DEVILINSIDE (TONY BYRON)

HI, HOW ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW? I’m sitting at my girl’s place watching ‘Detroit Rock City’ and responding to your questions. YOU JUST RELEASED YOUR DEBUT „VOLUME ONE“. HERE IN GERMANY YOU ARE A QUITE UKNOWN BAND. MAYBE YOU CAN INTRODUCE YOURSELF. We’re Devilinside, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Joel Andersen plays drums, Mike Van Heel plays bass, Jaime Gonzales is our singer, and my name’s Tony Byron; I play guitar. YOUR FIRST RECORD IS OUT NOW. IN MY VIEW IT’S A STRONG PIECE OF HEAVY MUSIC. SO HOW ARE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT THE RESULT? It’s the first thing I’ve ever recorded that I’ve been confident about. I think everyone else in the band feels the same. HOW IS IT TO BE BACK ON TRACK AFTER THE END OF DISEMBODIED? Pretty good. I guess there hasn’t been much of a break. Joel and I have been writing material for Devilinside before the end of Disembodied HOW MUCH IS YOUR MUSIC INFLUENCED BY YOUR PAST WITH DISEMBODIED? Not much, really. Disembodied was always a sinking ship in my opinion, and I think the music we are doing in Devilinside is miles ahead of Disembodied’s. „VOLUME ONE“ SOUNDS VERY HEAVY AND MOTIVATED. HOW DID THE RECORDING-SESSIONS GO? We had a lot of fun making ‘Volume One’. It was great to have had time to experiment with some of our newer material and make changes on the fly. TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR LYRICS AND WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT. ARE YOU IN ANY WAY POLITICAL? Most of the lyrics are about personal issues and a lot of common stuff that most people can relate to, such as ‘Breathing Fear’, which is about the media and the currently screwed-up state of U.S. politics. ‘Confession’ is anti-organized religion. WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH THESE INSTRUMENTALS BETWEEN THE SONGS? ARE THEY COMPOSED OR MAYBE JUST UNFINISHED SONGS? Those were fun to write. They were all composed and inserted strategically to guide the overall flow of the record. We feel that we’re better able to express ourselves musically this way, with no boundaries, not just through ‘songs’. SOME OF THEM HAVE TITLES LIKE „BATAN“, „IGNIS FATUUS“ AND „VODKALUNG“. WHAT ARE THEY ABOUT? YOU SEEM TO HAVE A STRANGE KIND OF HUMOR… Most go with the feel of the music, some of the titles are related to what was going on while they were being written or recorded. IN YOUR INFO BANDS LIKE SEPULTURA, ENTOMBED AND MACHINE HEAD ARE MENTIONED AS YOUR INFLUENCES. HOW IMPORTANT ARE THESE BANDS FOR YOUR MUSIC? There are lots of other influences, but those mentioned stick out because of their simple song structures, that are reminiscent of old thrash and 70’s rock music; that’s something we can really relate to and enjoy. YOU DEBUT IS RELEASED VIA CENTURY MEDIA REC. HOW DID THIS WORKOUT? I MEAN USUALLY A NEW BAND STARTS ON A SMALLER LABEL AND THEN GOES TO A BIGGER ONE OR IS IT A LICENSING DEAL FOR EUROPE? That’s just where we ended up – we got lucky to be presented with the opportunity to work with a large label pretty early on in our career. We’re happy working with such a professional group of people, and I think we’re a good match for each other.

DID YOU EVER HEAR THE NAME „JAYLAN“? IT’S A GERMAN METALCORE BAND. THEIR ORIGINAL BAND NAME WAS „DEVIL INSIDE“, BUT THEY HAD TO CHANGE IT, BECAUSE OF THE LAWYERS OF THE INTEL COMPANY… DID YOU EVER HAVE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR BAND NAME YOURSELF? We’d actually talked with them via email awhile ago. They warned us, but because our name is not 2 separate words, as theirs was, this issue doesn’t affect us. For Intel to have control over a word in the English dictionary, such as ‘inside’, seems pretty ridiculous anyway. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW METALCORE-TREND WITH BANDS LIKE HATEBREED, SHADOWS FALL, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE…? I think it’s great; they’re all cool guys and have always been making good music even before they were in the bands that they’re in now. WILL THIS LAST LONGER AS THE JUST DYING NU METAL THING? I think so, mainly because for so long there has been an underground fanbase for the style of music, which does nothing but get bigger. In the 80’s, bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax were in the same place when they started, too. YOU’RE ON A GERMAN LABEL SO I THINK WE WILL ABLE TO SEE YOU GUYS HERE LIVE ON STAGE IN THE NEAR FUTURE, WILL WE? HAVE YOU ALREADY HAD LIVE EXPERIENCES WITH DEVILINSIDE? You will definitely see Devilinside sometime in the near future. We did one tour to promote our EP and have plans to tour the US in November. From there, we’ll be working on getting over to Europe as soon as possible. WILL THERE BE ANY SONGS OF DISEMBODIED IN YOUR SET? Nope, just Devilinside. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE BAND YOU WOULD LIKE TO TOUR WITH? I can’t speak for the rest of the band on this one, but for me, it would be Meshuggah. They have so much groove to their sound; they’re awesome. AND COULD YOU TELL OUR READERS SOMEHTING ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL INTERESTS BESIDES MUSIC? I like to spend my free time with my girl or bass fishing. Relaxation is a must! GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR DEBUT AND THE UPCOMING TOUR. AS ALWAYS THE LAST WORDS ARE YOURS! Thanks!