We are all children of punk rockers, so our brains have been lobotomized since childhood
Deaf Devils is a young band from Valencia, Spain, a region that recently made headlines due to terrible flooding. The group also caused a sensation by actually being thrown out of Rebellion Festival, the largest punk festival in the world, by the security services. What exactly went wrong remains a closely guarded secret, and it is anyone’s guess whether the same will happen when they take the stage on Saturday 19 April at Breaking Barriers, the Belgian festival that reminds us every year that punk is not dead. Breaking Barriers organiser Malcolm Nix nevertheless went to the group to ask about their prospects.
You come from Valencia, Spain. Unfortunately, that city was hit hard by floods not long ago. What's the current situation? To what extent has the damage affected live in the city?
Fortunately, the water did not reach the city centre, but in the areas that were affected, mud continues to be dredged up. The people outside of Valencia seem to have forgotten what happened, but things are still much the same as they were 3 months ago.
That day, we were on our way to rehearse, and as we were arriving, there was an unbelievable traffic jam. We started seeing water coming from the other side of the road. At first, we didn’t understand anything because no one had warned us. When we were about 250 meters from the rehearsal space, more and more water started coming in. The road, which had three lanes, turned into a single-lane road. At one point, water started entering our car, and somehow, we managed to accelerate and survive. We were trapped there for 17 hours. We had to abandon the car and jump to the side of the road where there was no water. The next morning, some trucks came to pick up the people who were stranded there.
Luckily, we didn’t lose anything in our rehearsal space, but we can’t say the same for many of our friends. Some people have lost everything. I can’t even imagine what that must be like...
On another note, talking about those taking advantage of the situation, there are some rehearsal spaces that weren’t affected at all but have raised their prices… Most rehearsal rooms are on the outskirts – these were the most affected areas – and many of them have unfortunately lost everything.
Luckily, there’s still music in these dark times. When you see Deaf Devils on stage, you can see all the band members are very passionate about the songs and the way they’re performed live. Where does this passion come from? Have you all been into music since a very young age or did some specific event change your live and make you become musicians?
We are all children of punk rockers, so our brains have been lobotomized since childhood, haha. It’s always been something we’ve been passionate about, we’ve been playing since we were very young, and to finally be able to go out and kick some asses is crazy.
Most of the songs in the live set are your own. Where do yet get your musical inspiration from and what are the typical subjects you deal with in your lyrics?
Usually, we sing about things that happen to us on a daily basis, especially things that annoy us, ’cause we are full of hate. We also get a lot of ideas from songs that we like and which we want to give our own perspective, so we just borrow it. We hope the people who influenced us take our songs asan hommage and don't decide to denounce us for all the similarities the songs have.
The live set always includes two or sometimes three covers. I don’t want to sound like an old grandfather talking about when he was young, but you weren’t even born when the original versions of those songs were released. How did you get acquainted with these old classics?
We’ve been listening to those songs literally since before we were born and it’s really the music we love. We are grandparents locked in the bodies of young people.
Being in a punk band always brings about certain challenges, but one of them is that your music doesn’t fit in the most recent trends, which means it’s quite unlikely you’ll reach the top of the charts any time soon. Have you ever considered other musical genres or was it clear this would be a no-nonsense/no-compromise punk band right from the start?
Nah, we’ve always been very sure about the music we wanted to make. We know punk is a difficult genre of music, but it’s the one we really like. We would all find it very difficult to do something without it being something we like.
The past three years, you’ve already performed a lot outside of Spain, which means you can now compare your own local scene with what you’ve seen on the road. Is there something special or unique about the Spanish punk scene that you don’t see or hear elsewhere?
Yes! That Rock’n’Roll is dead, but because people are letting it die. And not only because of the small number of young bands, but also because there is no room for new bands. The vast majority of promoters are only interested in you when they see that they can take advantage of you. Nobody bets on your band if you are nobody, but they won’t help you to become someone either. That’s why we always try to support the bands that really work hard, and we are always very grateful to everyone who supports us even when we are nobodies.
Last year, you’ve played in the UK a few times, including at Rebellion Festival, where you got thrown out by the security. Have you had a lot of reactions from fans or other bands to this unexpected banishment from the building? And what was the reaction of the people running Rebellion, who are clearly not in control of the bouncers at their own event?
Yes, we all thought it was crazy! As far as we know, the stage manager and the general RIS Stage crew didn’t understand what was going on either. But to the security we were like terrorists. Eight of them cornered our bass player and cut off our wristbands instantly. Still no one has contacted us to explain anything ... So we just assumed that they didn’t like us.
This year, you’re returning to Belgium for a few concerts. The first one is Breaking Barriers at Het Depot, Leuven. Do you actually see anything of the cities you visit or is it always the case you don’t have time to visit the surroundings of the venue where you’re playing?
We never have time for sightseeing, we always sleep very late and we are very lazy. But if there is something that really interests us, we manage to go. Well, sometimes. But the truth is that we are not really fans of tourism in general.
At Het Depot, you’ll be sharing the stage with people like Charlie Harper or Steve Ignorant, who’ve been around for a really long time. Do you feel there’s a real connection between punks of your age and these older veterans, who have lived very different lives in very different times?
We have already met Steve, but it is unbelievable to say that Charlie is actually our mate. For us they are legends, and to be able to meet them and talk to them is surrealistic for us.
A lot people don’t know Deaf Devils yet. What should they expect from your upcoming Belgian concerts? Will the performance be as wild as ever or do you have any surprises in mind?
There will be madness, rawness and of course fire, that’s all we know.
Speaking of wild performances, we all know some band members find it difficult to stay on the stage and prefer to bounce around in the middle of the crowd. What’s the worst injury you suffered during a concert so far?
Pipe cut his chest at our fourth concert, he still has the scars. Lucy broke her finger a few months ago during a gig, and after every tour she ends up being a walking bruise. In the end we all get hurt, even the audience if they get too close ...
Finally, there’s no reason why this interview should only consist of questions about the band being interviewed. Are there any other brilliant Spanish bands the Belgian punk crowd should definitely get to know better?
Of course! The truth is that there aren’t many crazy people doing rock’n’roll in Spain, but there are a lot of good bands who are completely crazy, like us. There are classic bands like our neighbours Wau y Los Arrrgs!!!, Ukelele Zombies or the extinct Undersubs. And in the rest of the country there are current bands like Los Chicos, Eh, Mertxe! or Automatic Lovers.
