S1: In November of 1969 , a small group of 20 San Diego State students joined together and formed KCRW radio.
S2: From take two.
S3: Welcome to Basement Beats. KCRW Radio's Deep dive into the San Diego Sound. Each week we will bring you live sets and raw conversations with the local artists , pushing boundaries and turning up the volume on the city's underground music scene. Hitting the basement this week is Devin Alford sharing his folk melodies and stories with all you listeners. Join us as they perform a live set from our studio to your radio , and stick around for a one on one interview with the band. Now on to their performance.
S4: What's up? I'm Devin Alford , thanks to Basement Beats for having me here today. And yeah.
S5: Wasted you. Shame on you. Help me! Help you. Face the truth. Break your to. Let you be. Able to pay. Oh! That's enough. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! Ow ow ow! See you calling these. Stop! All else , know what you need? See the others. Know them well. Don't let the demons dwell too long. And let him God. Banned them. God bless them. God bless them. God. Bless us. They. Are. That's enough. Know your words. But. Hate is just. Shrimp in a box tied up inside a room of twisted locks. You can't just eat away your deepest , darkest feelings. Darkest thoughts. Deepest darkest secrets. They're all lost and I knew. Feeling lost. Fish out of water. I'm just out of thoughts. Though help is wanted , I can't seem to remember when I last spoke to anyone. My darkest thoughts. Deepest , darkest secrets. There are lost and I knew. I wanted someone. Somebody to help me with my shadow. Bring about. Something else is missing from my. Shin bet of all.
S4: Thanks , y'all. Got one more for you. Well , it's going to be a trio of songs kind of stitched together. The first one is called finite. The second one is called frontal lobe. And the last one is called This Land Song. So thanks again for having me. Really appreciate it. Keep doing what you're doing , everybody. You.
S5: You. Know the. Bullshit. Side of. Life. See them. For what? They're worth. So. I am finite. You don't owe me. In closing an eye that sees all you need to know. I am. True. Things. No liver. To. Listen. Follow. I'll say. Thee. I am finite. You don't owe me. And closing an eye sees all you need to know. Share. Your. Own. View. You don't need any help. I am finite and you don't own me. And closing in , I see is all you need to know. Falling down a hill. A secondary apple. For me. I know I'll be okay. I know I'll be okay. I know I'll be okay. Flying in a plane. A point in time and space. Today. I won't be back alone. I won't be back up again? I won't be back again. And. I'm. Fighting harsh and supple smoke. To find the breathing air. Doors that smack into your nose. Clarity comes air. At least you frontal lobe of least you frontal lobe of the frontal lobe. Unleash your frontal lobe. This. Little dove. Little dove? Where is he that you're wandering? Did you find your food today? Did you see the marker? A. Little bird. Little bird. Can you hear me calling you the song you sing? I hear it well. I wish its meaning I knew. But if for one small segment you believe. The words that you speak are sacred. As the trees pick up your ears. Listen , hear what blows in the wind. Its complex , diverse chorus makes this thing. Sound brilliant. Sound is free. Sound is free. That's how it's supposed to be. We hear many bickering about which is the song to sing. You talk to me , I talk to you. Yet our words clash through and through. That's okay. We'll learn together. Friends that talk less work far better. But if for one small second you believe the words that you speak sacred as the trees pick up your ears. Listen. You're what blows in the wind. Its complex , diverse chorus makes this thing. Sounds brilliant. Little words. Little words. To our day. We're being heard. Wasting time. Hating others. When I see a change. I wanna see some love ahead. And I see a change. Yeah. And I hope to see you there. Little world , little world to our death. We're being hurled. Wasting time hating others. Live your life. You love your mother. All we sing is. All we sing is all we sing is all we sing. This last song. This last song. This this song. This last song. This last song.
S4: Thanks , y'all. Peace. Hello.
S3: Hello. I am here today with Devon Alford. Thank you for coming. Um , so let's just start with a little bit of an introduction to you. Um , how long have you been playing and releasing music?
S4: I've been playing music , like , my whole life.
S3: My whole. Life?
S4: Life? Yeah. My dad got me a drum set for my first Christmas.
S3: Oh , okay.
S4: Cool , baby. Um , yeah , I played drums for. I mean , since then. And then when I was nine , I got a guitar , started playing since then , and got a bass a couple years later and been singing , been writing stuff for years and , uh , recording. I had some stuff out on SoundCloud in high school. Uh , had , I don't know , I had a couple of bands in high school. Uh , one of them called Effective Denial , who was up in the Sacramento area. Oh. Very cool. Yeah , we've got some stuff on Bandcamp and on all streaming platforms. Um , yeah. Been kind of working on tons of stuff. Hopefully more releases in coming. Awesome.
S3: Awesome. Awesome. Do you still play with those bands when you go home , or is it mainly solo now?
S4: So far it's been solo. I moved last year and haven't really gotten to go back for an extended period of time , so it's just been tough.
S3: Yeah , no , that makes sense. But I feel like it's one of those things where like , you know , riding a bike , like when you're there , you can work with them when you're here.
S4: Yeah , I'm really excited for that to pick up again.
S3: Oh , good. Good. Um , well , so you started , you know , playing when you were very young. But when did you decide , like , okay , like , I want to make my own music. And when did that kind of start? What do you say?
S4: Probably when I got a guitar. Okay. Um , because that was kind of around the time that I started to get into Green Day and Nirvana. A lot of punk rock and , like , kind of easier power chord stuff. And I was like , oh , I can do this. So yeah , just kind of started doing stuff from there. I just kind of did it for fun , mostly. Um , and it just kind of blossomed out and. Yeah , just kind of always writing something that's great.
S3: That is so fun. Um , what do you think? You said Green Day. You said Nirvana. But like , your main influences , I guess , for your music , what it's evolved to be. What do you think? You know , influences that?
S4: Um , I've had a lot of stuff for my acoustic stuff that I'm going to be doing today. It's mostly inspired by , like Elliott Smith and Neil Young. Um , like Peter , Paul and Mary just kind of , I don't know , different acoustic acts , but in terms of electric stuff , I mean electric and acoustic , I'm really inspired by like a lot of psychedelic stuff and like progressive rock , love , like sludge metal and stuff. So kind of just whole genres. Styles. Awesome.
S3: Awesome. So songwriting , what does that process look like to you? Is it like lyrics? First music second , music first , lyrics second? Like what's your what's your go about?
S4: I've always been music first. Okay. Um , lyrics kind of came because , like , I felt like I needed lyrics , but they usually came later. Um. It usually starts with music. And in terms of the last few years , my songwriting process has been like , I'll just play the guitar , play something like improvisational. Just kind of seeing what happens. And I record stuff on my voice memos on my phone. I'll usually go back to that , and if there's something that's really cool , like a riff or something , I'll be like , oh , that's cool. And then I'll kind of sit down with it later , kind of just ponder it and it'll blossom out. And yeah , I've been a lot more conscious of lyrics the last year or two , which has kind of made it more hard because before there's a lot of like stream of consciousness type stuff. Mhm. Um , but yeah , I've been like , what does this mean in the grand scheme of everything. So uh , yeah.
S3: Getting deep with. It.
S4: It. I'm trying best I can. Yeah. A lot of my stuff has a it's pretty deep. It's a little darker than I may intend , but , um. Yeah , it's just kind of it's I don't know , it's my emotional output , so. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. Yeah. No , I and I love music where like , you know , it's an easy listen , but then when you really start listening , you're like , oh. Oh yeah.
S4: All right. And shrimp in a box is a pretty happy sounding song. Yeah. So like juxtaposition? Yeah.
S3: Yeah. No , I love it. It really makes you think. And it's exciting because , I mean , I'm sure , like , your audience is pretty diverse , but , like , the people that actually can pick up on that , I'm sure it's like a little , you know. Yeah , sure. Um , so we talked about , like , you know , your influences genre wise , but you like , what would you say? Like if you had to describe your sound in like three words , let's say.
S4: Psychedelic heavy folk , I guess. Okay. For the acoustic stuff. And then just replace folk with , like , progressive rock. Okay. For the electric stuff. All right. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. What's your favorite song to perform live and why? Um.
S4: Um. Right now , this land song has been pretty fun. Okay. It started pretty simply , but then I. I'm really into , like , jamming. So it's really long now. Okay. Like , it's kind of fun. Fun?
S3: Fun? Okay.
S4: So that one's kind of my most favorite one right now.
S3: What is a cover that you would maybe like to do or that you've even already done?
S4: I've got , um , I have kind of a EP out on Bandcamp called demonstration , and on that I've got three originals and three covers , but one of them is a there's this band called The Wipers who are in Oregon based band. They influenced a lot of the grunge scene. Okay , like early 80s , late 70s. They got a song called Rebel with the Cause , which is really sick song , but I did they're kind of like early indie , early grunge , um , kind of new wavy , but I did it in like a flamenco style. Whoa. Yeah. So that was pretty. That's fun.
S3: Wait , is that on YouTube anywhere or on Instagram?
S4: It's on Bandcamp. I'll release it like , more officially later this year.
S3: No , because I'd love to hear that. Yeah , sure. That's super cool. Okay , fun. Then I'll keep my eye out. Pretty?
S4: Pretty? Yeah , I'm pretty proud of that one.
S3: Um , any other genres besides flamenco? Like , would you say you're interested in? Kind of like dipping your toes into or , like , mixing up there?
S4: I mean , I do kind of love some synth pop , and I have a couple synths that I've been messing with , so I've been trying to incorporate that.
S3: Yeah , that'd be super cool.
S4: Yeah , I do like kind of taking a style of music and then playing it in a different style. Like , there's , uh , there's a band called Black Flag who I love. Who on that same , uh , album , I do a cover of their song revenge , uh , which is like a really kind of devastating song about living life as a punk rocker on the streets in the early 80s , but it's just a really chill acoustic version. Yeah. Um , so yeah , I just kind of like taking something and messing with it a little bit.
S3: Well , thank you so much for coming in. It was so cool hearing about , you know , the behind the scenes of your music and everything.
S6: KCR with another heavy hit.
S3: That's a wrap on this week's Basement Beats. I'm your host , Sheridan Koenig. Sami Thomas is our producer. Ruchi Shroff and Nolan Conrad are our recording , mixing and mastering engineers. Kayla Parra is our audio editor and sound designer. The theme is created by Mouton. If you liked what you heard , find the full session and interview on our website , KCRW. See you next week with more local music and fresh voices.
