Deville Premiere Sunnanå Studios Live Session Video
One usually thinks of Sweden’s Deville as having a pretty pro-shop kind of sound. That is, when there’s a new Deville record coming out, I expect that it’s going to sound clear and full in a kind of accessible way that, in an alternate universe, would be radio-friendly. Listening to the recordings they made April 19, 2019, at Sunnanå Studios in Arlöv, I think they might need to track their next album live. Like, entirely live. The four-piece of guitarists Andreas Bengtsson (also vocals) and Andreas Wulkan, bassist Martin Nobel and drummer Martin Fässberg released their Pigs with Gods (review here) full-length last year through Fuzzorama, and it wasn’t lacking for either vitality or presence, but listening to Bengtsson and Wulkan come together on vocals in the hook of “Hell in the Water,” which opens this four-song set in the sub-15-minute video, they nail it in such a way as to make me wonder why they’d ever do anything else. Likewise the gruffer approach and rumble of “Lost Grounds,” the aggro crash of “Wrecked” (which has a confetti drop at the end of it; keep an eye out) and the ultra-righteous apex of “Chief” that rounds out. If you can do that live, do it. Not everyone can.
For those of us who’ve never seen this incarnation of Deville live — when they toured the US a few years back, it was with a different rhythm section — it’s also an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the dynamic they bring to the stage. It’s not going to be the same, of course, as they’re arranged facing each other in a circle and in a studio setting, but you can still see Nobel‘s metallic roots in how he headbangs to the songs, and the care Fässberg puts into propelling the grooves that are laced throughout. Deville are a band about songwriting more than technical flash, but they bring a spirit of performance here that gives another dimension to their work. In tone and in the basic energy, the Sunnanå session speaks to the essential drive behind what they do. It’s not necessarily that it’s rougher than their regular studio output — if it is at all, it’s not much; they still come across clear and professional — but the directness of their craft, its unabashed hooks, benefits from the immediacy of the circumstance. They sound killer, is the bottom line. I think these guys are kind of underrated as songwriters in part because their style is so straightforward, but they’re exceptional in their delivery, and that’s what’s emphasized so fervently in this footage.
So yeah, I’m not trying to tell anyone their business, or how to live their life, or how to make their next album, but the side they show of themselves here is definitely one worth revisiting, be it through a live record at some point or however they might go about it.
I’m happy to host the premiere, and Bengtsson has some comment on offer afterward.
Please enjoy:
Deville, Sunnanå Studios live session video premiere
Andreas Bengtsson on Sunnanå Studios session:
Chose songs that haven’t been played that much and some that have. Three from our latest album “Pigs with Gods” and one older. This is our first real live recording in a studio that has been filmed. Imagine it took so long to make one. We have been told many times that we are better live than on the record so let’s see what people think.
Tracklisting:
1. Hell in the Water
2. Lost Grounds
3. Wrecked
4. Chief
Recorded 2019-04-19 at Sunnanå Studios, Arlöv, Sweden.
Director of photography : Henrik Christoffersson
Sound engineering : Markus Nilsson
Deville lineup:
Andreas Bengtsson: guitar/vocals
Andreas Wulkan: guitar
Martin Nobel: bass
Martin Fässberg: drums
