Age of consent

The Devlins certainly couldn’t be accused of being over-prolific. Having just put out their third album in a decade, the Dublin based outfit fronted by brothers Colin and Peter Devlin, clearly don’t believe in rushing things.

“It’s just the way it works out,” offers Colin Devlin as the band prepare to head out on a short Irish tour to promote Consent, their first album since Waiting, released almost four years ago. “At least we’ve been able to make a third record. In this day and age in the music business that’s something to be grateful for.”

Containing a dozen carefully-crafted, understated gems Consent is quite possibly their most accessible and fully realized collection of songs to date. And in ‘Wide Open’, a truly gorgeous ballad, it contains at least one bone fide classic-in-waiting, just begging for a single release.

“We just put the records out and people get to hear them,” Devlin offers modestly. “You keep making music and hope that it builds into something lasting. We’ve been really lucky in that we’ve always stuck to our guns. We’ve always been unfashionable which means our records don’t date. Emotions don’t date. It’s like a John Lee Hooker record or one of Elvis’ Sun Records.”

Recorded mainly in a large house in Kinsale Consent, which boasts a Daniel Lanois feel production-wise, includes collaborations from a host of the bands’ extended coterie of acquaintances including The Blue Nile’s Robert Bell and Tori Amos’ production team Mark Hawley and Marcel Van Limbeek.

“Our first album Drift was produced by Malcolm Burn down in Daniel Lanois’ studio in New Orleans so we’ve known him for a long time. His way of recording has now become the norm, which is to basically find a space that you like working in and just make the album there. Music is not that complicated; you either feel it or you don’t. Robert Bell is a good friend of ours, he’s a wonderful sounding board. We’ve done a lot of touring with Tori Amos and we get on with her really well.”

Constant touring throughout the nineties has paid off particularly in the US where their stock is arguably higher than in their home territory. Are they perceived and identified as being an Irish band?

“Not really, the whole Irish thing gets very boring after a while.You can only get so far with it in America. There are bands who make a career out of being Irish but it’s really all about music and I think this is a really good record.”