If you have not heard of Orlando-based band, Devils Envy, you are in for a treat. Combining raw talent and sound with some of the highest energy stage shows that the Sunshine State has to offer, Devils Envy is proving themselves a force to be reckoned with on the indie scene. We had the chance to talk with Angel Graves of Devils Envy about an upcoming show, their sound, and their inspirations. From passion about music to writing those songs that their fanbase has grown to love, there isn’t much we didn’t talk about, as you will soon find out!
First of all, thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I appreciate it.
No problem.
I know you guys have a big show coming up on May 18th at Backbooth in Orlando. What can fans expect from the show? If someone hasn’t seen you yet, what can they expect to see?
We definitely try to bring a lot of excitement to our stage show. You know, despite some of the shows we have gotten to be a part of having a smaller stage with space that is very limited, we try to make sure we have fun up there and that it comes through that we are.
We definitely have a lot of passionate moments in some of the songs where we have given that emotional energy toward it. We want to just show everyone exactly what we feel when we perform. We want to make sure everyone knows we are having fun and that there is no pressure on us; it’s just plain and simple fun.
You said you have some passionate moments with songs, so what do you mean when you say that? I’m not thinking you mean it in terms of long, slow love ballads. So, what do you mean in terms of passion?
Well, I guess you could say it’s theatrical in the way that we are acting out certain parts of the song that mean something to us. Basically, we are all passionate musicians when it comes to what we do and our instruments. We want it to come across that we are excited and passionate to be on stage performing. We feel we connect with those parts and want the audience to feel the same connection.
That makes sense – bring the audience into the emotional moments with you. In terms of touring after this show, what is next for Devils Envy?
Well, that is all being planned out. Being an independent band, sometimes it take a little more time to put things together and make sure everything is organized. There are very few people doing everything at once. So, we’re definitely gearing up towards it, but we are definitely spacing out about another month or so.
We have a couple things that we really need to focus on that should be releasing very soon – possibly late summer/early fall, hopefully. No real details can be given out yet, but it’s something new and different for us. It’s something we truly believe in and are very lucky to even be a part of to be able to do something like this. That’s all I can really say; it has to do with a movie that a lot of people are familiar with. We definitely something very cool coming out.
Aaah! I am very excited to hear this! You’d better give me the exclusive on this one…
You probably will be one of the first people to know. (laughs)
Yes!! I love it! So, speaking of the music and passion, I have my digital copy of Dead Inside from Bandcamp, and I love it. My favorite track is “Candelit Massacre.” I love the lyrics and the vocals. So, tell me, what message are you guys hoping the listeners come away with from this EP? The tracks are all so very different, yet similar at the same time, if that makes sense. I really like the way you laid it out.
Yeah, thank you. It was definitely a weird planning on my part. It wasn’t thrown together. Before we even launched the band, a lot of these songs were already written out, and we narrowed it down to four. The way they were planned out was to kind of give way to them as the Four Horsemen, leading into battle. So, yeah, it definitely was well thought out.
We have some friends in the industry that have their own certain sound, and it’s a big scene out there with certain sounding groups. And we kind of have the oddball sounds right now. Whereas we’re embracing a lof of the old school punk and early metal sounds from like the 1990s. A lot of it was pure and raw energy, and we wanted to put more of that into it than production. I say that in terms of making sure all of the corners were cut nice and clean.
Basically, the way we wrote these was to feel more raw emotion and power instead of perfecting everything. There are a lot of imperfections in these songs that were left there purposefully, and we felt like it would add a more human vibe to all of it. So, we wanted to keep that in mind in terms of writing these songs. We wanted that vibe to come across as well.
Well, that’s good because a lot of the times you hear an album and it’s so clean. All the corners are cut. It’s all too perfect. And then you see the band live, and it’s like, “That doesn’t even sound like you….” (laughs)
(laughs) Yep, that’s true.
So, it’s almost like you’re setting up the listeners for a taste of what you might sound like live.
Exactly! You got it! That’s exactly it! As someone who is an engineer – I went to school for engineering and have done live sound for other bands out there – when I did that, I wanted to recreate that in the studio. I thought back to how bands sound live and that sound. Even though there are imperfections, they’re not bad imperfections. They’re just human imperfections. And it’s beautiful to be able to translate that and be able to replicate that.
There are a lot of pop rock bands out there that embrace that; I would like to see that more within the metal community, or even in the hard rock community, ya know? Everybody is doing their own thing, which is great. If everyone did the same thing, it’d be redundant. But I like the way things are going now, and a lot of bands are embracing the different sounds of things.
I also dig that! Now, when you’re working on an album, what is the writing process like for you guys? Is it a collaboration or does one person do most of it? How do you know what’s going to stick around and what’s going in the trash?
It started out as me having some ideas. And then, our drummer and I would get together and we’d sit and write some riffs, and he’d sing some parts. He’d tell me to play a certain point, and then we’d take it to the practice studio. From there, we jam it out or we’ll map one out together. It’s very different nowadays as opposed to years ago.
I remember years ago you’d have to get together with the full band and start writing a song. And then, maybe the majority of the time the band members would disagree and the song would get nowhere. But, since I have a background in studio production, I am able to skip all those parts and get to the meat and potatoes of the whole mix, cutting the fat and making sure it’s the way we want it right then and there. I have a studio in front of me to be able to work that way. So, it’s a little different.
We definitely give each other creative freedom. The whole idea of the band is that we have that creative freedom. The main concept behind it is basically music for what we have coming – comic shorts. That is the main focal point of the whole thing, and we are just the music behind it. The stories, the set up is coming soon. And we are getting excited to put out the covers for it. As far as the writing together goes, it’s very comfortable where we are at right now. There are no issues, so far. Since everyone has a creative outlet, if one person has an idea for a song, we develop it together for them. It’s made for a great working environment, writing wise.
That’s really good; a lot of times people don’t get lucky in that they have their own voice in terms of what gets produced.
Absolutely! That’s very true.
So, how do you pick what stays and what goes? How do you choose what’s going to be a good song versus what’s going right in the trash?
Well, within our small network, we have other listeners who listen in and give us feedback on what speaks to them. So, we use outside listeners – either close friends or business partners – and they listen to what we’ve done, absorb it and see how they feel. And then we gather the opinions together and weigh them out. Then, we switch around as far as what would sound better being performed live.
So, for the next release coming out, for the next few singles we have coming out, it’s all going to be catered to what would sound good live. It’s like, are we going to be able to perform this live and still put forth a good energy? That is kind of how we determine what is going to go on the EP as opposed to making everything studio based or record focused. We make sure the songs we pick are going to translate well live.
That makes sense from a standpoint of a listener, for sure. And it sounds like what you’ve been doing is working. So, any plans for a full-length album? I’d love to hear more…
Devils EnvyYes, and the way we are going about it is not common. The way that music is being distributed now I think more listeners, more regular listeners, are more attracted to the latest singles that artists put out. So, our focus for the time being is going to be on singles until we have the opportunity to gather up the best singles and throw in new material and put it into an album. We need to use the singles and move them into writing the new stuff for a full-length album.
We need to take it by baby steps and not just give out a full album right now. We’re still fairly new and want to embrace that. A lot of people want to hurry up and get to the top, ya know? And, I think times are telling us that it should be spaced out a little more. But, everyone runs their band differently and their way, and I feel this is what we are comfortable with. We are focusing ourselves on what story each song has to tell instead of putting together an album right away. For us, anyway, it works.
That makes sense, too, because then you can kind of control the direction of where it goes. If you love this single, and it’s so great, and you put it out and it doesn’t catch fire, you’re like, “Welp, that one isn’t going on the album. Nevermind.”
(laughs) Right! And then, you know, and that’s the tricky part when it comes to social media. It’s not always the case that a song doesn’t do so well because it doesn’t do well. If there isn’t enough money behind it to push it in the first place, of course it’s not going to blow up and become huge right away. More people know about the popular people.
And when you’re a new band, it takes the baby steps to be a more sure way to plan for the long haul as opposed to getting something expensive out there, spending the money on it and it flops. Doing it more conservatively, investing a good amount in a single and pushing it until it takes off, from what I have learned, works best. The longer stuff is out there, the more chances it has to getting noticed, as opposed to having it get noticed right away in the first week of being released. That line of thinking doesn’t make sense to me anymore.
The internet is full of people that push trends – and even trends that happened in previous years – and they come up again because there are people who didn’t know about them. The internet keeps getting bigger. So, as far as focusing on how fast it blows up, we need to focus more on how long something has been out there and how long could it stand as far as being entertaining and not molding itself to a trend or fad of that time, ya know?
Yeah, well you don’t want to focus on being trendy. You want to look at the bigger picture and think about the long haul.
Yes, exactly.
So, speaking of long haul, I know you’re not signed with a label or anything at this point; is that something you’re looking for in terms of long game or do you prefer to retain control of your brand and the like?
It’s a complex question because right now, I think we’re good where we’re at. We aren’t looking for a label right away. We kind of want to see how long we can do this on our own as far as managing. We have business partners that help us along the way, but I think we’re good.
Maybe in the near future, we may need services like that – distribution, tour support, that kind of thing. But, as of right now, it’s working very, very well. And I think jumping onto a label contract this early in the game could be counterproductive, for us anyway, as far as creativity goes.
Right, well, you want to make what you want to make since you are newer in the scene and all of that.
Right, and if it works for us independently, I think we have a better standing for a better partnership with a label down the road, as opposed to trying to convince someone to invest all of this money in us right now. It’d be better for us to be like, “Hey we have a track record with these three albums, and all of this work, and shows performed.” I think we’d have a much more comfortable work environment with them, as far as that goes.
It makes sense to keep it where it is right now to see where things are now and how they pan out in the future. Musically, your sound is pretty unique in that you have songs full of the growls and screams next to calmer melodies, and it all sounds so good and works well together. What are your influences in terms of sound?
Sonically, I follow what producers do more so than the artists. Artists get more of their influence from their producers, as far as the sound goes. I definitely use System of a Down as an example when it comes to mixing our stuff and to get it to sound the way it does. I also like those who self produce their stuff; I look to those people in terms of that raw sound and energy, but still making it sound pumping and pretty clean for the most part.
Avenged Sevenfold has that raw sound; they never went the electronic route. And a lot of bands do go the electronic route, and that’s cool because we all progress differently. But, bands like System of a Down and Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for my Valentine, Metallica, Gojira (their latest album sounds really great). But, a lot of that raw energy that you hear in metal bands is what I look for. Especially for the old school guys who reinvent themselves without pulling away from what they started with. I think that’s awesome. I kind of follow suit with those kinds of metal bands.
I also like the newer elements like some of the new bands who play Warped Tour and the younger bands out there – we kind of mix it up and get the better of both sides while remaining true to ourselves. We definitely watch a lot of different movies and get ideas from movie scores and composers who work in film. And even old video games.
Oh, everybody loves a good video game! (laughs)
(laughs) Yeah.
I’ve heard that mentioned a lot, the video games as inspiration thing. Certain video games inspire certain elements in music, which is such a cool mixing of the two media. So, you have an extensive background in the music industry yourself; what lessons have you taken away from your previous experiences and how do they help shape what you do in Devils Envy?
Devils Envy (Angel Graves at right)I take a lot of the old lessons I have learned into account, from a variety of bands, big or small. I have learned so much from them; they were nice enough to show me the ropes, trade secrets, friendly advice. All of it. I was always welcome. And I have applied it in ways where I think of how they would guide me through things. How they would run their business and their band. I try to apply it to the best of my abilities in our camp.
There’s no idea of what to expect in our camp because it’s all different; we have not been fortunate enough to be in their position. We haven’t put out shows and been in venues as big as they have. So, I try to apply all of that knowledge to our camp in terms of organization, planning, even the songwriting. It all comes from somewhere. A lot of people have these schedules and implement time regimens that I loved, so I try to do that here with Devils Envy as much as possible.
It’s working well. There are a lot of people who I continue to thank for this day for helping me out and giving me the advice that they did; if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here without them and that guidance. I want to be able to one day maybe give others advice like some did for me on how to run their own ship.
Well, that makes sense, too, to take all of the good that you have learned and then apply it to your own when you get one, and you seem to have a decent ship operating right now.
Yeah, it’s pretty small, but it’s getting there.
I have been following you on social media for a while, and you have a core, strong base of fans going. And they all seem super stoked to come support you because they understand that everybody starts somewhere.
That’s true. We do. And hopefully, we will be able to bring more to the table in terms of live performances. We are just getting warmed up, and we have a lot more to give, that’s for sure. We are taking it all as it comes.
Well, there really is no other way to take it. You can’t get too antsy because then something bad is liable to happen, which would negate the whole damn thing. In terms of tour partners, you guys have some pretty good ones lined up for this show. How do you pick who you want to play with? It has to be hard to choose!
Most of the time, ideally, a promoter or booking agent contacts the band and says, “Hey, we think you guys would be a good fit for this lineup” and give us all the information down to the brass tacks of what we’re going to get paid and all that. Then, they put us on the bill. Typically, it’s an agent that puts it together that feels that bands would sound good together, so they put the show together.
Or, if there is an announcement that a band is needed for a show, we research who is on the bill (and we research every band we could potentially go out with), and see if we would be a good fit. And then, we follow through with that contact to the agent or promoter.
Right now, we are trying to plan as far as what shows we go get on and don’t get on, but we don’t want to be too picky this early in the game. But we definitely want to space it out so it builds excitement so we are able to reach out to new people as opposed to constantly bugging our friends to come out and see us.
I bet that gets old really fast. (laughs)
(laughs) Yeah. It does. But they’re all great. It’s been great.
Well, I hope that everyone comes out Thursday, May 18, 2017, for your show at Backbooth in Orlando, and I look forward to all that is to come. Thank you again for chatting with me.
Show promo poster feat. Devils Envy
