In early 2005 he released what remains one of my favorite albums this decade,
Lonely People of the World, Unite! But more than five years later, he still has yet to release a follow-up.
His website, devindaviswebsite.com, still greets visitors with the long since broken promise of a new album in 2007. The most recent post on the "News" page of his website, dated 3/20/07, tells the tale of how he's been really busy trying to finish the songs for the new album, but his basement apartment/recording studio flooded and he is only able to get around via bicycle.
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This slightly "newer" post appears on his MySpace blog...
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
Album Progress Report/Update
Well..
hello there, and happy new year...
I hope that 2008 finds you well and in good spirits.
I thought I would write a little something, as it has been quite a while since the last time I did so. Part of the reason for the lack of updates has been due to my reduced internet access: In an effort to decrease my potential distractions from working on the album, I got rid of the internets at home towards the end of last year... which has proved to be.... a gigantic pain in the ass. But I'm coping fairly well, I suppose.
The studio is back up and running in my new home, which has been a real relief. After being tossed out of my beloved space where I recorded "Lonely People" I spent a great portion of last year commuting on my bicycle back and forth (in the cold ass Chicago winter) from my friend's house, where I was living in a spare room, and this practice space in a warehouse where bands rehearsed. What at first seemed like a good idea, quickly revealed itself as folly when I fully recognized the sheer volume (and depths of metal) of the bands in the rooms surrounding me.
Sometimes, around 9 or 10 in the evening on a weeknight, a cacophony of such earth shaking and mind numbing proportions would arise from the combined efforts of the dozens of metal, funk, and punk rock bands around my room simultaneously chasing their dreams (with full stacks) as to start to resemble some kind of audio torture device I would imagine in some secret CIA prison. I came to eventually call the sound "Satan's Nightmare"... I finally, after about two months of searching Craig's List around the clock, found a place where I could finally live AND work.. and here we are.
I've been working on the album pretty much every day now, for many many days (weeks/months), and am pretty close to locking down the order of the songs. I'm trying, even more consciously than on "Lonely People" to "script" the song sequence so they all run together as seamlessly as possible. I've been taking this a little farther than I ever have before, culminating recently in the completion of a 7 minute song, a medley of 5 short song segments edited together, that I am really excited about. I know which song will be first on the album, and I have a "finale song" which is, for me, very important. I have a few more songs to finish and I will have all the musical decisions in the can. Then I will move on to writing and finalizing the lyrics.
I really wish I was making quicker order of things... I am sincerely embarrassed by the time it has taken me to work on everything. It's sometimes difficult/weird when you don't have any feedback from anybody else.. you have to really know how to interpret your gut. A friend a few weeks ago asked me if the new album was going to have "the same attention to detail as the last one".. at which point I quickly responded that it would have "more attention to detail than the last one." I always feel like there's a little bell that goes off in my head when something is done, and until that bell goes ding-a-ling, I keep trying new things. I feel like I'm close.. but there's still a lot of work left.
I sincerely appreciate all the messages and comments from folks asking about the new album. All I can say is that I'm working on it all the time and.. until I think it's "really awesome".. I'm going to keep on working on it some more. I remember, quite well, feeling the same way I feel now about "Lonely People" when it was still unfinished... thinking that "it would never ever be done".. or how "I would never find the words for the outro chorus of Deserted Eyeland" etc.. and I eventually figured it out. I just have to keep on working.. and working.
I thank you again for all the support, and look forward, with great enthusiasm, towards the day when I can say that the album is done.
Until then,
best regards...
-Devin
His Facebook page is basically nothing more than a copy/paste of his Wikipedia page.
So, my question to you (especially Chicagobners close to the local music scene), is
WHERE IS HE AND WHY ISN'T HE RELEASING NEW MATERIAL???
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