Interview with Devilment’s Colin Parks at Bloodstock: “Dani Filth glitterbombed me with green pixie dust”

Suffolk darklings Devilment made their bold Bloodstock debut on the Ronnie James Dio stage, transporting Catton Park to the catacombs from which they hail. Swooping in on guitarist Colin Parks as Devilment left the main stage in a heap of bones and ashes, Rock Sins had a chance to discuss all things spooky and how Devilment are by no means playing second fiddle to Cradle of Filth.

How’s your year been so far, Colin?

It’s been great even though we haven’t done many gigs this year, we’ve done Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany so this is our second gig this year. It’s a huge thing being on main stage straight away, a few of us have played here before with other bands like on the Sophie stage and the New Blood stage. It was a good crowd though!

Originality’s hard to come by these days, how does it feel being at the front of a goth resurgence alongside Cradle of Filth?

It’s always gonna be a Catch 22 situation with Devilment because Dani’s the singer, there’s always going to be the comparison between Devilment and Cradle. We’re all good friends though, we’re like a little family and that’s how we want to be. We all live literally within 20 minutes of each other whereas with Cradle it’s all over the world. We’re great with where we are as a band at the moment.

How do you manage to fit in touring with Devilment?

Me and Dani live like ten minutes away from each other which is quite nice because he’s got Cradle and we fit in slots around that. It’s nice that we’re friends because it makes everything so much easier, it’s like going to work with your friends. That’s how I got the job with Devilment, they came and saw me at a gig and gave me the job, they saw my other band and I auditioned and the rest is history.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at a Devilment show so far?

We played in Stoke last year on our headline tour and it was unreal. Dani managed to glitter bomb me with green pixie dust, so you’ve got a 6 foot 7 guy walking around with pixie dust all over him. Then our guitarist Nick (Johnson) caught a virus and threw up all over his guitar and all down himself. Then we got a mosh pit started and a guy actually snapped his arm in half. I had to get in the ambulance with him so I was sat in the back of the ambulance with green glitter all over me, just giving him a hug… as you do. He was really happy with his night and I was like, “I don’t think you’re gonna think that anymore mate.” If we can get fans like that, that is fantastic.

You sound like you prank each other on tour a lot…

Chris Motionless is gonna kill me for saying this but we nicked some of Motionless in White’s vodka when we were in Germany, Dani threw it all up right into a bin. We also bought a £145 buffalo and stuck it in Christina Scabbia’s bed, her only reaction was, “This ain’t gonna fit in the microwave.” Then there’s Dani covering me in glitter… I was waiting for that for the entire set today so I feel privileged I avoided it again. It took a week’s worth of showers to get rid of that, just when you think you’ve got rid of it, hello glitter again.

Any strange presents from those crazy fans yet?

I haven’t had a single present yet, I’m pretty disappointed. That said, I’ve had loads of random cakes and that’s cool with me, problem was I was training at the time people were handing them to me so I couldn’t eat them anyway!

Do you take any home comforts on the road when you’re no longer 10 minutes from home?

I know this sounds weird but when it comes to big tours, I take my kid’s little sniffy toy. When I’m away from home, it’s nice to have something there with me because it makes me feel less anxious. We’re not away from home a lot, Devilment’s not quite as big as Cradle so it’s not like we’re that busy, but all of us in Devilment work other jobs – me and Nick are care workers.

Sounds like a high pressure environment, do you take all that stress home with you?

Luckily not, I’m too laid back. My parents are over in Australia so I’ve inherited the relaxed “I don’t care” attitude. As long as everyone’s still breathing, it’s fine. You can’t be too highly strung in that environment because it’ll just destroy you. It’s the same as when we’re on the road with Devilment, if you’re away from your family, you have to be laid back otherwise it consumes you. Some people just aren’t cut out for it.

Where do you see yourself and Devilment this time next year?

We’ve just changed our booking agents so we’ve had a few changes in our backroom staff. Cradle’s album is coming out in a few weeks and it’s amazing… remember Hammer of the Witches? It’s better than that. They’re going away for a massive tour at the beginning of next year and then we’re hoping to tour the Eastern Bloc and Russia in November. We pretty much missed the album cycle when our album came out last year but we’re hopping back on it next year so it’s a bit weird but we’ll be okay.

Is there any country you’re desperate to tour?

I really wanna go and play Oz and play Brisbane for my family. Maybe somewhere in Asia like the Philippines because there’s a massive hunger for our kind of music out there, literally thousands and thousands of kids turn out for that because they just haven’t seen our kind of thing yet. You remember when Metallica and Pantera did Russia and all hell broke loose, the crowd didn’t know what to do with themselves or how to react. Asia’s a bit of an untapped area, you see Parkway Drive doing crazy things out there so it’s definitely possible for us.

Lastly, as Devilment are so wonderfully morbid, what’s going on your headstone?

Here lies Colin, buffering 99%.

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