DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Thotcrime
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 find Thotcrime sat on the beach. The island is far from the bands home, so how did they end up 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.
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?
Salmon (producer): Gotta be Pendulum’s Immersion for me. It’s still the heaviest, catchiest, most upfront but most listenable album in the extreme metal and drum n bass genres. I’ve already worn out 2 physical copies so I reckon I can get a few weeks of starving done to it.
Malady Jane (guitar): GUILT by Goodthink - underrated gem of a mathcore release. Something I already know I love but that I haven’t yet spun enough to get sick of.
Hayleyy Sparxx (vocals): This is a tough answer because I know it’s cheesy, but I really can’t pick one album. I have a lot of records that are important to me, and a lot of artists that fit the soundtrack for my constantly fluctuating mood. It’s a boring answer, I know, haha. But it’s the most realistic one, considering I don’t know how I would survive being on an island with just ONE record. If I really had to choose, it would probably be a compilation record from PC Music or an old Equal Vision sampler.
Dot Homler (drums): I’m trying to not let “12 year old Dot” win and that’s a losing battle – Nine Inch Nails’ The Fragile has been my Favorite Album(™) ever since I first got into them and it has NOT been dethroned. Perfect mix of the bleak aggression from Downward Spiral and gorgeous melodic atmospheres and spaces, plus some of my favorite sound design and production in the world that still keeps me inspired every time I go back and find something new in it. Also, long time on the island? Perfect for a double album.
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?
K: I can’t actually sleep unless I’m in my own bed. So I’d either need something super calming… or …I Care Because You Do by Aphex Twin to scare me out of even trying to sleep
M: I’m thinking “The Curse of Entropy” by Teeth - it’s such a visceral piece of art, gorgeous but in an absolutely terrifying way.
H: Okay so I know I said I could not pick one specific album for the last question, but album art??? Easily. Serious answer - Nurture by Porter Robinson. The graphic design for that record’s promotional campaign is gorgeous. It’s hopeful, it would make me think we could get off the island (eventually). Funny answer - Windowlicker by Aphex Twin. Sometimes a sense of humor is important, and well… nothing screams my taste in laughs like a picture of Richard D James photoshopped onto a model as a poster.
D: (After drawing a curly moustache on Hayleyy’s AFX poster) - honourable mention to The Body/Full of Hell’s first collab, One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache (art by Bo Orr) but I have to pick Iron Lung’s Sexless//No Sex. Unbelievable powerviolence with art from Nick Blinko, who’s pretty much the main reason I started doing my scuzzy scratchy punk drawings and didn’t look back.
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
K: I’m that asshole that orders 5 Jager bombs in 1 go, pours them into a single pint glass, and necks it. Jagermeister is exactly my jam.
M: Can’t go wrong with a nice frozen margarita… I’d politely ask for them to make everything after the first one virgin though.
D: Can of Squirt with an EXCEEDINGLY silly straw
H: I would like exactly one tequila and coke with lime juice. or a shot of tequila. Or the bottle…
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. What’s the merch and for what band?
K: Can I say I got one of them Rammstein branded dinghies? Or maybe Maiden’s flight 666 plane? That being said, we do got access to unlimited Jagermeister, I’ll take Meshuggah shot glasses.
M: My HIRS ‘Trans Day of Vengeance’ shirt. I already cut off the sleeves.
D: YO I LOST THIS WOLF EYES PIN BACK IN COLLEGE, NICE
H: Another tough one… I'm honestly saving my sick as hell hereditary long sleeve or my Poppy long sleeve…
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?
K: Honestly, if I had to pick, Andrew Rea from Binging With Babish would slap. Man can cook me ALL the best foods. (D: wait no i like this answer, can I get Andrew too)
M: I’m already in a band with two great friends and the love of my life, what more could I ask?
H: Who would I want to get stuck on an island with if I got tired of the band? Realistically that wouldn’t happen. Cheesy answer again, but Mal, K and Dot are some of my closest friends and idk how we could get tired of each other. Probably my friends boygrrl, interpunct, or gorpopap tbh, but i doubt they would be happy either.
D: [social anxiety deer noises] Honestly second choice is “gimme the whole island to myself so I can make a primitive DAW out of leaves and sand and make breakcore” but bandmates really is best case scenario 😇
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?
K: Pendulum’s comeback show at Ultra Miami 2016. That is the best concert of all time. I watched it on Ultra’s livestream and I cried the whole time. Just a solid performance.
M: HIRS/Nesh/Transgression/Blind Equation in Louisville in 2019. That’s the show that solidified my love of hardcore (and how I got to be buds with James from Blind Equation.)
H: Porter Robinson Secret Sky 2020…
D: Honestly, I have been /dying/ to know what that Hanatarash bulldozer set sounded like
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?
K: I’m just thinking again about Bruce Dickinson and flight 666. He’s a pilot. If he gets our message in a bottle, he can just come and get us. Just hit him with the “Sup, pal. Kinda in a situation. If I toss you a twenty for petrol, can I get a list to Nottingham?”
M: The Callous Daoboys. No need to waste time organising a rescue party, there’s already nine of them.
H: Message in a bottle? Sting! Easy. Man literally wrote a song about it. I’m SURE he’d be willing to send for help immediately.
D: Honestly, I get the feeling if I start writing a letter to Aphex Twin he’s just gonna be like…… Right There behind me before I’m even done writing – efficient 🙂
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?
K: I’d offer myself. I get bored super easily and I reckon I’d be losing my mind within like 3 days. I’m also probably the heaviest and I got a lot of tasty and tender fat on me so I reckon I’d BBQ well.
M: If we’re being realistic, the rest of the gang could overpower me without much trouble.
H: I’m pleading the 5th. I will never reveal who I’m eating on any given internet platform. Or confirm if I would eat another person, EVER. I know what the internet does with that information. No way. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to prepare my fishing rod made of several twigs and a copper wire I found buried in the sand.
D: *flexes muscles, immediately pulling something and wincing* Yea this one’s me…
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?
K: Tony Iommi. Man’s shaped so much of how I think about music not just with regards to guitar but composition in general. And he’s really down to earth. Met him once. A properly decent chap. And, let’s be honest, if we’re on tour and Tony’s involved, he prolly took us as support - so, prolly best to keep the boss alive.
M: J Mascis. He doesn’t seem too grateful, though…
H: I think if Sophie Xeon was on the plane I would have more questions about the mysterious circumstances of the plane crash and this island…
D: ….Mr. Reznor………….
