Kevin Devine

They say once punks get too old for punk rock they graduate into country music, the way that heavy metallers graduate to jazz. Almost as proof of this, the past decade or so has seen a whole wave of punk musicians strap on an acoustic guitar and sing about their feelings. We’ve seen it from Chuck Ragan, Tim Barry, and perhaps most notably Frank Turner, however Kevin Devine did it before it was cool. He also did it a long time before anyone outside of Staten Island knew who his bands were, but within the NYC punk scene, Devine was already a major name. He grew up all over New York City, and once he graduated from Fordham University in 2001, his bands Miracle of ’86 and Delusion were already massively popular in the scene. However, wider success for Devine lay down an altogether quieter route.

While at college, Devine started getting into country, folk and indie rock music, and started experimenting with the sound in some of the songs he was writing while on campus. He was able to road test these songs at open mic nights and college events around his local area, and a year after he graduated he was picked up by Immigrant Sun Records to release his first album “Circle Gets The Square”. The album was a hit in much the same places that Devine was already known in, but it was 2003’s effort “Make The Clocks Move”, released on Triple Crown Records, that really made a name for the songwriter. Inspired by Devine’s political exasperations as much as it was by the loss of his father, its combination of the political and the personal made it a critical hit, and in 2004 he was sent off on tour with a band who would become one of Devine’s biggest advocates, Brand New.

Ever since then, Devine has earned one of the most devoted cult followings in indie rock, able to tour the world over and find hardcore fans of his wherever he goes. He’s continued to enjoy critical acclaim for both his solo records and his records with Bad Books, a side project he fronts with Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull. In 2013, he and his fan-base made headlines in the music world thanks to their succesful crowdfunding of two new albums, the rock album “Bubblegum” and the more introspective “Bulldozer”, and that alone might just say all that you need to know about Kevin Devine. It shows that he’s a truly unique talent with deep collaborative ties to his fan-base. Few other artists hold their fans in such esteem, and for that, he comes highly recommended.