it is Devine\u2019s response to how he sees the issue, yet tinted by his awareness that he was able to return \u201cto relative comfort and unexamined, reflective privilege that I receive simply by being who I am\u201d<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Devine<\/b>\u2019s hope, therefore, is that a song as powerful as \u2018Freddie Gray Blues\u2019<\/i> will help to open up the conversation \u2013 although he appreciates the uncomfortable position he puts him in. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI do my civic duty by writing songs,\u201d<\/i> he reflects. “Yet I\u2019m also aware that it is how I make a living; it\u2019s not a charitable enterprise. But I do think, as a songwriter; if I had any idea how to write songs for commercial gain, I\u2019d have done it a long time ago. I don\u2019t know how to write songs and say \u2018that one\u2019s a hit\u2019. I write my conscience, and I hope that resonates with enough people so I continue to enjoy gainful employment \u2013 but I would be doing it whether that was the case or not.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s a song; it\u2019s not a service but I hope it amplifies the conversation. And you know, maybe in places that are outside America, it will prompt people to say \u2018well, OK, who is Freddie Gray\u2019 and what\u2019s that about?\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

Yet, while widespread commercial success continues to elude Devine<\/b>, he continues to write material that resonates with fans. Last year Devine<\/b> played a request show at St Pancras Old Church, London. A total of 150 people were given numbered pieces of paper, and if Devine<\/b> called your number out, you got to select the song. Having asked if he found it peculiar or interesting as to the choices people made and the underlying reason for any attachment, the debate grew into a dissection of fan culture as a whole: <\/p>\n

\u201cLast night at a show someone showed me a tattoo connected to the lyrics, and it was amazing. I must have seen that sort of thing a hundred times or more but it never gets less \u2018wow\u2019.<\/i><\/p>\n

"I think there\u2019s like a Beta blocker in my mind that shuts down receiving such stuff fully,”<\/i> laughs Devine<\/b>. \u201cI think I\u2019d internalise it if I didn\u2019t. I\u2019d be like \u2018you have such a responsibility; what if a human being ever decided to get married to one of your songs or put your lyrics on your body forever?\u2019<\/i> <\/p>\n

\u201cI just think about everything too much, so I just go \u2018wow, that\u2019s amazing\u2019. I think when I\u2019m 80 in a home somewhere it\u2019ll all just hit at once; I\u2019ll be like \u2018that was fucking nuts\u2019.“<\/i><\/p>\n

By that point, Devine<\/b> could well have 30+ albums to his name, with fans picking songs from any point in a lifetime\u2019s career to attach themselves too. Fucking nuts indeed\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2019Instigator\u2019<\/i> by Kevin Devine<\/b> is released on October 21st on Big Scary Monsters\/Procrastinate! Music Traitors<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Kevin Devine<\/b> tours the UK later this week and in the new year:<\/p>\n

October
\n18 The Forge, London^
\n19 Banquet Records, Kingston^
\n20 Komedia (Studio Bar), Brighton^
\nJanuary
\n29 Thekla, Bristol%
\nJanuary 30 Bodega, Nottingham%
\nJanuary 31 Deaf Institute, Manchester%
\nFebruary
\n01 Stereo, Glasgow%
\n02 Brudenell Social Club Leeds%
\n03 The Dome, London%
\n^ = Solo Show
\n% = Support To Be Announced<\/p>\n

Kevin Devine<\/strong> links: Website<\/a>|Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Rob Mair (@BobNightMair<\/a>). Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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