The Devils: Iron Butt

Believers and non-believers, here’s your chance to get your sinning game back on track. Erica and Gianni will provide you with their very best guidance through hell and back. Wanna be a bad boy or girl?…toughen up coz only a real iron butt can take it all the way! *New album coming out in December*

The Devils, the word has it that you named your band after a movie of the same name, pls explain why?

Erica: I suggest you to watch it ….you will understand why.

How old are you guys?

Erica: I’m 318 years old . From 1798 I’ve been burnt long live two times, once in Castel Sant’Angelo and another time in Campo dei Fiori. I met Satan, he’s fallen in love with me and has anally possessed me, however he has given me shitty useless magic powers, fuck!

Gianni: I’m just 33 , but since 30 years I take Xanax

Were you both born in Napoli city or the suburbans and how is it to grow up in a real folklore city like Napoli?

Gianni: I was born 70 kms away from Napoli, but Neapolitan folklore is powerful enough to be rooted in my area.

Erica: It’s like Hell, fun though.

Was school a charm?

Erica: School always hated me, I tried to be nice to her, to study but she kept on disliking me .

Gianni: I was in school only when there was religion lessons.

When you are not on the road busy preaching but instead are dressed up in your civil suit what do you do for a living?

Gianni: You wouldn’t believe me but this is all we do for a living.

Roses are red and so is blood, what is the positive side and what is the negative side of a city like Napoli?

Erica: I guess the negative side is the pain you feel living there, the positive is that if I didn’t feel pain I wouldn’t have done what I keep on doin now . So I’m deeply grateful.

Who inspired you to become musicians?

Gianni: We are not musicians, we are rowdy.

Erica: I’ve been inspired by the mess of my city.

Where did you meet and how did The Devils come life?

Erica: We met on a dating website for lonely hearts and at our first date instead of getting in bed, we ended playing music at Gianni’s studio.

Direct influences in your music?

Gianni: Blues, catholic education and Xanax

Erica: Anything that is primitive, rough and trashy.

Have you played in other bands?

Erica: I don’t really wanna talk about the scumbags with whom I have played in the past. I think that The Devils is my first project where I’m totally proud to be in.

When you see The Devils perform or watch their videos with primitive eyes, two things come to mind: Religion and Sex. Is there more to it than what meets the eye?

Gianni: tons of Xanax

Erica: People might think that we are a parody, that our songs about religion and sex are just a joke. Well, we are very serious about our music and the exaggeration is how we intensify the truth .

Is your appearance exclusively an image or is there a real statement behind?

Erica: Rock’n’roll is a lifestyle, so they’re supposed to give me an Academy Award if I wasn’t in real life what you see on stage. Sadly, I’m not Sophia Loren .

Gianni: To a certain degree I’m an angel: I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs but for sure i’m much more a pervert in real life than on stage.

If I say church and catholicism what do you say?

Erica: Disregard of life, a constant mood of an afterlife. Feeling awful in life and being unable to support it . Here’s the christianity.

Gianni: In 782 Charlemagne beheaded 4500 Saxons who didn’t want to convert to Christianity.

Are you going to get married?

Gianni: I keep on asking her to marry me but she always refuse .She says I’m a dirty white man and she’ll only marry me when I’ll learn to play Sam’s Boogie by Magic Sam .

Be honest, you sinned and had sex before marriage right?

Erica: We’re asexual dude, we are The Devils!

Are you atheists?

Gianni: Oh yeah.

What do you believe in?

Erica: I believe in rock’n’roll, nature and my endless ignorance.

Gianni: I believe energy follows thinking.

Do you consider yourself to be an act of blasphemy?

Erica: ‘ Jesus is here’ , call out the blasphemous.

Have you found Italy to be ready for nuns being dressed like you Erica?

Erica: I think Italians are already used to the idea of a sexy nun, I don’t believe I’ve created anything new. Sadly nobody was scandalized at our gigs. Italian freaks they were so fucking ready for sure, sad people just thought of us as a sad band.

Have you ever received threats before, during or after shows played in Italy?

Erica: Unfortunately that never happened . We hope to get arrested as soon as possible.

In Napoli they claim to have invented the pizza, what do you claim?

Erica: As good Neapolitans, we are great at stealing!

I’ve been to Napoli several times and always loved it…why?

Erica: Cause the mozzarella milk you’ve been eating was made from buffaloes who eats grass grown out of trashy soils, giving to mozzarella a chemical effect of addiction to the city.

When you have time to waste, what do you do?

Erica: We do interviews.

How often do you practise?

Gianni: We practice almost every time we feel like it.

How long did it take you to record the songs for ‘Sin, You Sinners’ ?

Erica: At the beginning ‘ Sin you sinners ‘ was a demo, recorded in our garage with just two microphones. Then we decided to make it a real album, we met Jim Diamond and after we bribed him with a couple of wine bottles he accepted to work with us. We locked ourselves in the studio and after 4 days the album was done.

‘Sin You Sinners’, a title from an erotic movie by Joe Sarno. What are your fave movies?

Erica: Rocky, Rambo , Over The Top, Rumble Fish

Do you find bongo drums erotic?

Erica: Huh?

What else do you find erotic?

Erica: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club!

Gianni: The art of Namio Harukawa

Lets talk about your new album ‘Iron Butt’, why the title and did you find it harder to make a follow-up as opposed to the debut album?

Gianni: The Iron butt is hers. It wasn’t so hard to make it, actually it came naturally. We’ve been playing so much around that the songs came out easily.

Erica: During soundchecks or on the road, we write down lot of ideas. Indeed we’re already doing some songs for a third album.

What can we expect from the new album and what makes it different from the previous record?

Gianni: The new album is much more wild, loud and insane.

Erica: I think the second album is better played. It’s a clearer picture of what we do, the first record was more a wild card.

Fave meal?

Erica: Everything is orange.

Gianni: Lobster tail with homemade Chantilly cream.

Best show and worst show, tell a tale?

Gianni: Best show was at the Azkena Festival in Bilbao this year. People overwhelmed us.

Erica: The worst show was definitely in Portugal, during the soundcheck at the first chord Gianni did, a light exploded over his head, at the end of the concert we slapped the promoter, who didn’t pay us, in the face.

Do you get it done or is there always a tomorrow?

Erica: I do it right away, tomorrow there are other things to do.

Who’s more lazy Erica or Gianni?

Erica: Definitely GIANNI !

Who sleeps longer?

Gianni: I sleep a lot only when I’m having an erotic dream about Erica .

Erica: I’m the one who sleeps longer, I could sleep for 48 hours in a row .

Who parties the most and who’s the party pooper?

Erica: I’m the party girl, Gianni is more domestic.

Gianni: Yeah I’m a sociopath, I can’t stay long with people.

What records are you currently listening to and which are your ultimate faves?

Erica: Il Balletto di Bronzo – Sirio 2222, Guadalupe Plata – 2017, Oh Sees – Orc