DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring The Spectre Beneath
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 Pete of The Spectre Beneath sat on the beach. The island is far from their 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?
If I was on the high seas, I’d probably grab Devin Townsend’s Ocean Machine, it would seem rather fitting. It’s certainly in my top 10 albums of all time and I’d perhaps use the cover as a design template to build a head shaped craft to escape the island. Obviously, not the cover of the live album, that would be silly.
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?
Somewhere in Time, the greatest cover art of all time. In fact, if it was a huge poster then I could spend even more time pouring over all the details in that cover, it’s genius. However, on the back I’d write SOS. I certainly wouldn’t say SOS, at least not to Alexa. The last time I did that she shuffled songs by ABBA for two hours until my neighbour heard my banging, came round and picked me up off the floor.
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?
Tea, obviously, and probably a custard cream, I’m British. I couldn’t live without a good cup of tea, I’m not sure where I’d get the milk from, or the sugar for that matter, or how I’d heat the water, but that’s a problem for another day. Hopefully, my luck would be in and the who galley section would be washed up as well.
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?
It’s my Kobra and the Lotus beanie hat for four reasons. The first, it’s a great hat and fits well. Second, it’d be good for collecting berries in. Thirdly, it can be used to filter water and fourthly, Kobra Paige herself sold it to me and I’ve never washed it since, nor my hand where she shook it when I said hello.
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?
If we’re not talking heavy metal then Jenna Coleman for obvious reasons. Keeping it metal based, probably the whole of the Diablo Swing Orchestra because there’s at least eight of them which would mean more people to find food, build shelters etc… and also sacrifice should things get desperate. They’d be awesome at some close harmony singing to keep us all entertained through the dark, cold evenings.
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?
That sounds a bit like real life when I used to have Iron Maiden’s Live After Death squeezed onto a C120 TDK tape where I used to listen to one side on the way to college and the other side on the way home at ear splitting volume. I’ll go with that as I still love that live album, although, I’m not sure how long the batteries will last on the island. But, to make the batteries last longer, I’d ensure I had a pencil handy so I could spool the tape on a bit.
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?
It would be a message for Jarvis Leatherby from Night Demon.
Hi Jarvis,
You’re awesome and you should really have a second guitarist. I’d definitely be up for it. You can find me at these co-ordinates. 36.956547794571925, 24.70282877277425
Cheers
Pete
p.s bring a boat, food, water, a change of clothes and Jenna Coleman…if she’s available.
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?
Probably Vini. We could get away without a ‘big time Charlie’ guitarist, I’d just write some songs without solos in them. However, he’s a fit and trim chap so we’d only get so many meals from him, but his flesh would be fairly tender I think, definitely quality over quantity. It would also stop him noodling and in rehearsals, especially if we started with his hands first.
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?
Adrian Smith. He was my Idol growing up. I loved his look, his calm, reserved demeanour, his style, his songwriting and his outlook and attitude to music. He was the one who made me start learning guitar, not literally of course, I’ve never met the fella. I still recall an interview he did once where he said one of his biggest thrills is getting a seed of an idea and developing it into an epic track and I also get that exact buzz. I also think he’s a keen fisherman as well, so he’d be more than handy on a desert island.
