bottco records� website featured various musicians, from beach boys-esue band the cruel cuts (a great name for a band, i think) to old estranged folk man hank guthrie � i downloaded a few tracks and, yes, they were quite nice. i liked them. what i really liked about them, however, was the fact that they were all, in fact, one person, and pretty much one person only, devon bott. the pictures on the site were all devon, the voices on the records were all devon�s voice. �i really do think of the different acts, as different acts� said devon, �if I'm going to appear as Hank guthrie, i will change my appearance to suit that�.
�The reason i do it, is because I can do it, i like writing and performing my own songs, because it gives me a sense of accomplishment. Why do auto mechanics do what they do? Or archaeologists? Because of the personal satisfaction, because it's the opportunity to use your mind to it's fullest potential, to do what it is that you do best and do what you love. And music is like a true love of mine. Learning new facets of song construction, and harmony, and how some instruments sound good together. It's an endless life-long obsession�
How did it come about, I asked him, that you created different names and characters for your different musical ideas? And what are your reasons for doing so? You said that you had loads of different musical ideas, but could you not combine them into one huge multi-faceted musical beast?
�The answer is kind of bizarre. The idea came from Chris Ware's alternative comic book, "The Acme Novelty Library". It's a book that's basically done out of his bedroom or something like that, but he's built this enormous fictional library around it. Even going so far as to include blueprints of the buildings new wings and interviews with employees who've had their arms lopped off in the giant presses. He goes into amazing minute and hilarious detail about the different aspects of this fictional library, and I'm sure there are people who've gone to Chicago looking for the Acme Novelty Library, only to find it doesn't exist. So that's where the idea for Bottco Records came from. Hank Guthrie was the first, because i wanted to make a real cd, without having to spend money on a real cd. At the time i couldn't afford to go into a studio and my 4 track recordings sounded cheap, what with the drum machines and all. So I decided to do a folk album, because it's just vocal, acoustic guitar and sometimes harmonica. And audio quality doesn't matter: my dad's bob dylan records were super scratchy, and to me that was part of their appeal. So, i actually got out my sampler, and sampled the scratchiness off a dylan record and put it on every single Hank Guthrie song i could. The result was a really low-tech sounding cd, which is what it was. We put the whole thing together on my friend Steve's computer. Later, i was thinking i may someday want to do a country album, so why not make up somebody for that? The idea became instead of having a band, i'd have a record label. People would see Bottco records like people saw the acme novelty library, they would know all bottco acts came from me or were me. The "people in the know", the true fans, or whatever. And if they didn't, that was ok too. I really do think of the different acts, as different acts. If I'm going to appear as Hank guthrie, i will change my appearance to suit that. Currently, I'm pretty much dedicated to the Cruel Cuts, they are a real band now, and we have a real studio cd, but i hope to flesh out my other bands in the future�.
E-mail mybestunbeatenbrother at: [email protected]
Click here ot go back to main page of the site