Djevera Interview - January 2010
by Jodie Humphries
So this interview with Bass and Malc from Djevera was supposed to just go in the news section of the site, but reading through the answers I found myself wanting to place this interview in a more prominent place and have it featured with the rest of the interviews! Just means you've had two interviews in January, but that makes up for the lack of gig reviews this month.
How would you describe your music to someone who doesn’t know you?
Bass: To be honest, I usually wouldn't - as Frank Zappa says "talking about music is like swimming about architecture" or something. I agree wholeheartedly. However, if forced to recite some of the words/phrases that have been used to describe us, then the following words would probably come up : Intense, heavy, abrasive, passionate, difficult at times, weird, somewhere in the No Man's Land between progressive punk, alternative rock and post-metal and yet often on the border with experimental, spoken word and oblivion.
Why should people pay attention to you as a band?
Bass: No band needs or deserves the attention of everyone - but any band that is honest and driven will have an audience, somewhere out there, to whom their music says something. At this stage of being in a band the big challenge is to find that audience; we don't have the luxury (or horror) of a huge brand or marketing campaign to tell people like sheep to like this because it's somehow cool or fun. In fact this is definitely not music for everyone - but it is honest, passionate and unique in its way, and some people may be able to connect with what we're trying to express, which is genuinely different and unique, and from a different perspective from most other artists. Those are the people we are trying to reach and communicate with - people not afraid to allow music to communicate something with integrity, who are cynical enough to question but not too sceptical to appreciate. We make those hard-fought connections one person at a time, one gig at a time./p>
What makes you want to be a musician?
Bass: To be honest, I don't know if I so much "want to be a musician" or if I even think of myself as one really, I just want to be able to express myself and this is how I do it at the moment. Sometimes I think it's just that if I didn't have a noisy guitar behind me I'd just appear to be some crazy, raving lunatic. Maybe that's correct :)
Malc: I've always loved performing, being part of the show - the energy and vibe in the room.
What are your main influences?
Bass: Ian McKaye, Steve Albini, Neil Gaiman, Anna Politkovskaya, Alan Moore, Saul Williams, Henry Rollins, Frank Miller, the DIY scene in London and beyond.
What would be your ideal line-up for a gig if you could have anyone playing?
Bass: Have to be bands I missed in their hey-day - At The Drive-In, Refused, Botch and Massive Attack ... plus Fugazi.
Would you listen to your music if you weren’t in the band?
Bass: HaHa, one of those impossible to know for sure hypothetical’s, but since I actively follow loads of acts in the London underground scene, probably yes, I think. It is weird to think of listening to it as music in a detached form - I still can't quite get my head around the idea that people may stick a Djevara CD on somewhere and not actually know us personally.
Malc: I've only recently joined the band but I've followed them for the last ten years. I've recorded many of their records and always found the music very engaging. I have a more than personal connection with the music.
What was the last CD you bought?
Bass: The debut EP by Orders Of The British Empire.
Malc: Thumpermonkey Lives: we bake our bread beneath her holy fire.
What was the first CD you ever bought?
Bass: 'A Pocketful Of Kryptonite' by Spin Doctors.
Malc: The Prodigy: 'Music For The Jilted Generation'.
Where does the main inspiration come from with your music?
Bass: I don't know if there's any one inspiration - I think everything you've heard or felt or experienced feeds into it, as well as how you're feeling at the time you write and how you relate to the people you're writing with. In the early days of being in a band I think a lot of it is to do with honouring or somehow mimicking the sound or aesthetic of your heroes (and this goes for even the most "underground" bands), but eventually you try to tread your own.
What’s the most embarrassing moment you’ve ever had on stage?
Bass: Malcolm. HaHa, just joking. I think I was most embarrassed actually when we had a group of dancers come on during one of our last shows at the university we started out. We were playing a song called 'Child In Armour' and the hula-dancing did not really seem that appropriate.
Is there one particular gig you’ve played that really sticks out in your mind as being the best gig you’ve ever played?
Bass: Several, but one I'll never forget was one of our first-ever shows as part of a general showcase, again at university, in which we were slotted somewhere between The Revelation Gospel Choir and The University Brass Band. They'd asked for a couple of student bands and they got us on the bill with no idea what to expect. There were grannies and children in the audience, so we decided to play our most vitriolic songs at the time – ‘Mutha Fucker Couch Potato’ and ‘God Is White’. No-one was hurt, but I think to say most of the audience was shocked would be an understatement. There were these two twins who must have been about ten years old head banging even though their father was clearly trying to cover their ears. Most punk rock show we've ever played.
If you were to ever meet your main influence, what would you ask them?
Bass: "Do you ever get bored of being asked questions in hypothetical situations?"
Malc: "What would you like to drink?"
How would you describe the current music scene?
Bass: I've almost no connect to mainstream music anymore (as in charts etc) so I'm talking about the London DIY scene. I think it's at a very exciting time - in 2009 we saw a resurgence in the energy and motivation of a whole new breed of bands, promoters and characters who were breathing a new lease of life into a once dormant and stagnant scene. Its inviting, exciting and not contrived or compromised by commercial interests - in fact it thrives on being completely uninterested in commercial interests or "success" in the traditional sense of the word. Nights like Rip This Joint!, End Of Radio, Genin Lives!, Li Grand Zombi, Rottenluck gigs and many, many more are putting vitally exciting, genuinely original and fiercely independent/DIY music back on the map and it's extremely exciting to be a part of it. The digital age - and in particular the various social media advances - have just made this easier and I don't think there's any going back now.
Malc: Vibrant How many bands do you think you could name that are in the singles charts these days? Malc: None. Bass: If "Killing In The Name" is still in there then one. I've no idea who else is in it.
Which do you prefer more – being in the studio or playing live?
Bass: Playing live - always. The studio process is to produce a document, a snapshot of where you were at one time with one particular interpretation of the music. You don't get to see or feel the other side of the communication - and music is all about the communication, the "being there". There's just no comparison.
Malc: The shows, I love the shows.
Would you rather play a gig to a room full of family and friends, or a gig where you didn’t know a single person in the room?
Bass: Family and friends.
Malc: Definitely the latter, there's so much more potential to make an impact, and I love chatting rubbish with complete strangers.
Where does your band name come from?
Bass: It was picked it up from some stoned new age traveller at Reading Festival many years ago. He was going on about his adventures around Asia when he was younger, and he kept referring very excitedly to this legend of the "Djevara" - a time and place denoting the end of intolerance and the beginning of justice. I liked it, and it sure beat being called "Havok!" (An unfortunate but short-lived name of an earlier incarnation of the band)
How easy do you find the song writing process?
Bass: No, it's not easy - but it is usually very satisfying. There's no shortage of ideas, but as in anything where people with different experiences and perceptions get together it's a challenge making something that speaks to all of you.
Malc: Very rewarding, especially the inaugural gigs, getting the feedback from the audience.
Does everyday life get in the way of the band at times?
Bass: The obvious answer is "yes" but to be honest I think it depends how you look at it: in some ways to me "everyday life" IS the band project and all the other stuff is just stuff I have to do to stay alive (and sane), and on the other hand there is more to life than just being in a band - and there are many more ways we can express ourselves and make a difference, and I embrace that. This is just one part, though an important one, of our personalities.
Malc: Of course. The band's very much an expression of that, the frustrations, the laughs, the good times. I think that if it all ran smoothly the music wouldn't be what it is.
How do you all know each other?
Bass: I met Geoff at university and Malc has been one of my best friends for a long time ever since I played with one of his first bands in deepest, darkest Croydon.
Malc: it's a beautiful story, takes a while to tell. Buy me a beer at a show and I'll tell you all about it.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Bass: It's a toss-up between Fugazi at The Forum, Rage Against The Machine at London Astoria and Melvin and Shellac at All Tomorrow's Parties 10 Year Anniversary... and Silent Front at 2am at Freedom Festival 2, 2009.
What would be your ideal future for the band?
Bass: To be able to make and perform the best music we can in as many situations as possible, and to as many people as would appreciate it as possible, to truly find our audience, for as long as it is relevant and true.
Malc: More shows, more tours, more tunes, meeting more people and great bands.
