Devo: “We’re Not Singing About Bitches And Hos”
The odd looking punk / new wave band still have plenty to sing and shout about...
Devo have recently released their first album in 20 years – yes, that’s 20 years – and the odd looking punk / new wave band still have plenty to sing and shout about. We had a quick chat with bassist and general ringleader Gerry Casale to find out more…
How relevant do you think Devo are in 2010?
I guess it isn’t for us to decide, but considering how devolved the world is – you can go on CNN and watch the BP oil spilling into the Gulf at whatever it is, 60,000 barrels a day, and you know, I think we’re as relevant as any band personally. I listen to everything that I can possibly get to listen to and certainly all the bands that are currently being touted by the music press. We’re just right there – we’re not ahead of our time, we’re in our time.
So would you say for example 30 years ago, you would be ahead of your time?
The problem was that in the beginning we were very misunderstood by being ahead of our time and a lot of things we were attacked for then became kind of stock and trade. And what’s interesting is we now have two audiences in the United States thanks to things like YouTube. We have the Devo fans that are in their forties and fifties and we have kids out of college and people that are working in Microsoft or for Cisco. And so because they discovered us on YouTube and watched all our old TV performances and all of our old music videos and they find something curiously contemporary about Devo because currently music has come back round to a vocabulary that is kind of synchronous with what we were doing – all the bands that seem to say in the press that they were influenced by us, like LCD Soundystem, The Ting Tings, Hot Chip and so on, we like all those bands a lot.
Do you think Devo’s music is relevant today then?
I know we’re not singing about bitches and hos and drinking all day, but I think we’re relevant like the Kaiser Chiefs are relevant or the LCD [Soundsytem] are relevant.
How important do you think image is important to the band?
Ever since MTV, image became kind of an end all be all for most bands – just image and not even any substance behind the image. It’s nice when there’s something behind the image.
Do you think a lot of bands today are lacking a political voice and missing a trick but not using their voice?
I don’t know if you have to hit people on the head with messages, but certainly everything is political – people who think it isn’t have their heads in the sand. The way we organise our energy and the way people’s rights relate to other people’s rights is an ongoing struggle and it starts at a local level – it starts at your high school and builds to a world level. I mean you saw what happened with eight years of this moronic man Bush in the United States – all the inequalities, all the fears, all the stupid policies having to do with energy and the environment and scientific research and so on. It was hideous, a negative force that ruined a lot of people’s lives and a lot of people were worse off. That’s what I’m saying. We’re all going to suffer and die and we know that. Life is struggle against time and disease and any leader that makes that worse for more people is immoral.
How would you describe your own role in the band?
Let me think about that. I’m kinda the chief strategist. I’d like to think I try and steer things in a direction that’s a good mix of entertainment and substance. And certainly on our current record it starts like ‘oh, this is some kind of Devo party record’ and then the party turns very dark with the last three of four tracks. Even ‘Don’t Shoot [I’m A Man]’, which sounds fun and silly, is really about the effect of abject fear of every moment that’s been created by the 24/7 news cycle and world leaders ever since 9/11. People don’t drive into a city and go ‘look honey, what a beautiful skyline’ - they’re looking at the tallest buildings and wondering where the plane is going to come from.
I see you also direct a lot of music videos. How did that come about? Have you always been interested in filmmaking?
Yes. That was part and parcel of Devo in the beginning. We thought we were going to put our laser discs – we thought we would put out one a year and that would tell a story and that was exactly what we had planned. And of course, that was not to be and we were basically relegated to making what become known as music videos. Laser discs wouldn’t really remerge until they became DVDs 25 years later as a commercially viable medium. But I directed all our videos and because of that I had the chance to start directing videos for other bands. It kinda mutated into somebody letting me do a TV commercial, then I started doing TV commercials, then the music video industry imploded and many, many less videos were being made, on low budgets, and I think the music video kind of crashed and burned along with the function of the record labels.
Devo's first album in quite a while (20 years), 'Something For Everybody', is out now.
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