11 Nov 2016

Devilskin: goats, growls, and growing a great fanbase

From RNZ Music, 2:00 pm on 11 November 2016

Hamilton rock band Devilskin have just released their second album Be Like the River.

It started small, but very quickly Devilskin realised that they were onto something. 

“The first leg of the South Island tour there were a couple of venues that we pulled up to and there were queues round the block, and we all thought 'Oh shit there must be something else on tonight, we’re not going to pull a crowd'… but they were all there for us. A few things like that started to happen and it occurred to us at the point, wow, there’s something really going on here.”

Devilskin

Devilskin Photo: Supplied

Hailing from Hamilton, Devilskin’s DIY approach to touring and building a fan base has paid off in spades. Their debut album went gold, and then platinum. Their tours sold out. They travelled to the States, Australia and Europe, opened for influential U.S. rock bands Deftones and Slayer, clocked up around four million Spotify spins and in 2015 were nominated for five NZ Music Awards. Shihad won that year, for an album that didn’t do nearly as well. 

Devilskin have just released their sophomore album Be Like the River and early reviews would indicate it’s going to be even better received than their debut.