DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Esteban
Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil's Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It's not your average desert island and we'll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.
This week when we arrived at Devil's Island we found Esteban sat on the beach. The island is far from their home, but how did they end up on here and how did they cope with life on Devil's Island?
Find out now...
Welcome to The Razors'e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don't worry about it's name I'm sure it's not as bad as that would suggest.
So you're marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn't live without. Which album did you each chose and why?
Steve: Wow, straight in with the tough questions, I think to ensure I had enough to stimulate my imagination I would choose Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, it's cinematic and I can drift into another world in each song.
Liam: Tapestry - Carole King. No matter where I am, listening to this album feels like home.
Ricky: Axis Bold as Love – Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix at his best, a lot more chilled than people expect, a good listen from start to finish, melodic, delicate and beautiful.
Samuel: Sounds familiar, we were often shipwrecked, even called our first Esteban album Dirty Wrecked after feeling washed up most mornings! I’d have to pick Beck’s 2002 masterpiece Sea Change. From the opening line “Put your hands on the wheel, let the golden age begin”, to the last line of the album “Let it pass on the side of the road, what a friend could tell me now” he manages to transport my mind to inside his, only a handful of artists do that to me. Sea Change just suits the Devil’s Island vibe I feel.
Just behind that palm tree is a shack for each of you to stay in, with enough space for you to put up a poster on the wall of one album cover. What album cover do you each chose?
Steve: I'm gonna go with Enema of the State - Blink 182, I may need a nurse.
Liam: Grace Jones - Island Life. It's an iconic cover but also the irony would not be lost on me.
Ricky: Funkadelic – Cosmic Slop: Over at P-Funk headquarters artist Pedro Bell always provided the artwork for all P funk releases. Nobody sums up the cool Afrocentric free-spirited vibe better. Every time you look at his album covers you will discover something different with a smile on your face.
Samuel: Funkadelic - Maggot Brain. A Funk album that broke new ground. I love the image of the screaming Barbara Cheeseborough buried up to her neck. Funk is at the heart of Esteban’s music because it touches on the joy and sadness of life, the miracles and the downright disgraceful behaviour of the human race… to me this image sets me on a journey that George Clinton is still on - a funkin’ equality.
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to chose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
Steve: Good coffee, I just don't function without that caffeine hit!
Liam: I know Rick would have made sure we'd have a decent dark rum so, I'm gonna go for some good old English tea to keep us functioning, get us through hard times and make everything ok.
Ricky: Easy choice; rum and coke all day every day.
Samuel: Lady of Casterbridge tea please but, any bergamot brew will do.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. Whats the merch and for what band?
Steve: I don't think you can go wrong with a plain white tee, if it's good enough for the 'boss' it's good enough for me!
Liam: Weezer did some kind of onesie sleeping bag thing… I'll take that!
Ricky: Nirvana - Nevermind T-shirt… These have been cool for at least the last 25 years so, I reckon they will still be cool when I manage to escape from the Devil’s Island.
Samuel: That’d have to be my Brant Bjork and the Bros t-shirt, it’s rare. I got it when he was touring the UK playing at Rock City, Nottingham. We played the same stage a month later - I’d have loved to support him and the Bro’s.
You’re sat on the island thinking “I’m stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity”… who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?
Steve: Keanu Reeves, I think he would be a calming influence under pretty intense circumstances.
Liam: Ray Mears... It's a no-brainer, I want to live!
Ricky: Eddie Murphy… He would keep me laughing and doesn’t look too shabby as a woman if times get hard!
Samuel: The Moomins and friends. They know how to live along a shoreline with all the other beasties; that is, if Devil’s Island is to their liking; I’m not sure they like hot weather?
There's a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?
Steve: Queens iconic performance at Live Aid, Freddie stole the show and relaunched the band as a power to be reckoned, a lot can be accomplished in just 20 minutes.
Liam: Either Nirvana's epic unplugged in New York session or Jeff Buckley at Cabaret Metro in Chicago in '95.
Ricky: James Brown live at the Apollo – this alone changed the future of music.
Samuel: Iron Maiden - any show from the Flight 666 world tour - THAT TOUR!!!!!
You're getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
Steve: As a certified commercial pilot, I think that Bruce Dickinson would be more than qualified to launch a search and rescue mission, certainly not the type to just run to the hills!!
Liam: I hear David Gilmour has a massive boat which he had converted into a recording studio.
Ricky: Bob Geldof … for a mid-level artist in the early 80’s he managed to get people to rally together for good causes. So, getting Esteban off a desert island shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
Samuel: Ahh, that’s easy, Simon & Garfunkel… they could build me a Bridge Over Troubled Water to my escape!
You've been stuck here for a while and food supplies are running low. There's only one thing for it... which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?
Steve: I'm throwing Liam on the fire, what can I say, the guy works out, I'm thinking barbecued prime cuts!
Liam: Steve! Soz mate but Sam is a great chef, so we'll need him to shave your back and prepare the meat, and Rick has a small appetite which means more food for me.
Ricky: We’ve all had to take one for the team over the years but for this I would sacrifice Sam, he is lean and tall and as a qualified chef would probably taste good too.
Samuel: Sweet Ricky, he loves Bakewell tarts so I reckon he’d taste of home.
Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?
Steve: Dave Grohl, his approach to what he does, has done, all in the spirit of punk rock, the DIY ideology is aspirational and, an ethos I think we all consciously align with.
Liam: It's a tough one but for me John Frusciante has been the most influential guitarist of our generation. There are flashier, technically better guitarists that I could name but he is just someone who adds something uniquely special to each record he plays on.
Ricky: Paul McCartney, whilst not the funkiest, and more known for his song writing; his melodic approach to the bass changed the game for everyone.
Samuel: Bob Marley, no-one delivers it like Bob.
