With the inaugural Fort Fest looming (September 2nd – 4th in Bedfordshire), we thought it would make sense to track down some of these up-and-coming superstars and let them tell you a little about themselves. New Device were one of the bands we managed to get hold of and fire some questions at.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re all from in or around London.
How did you meet?
We’d all been playing and touring the country in various other projects and crossed paths at one point or another! Nick had actually seen Dan and myself (Roz) ing Europe at The Garage in Highbury 2 years before we ed up with him! Matt had auditioned for my previous band, Red Star Rebels, just before it ended as well! It’s kinda spooky thinking about it!
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We’ve been touring and recording together since late 2010, but the band began in early 2008 with a different line up.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Dan came up with it, “New Device” features in the lyrics in one of our songs “Takin’ Over”, which was around before the band had a name!
What are your influences – individually or as a band?
I’d say we have very varied influences as a unit. I like anything from Skid Row, Aerosmith, Stone Sour and Alter Bridge to Periphery, Meshuggah, Slipknot and Metallica. Anything with interesting drums/riffs or good lyrics and I’m into it!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We’re a melodic Hard Rock band. We have some heavy riffs and break downs with choruses you can sing. I’d say we’ve taken influence from classic rock bands we grew up listening to and blended it with more modern influences. We just do our thing!
Which is your best bit of merch?
I’d have to say our albums, everything else is cool, but meaningless without that! We are working on a cool bit of merch atm to get all our releases in one, which will be awesome!
What’s your live show like – why should the baying hordes troop over to the stage you’re playing on to watch you? What can we expect?
We’re pretty relentless live, all our energy goes into our shows no matter where we’re playing. We don’t plan any gimmicks into our sets, but we get everyone involved and make use of our surroundings that’s for sure.
When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Fort Fest and what have you heard about it so far?
We’re really looking forward to this show, there are a lot of friends playing across the weekend. It sounds like a great new festival. They’re really ing the British music scene and at all levels which is great to see. We’ve known for a while so we’ve put a special set together for this show!
Which band (other than you guys obviously) is going to kick up a storm this weekend?
Haha! Well we’ve seen the Bad Touch guys a bunch of times, they’re always awesome! Make sure you catch them!
Who are your top picks of the weekend?
Other than the headliners, Bad Touch, The Dirty Youth, Boy Jumps Ship, Fahran and The Treatment is where we are heading!
What are you working on at the moment and when/where can we expect to hear from you?
We have a new EP Devils On The Run coming out September 30th. It’s the second part of a four-part concept release coming out over the next 12 months! It’s a full on hard rock EP. We wanted to do something different and push ourselves. We released part one of this series late last year. That was a live album recorded at our 5th year anniversary show of our first album Takin’ Over.
We have a full band acoustic EP waiting to be released next year and are heading to the studio to record the fourth release early next year. It sounds confusing and some people think we are crazy for doing this, which is exactly why we went for it!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen fans do at a gig?
There’s a lot to choose from! One that had most audience participation was when we played this awesome rock club as part of a festival. There was no stage, all on the same level. We had no idea what to expect as we’d never played the area before, it was pretty empty right up until we kicked off the set. 2 or 3 songs in it was rammed to the point where we could only see the front couple of rows. Dan, our singer, climbed up onto the bar during a song. Which escalated quickly, fans ed him as well as climbing on tables and chairs around the room. I swear a guy was standing on power socked to get a bit higher?! Haha It was an amazing atmosphere and the venue owner loved it!
What advice would you give to a young band just starting out today?
I’d say however hard you think you work, try and work harder! The industry changes all the time, so you have to be prepared for anything and roll with the punches. Finally, it’s important to have fun doing all the parts off the stage as well, because there’s a lot of that!
If you could be part of any 3-band line-up who else would you have on the bill? One band above you and one below – a chance to plug a smaller, unsigned act!
This is the hardest question! I’d love to Stone Sour for sure! I’d never put a band “below” us, but I think Saints Of Sin are great to play with and you should check em out!
What stage / time are you playing at Fort Fest (if you have your slot yet!)?
We’re fifth band on the main stage Sunday 4th September!
https://youtu.be/bqw9LbXybKE
