Kevin Devine was kind enough to give PropertyOfZack a few minutes of his time this past weekend at Webster Hall before playing a fantastic co-headliner with the Old ’97s. Kevin and I discussed his past year in the industry, the first and possibly a future Bad Books record, Between The Concrete And The Clouds, and future touring plans, among other things. Read up and enjoy it, it’s a great one!

It has really been a full year for you as you’ve done tours with Brand New in Australia, Thrice in the US, released an album under Bad Books and a new 7” with River City Extension, among other things. Was 2010 to early 2011 one of the most successful years you’ve ever had?
I think it’s been successful in a lot of ways. I feel like every year it keeps happening is successful because there’s a lot of music and there’s a lot of options and there’s a lot of ways people can spend their money and their time and it doesn’t necessarily have to involve you. In that sense, I think it was really successful. The Bad Books thing was great, and the fact that during the Bad Books thing we were still able to do things like CMJ and that was such a great show. After the Thrice tour the year considered to be off cycle in music industry terms for me because Brother’s Blood was one the wane. I feel like it was great. One of the big things too was getting over to do the shows in Germany with Nada Surf because they’re one of my favorite bands and they turned out to be great people and we’ve become friends. That’s something that is such a gift because they’re a band that I respect so much and whose music I like actually listen to. They’re just people too, and they’re great people. I feel like this year was really very successful. I got to be home a lot, which was nice. I’m gearing up for the reverse of that once the record drops.
 
Anticipation for the Bad Books record built and built until it was released in October. How was the reception to that?
I feel as though that record got an amazing reception. It was done really quickly. Manchester is a successful band and I have a following and people who like what I do. It’s not like a new band in the sense that you’re like trying to get someone to book you at a 7 o’clock spot at the open mic down the block from your house. We were cheating a bit. I feel like even with that caveat it surpassed our expectations. The first week for sure the record charted on Billboard. I don’t think any of us expected that. We were in a gas station in Philadelphia and we were getting told it was the number one record on Amazon. Two days later it was still the number one record on Amazon. It had that price thing, but that’s still not a guarantee that it’s going to be that. That was really cool. I really like the record. I really like the songs. I feel like they weren’t castoffs. I feel like they were strong things that we wanted people to hear. Any of the stuff of mine that ended up on the Bad Books record would have ended up on my next record, for sure. It wasn’t like the songs were bullshit and I didn’t care if people never heard them. I think some of the songs Andy contributed to that are some of my favorite songs he’s ever written. Some people didn’t see it that way, some people did. That’s not really for me to sit there to prove to every person. I thought it did great.
 
You and Manchester Orchestra obviously have new albums coming out in 2011, but would it be out of the picture for another Bad Books release to happen sometime in 2012?
I think so, yeah. I don’t know, I think we’re going to do another one of those records after both of us do our records on our own. That could be like two years from now or it could be a year and a half from now because we’re both going to be pretty busy. They’re going to be the biggest rock band in the world. If they still want to hang out with me after they become the Kings Of Leon. I think we are going to make another after we’re done doing what we’re doing.
 
Academy Fight Song Records is pressing two new 7”s. Is that just to give fans a preview of the new record?
Those aren’t even on the record. Those are just two songs I did separetly. The record we did with The Goddamn Band, and it was pretty much the Brother’s Blood band with the exception of Mike, who’s been our touring drummer for the last two years. Brian, Mike, Russell, and Chris are all on it again, and Chris produced it. Mike Skinner who worked on most of my records before this had life stuff he was supposed to do and it was an amicable split. Those two songs I did in Los Angeles when Bad Books was on the west coast. I did a two-day recording with Rob who did Put Your Ghosts To Rest. He did a bunch of much better records than that. We just like to work together. Ben who plays drums in Bad Books played on the 7” and I played all the other instruments. It was interesting because we were working on our record, and then to go there and make two different songs. It’s really different playing in a band then approximating a band by yourself. That’s what those songs are. I loved the way it came out. It’s cool because it’s the same timeframe and sort of the same batch of songs. I wrote about fifteen songs; those two went to the singles and twelve of the other ones we recorded for the record, and one I’m holding on to. It was kind of interesting to have the same timeframe, but have them be realized in these totally different ways. I’m excited for people to hear them.
 
When I spoke to Fred at Triple Crown not too long ago, he said that he’d be interested in doing more represses with you. Is that something you’ve discussed yet and have plans to do?
Yeah, we were supposed to do Split The Country, Split The Street. I don’t know what the status of that is because there’s a lot of music industry stuff happening around Triple Crown. They’re not with Warner anymore. I think it’ll happen at some point. I think timing is just different than we had originally planned.
 
How would you compare the writing process for the record compared to Brother’s Blood?
A little different in terms that the rock songs on Brother’s Blood were a bit louder with the stuff that was full band. We kind of wrote the band arrangements together in the studio and rehearsed them for about a month prior. A lot of the instrumentation on that record was done live, and I overdubbed vocals and something’s here and there. The guts of it were pretty live. This was not that way. I think there was one rehearsal where me, Bonz, and the guys played through a handful of songs. The demos were done as I played along to drum tracks and then we just built the songs over drums. We kind of did the same thing for the actual record too. When we were rehearsing for this show, it was the first time the band that played on the record was playing any of these songs. We’re playing four of them tonight. I loved it, but it was also like, “Oh right, this is how this music goes.” This was the first record I’ve ever made under my name where there’s not an acoustic song. There are acoustic guitars all over the record, but there’s no song where it’s just me. Everything has something else happening. That’s different too. It just felt like this batch of songs were better suited that way. Not that you can’t convey them acoustically, but I wanted them represented on record that way.
 
Are you excited to work with Favorite Gentlemen again for this release? Do you think things have the potential to be even more successful as Jeremiah is just focusing on the label now?
I think it’ll be great. I think we’ll probably going outside of Favorite Gentleman like we did with the Bad Books record with a third party helping with distribution and the infrastructural stuff. Favorite Gentleman, they’re like going to win the ground war every time, but they also have like two people working for them. For a record that I think is a little different from their bands like All Get Out, I think they need a little more help. I love working with Jeremiah though. I have the utmost confidence they’re going to do a good job with it.
 
When exactly in the summer is the plan to release it?
We’re not 100% sure yet. There’s still some of that legal bullshit that needs to get sorted. We’re hoping for the end of August or early-September.
 
You recently announced that you’d be doing a residency in May at The Hotel Café in LA, which is something you’ve never done before. How did that come together and can you just explain all that you have planned to do during the three shows?
I’ve never done it there. I haven’t done one in New York since like 2004. It’s been a while. The goal is to have special guests come up and do some songs with me. Maybe put a band together of people I don’t play with ever to just see what it sounds like. Like a one time only group of people. I’ll probably play the whole new record one night and play a selection of songs from the back catalog. We’re putting that together in the next week or so.
 
Since you’ll be in LA, can we expect there to be a tour announced that will bring you back home to New York after the shows?
I’m going to fly back because we have the three shows, a show in Southern California, which is all ages, and then I’m going up to do a residency in Portland. I did one last September and I’m doing another one a week after Brian and Mike get back from doing one. It’s like end of May. I’ll be back the 5^th of June and hopefully I’ll just be around until touring for the record starts.
 
So will you be taking the summer off?
Summer off-ish. I’m sure there will be things that come up.
 
What about getting back to the UK and Europe?
I’m sure we’re going to get back to everywhere once the record comes out. It’s just going to be a matter of time.
 
Thrice, Manchester Orchestra, and a few of the other bands that we see constantly touring together will be releasing new records this year, including you. Would it be not too out of the blue to expect you to do some touring with any of them at some point?
It hasn’t been talked about, but it’s not like it would be the weirdest thing in the world to happen.
 
You’re of course going to be focused on the new record for a good amount of time, but are there any plans for any other sort of projects in your mind to do this year?
I’m sure I’ll write more. If I have time at home it kind of just helps me be leveled and it keeps me occupied and it keeps my brain from becoming too weird. There are other people I’d love to write with. There’s nothing concrete that’s planned right now.