David Clark (Devil's Dice) Interview

Were you involved in music prior to the formation of Devil’s Dice? Or is this your first foray into the world of music?

Not really, I'd jammed with friends in high school and at university, but never got a band together. I started jamming with Chris (Webb, guitarist) in 2005 at our mutual friend Loz's garage, just doing covers, and it grew from there. I started recording riffs that I'd come up with while at university, so I had a good stockpile ready for creating full songs. Many of which went into what became the Libertarian album.

At the time of the band forming front man Matt Gore was very busy with The Mighty Wraith, how did you get him onboard and is juggling bands hard?

At that time in 2013 Wraith seemed to be in a state of flux, going through considerable lineup changes, so Matt was very happy to come along and jam. Thinking back to 2014 when I saw them play the Metal To The Masses final at the much missed Roadhouse, Matt was the only member on stage from the current lineup if I remember correctly. He loves the style of music we create, so he was enthusiastic about doing something from the get go. I can happily say we've never had a problem, we're respectful of who has a gig booked first, and don't step on each others toes musically. The Mighty Wraith are a great bunch of guys who have been supportive of us, it's worked out well. I feel sonically we have very different approaches, so people get to hear different facets of Matt's voice.

There has been a gap of five years between your debut album ‘Libertarian’ and the ‘War Of Attrition’ EP – why is this? And do you feel the gap may have hindered the progress of the band?

It wasn't intentional, Chris and I actually started recording the 2nd album in late 2016! At the level we are at currently, with the commitments of family, full time job and the like, recording on a sporadic basis works better in terms of time and money, especially as we were and are trying to get gigs to promote our music at the same time. It also allows the songs some time to mature and not just get laid down too soon. One of the main reasons for the delay was the coming and going of band members, having to get the next guy that comes in up to speed on what we're already playing live, let alone learning and then perfecting new material. And then Covid-19 scuppers us the week of our EP launch show at the Giffard Arms! Haha so sod's law is always in play it seems. But we're just trying to move forward as best we can.

I think your musical influences are quite clear, you’re obviously a big fan of NWOBHM bands and melodic metal – but can you talk about these influences more specifically, who your inspired by and what you have tried to achieve in your song writing?

AC/DC were a huge influence in my teens, and I still love them now. I'd been taking guitar lessons but was pretty half hearted about it, but when my tutor Lee Barfield (LA Guitar School in Tamworth, not the sunset strip!) taught me Back In Black, which I'd never heard before, I felt like I could finally play, and make it sound great. Then when I got hold of the Live at Donington '91 VHS it changed everything, it's still one of the greatest live gigs ever in my opinion, the band were on outstanding form. From there it was Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Accept, Saxon, Scorpions... I couldn't get enough of the riffs and twin leads. I can go from Pantera and Primal Fear to Journey and Survivor, and the influence of the AOR bands is probably where Devil's Dice melodic element comes from. Some specific guitarists who have really influenced me would be Glenn and KK from Priest, John Sykes, Wolf Hoffman and Gary Moore to name just a few. I was really born in the wrong era I think!

With this second album I wanted to sharpen and refine what we started with Libertarian, which was quite varied in it's style looking back at it, but make the follow up more note heavy, more cerebral, provide the listener with plenty to get your proverbial teeth into. But at the same time without drastically changing our sound or style. I feel we have achieved that already with the new EP, for example if you listen to Passive Resistance from Libertarian, and then War Of Attrition, you will see what I mean. Essentially I want it to be a step forward, like Priest going from Sin After Sin to Stained Class; Accept going from Breaker to Restless and Wild, and Thin Lizzy going from Fighting to Jailbreak. This EP was going to provide a useful stop gap, give people new songs to hear, us new songs to perform live and keep the gigs fresh, and give a taste of what we have in store with the second album.

Can you tell us a bit about the songs on ‘War Of Attrition’ the meanings behind the songs? Or any stories about the song writing process for this EP?

Well even at our current level I don't want to go in depth about the meanings of the songs, in the sense I feel you are taking away from the listener's privilege of creating their own mental image of what it is about, discover their own meaning if you will. In some ways the title track does seem pertinent in the current situation people are faced with regarding Covid-19; it won't be an easy victory or a quick fix, it's going to be a grind to get to the place of safety and normality again, and we need to prepare ourselves for that. The song talks of being resolute and not giving up on what you are striving for, despite the obvious difficulties involved. It's hopefully a small piece of inspiration to not let negativity beat you, and keep moving forward. Overall I feel the tone of the EP, and the second album, is more aggressive, yet still optimistic and resolute in nature. For instance, Confessor is a song about discovering a liar in your midst, yet the positive side of it is retained in that now you know the truth and can act accordingly.

Devil’s Dice have always been very active performing live – but as things stand at the moment as the world is on hiatus from normal life, do you have anything pencilled in for the latter part of this year on the live front?

Our June Tamworth gig has just been cancelled as is necessary, and it appears all our summer gigs look unlikely now. We were due to play a festival at the end of August in Ross-on-Wye, we shall see. We're trying to secure a support slot with a vintage American rock band at KK's Steel Mill in November, but everything is up in the air at the moment. I'd ask people to keep an eye on our website, Facebook etc for updates. We're itching to play live again and promote our new material, but obviously health is paramount.

With live shows off the cards for the moment, do you have alternative promotional ideas in place to get the new EP out to the masses?

I'm trying to get the EP out to reviewers, get features up on music websites, and we've hired the services of an A and R man who's getting the EP out to a much wider range of contacts in the independent music scene than we could ever have on our own. He'll be doing a review in a quarterly rock magazine too (Fireworks). It seems the only real course of action at the moment, but it is paying dividends, as for example Red Light Rage from the EP is now on the ARFM playlist, which we're very happy about.

I’m sure the new album is still very much in the infant stages of its development, but can you give us any information about it – possible release date? Album name? Songs? Or any nugget of interesting info that could tide us over until it’s release?

I can let you in on the fact that War Of Attrition will be on the second album, and also confirm that Red Light Rage won't be on it, even though I love the song. In fact another one of the reasons we did the EP was to get that song out into circulation, make it a viable live song that people could purchase, because stylistically it's out of context with the rest of the album, but we love playing it. I like writing riffs in the vein of ZZ Top, Whitesnake and Status Quo as well, but it's not really Devil's Dice per se, I don't want to stray too far away from the melodic metal approach which is the identity we're trying to cultivate. Having Red Light Rage, and whichever out of Confessor or Martyrs In Crime we choose to be the other EP only song, really makes the EP a very worthwhile purchase for the future in my eyes, something that stands on it's own, and also a good value introduction to Devil's Dice. I do have a title in mind for the second album, but I'm going to keep that and other song titles secret for now. I think there's actually only one second album song that hasn't at least had some rough guitar laid down, while some musically are very close to completion. For me the second album features more honed performances, sharper riffs, searing solos and plenty of twin lead action. We're doing what we did before but better, having grown as players over the last four years of playing live. We aren't trying to re-invent the wheel, at the moment anyway, we just want to reinforce it with some new steel spokes, which hopefully become well revered, enjoyed and do justice to the bands and musical style that has influenced us. I think if we stay true to what we want to be, our sound will evolve naturally and become distinctive to us.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Just a big thank you to everyone who has supported us, be it coming to gigs or purchasing a music and merchandise, we appreciate it so much. Nothing beats a fantastic gig when the audience gets into it and they are enjoying it as much as we are. And finally a thank you to you Woody, for featuring us on your excellent site. You are clearly a man who is passionate and honest about his subject, and it shows here.