The Bloodstock Interviews – Devil’s Playground

Written by Linzi A
Tuesday, 22 August 2017 19:48

Devil’s Playground played on the New Blood stage at Bloodstock Open Air, having earned their Friday afternoon slot by winning the Coventry leg of the Metal 2 The Masses competition. I caught up with the guys to talk to their Bloodstock experience, and what they have lined up for the future. They were understandably all in high spirits…

Devils Playground - BOA

This is something I think we can all collectively say we have been working towards and are overwhelmed to be here.

Your biggest festival to date?

As Devil’s Playground, yes. We have all individually been in bands before and played other festivals, but this one as DP is our biggest one to date. This is it for us, walking on hallowed grounds, [we’re] so happy to be here.

Obviously you guys are here because you made it through Metal 2 The Masses: playing competitions, do you find yourselves pushing that little bit harder?

I think it is hard because we all have that one goal: we all want to win because we all want to play Bloodstock. At the end of the day, everyone in a band wants to play this festival. You all have a laugh and you all do what you do, but the end of the day it is a competition we want to win – so, yeah, we have to look sharp and make sure that we are ready.

And even though it was a competition, there was a lot of camaraderie from every single band; there wasn’t any tension between bands. Game faces were on – but, [that] horrible atmosphere that people perceive… no.

What is it about Bloodstock that makes you want to come and play here?

It’s just the atmosphere. Since the whole Metal 2 The Masses thing has got bigger and bigger, you just feel part of it, you’re made to feel part of it.

We are playing alongside bands that we have listened to our whole lives, it’s just incredible, and now here we are walking on the same grounds. From the arena down to the campsites, people are just so friendly, the atmosphere is incredible.

The organisation of it as well: the crew and organisers have been brilliant. Everyone who works here… you can see the care and attention to detail that they have put into this festival.

You released a new single and video on 13 July do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, our video: we had a lot of fun putting together. It’s called ‘Unlost’. The track was recorded by Jay Shredder at Shredder Live Lounge Studios, and the video shot by Dan Sanchez of MetalWaspMedia.

We have been promoting that, but we are going to go back to Jay to do another single, and then the album – so we are going to be doing it all over again.

Have you got any behind the scenes stories you can tell us from shooting the video?

Basically, the band’s being tracked by this girl and she’s tracking us on night vision CCTV: to get that shot, Dan had to lock us in a room on our own. He wanted us to kind of look pissed off when we were playing and he was recording. He did a take with us in pitch back and he just kept shouting “again” – and, as soon as the music came on again he just kept doing it, until we were like “Oh my God!” In the end, we felt like banging on the walls screaming “let me out”. It was getting really hot in there as well, and we actually wanted out, so we probably came out with the expression that he had wanted to capture all day.

How did you find the recording for the single?

It was really smooth sailing actually; Jay is just incredible to work with. He does the sound at the Arches venue, so that’s where we met him. He saw us at every stage of Metal 2 The Masses and just wanted to work with us. When we were recording, he just brought so much more to the band, asking us if we wanted to try things, to bring more elements into the band – and it just worked.

He made it really comfortable, no pressure at all, we can’t wait to go back and carry on and get the album out.

What’s next for the band? have you got any gigs lined up, or any more festivals?

[We have to] get back to recording the album and crack on with that, finish writing the songs first.

We are supporting GraVil for a few dates: The Dev in Camden on 26 August, The Lower George in Gloucester on 27 August and Scruffy Murphys in Birmingham on 1 September. [Then] we have the Midlands Metal Crusade with Orange Goblin, Facebarmageddon, Raging Speedhorn, Evil Scarecrow, Hard Rock Hell next year in Birmingham… it’s all going on – just nonstop. We are not stopping this train for anything.

The band sounds like it is really taking off, and you are doing really well for yourselves…

We are working hard, working our socks off – and, you know, if you work hard you reap the rewards of that. You just have to keep pushing, you know.

www.facebook.com/Devil.playground/