Brighton rockers My Device need no introduction to local music aficionados. If you’re worth your salt, you’d know that this three-piece were awarded NME’s ‘Sony Walkman Breaking Band’ award in 2006. XYZ’s Nats Spada caught up with them as their UK tour wound up at Barfly.
XYZ: How do you think the Brighton music scene has changed over the last few years?
Todd: It’s weird. For as long as we’ve been making music people in Brighton have been talking about ‘the scene’ and how it’s always on the verge of breaking into the mainstream. I guess they want it to be like Seattle in the 90’s, or New York in the 70’s. Somehow that just never seems to happen. We don’t really put that much stock in the geographical aspects of music though. You could be from Guangdong or you could be from Rottingdean for all we care. As long as you’re good, you’re good. Brighton’s changed a little. Venues have come and gone; some better than others. There are always loads of good bands around, but then they graduate from university and have to go and get proper jobs. And then we lose our friends. It’s sad.
You’ve just finished a UK Tour. What was your favourite date and why?
Russ: It went really well, but we seemed to run out of gigs just as we got into the swing of it! The best date was probably at The Rainbow in Birmingham. The stage was set up in a courtyard outside the back of the pub and they had a guy grilling halloumi all night. The whole thing went on until 4am, which was great for us because we didn’t have a show the next day and could be as reckless as we liked. The bands have been pretty great every night though, we’ve been really lucky.
Tell us about you forthcoming single ‘Fountain of Youth’.
Todd: That song is basically about Walkmans. I was pretty much the last person in Sussex to get an iPod. So, for the longest time I was just trudging around everywhere with this backpack full of CDs to listen to as I wandered about the place, and I’d forever be having to stop in the street, and tip my bag out and go through the whole rigmarole of changing disc or whatever. I kind of miss it now. It was something to cling to. More or less every time I’d spill my albums out onto the pavement, almost all of them would be Sonic Youth; just pouring everywhere. Hence, ‘Fountain Of Youth’.
Where do you go on a night out?
Todd: I guess you’d most often find us in The Albert. We love that place for some reason. We even poached our touring soundman from there. It just seems to be the closest thing to a heart this city has right now, without any bogus restrictions over what drinks they sell or what gigs they put on. That’s something that a lot of pubs and venues seem incapable of offering… Everything!
When and where was the first gig?
Russ: It was at a house party on the wrong side of the tracks, playing to a room full of indifferent kids and a one-eyed dog.
What is your most treasured possession?
Todd: Oh man, I got given this huge box-set of Hammer Horror films from Father Christmas! It’s got like 30 films on it! All my favourites, from ‘Plague Of The Zombies’ to ‘Rasputin The Mad Monk’. I still haven’t watched through all of them yet. The best bit is that the box opens out into a little red crucifix. It’s sacri-tacular.
Russ: Travel Scrabble was pretty invaluable on the drive home from Glasgow.
When did you last cry and why?
Russ: I shed a single tear for every album we didn’t sell on tour.
Doogle: I did shed a tear when I found out that there’s going to be a remake of [cult Japanese animated film] ‘Akira’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh my God!
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Doogle: Never trust a man with a limp hand shake.
Todd: The first time I went to a gig in London, I was a little nipper, and some complete stranger told me to “chill the fuck out”. That’s great advice. I think I’d probably stamped on his foot or something, by mistake of course. Actually, come to think of it, that’s rubbish advice. He looked like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and he was getting pissed off with me for dancing too close to his girlfriend. Prick. Dude, if you’re reading this now, I offer you precisely the opposite advice: “Heat the fuck up!”
What have you got planned for the rest of the year?
Todd: Well, we’re already starting to book our next tour, including a gig with one of our favourite bands ever, Ex Models, which will be face-melting fun. We’re in the lab cooking up new tracks all the time, so as soon as we have something that we can point to and smile, I guess we’ll be doing some new recordings. Aside from that, I guess we’ll just be trying to shake off the general malaise which surrounds humanity. Ho hum!
Words by Nats Spada
Photographs by Joel Smedley
