Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
Robin Footitt (devices, vocals): devices formed in 2022 and I joined soon after in early 2023 when I took on the mantle of singer and lyricist. I’m a visual artist and Exhibitions Curator at the Royal Opera House so creativity and performance underpin my daily life. The music influence in my childhood came from Sundays at home when we would all be together as a family and the mornings would be *TV off, stereo on* after breakfast. This would be a clash between recorded mixtapes of the top 40 that me and my brother would update weekly and my dad’s blues CDs, voices like Muddy Waters, BB King and Bo Diddley. In the 90s, so much of forming your own identity came through music press like NME and Melody Maker – and performing music was an experience! Five or six teenagers with guitars crammed into a mate’s bedroom all playing along to REM.
Fadi Borgi (devices, guitar): I am a total non-nerd nerd and an artistic engineer (or is that an engineer-istic artist?). Good grades in maths as long as you’ll let me be creative and play my guitar 🙂 Cybersecurity engineering pays the bills, devices (the band) make my heart beat. My mother says, “I began to sing long before I could talk”, to quote ABBA, so I guess that was the start. I was drawn to music from a very early age. It all started with ABBA, Bee Gees, Grease, evolving to Queen, Eagles, Aerosmith, French rock (Telephone, FGJ), all the way to the almighty Fairuz and French electronic music (Daft Punk, Justice). Does that influence the devices sound? I’m not sure, the listeners are probably much better judges than me on this one.
Louis Richardson (devices, drums): Growing up my dad was always playing music around the house. He had this record player with these big 1970s wooden speakers. He would play The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. So, I was exposed to music at an early age. There was a moment when I was around 10 years old that I decided I wanted to play the drums. My dad bought me my first drum kit when I was 12 years old and it went from there.
Max Llavallol (devices, bass): Having grown up in Argentina, I was exposed to somewhat different musical influences than the rest of the band. Not that they all permeate into devices music, but it gives me a different perspective from time to time.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover ‘devices’?
LR: We currently have some gigs lined up in London. We want to expand further than London and play to some new faces. I think gigging is the best and organic way to grow your fan base. Getting added to playlists on music sharing apps is also a great way to reach a bigger audience.
ML: We make heartfelt music! And that’s the shittiest response ever.
FB: I believe that if we have something interesting to say (or play), the people will come. Our goal is not to grow; it is first and foremost to have fun and create something we are proud of. We hope that the fun and the quality of our music will translate well and many fans will benefit from it, but this would be a side effect of a fun adventure. So… Maximize the fun and the pride?
RF: Follow us on Bandsintown (https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15547279-devices) or Songkick (https://www.songkick.com/artists/10318290-devices-uk) and come see us play. Discovering and sharing music has always had an impact in how I would connect with friends. I think about this when trying to reach new listeners. Telling our story with bold visuals and creativity that communicates our experience of making these songs. It’s been such an adventure and a profound discovery of stories that I never thought I would be willing to share. I think the message is clear, these songs are us, we have lived with them and watched them develop as our friendship has strengthened.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
FB: I should say Angine de Poitrine, they’re on everyone’s lips nowadays and are super impressive, but to keep some variety I will say Matteo Mancuso: when I grow up, I want to be as good as him playing the guitar!
LR: I currently love an American post metal band called Pelican. They’re mainly instrumental and kinda like the American Mogwai. Also, Haute & Freddy are this great alt pop duo who have recently released a great debut of pop brilliance. Their voice and Melodies are incredible.
ML: As boring or cliché as it may sound, The Beatles! I recently watched the whole Anthology and Get Back documentaries, and it was fascinating to have an insight on how they wrote their songs and worked in the studio. Pretty much all the music I listen to stems from The Beatles, so it’s good to go back to the basics. As for inspiration, playing with different sounds, pedals and synths tends to open up possibilities in terms of creativity, either on my own or jamming with the band.
RF: Live music is my inspiration, and I fluctuate wildly when it comes to genre – I’m a bit of a low and high culture sponge. I’ve seen incredible performances from art pop visionary Geneva Jacuzzi, sumptuous post-punk guitars of Yoo Doo Right and indefinable beauty with 070 Shake. Sometimes I look back at my gigography on my Songkick profile and wonder how I have managed to fit it all in.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the song, ‘Ballad of the Gods’ Cove’?
RF: I wrote ‘Ballad of the Gods’ Cove’ soon after seeing ‘Ruination’, dance theatre company Lost Dog’s ballet reimaging of the Greek myth of Medea. Watching this very nuanced contemporary combination of dance and storytelling hatched a myth in my mind of two Gods: God of Passion and God of Reflection. I wanted to present their story in a traditional Ballad with unconventional rhythm and sound. The story revolves around their love for each other. The opening lyric “Love is a mirror, both storm and sea” refers to both their godly qualities and trades on their vulnerability in revealing their feelings for each other. The Gods become mortal and seek refuge in a hidden cove, but they can’t avoid the advancing crashing of waves who have questions about their relationship. It resolves in the final third, with mutual understanding of their acceptance “Both passion and reflection, with whispers so deep, said “Love is the silence we learn how to keep.”
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
ML: Concoctive!
RF: Spirited
LR: Bearish / vital / real / delicious / emotive / seductive / arty…bit hard to describe in one word.
FB: I don’t do one-word challenges well. Soooo… In 4 words? Fresh (or at worst freshly from the veggies compartment in the fridge, less than 24 hours after buying them at the fancy organic grocery store), honest (more like no-nonsense honesty than punch-you-in-the-face honesty, if I’m being honest), sometimes vulnerable and sometimes invulnerable. Specifically for the guitar, I’d say crunch over full blown distortion mayhem, humbuckers over singles, but I’m a sucker for a clean neck single coil sound.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0tI59UVVHZ5fKGqXlgGaNj
Q: Did you face any challenges while writing or recording ‘Ballad of the Gods’ Cove’?
FB: We just click as a band and music flows when we’re together. I’d say ‘Ballad’ came together quite instinctively and we are very proud of it. It is one of my favourites to play live, you can see me dancing live through the main riff.
ML: It was a pretty easy and fun song to write, at least the music. It started from a jam, and we probably got most of it in the first session. It became one that we found ourselves humming on our way home after rehearsals quite a few times.
LR: The song came quite naturally one time at a rehearsal. I wanted to use some drum batons on the floor tom to create this rolling effect and then Martin threw this bass line on top which drives the song along.
RF: The main challenge with this song was to replicate the feeling that we had when it surfaced so naturally in rehearsal at Brockley Studios, London when recording it for our debut album ‘DIVORCES’. Martin’s bass line is a serious earworm over the beat, and I agree we would often leave practices humming along to it. It has such an urgency and groove, fortunately we found the perfect producer in Bob Cooper to bring that to the recording. He was meticulous in setting up the room for Louis’ drums, you can hear every note in the cymbal washes. It was our first experience in a recording studio, having made DIY efforts previously plugging mics into a laptop, and we are so excited for everyone to hear that added depth of sound which is what we are known for in live performances.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
FB: There are so many messages one can think of. Ultimately, we want our music to be honest and sincere, we want people to enjoy it. We want to enjoy making it and playing it. There will be many messages over the years, but hopefully we can retain that spark of fun, enjoying making music together. That said, we are very sensitive to minority and human rights, LGBTQIA+ issues and we don’t shy away from singing about them.
RF: ‘DIVORCES’ is a collection of songs that celebrate the strength of difference, separating ourselves out from the crowd, to be authentic and break away from the everyday. devices came from the idea that for three hours a week rehearsing we are ‘left to our own devices’ to create something uniquely ours. There is an opportunity right now for all of us to claim ownership of human experience and how we connect organically to live music. We create together and I feel that is reflected in ‘DIVORCES’. Our goal is to support one another and see what we can achieve in sharing our music.
ML: Have fun.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
ML: Gustavo Cerati!
LR: Maybe Jeff Buckley for me…I could hear him jamming with us.
FB: Let’s try something not too obvious. Ayreon. Definitely Ayreon (Arjen Lucassen). If you know, you know. If you don’t, make sure you do. Or Daft Punk. Actually both. At the same time.
RF: I’d want to be challenged with a collaboration, to invite a viewpoint outside of our own – Mark E. Smith from The Fall.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
ML: Hmm. Not sure we can give much advice on entering the industry, as I don’t think we have entered there ourselves! Certainly, doing it for the pleasure of doing it seems to work for us as a band. Frankly, as much as many people may complain about the digitally recorded music, and music platforms, it’s quite good that anyone can record their music in a computer and release it to the world without record labels. So make the most of it. We do.
FB: I’ll take a page out of my own book: try to have a job that enables your music adventures (i.e. pays for and leaves you enough time for your passion). This way your passion stays a passion and does not become a job. It stays fresh, you can experiment, you can try new things, without crushing consequences. For me at least, the moment music becomes a job, I start dying a bit inside. Suddenly compromises I never would have thought about accepting become necessities, stress seeps in, and fun takes a one-way ticket to a distant galaxy. Not everyone is in a situation to achieve this, and I understand this advice is not for everyone, but at least at the beginning, when you’re still testing the waters, try to keep it fun and have a good backup plan.
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
FB: I would not, he may be afraid of what I have become. We are a good 40 years apart; he is a very different person. I think all the cells in my body have been regenerated since, we literally don’t have one cell in common anymore. Only memories (more good than bad) and battle scars. He needs to go through all these battles and the uncertainty of life to end up as me. I’ll simply enjoy watching him through our shared memories, knowing that he will be alright. Oh, and the obvious: I don’t know anyone with a time machine. Actually, younger me probably has a lot more advice to give me than me to give him. It’s called learning and experience. Thank you younger Fadi!
ML: Just keep going. It’ll be alright.
