"An illusion is false evidence appearing real." says Andri Leonardo lead singer of Devas. "Sometimes that can serve us. Everybody who owns a watch or clock has done this. You put your watch ten minutes ahead, so the next time you look at it you think it's later than it actually is and for a moment you believe it. Until you remember that you put your watch ahead. You relax and feel as if you just gained ten minutes. You have enough time, actually more than you thought. That's when the illusion you created serves you."
"But if you forget that it is an illusion, then of course it won't serve you. It will do quite the opposite. You start to hurry up because you know you're late and in the heat of the moment things go bad. That's when an illusion becomes true. True illusions do not serve us. At one point we created them but forgot that they aren't real and we got caught up in them."
"And so we create many little illusions in our lives. But sometimes we forget that they're only illusions."
"This album talks about realities that no longer serve us. Moments in your life you need to leave behind. Illusions have become nightmares and we need to break free and move on."
"But it also talks about illusions we want to uphold, things we do not want to see or hear about. 25'000 children die every day of malnutrition and dirty water. We hardly notice them.That's 175'000 a week. Every week. But we try not to think of it, we create illusions of problems we don't have, just to use it as an excuse not having to deal with reality."
"I think it's important to remember that illusions, for whatever reason we created them, are not real and in the long run will not serve us. If we don't learn to see beyond them and move on, we cannot grow. But growing is what we all desire, as individuals and as humanity. It's our nature to grow. And eventually we will. We always have."
"That's what 'True illusions' is about."
Progressive Pop?
"The album True illusions is a diverse collection of melodic and very well arranged songs. Musically it is a style that can be labeled as prog-pop." says Jonathan Pine reviewing Devas' first album for ProgressiveEars.com. Prog pop; not quite sure what that means.
Progressive rock music grew out of the musical turmoils of the sixties, mainly out of psychedelic rock. King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) are considered to be the first progressive rock bands. However Claude Debussy, later works from Beethoven, and also Schoenberg, used scales and modes which are progressive, not only for their time, but for ours as well.
Miles Davis
and John Coltrane developed these harmonies into Cool and
Modal Jazz. Kansas, Yes, and Gentle
Giant, grew out of that time. Later on bands like Dream
Theater, Spock's Beard and Symphony X
reshaped the sound of progressive music once more.
So what is progressive pop?
"Mainly just rock in its purest form. Some TOTO, some Rush, some 80's rock with a new twist, some prog-rock (rock not metal!)." says Luca Maurizi, guitarist and co-writer on "True illusions", when asked about Devas' style.
"I think prog pop just refers to the fact that 'True illusions' isn't dominated by guitars, like one might associate with prog rock. After a show one night a guy came up to me and said: 'You sound like Dream Theater light.' ...two calories only, baby!" [laughs]
Emir Isilay (keyboards): "Sometimes it's hard to describe
certain styles. But I think Devas has elements of progressive
rock, pop and fusion. Harmonically and compositionally they have structures
that I really like playing, because of a certain complexity and richness.
But what should we call it?"
He turns his head and looks at Gianni Chiarello (guitar):
"Probably some
kid of melodic prog rock? Prog rock for everybody??" They laugh. [...]
Well why don't you give it a listen and hear for yourself?
