New Device interview (Roz Ison)

There seems to be a huge English hard rock movement rising up and New Divice seems to be one of the few than can lead of that movement. With "Here We Stand" hits the stores, we claim some of Roz Ison's time to talk about their new album. Below you can read what he said to us.

Hello Roz, I’m Kostas from Rocking.gr. Congratulations for your new effort. Before we talk about your new album would you like to give us a brief history of the band?
Thanks Kostas! The band started in late 2007 out of the ashes of other bands. We recorded an E.P. at Long Wave Studios with Romesh Dodangoda (Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine) which lead to the band being signed to Southworld Recordings in 2008. Our debut album "Takin' Over" was recorded not long after at Outhouse Studios, Reading with John Mitchell. We toured relentlessly, with many great bands including: Gun, Heavens Basement, Europe, Backyard Babies and Dear Superstar to name a few. Over the years of touring we parted ways with a few original members of the band, leaving myself on drums and Daniel Leigh (Vocals) to begin work on the second album.

"Here We Stand" is your second album. Which are the main differences with your debut album?
We wanted this album to have a strong, positive message behind it. It’s about going after something you believe in and fighting for it, something which I think everyone can relate to, in all walks of life. We touched on it in the first album with tracks like “Never Say Never” but we wanted to take it much further. We also brought in a third guitar on this album to really thicken out the sound out.

The new album sounds very modern. Though it’s heavy at points there is also a 'radio friendly' element throughout the songs. So I want to ask is how you would describe the sound of the band?
It’s hard to sum us up to just one style, but Melodic Hard Rock is probably the closest description!

How long it took you to compose and record the album? Are you satisfied with the result? Are there any second thoughts about anything or something that you’d probably change if you had the chance?
We began working on this album mid 2011 between Dan and myself and finished the recording process as a full unit December 2012.  We are all really happy with the final product! We had lots of set backs along the way, but I think everything we went through during the process and leading to it, made this album what we wanted it to be! So no regrets or changes! I think we found our sound on this album.

Who produced your album and was his opinion critical for the result?
We actually produced this album ourselves! We knew what we wanted the album to sound like and were lucky enough to have people working with us to get us there. We demo the whole album prior to going into the studio so have a good grasp on how we want to final product.

Describe us the role of the band members in the procedure of writing the album.
This album began with Dan and myself. Dan would come to me with a verse, chorus or a riff even and we would sit in my drum room and jam it out and round until we were both happy with it! We’d spend hours working on sections and trying small changes to find what sounded best to us. Other times Dan would come in with whole songs written, chord and melodywise! "Feel The Wrath" and "Wreckage Of Me" for example. I’d then work on writing the drum parts. We did it this way for 9 songs prior to getting the rest of the boys into the band. From then on, St Nick, Matt and Nixx would add ideas onto Dan’s ideas too in the same way until we were all good with it!

There great heavy songs with powerful choruses but there’s also a lighter side with songs like "New York". Do you think that perhaps this has an impact in the consistency of the album?
We always wanted to write an album that was dynamic and had different vibes through out. We didn’t want to a 'one dimensional' album, so we felt it was important to have those quieter moments to accentuate the louder ones!

There many great songs in the album but one of my favorite is "Feel The Wrath". It’s heavy, it has great vocal harmonies and it’s … a fucking great song (haha). Are there any favorite for you?
Glad you like it mate! I have to say this one is difficult to answer! "Wreckage Of Me" has to be one of my favorites though, both to play and the listen to. It was the second song we worked on for the album.

Can you name some of your influences you have as a band?
Collectively we have a wide range of influences, from Metal to Classical in some cases! Alter Bridge and Stone Sour and two bands that all of us find inspiring to listen to and to watch.

Personally for you now, which musician you would name as the one that affect your style the most?
I would have to say Roy Mayorga, the drummer from Stone Sour. I’ve always been a hard hitting drummer, for me it feels better and the drums sound better this way. So when I first heard Roy Mayorga play with that hard hitting feel, I could relate to his style immediately! I try and take influence from as many places as possible. When writing my drum parts for the album I listened to everything I could! If someone liked it I wanted to hear why!

You have tour all this years with many great bands. In which way you think this has effect the band?
Touring is the reason we do everything else, to get out on the road and play to people. Its so much fun! It always brings us, as a band, closer and we get to meet and hangout with great people.

Which in your opinion great band is the most suitable to tour with so your music could reach people that probably like you?
I think we’d go down well with Stone Sour’s crowed as well as Alter Bridge or Shinedown. We are up for touring with anyone though; some of the best gigs are ones where you have to win over an audience!

What are your plans for the future?
Our immediate plans are to keep touring! We are looking into taking the album into new territories as well as the band. We’d really like to get over into Europe. Believe it or not, we are actually starting up writing now ready for our next release already!

There seems that England is entering again the hard/heavy scene with bands like Heaven’s Basement and you among others. Do you see such a thing? Do you believe that labels are starting to give attention again?
There seems to be a huge English Hard Rock movement rising up. Heaven’s Basement are a great example, I think their album is great! They’ve been great friends to us too. I think it’s more that fans are looking to America less and more to us here in England. Lots of bands breaking through at the moment have been touring for years and signed! So the reaction is the change I think. It’s a great thing!

How it feels to watch New Device live on stage?
I can only say how it feels to the band on stage! We put everything in to every show.  Full energy, every night. The energy we get back from our audiences is amazing.

Are there any new bands out there that you probably recommend to someone?
So many! The Treatment, Buffalo Summer, Skarlett Riot, Motherload and Riot Noise are ones we’ve played with recently.

I think I’ve read somewhere that in the very beginning the band promoted it’s music mostly via Myspace. How you feel about internet now? Is truly a disaster for the bands or there is also a bright side we can look at? (Monty Python mode on)
Haha! Yes, before Myspace became extinct! We found it a great way as a band to interact with our followers. The Internet is a great way for people to find and hear new bands that aren’t even in the same country as them! I even think downloading of a bands song has its place as a “try before you buy” service. People don’t have money to risk on bands they haven’t sampled anymore. However, I also think there are lots of people out there that don’t understand the impact that downloading discographies for “free” has on the bands they want to listen to. A bands album represents thousands of hours of work, time and money. Weather it’s a bands debut or AC/DC’s latest album. It’s not about greed that bands want people to buy albums. It’s about recouping the cost of the recording process and paying for the next set of tour costs etc. Downloading a bands album maybe “free” to the person doing it, but the band will certainly be paying for it.

Thank you very much for your time. Cheers mate and keep up the good work.
Thanks a lot mate, great to meet you!