"Setup and Punchline" Single by Devices
It’s amazing to see how the maturation process of a band is translated to their music. Devices have gone through different sounds in the stages of their young musical careers and have always tried to push themselves. Their new single - Setup and Punchline - is no different. Austin’s tone and lyrical play make him sound the most honest he’s ever been while the band leans more toward their new wave sound. They have not let the pandemic dampening their creativity and desire to improve.
I was able to have a quick chat with them about their upcoming album and life during the pandemic.
JANLOR: What can fans expect from the album?
AUSTIN: I guess fans can expect a step up from The Element of Surprise and a step away from the same old Devices songs (sana). In between the EP and writing this album lots of change happened with new gear, Javi coming in permanently (hehe), and us learning more and being involved in production. Sound-wise, I'd like to think it's a step above to what we’ve been doing since we started. I think we’ve moved far far away from our first few songs and have really stepped into our own. Hopefully, we carved a deeper look into our identity and sana ok naman sila dun hahaha.
ARIK: We’re starting to stray further from our older sound. It will have moments of that “grandeur” most are accustomed in our reverb drenched songs back in the Element of Suprise EP but, more or less, it’s taking a back foot in our writing. The addition of Javi and his mastery in theory really helps put together dynamics in our tracks. Our EP was probably, if I was to compare our sound to stages in human growth, would be this boastful teenager showing everyone how good he is at everything. The album - on the other hand - is an adult, trying to show a certain “finesse” in introducing himself to the world. How does the world accept him? Idk
JACOB: Expect a lot of new sounds and production techniques we haven’t done before! We decided pre-COVID to take the production process into our own hands, and record and put everything together ourselves with our own equipment and recording gear. This allows us to shape the sound of our songs and inject in new ideas really easily, without any logistical and time constraints hounding over us (like having to book a studio and stuff). It also helps that most of us in the band know how to produce so we can just record and throw in ideas anytime.
JAVI: It's really experimental for our standards. Well, I was just a listener before Tell Me is there Anyone came out, so I could really say the Devices sound is moving away from just the indie rock sound. Hints of good ol' 2012 indie pop/rock here and there, but we're really pushing for some dance-y new-wave inspired sounds -- not just in terms of writing but even choice of instrument sounds and all. Basta, hindi "katip-core" ganern hahaha.
JANLOR: How was the recording and songwriting process done during the pandemic?
AUSTIN: Siguro 2 eras, BC and DC (Before Corona and During Corona), it’s affected everything especially the music scene. Kita naman na bago na lahat. BC was always a Saturday practice before gigs so minsan medyo ipit na kami but now DC we go to Discord every Saturday pa rin but at least there’s more time to write kasi wala muna kaming gigs (medyo mahirap on my end to do gigs eh haha). Most of our energy is put into writing the songs even if it’s only on Saturday evening - there’s always consistent progress. Recording setup will most likely be our new normal recording style where Me, Javi, Enzo record the main stuff together while Jacob is on Discord coaching us hahaha. (3 lang kami we didn’t break quarantine rules! We disinfect regularly at may masks din!)
ARIK: It was a little tougher for me. Maybe, to contextualize, I’m the farthest amongst my bandmates and I’ve been dealing with a lot lately. I can’t go as far to help record music because of my distance. Plus, I found work but it has hours that don’t translate well with everyone’s schedule. I’m just happy to be part of the song writing process with Javi and Jacob late into the weekdays. We’d be up on discord trying to fix dynamics, melody and other shit. But work and life started to pile up and I couldn’t help that much in post production. I’m also the old man of the group. I sometimes still cling to the sound that we had before but my bandmates keep me in check. I also can’t record a lot of demos for my lead because of hardware available to me, but Javi has been such a gift. He translates a lot of my ideas and makes it better with his own. It’s a lot of things I had to deal with but I’m glad my bandmates are there to back me up. There’s a lot of ego involved when I write lead and this pandemic is the perfect time to humble myself.
JACOB: I’d say that 90% of the songwriting process was all done online over Discord, which is super conducive for online collaboration thanks to its features like screen sharing, voice chat, file management and organization (wow i sound like an endorser lol). But yeah, we started with an idea Austin recorded on his phone, and it was just his vocals and an acoustic guitar. From there, we built on that short recording by adding instruments and layers and sounds, arranging everything, and basically just producing the song to where it is today. It was all done over Discord voice call with the band so anyone can chime in and suggest ideas real-time, and I’d just add that idea to the project file really easily. This allows us to keep the creativity flowing, since pre-COVID we’d usually have to wait for the next band practice to pitch an idea for the song we’d be working on. Tapos in terms of recording, everything was done ourselves with our equipment. I can’t go out of my house so Enzo, Javi, and Austin handle it while I watch over and listen in through Discord to make sure that everything’s going smoothly.
JAVI: Logistically, this has been great since half the band lives in the South. Not to mention having to climb up like 48 flights of stairs to get to Enzo's attic (a.k.a the Devices studio lmao). But anyway, It's my first time writing from scratch with Devices but I can already tell our purely digital setup for writing songs has been a breeze for the band. No matter how small the idea, we always send what we can on Discord to see how it can build to a solid whole. We've scrapped a few ideas, or moved on to other songs without finishing what we started, but it's a lot easier accessing backlog now compared to having to wait every Saturday for our jams where we hope to find something that could be a song.
ANDREA: I think it took me a while to adjust to having our writing sessions all online. Creating something with people you can’t bounce off of face-to-face or have real-time feedback from is really interesting but also strange and overwhelming. We essentially had to establish a new dynamic in our creative process and with that comes new and different factors/influences to how a song is built. Back then, we’d have to ask each other, “oh, so how are we going to play with this live? Can we test it out at our next gig? How would this sound affect the audience?” But now, we don’t get to ask or think about those things. It’s like, now I send Jacob six different synth sounds for just one section of the song and who knows if I’d actually be able to physically play all of that. Like the other members of the band, I’m a producer outside of Devices, but this is the first time I had to think like a producer to this extent in the context of Devices. If that makes sense lol.
JANLOR: What does the upcoming album mean for the band?
AUSTIN: It means a lot of things. It means we finally got to finish one of our big goals, siguro testament nga siya to our growth as people and artists (ew). For me specifically, I look at it is a songwriting growth thing too and very personal. Most songs are just self-reflections and just things i need to say that I don’t get to. Ika nga “I want my damn respect too” moments hahahaha in a sense. I’m excited for people to hear it. It’s honest and just something we’re rly proud of it. Just don’t ask me when we’ll release it hahaha.
ARIK: It’s a humbling experience for sure, writing this whilst a pandemic. For me this album is a testament to my band’s resilience. If we can get through this, all the other shit after is fucking cake.
JAVI: Friendship, love, growth :3 c:
ANDREA: Exploring new sounds and new ways Devices can make music.
Stream Setup and Punchline below on bandcamp and Spotify!