The method of creating a documentary on the long-lasting ’80s New Wave band, Devo, was a five-year journey, based on director Chris Smith. However in researching the band over that point some fabulous examples of the band’s dwell performances had been unearthed. Certainly one of their earliest exhibits in New York Metropolis, filmed on 16mm movie, might have nearly been misplaced eternally.
“It was about eight or nine years ago, someone came out of the woodwork,” stated Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh at TheWrap’s Sundance Portrait and Interview Studio sponsored by NFP. “They had gone to a garage sale in New Jersey and bought canisters of tape that had names on the side. There were other bands on some of the other tapes and they saw ones that said ‘Devo’ and so they bought them. It was 16 millimeter film.”
However as a result of the unique tape didn’t have video it required the band to be ingenious and remastered it on their very own. “It had never been cut together or turned into anything,” stated Mothersbaugh. “And they didn’t have sound. But once we figured out what it was we realized our sound man had made an audio documentation of the show that night onto a two-track tape so we were able to marry those together.”
Mothersbaugh continued: “It was great to see it after the fact because we remember David Bowie came out and introduced us, and was backstage with us and said he wanted to produce us. We remember all that stuff, but it was nice to find it on tape. It was kind of amazing.”
For the band, made up of brothers Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, it was a now or by no means second to make a documentary. However they knew they needed to showcase their rise as a band in addition to the philosophy that saved them collectively. “When we first formed, it was with a philosophy and a concept, and an idea based on our experiences of the real world that maybe man wasn’t the most amazing animal on the planet. Maybe we were the most dangerous and the one animal that was out of touch with nature,” stated Mothersbaugh.
That being stated, they understood rapidly that their sound was at odds with the music being created on the time. “The music that was popular at the time was really vapid,” stated Mothersbaugh. “It was concert rock, Boston and Styx. Bands singing things like ‘snorting whiskey and drinking cocaine, I think I’m gonna go insane.’ And disco. It was all really not that interesting to us. I mean, disco had great sounds in it. So we were thinking, ‘Well, let’s go put some content into what we’re doing.’”
You may watch the total interview above.
“Devo” is a gross sales title at Sundance.
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