Posted on October 6, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Driven by Devil

What is Rock’n'Roll? A mummy, barely alive and out of date, a werewolf that just can’t avoid to loose free and howl to the moon, an elegant classy vampire, always stalking on us from the sky yet ready to come down and suck our blood? Maybe we should ask The Horrors, and those bands who has evolved from R’n'R roots to transfigurate the original breed. Try to say that not only to the great rolling petrified dinosaurs, but to the new generations renewing their golden deal with the God of Rock’n'Roll. That’s the case of The Devilrock Four, Kensington. Let’s ask’em some questions…

Mark Zonda: Devil Rock Four… how did your adventure began? Introduce the band to our readers.

Jonny Driver: Carl, Jimi and Myself all met back in Tasmania, the southern most state of Australia. We all played in different bands around the place and often did shows together but were never in the same band. It is a very isolated place with a very small rock scene so we all inevitably went our separate ways and tried our luck in various cities around the country. About 4 years later our paths crossed again in Melbourne and we decided to get the band going. Then add local drummer Jamie who was introduced to us by a friend and the line up was complete. We’ve been together now for six years.

Mark Zonda: What’s still so exciting and damned on rock music?

Jonny Driver: Rock music is so full of energy and attitude. It’s exciting to listen to whether you like it or not. It doesn’t seem to have the pretention and all the false bits that other genres seem to be swamped in these days. This depends on the rock band you’re listening to I suppose. I’m talking about real rock bands like AC/DC, Airbourne, The Hellacopters etc. not all the phony new age bands that call themselves ‘Rock’.

Mark Zonda: Between indie pop and hard rock, can you explain us why there are so many good bands in Australia?

Jonny Driver: For a huge country, Australia is a very small place. And Isolated. Growing up there wasn’t a lot to do but form a band and play music so that’s what was done. Also being so disconnected from the rest of the world, as a musician you really know that you’ve gotta be good in order to reach the stage where you can export yourself and your music to the overseas market. So I think that contributes to the way bands here strive for quality, it certainly was on our minds when we formed and were first looking to head overseas.

Mark Zonda: I haven’t still heard Shaka Rock, but why in your opinion Pitchfork was as unmerciful to second Jet album to show a monkey video pissing on his mouth instead of a proper review? Does things get worst for a band when it takes things too much serioiusly?

Jonny Driver: I haven’t heard Shaka Rock either but I do like Jet. The second album is always hard especially when the first album was such a massive success. They were bound to get a lot of criticism when the album didn’t compare to the first one but I think that review might be a bit harsh. A lot of reviewers go for shock value when they should just critique the release they way they were supposed to. If a reviewer I respect doesn’t like a record I am always interested to find out why so I prefer a proper review. Good or bad. Bands do seem to get a lot of bad press when they take themselves too seriously however I think all successful bands take themselves seriously some are just better at hiding it than others.

Mark Zonda: We all know about Kiss, Aerosmith and Clash, but which are your favourite not hard rock band?

Jonny Driver: My favourite not rock band is ‘The Afghan Whigs’ I love everything they put out during their career. The Devilrock Four has some diverse tastes as far as music go. Jamie loves ‘The Ventures’ Carl is into ‘James Brown’ and Jimi loves a lot of indie bands like ‘Sonic Youth. A big mix of not rock bands really.

The Devilrock Four – “Dirty Little Secret”

Let it ring on...

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