I was lucky enough to sit down with Kevin Devine on March 19th at The City Winery before his solo set to talk about touring, his summer plans, soon to come rereleases of past albums, and his upcoming album with Manchester Orchestra. I’d like to give a big thanks to Kevin, he’s certainly one of the nicest musicians I’ve ever met. Enjoy the read.

You just got back from Europe a week ago, how were the shows?
They were good. There were a lot of them. There were 20 in 21 days. It was kind of life a fast moving blur. It was a headlining tour and the people that came out were engaged and involved and listeners and I’m lucky that there are people who actually give a shit about it. It was cool. It was fun.

Would you say your fans overseas receive you differently than they do here?
I think that on average it seems like I have a slightly older fan base in Europe, maybe. I think that there are people from all age groups from all the places I’m lucky enough to play. There are kids from 16 to 18 and others that are 25 or 27 and people that are like 40 and whatever. I’ve just noticed more of the 30, 40, 50 year old people and being like, “that’s cool.” Shows feel like shows, which I don’t remember if it’s always felt like that, but now it does. That’s not in a bad way it just feels like its not radically different. There are tons of cultural things that are different obviously, but maybe it’s something in the social contract that if someone gets up and plays and you’re at the concert you behave a certain way. There’s always the group of people that are talking. There’s always the group of people that are mad at the group of people talking. Germany especially has been very receptive for years and years and has treated me very well.

What’s the story behind tonight’s show? It’s in a winery, that’s a new one for me.
I got asked to. I’ve had friends who have played at this venue, but yeah it’s obviously a lot more formal. I actually have formal wear. I’m not wearing it now, for the people who can’t see, I have shorts on and a sweater that doesn’t zip. But I kind of like that my music can travel, not literally, but that it’s not that weird that someone like me could play a place like this in terms of how I sound. But it’s also kind of weird that I can play this place and then I can play the Bamboozle. I don’t know if there are a lot of bands on the Bamboozle who could play here.

Yeah, I was gonna ask that. What was your decision to play that [the Bamboozle]?
Most of these things I get asked. I’m not much of an elitist when it comes to it. I’m pretty Catholic, small scene about where I’ll play, it’s kind of wherever. This place, Joseph Arthur’s cool, I met him before and I’m interested in what he’s done. It’s different from a lot of the people I typically play with. It’s in New York, it’s the region, it’s local, and I’m home. A bunch of my friends can come and have like a weird night out. My mom can come. And the Bamboozle thing, I work with some of the people who are involved with putting that on, I’ve played it once before 5 years ago when it was a lot smaller.

Skate fest?
I played that, and then I played the first time it was called the Bamboozle. I don’t know, I think it keeps it interesting for you if the context keeps changing. It’s the challenged for like you to be you. Its like color forms when you’re a little kid. It’s like sticking yourself into all these different scenarios, and I think it only makes you… To me I think it fine tunes what I’m doing because it makes me really conscious of being myself regardless of what’s going on around me.

You don’ have the Goddamn Band with you tonight.
No, tonight’s a solo thing.

Is that because of the venue?
No, when I was asked about it, it was presented to me to be done solo. Sometimes you get for the band, sometimes you get asked to play solo, sometimes it’s up to you. But having seen the place I think a rock band treatment might just take peoples heads off in this place. So, I think the challenge is to be dynamic without the band.

And when you don’t have the band, does your set list change, especially for stuff off of Brother’s Blood?
Some of it, but I play all those songs. I think it’s more about the approach to the song. They all get written this way; it’s just about how you want to dress them up. Obviously some songs, “Carnival” is something with all…Even with “Brother’s Blood” and “Another Bag Of Bones,” I still feel like there’s way those songs can naturally lend themselves to being really impactful acoustic. “Carnival,” “I Could Be With Anyone,” those songs are more tricky. It’s like trying to figure out how the hell to make them compelling. That’s why, for me, I want to write songs that can work whether I have 6 people, or 2 people, or no people. Some people have a way about which way they work better, or best, but what I’ve found is interesting is that there are just as many people who think I should be playing by myself all the time as there are who think I should have the band all the time. Any time I show up with the band someone says, “Oh, I thought you’d be solo.” Any time I play solo someone goes, “Oh, where’s the band?” So you can’t make everyone happy, you have to just kind of make yourself happy.

You’re heading to Australia in the next few days to support Brand New on tour, excited for that?
I am, I mean, the flights…I know this is really boring, mundane. Not to talk about something that’s more the rock n’ roll side of it, but the flights are a little intimidating when you’re flying to those places, it’s like 14 hours. Have you been there?

Emily: I haven’t, but my parents work in travel.
Oh okay, so you know. It’s long. Having just come back, you can probably here it a little bit; I have this sinus thing going on. Having like 7 days with a show between these two tours, a lot of these flights, I think my bodies getting a little annoyed. But the tour itself, yeah it’s like perfect. Perfect weather, its close friends of mine. It’s like an amazing place to go. I never thought I’d even get to go there once, yet alone go back again. The records coming out there, so it’s all good stuff.

How was the Nassau show this past November with the, Manchester, Thrice, and Glassjaw?
That show was crazy, just because it was over so fast. 

I was there, it was quick. 
Not just our set, to me, I mean like the whole thing. Something like that is obviously a big totem pole stuck in the middle, like you see it from 6 months out. I knew we were doing that from like, May or something like that. And you’re like, Nassau Coliseum, that’s going to be crazy, it’s going to be crazy, holy shit it’s here, oh my god, it’s happening. And it’s over. Plus, you know, I don’t even think I got to watch. I sang on a song with Manchester and that was the only song of their set I saw. I didn’t see any of Thrice or Glassjaw, and I saw half of Brand New and it was because like 50 of my family members were there, I was selling merch. Probably, seriously, I probably knew 200 people at that show, so it was just like… 

It was a crazy show.
It was amazing that it happened.

Especially with the side stage, it was pretty cool.
Yeah, Brian, Vinnie, and all that. Touring with them is great. They’re like, good people, good band, smart band, funny people, which probably a lot of people wouldn’t necessarily think about that [laughs], but they really are. They’re kind and generous; I can’t say enough about how obviously they’ve been very good to me. And I know there’s a certain section of people who think like…I mean, I probably shouldn’t know this but I know there are a lot of people who think I wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for that band. But, the thing that keeps my having to defend myself about that is the fact that they don’t think that, and so I’m just grateful that they’ve treated me like they have. And they’ve definitely helped a lot.

You released Brother’s Blood nearly a year ago, despite the leak, are you still pleased by the reaction it’s received?
Oh yeah, totally. I mean, it will end up being the best selling record I’ve made to this point. I think that this point it’s still a little behind Put Your Ghosts To Rest, but it’ll get there. On a tiny label…

Is it nice being with Favorite Gentlemen?
It’s awesome in the sense that they’re good friends, and I trust me. But it’s also a little tough because they tour as much as I do and it’s two guys and it’s an office the size of this [dressing room] in Athens, Georgia. What’s nice about a label like Capitol Records is that there’s a little more, well, capitol. It’s a little tougher with money, but if major labels worked the way like Jeremiah worked, the music business would be just fine.

And he left.
Yeah, he didn’t leave the label, but he left to do the label, which for me is like great. You know what I mean. It’s gotten released in the most places any record I’ve ever made has been released. It’s gotten the best press response any record I’ve ever made has gotten. It’s enabled me to tour in all these places, and I love that record, for better and for worse. I’ve yet to have that moment with it that I have with all the other records where I’m like, “Oh, I would take that song off.” Or, “Oh, this should’ve been sequenced differently.” I like it how it is. And I love the other ones too, but you know what I mean. So, I’m really happy with how it’s come out.

You released the split EP with Manchester in late January, what was your decision to do “The Only One”?
Well, Andy sent me his cover of “I Could Be With Anyone” just kind of randomly. Andy’s a freak, in a great way. He’s very productive…

He covered 50 Cent the other day.
Yeah, exactly. He’s funny. He sent me that and I thought, “It’d be cool if we did that”. I was kind of thinking about what song it would be and I really like that song, a lot. And I really like the melody and some of the lyrics a whole lot and I thought the idea of doing something different from me and also doing something different from them. Rather, doing something that’s not only something different from them, but different than me too. That song, what happened to that cover just happened really naturally with me and Chris working on it.

Lot of effects on it.
Yeah, a lot of like dance stuff happened to it that I don’t usually mess with. But it just felt cool, and it felt like it worked and didn’t feel like a self-conscious stretch, but it was definitely not what most people would probably expect me to do with their song. I liked that too. And it kind of opened up this new thing, and maybe I’ll mess around with that and see if something comes of it, sound wise.

For the last couple of months there have been a lot of rumors about you recording an album with Andy or Manchester, what’s going on with that?
I did, and it will come out probably in the fall. It’s so far 8 songs, I wrote 4, he wrote 4. I don’t think it will be called like Manchester Orchestra featuring Kevin Devine though. I think there’ll be some kind of band name for it. We did it in Atlanta in January and I’m excited to see what happened with it because I really like it. I really like the songs, and I think it’s cool.

Sound wise it is more of a Right Away, Great Captain! and you sound or is it…
I think it’s sort of all of it. There are definitely some rockers on there that are sort of in the Manchester vein. I think it’s about 6 full bands songs, or maybe 5, and 3 super acoustic ones. But, it’s kind of all over the place. There’s also some stuff that’s like more dirgy, it’s lower, and heavy. Then there’s like a song that I contributed that’s like the poppiest song I’ve ever written. It’s like a total sugar song, I mean like not lyrically, but musically. It’s kind of all over the place. I think that there’s stuff on there that would surprise people from what we normally do but it’s not totally out of the realm of what people think we do.

How did that come together?
I always talk to this stuff with a lot of people I work with. Like, “Oh it’d be cool to make a record.” And finally it was like, “Let’s actually do it.” So I’m trying to do more of that with other people too, but it’s hard with schedules and stuff. But that just worked out. We both had a week in January and went and did it.

You think you would tour with them, maybe?
As this thing? I think we’ll do something for it. I think it’ll…I might sneeze, it’s not happening, okay. I think it would probably be in the fall, but all those things still have to kind of get hammered out.

After you come back from Australia you’re playing a couple shows, Coachella and Bamboozle, do you have any plans for the summer yet?
We’re working on one more US run for this record. We’re probably gonna put out a single this summer too for two songs we really loved that we didn’t put on Brother’s Blood. It was hard not too; it’s a song called “She Stayed As Steam” and another song called “Big Bad Man”.

You played a couple new songs in Germany right?
Yeah, those two songs that were recorded during Brother’s Blood, I loved, and considered putting out like a 13 song, 60 minute record, and just being like “Fuck it,” but something about them didn’t feel right on the record. But I love them, so I think we’re going to try to put that out in the summer, do one last US thing, maybe some festival stuff in Europe and the UK and then, I think…

Album?
Yeah, album, and I also think maybe just a little lifetime. I’m thinking about doing something in the fall here in New York that could be quite cool that I don’t really know the details about yet, but would be another super different thing. It would enable me to kind of work from home for a little while, which would be nice. We’ll see. But I think we will be doing another full US tour this summer, just don’t know if it’s headlining or support, or with whom.

Throughout this scene you’re regarded as one of the most DIY musicians…
That’s nice.

Is it harder to rely on yourself mostly, especially as a solo artist predominately?
Well, I have a manager, and he’s amazing and super helpful, but he’s also in LA and has a job at a merchandise company and has a wife and two kids. And I don’t make enough money to give him a full time salary so he does everything he can, but a lot of it does end up being from me. But I can’t call it DIY, I have a booking agent that books my shows in the states, I have a booking agent that books my shows in Europe, I have a booking agent that books my shows in England and Australia. I have little labels in all those places that release the records. It’s not like I’m Ian MacKaye from Fugazi, but that being said, I do do a lot of that stuff, and I do take on a lot of the responsibilities. I’m also not like, I don’t even know, some big rock star that has like nothing to do with his stuff. That’s probably a lot closer to Ian MacKaye, than to that, although, with all due respect to Ian, that guy is like the patron saint of DIY. But I think what’s happening with the music industry is that I think everybody is starting to have to be DIY, because money is a lot harder to come by. And what’s its going to do is weed out the people that either a, can’t afford it, which is a very real thing, or b, the people who don’t really want to be doing it. And so far, I can barely afford it and I still really want to do it. So, until that changes. There are things about it that are great, I have a very small team and I know who to talk to. There are things about it that suck, because there’s not a hell of a lot of money and I have a very small team. For example, take something like late-night TV. Everybody’s like, “Why aren’t you on late-night TV. This bands been on there, this bands been on there, you’re as big as them, why aren’t you on there.” I’m like, “I don’t know.” Because of those bands have bigger publicists, or a major label, or a cooler indie label, or have some hook that I don’t. And it’s not a meritocracy, like oh, “We think he’s really good.” Sometimes really good people get there; I’m not saying they don’t, obviously. But sometimes it’s the most expedient political decision or “You give me such and such and then we’ll give you Wilco.”
[Laughs]
But, I think all things considered, I get to do what I love, I get to squeak out a living out of it, and I get to do it in a way that doesn’t feel gross. And no one can tell me I can’t record with somebody or I can’t talk to somebody. I have a lot of autonomy in that way, so I feel pretty lucky.

You released Brother’s Blood on vinyl; do you have any plans to release any of your previous albums on vinyl as well?
I brought back from Europe a duffle bag full of merch that has only been available in Europe. I mean, it’s only like 10 or 15 copies, but one of the labels in Germany did a split double LP that’s Split The Country and Make The Clocks Move. I have 5 of those here tonight. I don’t know if there’s a plan yet to do those records on vinyl, there has been some discussion because those two records are being rereleased on CD because they’re out of print. But, in terms of a full on pressing of it, I’d love to see that happen, it’s just gonna kind of come down to who steps up and says they want to do it.

The D side or the blank side of Brother’s Blood is awesome.
Yeah, I love that artwork. Jordan Noel, Ginger Group Designs. The kid is amazing; he did the whole artwork for that record actually. The CD artwork and the vinyl, I love his stuff.

I think that’s all, anything?
No, thank you Zack for being patient with me. For the people reading this I’ve been really a ghost and a pain in the ass for him so I appreciate you waiting around.