Exclusive - Devo: The Art of Rock

Imagine Kraftwerk with two big guitars and an overload of humour, and you have art-rock. And New Wave pioneers Devo: formed in 1972 in Akron, Ohio, have surfed the decades with ups and downs, reversals of fortune and a discontinuous discography. Their name is a joke about de-evolution - that is human evolution going backwards to a primitive state. And , indeed, they are four middle-aged guys on a best-of tour ( they’ve just played at Meltdown, curated by Jarvis Cocker and are off to Italy after this interview ) their first European stint in 17 years. But they’ve aged well, as has their music with hits like Whip It, Peek-A-Boo and the controversially titled Mongoloid still rocking. Vera Brozzoni met Devo’s frontman, Gerald Casale, at the swanky Nobu restaurant. He sits on an elegant chair wearing a blue suit, big shades and a faint smile.

VB: Touring must really be exhausting. And it’s also hard chatting with journalists, I guess!

GC: Well, the real problem are the people in airports and hotels, actually.
During this tour we’ve had terrible service, for some reason,  sometimes it reminded me of This Is Spinal Tap! Then people see the band on stage and think we are wonderful, but we’ve had to work hard for it.

VB: Was it the same at the beginning of your career?

GC: It was the same but it made more sense. When you are trying to build up your career you give all your energy to the media, promoters and agents. And unless you have a big hit record, you’re done. But nowadays who really does big hits? Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and a few more guys. You see, this kind of manufactured pop has always been successful except in the 1960s, when people like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones were in charts.

VB: But then again, hitting the charts is the easiest way to become popular and have mass appeal, as happened to the Stones. Whereas if you accept that the charts are about pop, then outside of them there’s real creativity.

GC: I think like you, but the best thing would be to have something massively appealing that is also good. Nowadays I see around me only musically isolated people: those who like metal hate all the rest, those who like hip hop hate everything except hip hop… people are so turned off and intolerant that they need a side to take.

VB: Your music and your image have always been full of irony and sarcasm, but you never pushed any sex appeal that seems to be so crucial to be successful.

GC: It’s true. Even when we were New Wave, we were making fun of it and of ourselves.
 Sex in Devo may be the military outfits or the videos to Whip it! and Love Without Anger, but that’s it.
This is why we have aged so well: we never were sex symbols like Mick Jagger, who now is not sexy anymore. Devo were never sexy so are still alive!
Talking about videos, in the 1980s people made up the word “music video” but we had been doing these short films for years, even if no one saw them. We made this short, The Complete Truth About De-evolution, that won an award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in Michigan; so it was distributed, Kip Cohen of EMI America saw it and signed us even if we weren’t a band yet. We were given three months to practice so we could play live!

VB: And what are you now? Are you as still united as before?

GC: We do get along, we have two sets of brothers in the band (Gerald and Bob Casale, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh)
 We never really broke up, we just stopped doing records. We’re like the Rocky Horror Picture Show: every ten years you have to see it, and it’s still an experience.

VB: Are you planning to do any new music?

GC: If Mark did new music for Devo we would be great again, people would buy it, but it requires lots of energy to be good at what you do.  But never say never.  

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