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 thedevlins.com biography :: "My time is coming and I believe yours will", sings Colin Devlin on In Seville, a track from The Devlins' third album Consent (set for release on 5th Oct). If the beautifully crafted songs on this long awaited third album are any indication, Devlin knows what he's talking about. It has been almost two years since the Dublin based brothers who front The Devlins finished touring their last gold-album release, Waiting. "We toured for a year and a half on the last album and then decided to set up our own studio", explains Peter Devlin. "This is the first time we produced and engineered the music ourselves. We've worked with some very talented people over the years and have learnt a lot," he continues "so we felt that this was the right time to take more control, to put that experience to work, and we've made our strongest record yet." The extra time and experience comes through in this great collection of songs. It's good to know that amid the dizzying musical trends of today’s music scene The Devlins have again created an album that is both timeless and fresh in its sensibilities. In order to give themselves the freedom to produce the album they wanted, the Devlins moved to an old country house in Kinsale, County Cork where they created their own home studio overlooking the sea. "On our first record (Drift, produced by Malcolm Burn), we worked in Daniel Lanois' New Orleans studio and learned that you really don't need the clinical separation most 'state of the art' studios offer", explains Peter. Here they locked themselves away and laid down the bones of the album before calling on friends around the world to help with the finishing touches. "We asked specific people to work on certain songs we thought they might be able to contribute to," Colin says "luckily no-one refused and the results were well worth travelling for." Devlins' collaborators include Tori Amos' production team Mark Hawley and Marcel Van Limbeek who mixed most of the album in their Cornwall studio. Other musical contributors include Robert Bell (The Blue Nile), American drummer Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Macy Gray), programmer Alan Friedman (Depeche Mode) and Waiting producer Pierre Marchand. Recording also brought the band to studios in the Basque country, Northern Spain (Vitoria) and Vancouver, Canada. The result is their most personal and fully realized album to date. "For us, we found that the best records maintain a certain mood throughout," Colin explains, "and that was the challenge." The Devlins succeed in creating a cinematic atmosphere. It is familiar territory for the band, whose songs continue to be chosen for film and television soundtracks, most recently featured in Dawson's Creek and the new HBO series Six Feet Under. Their latest release also showcases the ability to incorporate unusual sounds, unexpected arrangements and innovative instrumentation in their music. Sampled sounds of the city play against a dramatic, sweeping string section on the first single Static in the Flow, a song about deception and it's consequence: "The search for something new, is that what you fear? It's going to show, the static in the flow." The title track has a laid back groove underlying an intimate vocal performance. "I finally decided to unleash my falsetto on the world," Colin jokes, "but it really suits the mood of the song and the sparse arrangement". The Devlins push their musical boundaries on Consent, but their fundamental strengths are still evident. Whether locked into a tight bass, guitar and drum rhythm or gently strumming to a simple beat box loop, solid arrangements are key to conveying the honest, uncompromising and unadorned soul of these songs. Great music comes from the head, from the heart and from the hips. With this album, The Devlins have mined all three. The songs on Consent feel lived in, the mood is reflective and the music sounds self-assured. The Devlins tell their stories with such compelling, life-affirming intimacy that all you’ll want to do once you hear the album is listen to it again.
Introduction The Dublin-based band the Devlins relish the simplistic nature similar to the likes of the Deacon Blue, the Waterboys, and Daniel Lanois, and the musical composition of brothers Colin and Peter Devlin are both enchanting singer/songwriters with talented stylings. Their 1993 Drift debut was instantly hailed by Rolling Stone, Q, and the New Yorker and charted a modern rock hit with the single "Someone to Talk To." Four years later, the Devlins issued Waiting, a solid piece of ear candy that featured the production work of Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan) and mixing by Tom Lord-Alge (Live, Hanson, Blink-182, Black Grape). ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
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