Punk was never meant to be cute and cuddly and available “off-the-peg” at the local shopping arcade. It was more an attitude, a way of life and a form of protest that was angry and barbed, and that’s something the Deaf Devils want to bring back. A quartet who’ve burst out of Spain with all guitars blazing, they’re on a mission to put the bite back into punk and have left a trail of demolished stages in their wake. Drawing from a wide range of musical influences, theirs has been a restless flight, but the band took time out of a busy schedule to speak to us before the final date of their mini-UK tour at Birmingham’s The Dark Horse venue. The band comprise vocalist Lucyfer, Pipe Dead (guitar), Kuba (bass) and Eric Von (drums).
Valencia is not people’s first thought when thinking punk rock. What made you want to start playing this type of music?
Lucyfer: “Thanks to our parents, we’ve been listening to punk music since we were born. It’s in our blood and something we always wanted to play. So we formed a band, started playing gigs, and we hope we won’t stop until we fulfil our dreams.”
You have a ferocious sound. What kind of things make you angry?
Pipe Dead: “In 2026, there is much to be angry about. It feels like the electric guitar has been dying since the 1990’s. Every year when Christmas comes, kids ask for a bicycle, a PlayStation or a football, but they don’t want a guitar. There are no guitar heroes anymore…they are dying or have already gone. We definitely want to bring guitar music back.”
Eric Von: “In Spain, rock ‘n’ roll music is dead. The focus is on rave and disco scenes.”
Pipe Dead: “There are still a few bands in the underground, but it’s hard to play and to make a living from music. Also, the Catholic church and its influence on society.”
Do you find the church oppressive?
Lucyfer: “We find that it still has a big impact on society and influences everyday life. While fewer people are Catholic, the church still tells people how they should live. We are for the individual; we tell people to think for themselves and to be themselves. No one should tell them how to behave…”
Pipe Dead: “..and to have fun because you never know what tomorrow will bring.”
What is the music scene like in Valencia? Are there many places to play?
Kuba: “A few, but really only one place for alternative people; it’s called 16 Toneladas and run by a really good friend of ours, but there aren’t many good venues anymore.”
Lucyfer: “A lot of places shut down during the pandemic and never opened again. The scene is dying, there’s really only us and a couple of other bands. There are no venues to play and no audience to play to.”
Kuba: “Also, the authorities don’t help at all. There’s no funding from the government. If a promoter believes in you and puts you on in their venue, then you are very lucky to play those places.”
It sounds like you’ve had a real battle just to make it out of Spain.
Kuba: “Definitely, we’ve been playing together in various bands for ten years, and nobody will really acknowledge your band until you’ve played outside of Spain. Then, once you’ve returned from a tour of the UK or Europe, people will finally start talking about you and start coming to your shows. It’s hard coming from Spain, you have to keep pushing and pushing.”
Off stage, you are all very relaxed, but once you pick up instruments and play music, you turn into crazy people. It’s like Clark Kent turning into Superman.
Lucyfer: “When we are on stage, it feels like we have the freedom to do whatever we want. If we acted that way off stage, we’d probably get arrested or thrown out of the venue. Although sometimes we do get thrown out, but being on stage allows us to do whatever we want.”
Kuba: “Being on stage gives us a free pass.”
There’s a strong visual element to your band. When you graduate to bigger stages, would you like to introduce more production to your performance?
Pipe Dead: “Yes!. We love The Adicts, we love Kiss and Alice Cooper.”
Lucyfer: “We love visual things, but we are also down to earth, so we don’t want to change too much.”
Pipe Dead: “We’d like more lights, more amps and guitars.”
You always play a few cover versions in your set. Quite a diverse range from the Misfits to Motörhead and The Who. How do you choose songs to cover?
Lucyfer: “We consider where we are playing and the bands we are playing with. We like to perform cool songs and sometimes surprise the audience. We also like to cover the songs that inspired us. What I really liked about bands from the 1970’s is that they always played covers.”
Pipe Dead: “Like The Damned, for example. On their albums, there was always a cover version, and they always used to play covers live.”
Eric Von: “Mainly, we pick the songs we like.”
And when you play covers, do you want to play them faithfully or put your own stamp on them?
Lucyfer: “We mix it with a little of both: we do it our own way but stay true to the original.”
Pipe Dead: “With respect but having fun with it also. We like to turn the song upside down. For example, we covered ‘The Witch’ by The Sonics and played it in opposite, like a photograph negative.”
Kuba: “Usually, we speed things up a bit.”
Eric Von: “We are speed death demons!”
How does it feel to share stages with some of your heroes?
Lucyfer: “It’s mind-blowing, we can’t quite believe it. When we are playing with these bands, we don’t have time to take it all in, but when we go home, it suddenly hits us: we’ve actually spent time with these people!”
Pipe Dead: “Yesterday at the show in Brighton, Charlie Harper from the UK Subs joined us on stage, and that was maybe the fourth or fifth time he’s played with us. He drove for forty minutes from his house to the venue to see us and perform with us for two minutes. We grew up listening to him, and now he’s on stage with us, and he tells us he is a fan of the Deaf Devils, that’s crazy; how can he be a fan of us when I’m a fan of him?”
Is there any band that you’d really like to tour with?
All: “The Damned!”
Lucyfer: “The Damned are an inspiration for us. We’ve been listening to them since we were children, and we really admire them.”
Eric Von: “To play with The Damned would be a wet dream! They are the reason I play music.”
There’s a strong Clockwork Orange aesthetic hanging over the band. That film obviously had a big impact on the Deaf Devils.
Lucyfer: “A Clockwork Orange was my favourite movie growing up. The first time I saw it, I was 15 years old, and it really shocked me; it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It comments on society, something that is so raw and so cruel that people don’t want you to see it, but the things in the film really do happen. I can only speak for myself, but it’s a movie that really got me: it’s something that shocks people, and that’s what we like.”
Kuba: “Also, it’s a funny thing, but nobody is wearing white on stage, so that’s something different for us.”
As we mentioned earlier, you really throw yourselves around on stage. How do you keep your clothes so white?
Lucyfer: “If you look closer, you’ll see they’re not so white anymore. You’d better not smell us!”
Pipe Dead: “Also, in the clubs, the lights are low, so you don’t see the dirt so much.”
Eric Von: “I have to thank my mother for it!”
The band has an insane work ethic, touring and playing shows relentlessly.
Pipe Dead: “Actually, I don’t have a ‘plan B’. I left school, and the only thing I know is how to play guitar. We are trying our hardest to make things work. Other members of the band have jobs, and when they’re working, their thoughts are about going on tour with the rest of the band, drinking and having fun.”
Lucyfer: “The band is our main focus. We really want to do this.”
Kuba: “Actually, a tour is like a vacation for me. That’s my life: work, tour, work, tour.”
Your album was released via Katabomb Records. How did you sign with them?
Pipe Dead: “Last year we did a tour and played in France, the owner of Katabomb Records saw us, he was also a fan of my father’s band and did a repress of his album, he asked us if we wanted to record an album and if he could put it out. We were like “fuck yeah!”. It happened so easily.”
The band has been in existence for quite a while, so why has your first album taken so long?
Lucyfer: “At first, we recorded it in Valencia in our rehearsal space, but it didn’t sound so good; we couldn’t put it out. Then we recorded it in Milan, but the mixing never really worked out…”
Pipe Dead: “…it was difficult trying to explain what we wanted to do, so we re-recorded it, back in Valencia, but it took too long, we had to fit everything in between touring and working.”
How do you feel about the album now that it is out in the world? Anything you’d like to change?
Lucyfer: “No. We had long enough to think about it!”
Do you look far ahead? Where do you think your sound will go in the future?
Pipe Dead: “Not really, we’re just going to write some new songs, play them live and see what happens. We’ll probably record the next album in the same place as the first one. We’ve nearly finished a few new songs…we like the sound of The Damned’s first album, High Time by the MC5, and The Dead Boys. I think we’ll head in that direction.”
Finally, if I had a magic wand and could make one wish come true for the band, what would it be?
Pipe Dead: “Things are going amazingly, but just to be able to play and focus solely on the band would be a dream. But as we said, we’d love to do a tour with The Damned, or Turbonegro, something like that.”
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Interview and Photos By Pete Dennis