Interview taken from HermAphrodite #1

David Devant - and his spirit wife - make their presence felt through David Devant and His Spirit Wife, and the members thereof.

The band comprise, as their press-release biography states, of:

The Vessel : vocals, guitar, keyboards, shadography

Foz? : Guitar, spiritual guidance

The Colonel : Bass guitar, backing vocals, strategies

Professor Rimschott : drums, technological advances

Cocky Young ‘Un : spectral roadie, 3-D darts

Iceman : spectral roadie, arm-wrestling

(Yes, they are really like that.)

I was granted an audience with The Vessel, so as to conduct this interview.

You may know him as the ‘one with the quiff’. This would be correct, though upsettingly his stage-hair is a wig. However, his real hair is also vertical.

( And there is more to a man than the hair on his head...)

You may also know The Vessel as ‘the one now without the moustache’. This would also be correct.

Though by shaving it off he is not adding truth to John Robb ( Goldblade )’s quoted declaration that there has been no good music made by moustaches (evidently) and their owners (really?). In a recent interview, Robb ranted that;

‘I think that there might be a moustache revival; blame Kula Shaker. How many great records have been made by someone with a moustache? Even Queen made their greatest records before Freddie grew his great ballooning moustache. People who have moustaches are ridiculous. Can you imagine them stood in front of the mirror every morning twirling and trimming? Moustache’s are a weakening of your power. It’s a reverse Samson thing.’

( Melody Maker; 5/4/97 )

And so The Vessel, confident in his ability to make good music whatever his facial situation, shaved off his own moustache. This was an action undertaken as a physical challenge to Robb to grow one; a challenge which has not, as yet, been met. However, the conflict between the two continues in other ways...

“I met John Robb last night, he was sharing the same studio as us, in this radio station, and I left a moustache for him on the microphone that he would be using.”

It is then explained to me that “it’s not the moustache that’s important, it’s the process of growing it. It’s like drawing on a face, in a magazine, except you’re doing it to yourself.”

Which, yes, The Vessel has always done.

“Yeah, we all do, it’s like vandalising yourself.”

And when asked for his approval of Dave Grohl’s new facial direction - the beatnik poet thing - and ‘moustaches in rock’ in general, Vessel tells me ...

“I think they’re good, because they’re a risk... that’s why I liked it.”

To have a moustache, particularly when you work in a field ( no wait, there’s more... ) which demands the public’s attention and appreciation as the music-world does, is to be “Flirting with danger...”

And who knows; “It might come back...”

He has grown rather attached to it; both as a word, a concept, and a part of his self.

“The weird thing is, is that when I was little I had an idea of what I would look like, and it had a moustache. So it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

He thinks about this for a moment.

“I’m hoping that doesn’t mean that I’ve grown up.”

And although the Vessel is not one who wants ‘always to be a little boy and have fun’ like Peter Pan, he still does not see himself as a ‘grown-up’...

“I don’t think in those terms at all. Because that’s kind of a way of thinking that I wouldn’t subscribe to - grown-ups, children, we’re all the same, we’re all just ( he pauses, searching ) vessels out there, aren’t we. We’re all ( long pause, lighting and step-ladders clatter in the background, but with no tumbleweed blowing behind me... he continues ) I hesitate to say ‘people’ because we’re more than people.”

The Vessel does not wish to be “subscribing to a set of rules that someone becomes ‘grown-up’ when they’re a certain age. It is interesting not to think like that all the time.”

( Non-Roman way of thinking. )

The Vessel just is.

Just as the band just are.

“ We’re making it up as we go along...”

David Devant and his Spirit Wife are currently visiting every crook and nanny of the kingdom, in over a month’s worth of touring, in order to bring us closer to their new album, whose release is set to follow shortly after their new single - ‘This Is For Real’. Which has previously been available as a b-side to ‘Pimlico’. Of The Vessel therefore, I wanted to know if the repeated instance of ‘This Is For Real’ ‘s was profit-orientated, or ‘all done by kindness’ as well?

“ All done by kindness. I’d be really happy if it got heard by lots of people. It’s quite close to how I feel about what we’re doing; this is for real so let’s get on and do it, as life you know. But that’s my interpretation of the song - someone else thought it was about the music business, but it wasn’t intended to. ( he nearly giggles, and continues ) And it’s a completely non-cynical Devant kind of song. I think it’s quite important that in a song you have things which ‘we’re’ doing; I only thought about that today, that it only says ‘we’ and not ‘they’, or ‘I’m’ - it’s ‘we’re’, which is everyone.”

“ When we wake up, we think ‘what’s the big deal’?

Then we remember, this is for real...”

Through their songs - and also their visual imagery - I think that David Devant and his Spirit Wife are aiming to involve.

They demand that their audience love them unconditionally, but will adore them in return.

And within their music one can always find something to love.

“I think that when you write a song that works, it should write itself, therefore it’s coming from somewhere else that you’re not almost in touch with.”

I myself have found that - a lot comes spouting forth from my head which I am wholly unable to explain.

But quite a solid meaning behind it can be found; and my interpretation of what it means could be different to that of other people. Always a good thing. The Vessel says that the other members of the band do have different interpretations to the lyrics - their own takes on what it means to them - just as their audience do. There is no right or wrong. Because quite often the subjects around which you’re writing and speaking could be equally important to other people, but for different reasons. If you’re describing something well, which your audience can attach a personal significance to, then the medium in which you’re describing it will survive. People do like to feel that it’s ‘not just them’ in a lot of their experiences, that others have been through the same and understand how they’re feeling.

“I think it’s totally true; I’ll be reading a book, and I’ll think ‘blimey, this is exactly what I was writing about in that song...’ Not just in terms of narrative but in terms of what it’s saying. Because you can’t always verbalise what you’re writing about in a song - well I can’t anyway - and then when you see someone else write about the same thing, it makes it clear... As human beings we all experience similar feelings. There’s one big feeling which is ( he pauses, and starts to grin ) existential angst I suppose. Part of why people are in bands is because there’ll all so different to everyone else.”

And because the music is the most important thing to them.

“It’s what I love to do, is write songs and play music, but I also like to speak in other ways - like the way you dress... And also being with the band is important. And we put everything we’ve got into what we do rather than looking at chart places every week - which is tempting to do - but I firmly believe that you shouldn’t get hung up about it. You’ve got to wear your heart on your sleeve.”

And although The Vessel could imagine doing something else with his life, this is what he’s always wanted to do...

“ Yeah.( looks emphatic ) I mean up until I did it I always thought ‘this isn’t right’, and I don’t feel like that at the moment. It doesn’t feel like I’m wasting time. But we operate on our own time-scale; non-Roman time.”

“ We operate on our own level.”

Part of being in David Devant and his Spirit Wife is to be non-Roman.

And to understand them, you need to understand that.

When The Vessel speaks of Roman bands,

( “The ones with Roman haircuts.” )

he is indicating a wider mass of people than purely those whose haircuts appear to have been created by a ‘stylist’ cutting around a Roman soldier’s helmet.

Though they can be spotted by their hair as they can by their ‘like you just stepped off the terraces’ sense of style.

To be Roman is to live your life constrained by the restrictive rules, petty customs, and uncreative hair of convention.

Roman is the antithesis of being ginger.

To be ginger is a very non-Roman thing to do.

But not all non-Romans are ginger...

“ You don’t have to be ginger, to be ginger.”

>>> Part 2

Last revised: 13/05/03