We do not hide behind pseudonyms. We do not hide. We feel our personal egos and the names given to us by the accidents of our birth are not interesting enough to share. We believe that the music and the words can speak for themselves and I cannot imagine fans being more worried about the fact what my name is then how they perceive the music. These abbreviations (Selim Lemouchi becomes “SL”) are merely there to point out who does what. It's fairly simple to look and find what our true names are but I felt no need to add them to the information since I don't feel it is important. It's a way of keeping this a cult of music and words and not a cult of personality.
THE DEVIL’S BLOOD exist since 2006. What have you done before? Have all of you played in other bands? And if so, what bands were it?
This is a bit of the same, is it truly that interesting to know in what bands I have played before? That they all failed should be obvious since I am now in this one and that in some way or another they did not meet with my expectations of what music should be equally obvious. Just listen to OUR music and dig as deep into the magic that is there as you can. This is more than enough. All the information that includes our other/former bands and projects can be found quite easily, I'd rather not waste my time talking about this.
You characterize your musical style as “Occult Rock”. How did you hit on this description? Do you see yourself as an occult band, like for example many Black Metal-bands do?
Yes, we do. It's Occult Magical Music. We try to create music and words that create pathways and open doors into the deeper consciousness of the listener. Since we deal with hidden sources of gnosis we are in fact occultists, since we make Rock music we therefore make Occult Rock.
Your music reminds me a little bit of TITO & TARANTULA, especially your song “A Waxing Moon Over Babylon” from the “The Graveyard Shuffle”-single. It sounds in some way like the song “After Dark” from the “From Dusk Till Dawn”-soundtrack. Have you ever realized this similarity?
No, to be perfectly honest I had not. I listen to a lot of music from a great many different periods and must have picked it up somewhere although I doubt it was here... Inspiration works in different ways, sometimes it comes in the form of a melody you hear deep inside your mind, sometimes it's just luck. I don't really hear any similarities and I don't really care either way.
You seem to prefer Vinyl for your releases. Why that? Is it because of the sound or just because you live the Old School-mentality?
Our first release was on Vinyl because we thought it would be a good way to present ourselves to the underground. Just a sort of calling card so to speak. From now on almost everything will be released on CD and on Vinyl because I hate CDs and I think that vinyl is a better medium to present this music. So at least for me it is a very important thing to listen to my music on vinyl, I think it adds to the atmosphere in a way that a CD or Mp3 never can.
The last time you came up with “The Graveyard Shuffle”, a two-track-single or 7”-EP as you call it. And now “Come, Reap” is a five-track-mini-album. When can we expect a complete album of your band? And why haven´t you released an album now?
We will release the full length album when we decide the time is right. Now the time was right for another EP. It was also a means of allowing our labels to promote us in a good way. We are being promoted by Ván Records in Europe and by Profound Lore Records in North America. A lot of people have not seen or heard us yet in both these territories and I think an EP is a good way to raise awareness and prepare the people for the full length. We will start recording on it early next year. All the songs are already finished but why rush into it? I'd rather take a few months longer to make it as good as I possibly can. In short we are not hurried to do what needs to be done. If we feel we need more time to perfect our music and words that time will be taken.
What does the title of the new release, “Come, Reap”, mean?
It's a plea to the Holy Lord Of Death, the Reaper, the first gravedigger to come and reap. It's a prayer to the essence of death as we worship it. To spirits of Autumn that drag everything of beauty and life down and allow for King Winter to freeze the heartbeats of the multitudes and through the anti cosmic currents of our spell usher in the eternal night of Chaos.
Among the five new tracks on “Come, Reap” is a cover-version of Roky Erickson as I could read in the info. If it hadn´t been written down there, I wouldn´t have known anything about it. Who is Roky Erickson and in what way has he influenced you?
He is musically the most important influence we have ever had. He is a brilliant singer/songwriter who played Psychedelic Rock music since 1964. In fact most people agree that his work might be considered as the very first psychedelic music. Some albums I could recommend are “Evil One” (Roky Erickson And The Aliens), “The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators”, “Easter Everywhere”, “Don't Slander Me”... the list goes on a long time. He is the Alpha and the Omega to the music of THE DEVIL´S BLOOD.
When can we expect THE DEVIL’S BLOOD to reap us here in Germany? On the 8th of November you are confirmed to a gig in Aachen, but will there be more shows in Germany some time?
We are willing to perform at any venue that makes us an offer. We are working on a couple of shows in Norway, Sweden, Germany, etc. etc.. People should get in touch with us for further details and booking information.
