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TH: Do you see Inside Out Records taking this album to a new level, or do you see
yourself doing any tour in the U.S.?
DG: Well, I don’t know about the U.S, we will have to see what sort of audience I
get over (in the U.S.) there has to be enough of an audience to make a concert
realistic, I don’t know how much (Inside Out) has do with that, it has to do with
people themselves, the record is out there but (Inside Out) can’t make people like
it. If enough do, than I will start touring out there. We do finally have a European
tour going and were kind of grassrootsing it from here.
TH: I then asked him how his audience in Europe was and asked him to talk about his
experiences there:
DG: In the days of Psychotic Waltz, we relocated to Germany, because our audience
was primarily European going where the love is so to speak, it was defiantly a
sensible move. But I am always hoping that things spread out to the U.S.
He starts joking and says:
DG: I hope so because I miss Mexican food, we don’t have it over here (Belgium).
TH: So where do you see your place in the whole progressive rock/metal world?
DG: I don’t know where my place is in any of these categories, because am I
progressive? I don’t know; I can count to numbers other than four, so I guess that
makes me progressive. When I hear of prog-metal or progressive rock, I don’t feel
that I have very much in common these types of music. Talking about groups like
Genesis and Yes. I really don’t know what it is I do, I am into this hard music and
I sing melodically; its as if you are stuck in this weird space, Led Zeppelin had
sort of the same problem, they were the first band that was really called heavy
metal, and the band took that as offence because that immediately labeled them; I
play acoustic guitars, we sing melodically and we do all types of stuff; many times
the description of the music has not been to the musician’s contentment. So I
believe that I am a modern version of this music. I try to mix all the music
together that I listened to when I was younger, Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin,
Jethro Tull, and Black Sabbath. I feel that I can be the common denominator of all
those bands I listen to.
TH: So those are basically some of your influences and so forth.
DG: Sure.
TH: Do you see this type of music making more waves in the US, maybe gaining more
popularity in so forth?
DG: I sure do hope so, I really believe in it, I feel that what I am doing is
worthwhile and appealing, I think it is almost conspiracy that it is not, I think
that there is so much to like about it.
I have been surprised at all the bands that I have been in and how little success I
have had, and I no longer expect it, or even hope for it, I don’t even think about
it. All I can do is turn out the best quality product/material that I can, and this
is not so I can achieve success, this is so that can be happy about what I have
done. Because when I write music, I only write for myself, I can’t begin to guess
what you are going to like, or what any country like America is going to embrace or
what the next trend is going to be, all I can do what moves me, and if it moves me
then I can expect that anyone else might like it, so you won’t see me following any
trends, and feed off what is popular. I do this and it brings me joy. I am
expressing to you, what I wish music would be, and I can’t expect you have the same
wish. Hopefully as I evolve we will meet somewhere in the middle where we all agree,
and hopefully I will gain a larger audience.
TH: I see that Inside Out Records is seen as one of the more prominent labels in
this type of music, and it seems like nowadays many independent record companies are
having to utilize fewer resources to promote a record, but they tend to be more
efficient (than say the Big 5 companies) with whatever resources they have to
promote a record, and they seem to be successful at it, creating a bigger buzz for
many artists, knowing how to pinpoint their audience, and the Big 5 companies such
as Warner or Sony could learn a lot from this. Taking the whole less is more
approach.
DG: When you look at the Inside Out situation, these small companies rely on
quality, they have quality to sell, when looking at Inside Out, you can look at any
artist/band that they have and they really have top-notch player in all of them. For
the Major labels that can really no longer be said, when you look at this stuff that
is mass-produced, quality is not the issue.
TH: So when looking back at you career, is there any thing that you would like to
point out, any last words?
DG: As Far as Psychotic Waltz goes, it was really a tight unit, but in my opinion I
sing a lot better now than I did then, you might not even recognize me as the same
guy. I even listened to the first Psychotic waltz album the other day and had
trouble listening to it, so much that I had to turn it off because I could not stand
it, it’s really a whole different trip, some people even tell me that they like the
way I used to sing better that the way I sing now, go figure.
TH: Well then we were out of time,
I believe we can all learn a lot about ourselves from the way Graves expresses his
happiness and his beliefs about his music and life in general. As for the new
record; just check out my review of it on this site, and then run to the store and
buy it.
Interview provided by InsideOut Music America
Visit Devon Graves website.
http://www.deadsoultribe.com/
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