I first saw THE DEVICS when they played a show at The Roxy in Hollywood with V L A. and I was very suprised to hear the sounds coming from this very classy band from Hollywood. About a year later we found ourselves together again (Sans their original bass player who left the band months ago) in a little coffee shop on Melrose called MELVIN嘯. We find a well lit corner of the room and begin our NO-FI journey into the mind of THE DEVICS. Let's begin.

C = Chris Beyond (Me, of course)
S = Sara Love (Lead Singer/Bassist)
D = Dustin (Guitar/39 Year Old Alcoholic)
E = Evan (Groove Pocket/Drums)

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C: Who are THE DEVICS and how did they come into existance?
D: Well, the story of THE DEVICS... started a long long time ago... about early 91, um, and the formation...
S: You're wasting tape!
E: The product and the opportunity! Yes YOU too! Ok, we were formed in early 91. That廣 when we had four members and...wait, (To Dustin) were YOU in the band in 91? Wait...see, I met him on drugs!
S: Just let me do it, ok...We started the band in 91...the four of us...there was four of us then. We had a Bass Player up until a year and a half ago and then we didn't play for a while because we were looking for another bass player. We didn't find another bass player so I started playing bass eight months ago and that's all that matters...and I SUCK, but I'm practicing every day!
C: I guess my readers can take that however they want to.
(uncomfortable silence)
D: I just work here.
C: If you were superheroes, what would be each of your powers?
D: Mindreading.
E: Form of Ice Water.
D: Sara would fly.
C: Who looks the best naked?
D: Definitly Evan! Evan takes the cake! When he starts wiggling that love meat around...the party starts!
E: However, of all of us, the only one who ever exposes themselves publically has to be Dustin, so...
D: You know, when you play guitar you gotta' play something else.
C: We won't go any deeper into that. What's happening with the CD? Any suprises? Will lyrics be available?
S: CD comes out September 5th at our CD release party, but yes it's free to get in so Eveybody is invited. Yes, the lyrics will be printed inside...
D: In Hyroglyphics.
S: and, yes, there is a suprise...
(She tells me in a strange voice, BUT YOU will have to find out for YOURSELF!)
E: It's not really a secret!
C: We'll find out.
E: We didn't do any track tricks!
S: Every CD has a sticker.
E: And a slice of American cheese!
C: I'm waiting for the day when they put little thin flimsy CDs in magazines like they used to in records.
E: It'll be interactive!
C: Don't you guys feel like that show F-R-I-E-N-D-S here in the coffee shop?
D: I completely model my life after the television show F-R-I-E-N-D-S.
C: Where do you guys get your great flyer and album art?
D: It's a secret!
E: Uhhh, anyone in the government listening?
D: Is Kinkos listening?
S: Is ANYBODY listening?
E: Our lawyers name is Joe.
C: Well, it's all you right? Dressed up in the funny costumes?
E: A really good photographic recreation!
C: What is your all time favorite TV show and episode?
D: I have two favorites...my two favorites would be the first STAR TREK and TWILIGHT ZONE...hands down! There is no favorite episode because they all rule.
S: Yeah, me too...and THE KIDS IN THE HALL.
C: Cool!
S: Any episode with the chicken lady.
C: I like the cabbage head myself.
D: and MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE!
E: I exclusivly watch the cartoon network and my favorite cartoon right now is TWO STUPID DOGS.
C: Many plugs in this interview...what do you think is the best movie this year?
S: DEAD MAN!
D: I have to get serious here for a minute....
E: LONE STAR!
D: He said it! Starring Chris Cristopherson and...
C: Didn't Bill Pullman play Lone Star?
D: Yes Bill Pullman too!
E: For Lone Star press one...BEEP! That was a good movie as it delt with a lot of good issues in a heavy duty way... Something that a lot of americans can廠 do nowdays...(He gets choked up)
D: (Coughs!) Auughh, let me make sure I cough on your microphone...(Coughs)...I really want you to enjoy it also!
S: I like CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, TRAINSPOTTING...you know, anything artsy...
D: Anything with DRUGS man!!!
D: My favorite movie that I saw was...I really enjoyed DEAD MAN...that was a good movie...not DEAD MAN WALKING.
E: It's black and white. It's very moody. Lovely, lovely.
C: This is MY question...Have you ever held a monkey?
D: That's a personal question...that's REALLY personal. Doesn廠 everybody?
S: Tell me your definition of a monkey and I'll tell you if I've held one.
C: A Monkey!!!! You know...little...brown fur...hangs from trees.
S: Ok, I haven't held one, but one time I was at the L.A. zoo and I saw a monkey doing something that he shouldn廠 have been doing.
D: Which was holding HIS monkey!
E: Held one? As in cradled and loved? Held like a small one in my hand? Crushed? Or just touched a monkey? No, no,no! I mean hold like..."I love you!"
S: YES OR NO?!?!?
D: You know, I've touched a monkey!
E: Yes, I've held a monkey.
C: Awwww.
E: I was at the zoo once and one stole my sisters purse and we had to get the trainer to get it back for us.
C: Now that's a good monkey story!
D: I was in mexico and there was a cage full of monkeys and we had a beach towel and one of the monkeys pulled it in and shit all over it.
E: No, that was ME, man!
D: So we had to leave the towel. We did leave the towel there.
C: What was your favorite childhood toy?
E: Sara, we didn't prepare for this one!
D: I'm not prepared for that!
S: (Crying) LOOK, I DIDN'T HAVE ANY TOYS!!!
E: Four letters...L-E-G-O.
C: You mean legos?
E: You see LEGO is plural! One lego is Legi!
D: My favorite toy? Hmmm...Green Machine...
S: He likes toys NOW.
D: See that's the problem. My favorite toy now has to be, um, my rocket. My battery powered toy rocket.
S: Me Too!
D: It is! It's a tin toy. I love it!
E: All the girls love it.
D: It's not what my sick SICK friends think it is! It's a real TOY! It廣 a little rocket man and he's got a television.
E: He廣 got a television?
D: He's got a television camera. He廣 got a rocket and a television camera and he films.
C: That's very odd. This is for the techie people...is there a DEVICS web page or an E-Mail address?
D: (Makes various computer noises that only your PC would understand) Evan? Cyber person?
E: Oh, boy...devics at earthlink dot net. There will be a web page when I get around to it. I just don't have time. We were just looking at our last show's review on the web...it was a stream of conscience writing from a wackey guy who said that Dustin's guitar looked like...
(Suddenly my Tape recorder falls over! White noise begins to layer over the rest of the interview!)
C: What would you do with your first million dollers?
S: Give it to charity.
C: I'm gonna hold you to that!
D: I will leave the country.
E: Buy monkeys!
C: Ohhhh...the buying and selling of monkeys. For shame.
D: Buying is loving, you know.
E: A million dollars in the year 2000 will be worth like $10.00.
C: That's true.
E: We'll actually be selling CDs for a million dollars.
D: Our CD is solid gold...in more ways than one.
C: List some of your favorite local bands...
S: POLOR GOLDIE CATS, NELS CLINE TRIO, LAVA DIVA, Any more? Any more? Bring it on down.
C: Uh, V L A?
D: We played with V L A! They're cool.
E: I was thinking I might take off on a whirlwind tour. I'm going to collect rare artifacts that I can take photographs of for the CD, buy some special gifts for my friends. I影e had this big dream to go to Africa and touch monkeys.
D: Evan's solo tour with drums that he made for himself? The hambone tour.
C: Would people in the former soviet union relate to the music of THE DEVICS?
S: Yes!
D: It's funny that you ask that, because there's this guy called Sergi. He is in Moscow right now. He is a big fan of THE DEVICS and he took our tape to the former soviet union to try to get us a soviet tour. It's been three months and we haven't heard from him.
S: And when he廣 in L.A. he's an apartment building manager.
D: But in the former Soviet Union he is a huge Pop star! He said he put out four albums in the soviet union. American band come to the Soviet Union, play a few shows...only requirement that you play heavy metal music.
C: Is that what he really said?
D: That's the only false part. Everything else is true!
C: Well then I guess that's a yes. Another cheesy question...favorite food and why.
D: Burrito, Because it's what I live off of.
S: French fries, because I can't have them.
D: That's really sad Sara.
E: Since we always drive McDonalds and says, "Can we stop" and she knows what the answers gonna be. It's very sad. She just has to ask...to get her jollies. It's very sad.
C: Sara is crying.
E: Water
C: Because it's water.
S: Evan is the snack master.
D: He is the former snack master!
(Down my recorder goes again!)
E: That's what happened...I became the heavyweight...champion. I'm actually a snack beta tester.
C: Favorite New Wave band of the early eighties?
S: DEVO!
E: It廣 pretty much DEVO.
S: Does TEARS FOR FEARS count as New Wave? Not really, huh.
D: BAUHAUS doesn't count.
C: Hey, it was all New Wave back then.
D: That's true, um, uh...As new wave goes, DEVO would be hands down, but if BAUHAUS counts.
E: In grade school I was really into the B-52S. Those count as New Wave. Our music teacher asked us to bring in our favorite record and I brought in WILD PLANET, but everyone else had the standard commercial crap and I was so so happy with it, but it was one of those things where you get crushed by the people around you, because they called it punk rock and everyone thought I was a punk rocker!
C: Awwwww. Branded for life!
S: Awwwwwwww.
C: What was your favorite ride at Disneyland and, again, why?
S: Small World, because it's just pretty.
D: Your favorite ride is small world? Did you know at the end it says goodbye in every language except hebrew? What do you think about that, huh? Do you know that the people who work at Disneyland also call it Mouseswvitz? Think about that!
E: Don't be so depressing! We already had ONE depressing story. I think you're bringing the interview down.
S: You realize you'll have to cut this, this is already like 20 pages!
D: HAUNTED MANSION! That's my favorite ride. That's...
C: In France it's called PHANTOM MANOR!
E: Is this the right name? Adventure Through Innerspace? That was the ride that was there before Star Tours and I was VERY depressed when they took it out. I always thought that injector thing was real! When I was like 10 through 15 I thought that the people you saw were real people, but just their IMAGES were reduced. When you get into the physics classes you realize that it廣 impossible.
C: If you guys were lost in the woods and had to live off berries and bugs, what are some of your back to school tips for the kids?
D: Because I love the snake that wears my favorite clothes.
(Everyone laughs. We are silly)
E: I can't top that.
S: Don't start forrest fires.
D: Join the military!
C: Which of these SPAWN Charicters do you relate to?
(I show them a small Spawn toy catalogue.) S: Mendoza!
E: What?
D: I would have to take the Blood Queen as she has the best outfit on! She's the best!. I have a crypt keeper with a hawiian outfit.
E: I like Vertebreaker, cuz' he's the most sensitive one.
C: Are there any bootleg DEVICS videos, tapes, or demos?
S: There are a lot of videos nobody will ever see!
E: Well, we might release the naked practice session, but...
D: Also known as the peeled off sessions.
D: We have early tapes but only the people who have it will ever get it.
E: We do have our seven inch!
C: I reviewed it! It廣 good! Best reunion summer concert tour.
D: TED NUGENT!
E: You stole mine! After getting hit in the mouth with a pinball, I don廠 know. (He relates a story where he witnessed Ted get his teeth knocked out.) He came back a year later and said "I'VE GOT MY TEETH BAAAAACK!"
C: This is for the teenaged pimply crowd...What's the best way to get somebody to make out with you?
E: All of us were late bloomers and we don廠 know the answer to that question.


(The interview continues for a little while longer and we all go home)

THEE ENDE!

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Chris Beyond