An interview with Elliott Kyriakides and Dylan Ware of the one and only Devils Henchmen.
Your touring history includes performances in culturally diverse locations such as Dubai, Portugal, and the Isle of Man. Do audience reactions to your music vary depending on the region?
Elliott Kyriakides: Honestly, not really! One of the things we love about the music scene is that it is so global. We’ve had people start moshpits and two step both at home and abroad, the people and environments may be different, but the love and passion for the music is the same wherever you go. We can’t wait to hopefully see this in even more places in the future.
You have shared the stage with absolute legends of the genre, such as Cro-Mags, D.R.I., and Discharge. Which of these encounters had the greatest impact on your professional approach to putting on a show?
Elliott: There is always something to learn from legendary bands who have been doing this professionally for a very long time, but if we have to pick one, Harley Flanagan of Cro Mags really stood out to us. He is a really nice guy, made the time to introduce himself to us and the other support bands and was super professional in how he operated.
Your fans often note a unique blend in your music: the precision of early Metallica combined with the vocal expressiveness of the hardcore punk scene. How do you manage to reconcile these two contrasting approaches to rhythm and melody, and make them work together in the studio?
Elliott: When we write music, a lot of the time we like to think "We’re a big fan of X band, how do we think they’d approach this?". Honestly, for a lot of the reconciliation between thrash metal and hardcore, we take a great deal of inspiration from the Crossover Thrash bands that inspire us, such as Carnivore, Power Trip and Killing Frost. We feel that thrash and hardcore are two sides of a coin in some ways, and when you can find ways to make them gel together it is really satisfying. As with any kind of music, the transitions between these sections and the gelling of ideas need to be smooth, but as with any band, we like to try a variety of different ideas before we commit to one in a song.
Your latest single, "Crossfire" suggests a no-win situation—being caught in the line of fire. What kind of conflict—whether internal or societal—were you trying to depict?
Dylan Ware: Nearly all of the bands that inspire our material use their songs to discuss real-world conflicts and political themes. That sentiment has definitely motivated us to use our “platform” to discuss real-world points that we care about. There’s a lot of conflicts in the world and between the wars and genocides going on, that is where the influence for crossfire comes from. The lyrics depict a soldier, from an instigating side of one of these conflicts, coming to terms with the reality of their actions and realising the deception that has been pushed onto them to manipulate them into fighting. For example the line “melee fades to murder”, tries to illustrate the idea that the guilt of the acts has caught up with them. That what was once a courageous endeavour to serve their nation has fallen to the real horror of the situation, “murder”. “No deception, no deliverance” is what the soldier is left with in that moment of realisation and with the state of the world, we would hope those people eventually see their actions for what they are.
The short video teasers for this single caused quite a stir on your social media. Does "Crossfire" have the potential to become a new concert anthem and a staple of your live shows?
Elliott: We’ve been including it in our sets for a while now and the song always gets a fantastic reception. We’re hoping now that people have a studio version to listen to in their own time, they can enjoy it even more live and get even crazier pits going to it! We don’t see it leaving our set any time soon.
Liverpool—your hometown—is a global capital of melodic pop and indie rock. I wonder, then: did creating uncompromising metal in the shadow of The Beatles' legacy require you to adopt the role of outsiders on your local scene?
Elliott: The Beatles definitely cast a big shadow. Liverpool is a fantastic music city but understandably, it can sometimes be culturally skewed towards that band. No disrespect towards them though, they’re legends and a good few of us in the band are fans as well! But I do think in a lot of cases in the UK music industry, metal is by definition outsider art. The Mercury Prize, a prominent UK music award, makes a point of not including metal as it is more of a niche interest. It’s similar with a lot of local festivals, they’re not too interested in booking metal bands. But that’s ok, the metal scene in Liverpool is the strongest it has been for years, we have a great in-house scene that’s growing by the day, we don’t necessarily need acceptance from a different scene that has it’s own interests.
I ask this because I’ve heard that the UK underground scene can be insular. Which element of traditional British metal do you deliberately reject in your music, and which do you cultivate with due respect?
Elliott: There is a lot to learn from how traditional bands operate, we try and focus on the positives we can take from them. Looking at bands who have been doing this for a lot longer than we have, we try to channel their work ethic and dedication to their art. I’m not sure if there is much we would reject that other bands in our genre would do, but one thing we are definitely against is ego. We want to work and present ourselves in a respectful and non-ego driven way. At the end of the day it’s all about the music and the stage show and an excess of ego and the classic idea of a “rock star” isn’t something we’re interested in.
You’ve come a long way from playing small pubs to performing on massive stages in the UK and abroad. As the years go by, what do you find more challenging: writing a good, catchy riff, or maintaining that same youthful rage?
Elliott: Honestly I think as we’ve gone on the rage has only been increasing! At the moment we feel like we are writing our fastest, heaviest and angriest material to date. We are incredibly proud of our upcoming album and can’t wait to get it out there. The three singles currently out will give you some idea of what we are going for but we can’t wait to share the rest. Though as we do get older, we do try and act a little more sensibly before a live show, maybe one or two less beers and a couple more stretches. You can’t bring a high energy stage show if you pull a muscle and there’s always time for more beer after the show.
Following up on that—what currently fuels your anger the most? Is it political or existential frustration, or perhaps a pure, artistic desire to push the boundaries of heaviness?
Elliott: That’s a great question, it is honestly a mixture of both. Musically, like a lot of our peers, we are huge Slayer fans. They pushed the genre so far so early, it is staggering to think that "Reign in Blood" is now 40 years old. We try and push ourselves and our music as far as we can within our niche in a similar way. Obviously we have a long way to go before we can properly compare ourselves to a band like that, but we try our best to learn from them and other boundary pushing thrash and hardcore bands. In terms of frustration, a lot of our lyrics and songwriting deal with personal and social issues that make us angry. We aren’t a band who pushes a political message but our music definitely reflects the frustrations of living in a world that seems to be getting more and more insane every day.
Is there a moment in your career when you thought, "If we had made a different decision back then, Devils Henchmen would be in a completely different place today"?
Elliott: The biggest decision we probably made was moving to a four piece lineup. Before we brought in Dylan on lead guitar, we were a three piece band playing more traditional heavy metal alongside thrash. Having that second guitar and new input, we definitely started pushing ourselves in a new direction musically to where we are today.
Well, a band's success used to be measured by a major record label deal. You, however, chose a different, independent path. Looking back, do you still feel that total artistic freedom is worth sacrificing broad commercial promotion?
Elliott: At the moment it absolutely is. We aren’t against the idea of a record deal entirely, but it would have to be something that gave us real benefit. We are very proud of being able to do what we have done in a largely DIY manner and are very happy to continue doing so, but if a deal were to come in that would increase our audience and gigging opportunities we would definitely consider it. Though if this involved any compromise to our artistic integrity and music we would definitely reject it.
So, what is the biggest myth about artistic independence that your more than ten years of underground experience has brutally debunked?
Elliott: Maybe that it's only hard work that will make you successful! There’s definitely an element of luck as well, but as they say, the harder you work, the luckier you get.
Now, imagine an eccentric billionaire offers you a million pounds for a gig, on the condition that you pretend to be a cheerful disco band for the entire performance. Would you go for it?
Elliott: I reckon so! A million quid for a few hours of looking stupid and having a laugh would be able to fund so much recorded music and touring. We definitely take ourselves and our music very seriously but it’s important to have a bit of a laugh as well, especially with that kind of money involved.
And if you had to turn one song from your discography into a Broadway musical, which track would have the most comic potential?
Elliott: Probably "Grimace", it’s a song about the horrors of climate change so it would be very interesting and funny to see those kind of themes as a musical number.
0 Komentarze