The Band

Devas grew out of a project band formed by singer Andri Leonardo at Berklee College of Music in Boston in the late nineties. With Devrim Eldelekli on guitar and Dave Lindeman on bass, the trio recorded mostly school projects. Eventually Christian Greiner (gt), Ron Patrick (ks), James Perry (dr) and singer Jessica Levy joined the band, some original material was written and recorded and they released an EP called DEVAS, including a music video clip to each song. From that the idea grew to write and record a full length album. Shortly after the release of the EP though, most band members left Boston and the band fell apart. Andri and Dave decided to continue and added Emir Isilay on keys, Gianni Chiarello on guitar, and Kaoru Suzuki on drums.

After playing a few live shows in Boston the new Devas (including back-up singer Alice Ayvazian) started recording in summer of 2001. The album was going to be called "Alive" and the material had been written by Andri, Devrim, Dave, and Luca Maurizi. But the recording process had to be put on hold several times because of financial reasons. Andri remembers:

"What really held up the process was the money situation. We financed the record ourselves. Everything was done in phases, the basic recordings, the guitar overdubs, the piano, keys, vocals. And sometimes the gap would be up to six months long, before we had the money together to continue. You start losing track of where you are and what needs to be done. It took a lot of energy to stay focused. The whole thing took two and a half years to finish."

Over little more than a year 15 songs were recorded of which ten made the final cut. Initially the cd was called "Alive". But since the song 'Alive' got cut from the list, its title was changed to "True illusions". The post-production took another year and finally in the fall of 2003 "True illusions" was released on Doodeen Rekords.

Meanwhile Gianni and Kaoru had left the band after graduating from Berklee College. With new members Luca (gt) and Pepe Clark (dr) Devas went back to playing live shows. John-Paul McLean (bs), Jeff Kalmbach (gt), and Ko Kansa (dr) eventually replaced Dave, Luca, and Pepe, but due to everybody leaving Boston after finishing school, Andri found himself the only one left. He decided to move to Los Angeles and reform the group with Emir Isilay and Scott Manley (dr).

 

____

Deva (devas plural) is the Sanskrit word for god and deity. The word comes from deiwos, originally an adjective meaning "celestial" or "shining ".