John Bradley of New Jersey-born emo duo Dads has a special relationship New York singer/songwriter Kevin Devine‘s second album, 2003’s Make the Clocks Move. And it’s not just that Bradley was 14 years old when he first heard the ex-Miracle of ’86 member’s pensive solo material and how deeply it affected him as a teenager; the album has stuck with him closely through the past seven years.
Bradley: My favourite album of all time is Make the Clocks Move by Kevin Devine. It’s an album I found when I was 14 and it hit me immediately. I’d heard of Kevin Devine, just through the scene that I was part of in New Brunswick, New Jersey. My friend had his CD and that’s how I came across it. The first song is acoustic and the rest of the album fleshes out a little more, but it’s very much focused on Kevin himself. Each song has a connection, and everybody who I’ve shown the album to, they fall in love with it. I have a very big group of friends who are all diehard Kevin Devine fans, and any time he comes to the area we all go and see him. It’s an album where I’ve listened to it at 14, then I’ve listened to it at 18, and I’ve listened to it at 21, and I think every birthday I end up listening to it. It still hits me. The lyrics will hit me again in completely different ways.
Were you a Miracle of ’86 fan as well?
I became one after discovering Kevin. I found Make the Clocks Move first, and then I checked out Miracle of ’86 and fell in love with it. And I’d actually never heard of them until Kevin.
He’s put out a number of albums since then. Has he ever matched Make the Clocks Move, in your mind?
I think a lot of them have come very, very close, but I think a lot of it has to do with that one being the first of his albums that I heard. But even [2013’s] Bubblegum and Bulldozer, those are both amazing records and they’re still hard hitters right now.
What was your favourite album before you stumbled upon Kevin Devine?
I don’t know. I was very young. I was very into a lot of weird stuff, like I came up as a metalhead, then I found the Dashboard/Bright Eyes-type stuff that really hit with me, and then I started getting into Deftones and Glassjaw… I’m a huge Glassjaw fan. And then the whole metalcore and emo scene started working its way into me.
Do you remember how you felt when you first heard Make the Clocks Move?
It definitely opened up a lot of doors for me, and it made me realize a lot of stuff that I was feeling wasn’t weird. I made me realize that I wasn’t alone in this world, and that everybody was dealing with a lot of the stuff that I was dealing with.
Dads‘ I’ll Be the Tornado is out October 14 on 6131 Records.
Kevin Devine‘s Make the Clocks Move is available on Triple Crown Records.
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