DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Everyday Heroes.
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 South Wales based rock outfit Everyday Heroes sat on the beach. Whilst we'd not seen them in the flesh for a while, we assumed this was due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Turn's out they were actually stranded on our island.
How did the band 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?
Lewis: I’ll go first. Mine would have to be Pornografitti by Extreme. I first heard it when I was around 9 or 10 and was instantly hooked. The combination of hard hitting riffs, funky grooves and mind blowing solos, especially on Get The Funk Out and Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee, made for an outstanding album.
Jay: Mine would have to be World on Fire by Slash, Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators. It's seventeen tracks of pure filthy rock and roll, one of the only albums I love every track from start to finish and can listen to again and again.
Luke: For me, it’s the Winery Dogs self titled album. It has everything! An incredible level of musicianship, brilliant guitar and vocal work which I instantly gravitate towards given my own musical pursuits, and most important of all every song is excellent.
Dan: The boys knew it was coming ‘cause it’s my answer for every question to this effect. But I’m bringing Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins. It just has everything I could need from an album, big bombastic riffs, soaring choruses, a couple of slower emotional songs for when the occasion calls for it. Plus ‘Today’ is just an anthem, would be great motivation to get us pumped for island duties.
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?
Jay: Mine would be Steel Panther’s Balls out cover art. I think we all know why.......
Dan: I hope my shack’s not next to Jay’s, but I love dense pieces of art with lots of detail to dissect. I have a few in mind but I really adore the cover for the latest Baroness album Gold & Grey. It’s an original piece by the band’s frontman John Baizley and it’s bloody gorgeous.
Lewis: Mine is hands down Once More 'Round The Sun by Mastodon. Just at the first glance of this album cover, you can tell that a lot of work has gone into it. The different colours and patterns make for a really interesting piece of psychedelic art.
Luke: The one that comes to mind is One Day Remains by Alter Bridge, mainly because it was one of the first albums I bought myself by a band I’d discovered myself. Before that all my exposure to music came from my brother’s massive rock and metal album collection so that album cover always sticks in my mind.
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?
Lewis: This deserted island sounds amazing! I think I can speak for the rest of the band that our drink of choice would be Newcastle Brown Ale. There simply is no other drink.
Jay: Lewis is right, it's only the greatest and best drink in the world, we named our side project after it, The Newcy Hounds. Some call it the hair of the dog, I call it my weekend, and weekday lover...but most people call it Newcastle Brown.
Luke: The boys have said it. Newcastle Brown. Obvious answer for this band.
Dan: A Newcy Brown on the beach with the fire going watching the sunset does sound pretty awesome. I get the feeling after a few days we’d be wishing we chose water but I won’t blaspheme in front of my band. Four Newcastle Browns please!
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?
Jay: An Everyday Heroes beanie, don't want a cold head now do we...
Lewis: I'm not exactly one for collecting merch per say, but I do have a tonne of band t-shirts. So my chosen item would probably be the t-shirt I bought at my first concert. It was Extreme at Newport Centre on their 2008 UK Tour. I was 11 years old so this concert meant a lot to me and evidently resulted in me wanting to learn an instrument. Granted, this t-shirt no longer fits having bought it almost 12 years ago but it is something I cherish.
Dan: I’m thinking practically. If I know a show is gonna be a sweaty one, I always wear my Bad Religion shirt that I've basically cut into the loosest tank top I own. I get the feeling this island’s gonna be scorching so I want as much of a breeze as possible.
Luke: I don’t own that much band merch honestly, so if I had to pick one it’d be my old Appetite for Destruction tee.
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?
Lewis: Probably someone a bit better looking than my band mates! Honestly though having spent a lot of time together in the studio and in the van travelling to gigs, there wouldn't be any other people I'd rather get stranded with.
Luke: I can’t think of a group of people I’d rather have to spend a tonne of time with.
Dan: I’ll feel well guilty now if I don’t say the same! Hand on heart though, us four lads have been through it all, good bad and ugly. If anyone’s gonna keep me stable while i’m stranded on an island it’s these boys.
Jay: Wilson the volleyball.
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?
Jay: James Taylor & his All Star band in Cardiff's Motorpoint arena in Summer 2019. The most magical all round performance I have ever witnessed.
Lewis: This one is easy. It would hands down be Pantera, 101 Proof Live. It's got all the classics and much more. I've never been a fan of live recordings due to the rougher sound and the crowd noise in the background, but there's something about this record that I just say to hell with all that. If you put this record on with headphones and close your eyes, you can almost feel like you're there, it's incredible. Not many records can do that.
Luke: No live show has moved me quite like Rival Sons in Birmingham O2 Academy 2019. Being in a band myself and seeing hundreds of other bands can take away the magic a little bit when you go back to the audience but that was a show that taught me that I can still be blown away by a musical performance.
Dan: Oh man, it was only 12 minutes long but when Prince played the Super Bowl halftime show in 2007, that was next level. I feel like that could get me through the tougher days on the island for sure. Probably one of, if not the most epic performances of Purple Rain from across his entire career.
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 one musician most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
Jay: Hmm, well logically speaking, I would want the message to go to someone who I knew could rescue me. So i'm thinking this person needs a helicopter, private jet or a boat. Perhaps Ozzy Osborne or Elton John. And of course, the message would only need to be a picture of me with the band and the coordinates, they would understand my pain.
Lewis: If I'm getting rescued it needs to be someone with both physical strength and a sharp, tactical mind, enough to carry out an island rescue of four Welshmen drunk on Newcastle Brown. Maybe someone like Henry Rollins?
Luke: I can’t think why anyone would be interested in saving us but I’d have to pick someone supremely intelligent and capable so maybe Brian May, a degree in physics and maths surely counts for something!
Dan: I can’t believe nobody has said the obvious answer. But mine is going to Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson. Not only does he have a lot of ties to South Wales we can appeal to, but he’s got a pilot’s license and his own commercial airplane. We’ll be back in Cardiff in no time.
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?
Jay: Well firstly, no one likes to talk to the drummer on a good day let alone cook or eat me, so i'm out of the question. Dan is skin and bone, and so is Lewis now unfortunately, which leaves us with Luke. But i'm sure he’d happily sacrifice some of his sensual, juicy meat to help the boys out.
Lewis: I think it's only fair that Luke sacrifices himself being the biggest member in the band.
Dan: Bit harsh lads, I like to think we’d at least debate it a little bit before we definitely settle on sacrificing Luke.
Luke: Myself. The boys could last for months if they ate 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?
Lewis: The musician I'd save would have to be Flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. He was the first bass player that I was really interested in and studied. A lot of my technique and approach to how I play Bass comes from what Flea did.
Jay: Ok, serious question... calls for a serious answer. My answer would have to be Kentucky's finest: John Fred Young from Black Stone Cherry. Although I don't listen to much of his work anymore, for a good decade of my life he was the biggest influence and motivator when it comes to my musical style. I have inhabited his style of playing as well as listening to many other greats to mold my own playing into my own style, I thank you John Fred.
Luke: My first idol was Slash. It’s a cliche answer but he was everything I thought was cool in my formative years as a young guitar player and still is! Also nobody sounded like him, even now I could pick his playing up out of a line-up with ease. I even wrote a fan letter as a really young kid, but never sent it.
Dan: Probably lesser known, but I am this band’s token hipster, my answer would be Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Black Queen and Killer Be Killed. When I heard my first Dillinger song back in the mid 00’s my little mind was blown wide open to what was possible with music. I’ve always admired when non-conformity is done with purpose and intelligence and Dillinger exemplifies that cathartic, controlled chaos to me. He’s just such an interesting character and so versatile across all his projects, every interview I’ve heard him give is hypnotic to me. I’d sit and listen to the bloke talk and talk for as long as it took Bruce to rescue us.
Sadly there is no room on our boat, so we have to sail away from Devil's Island leaving the band on the beach, but we're not too worried they guys seem to be having the time of their lives the Newcastle Brown is flowing and they are prepping Luke for cooking on the campfire!
