Devil is the second single from Katy Rose Bennett’s 7th album Alone On A Hill (released 24th September 2021). Like the album’s first single Sleep (the video for which was premiered here), Devil was created, recorded and produced by Bennett in her home ‘studio’ (the hallway between her kitchen and lounge) on the rural outskirts of Birmingham, in Spring 2021.
Devil blends hypnotic, acappella vocal loops and electronica with traditional folk songwriting to create an unsettling and beguiling sound. The song is an exploration of how the devil (or whatever it represents) can take over one’s mind so quickly and insidiously through shapeshifting, trickery and seduction.
Katy tells us:
“Like many of my other songs ‘Devil’ was written in response to my own experience of poor mental health.”
Devil got in to my head
Thought it was just the wind
Devil jumped into my bed
Thought he was just a friend
Did he enter through the fireplace?
Did he sneak in by the back door
How did I not recognise his face
When I’ve seen it a hundred times or more?
“It’s a song I originally wrote on guitar. I then arranged the guitar part for 4-part a cappella vocals. I recorded and produced the song (as I did every song on my new album Alone On A Hill) in the hallway between my kitchen and my lounge.
“While the subject matter of the song is quite dark, I had a lot of fun experimenting with vocal, breath and body percussion sounds, playing with reverb, delay, EQ and various other sonic parameters to create the more unnatural sounding elements of the song. (My friend and mentor Jim Cornick introduced me to the wonders of Valhalla plugins which I am now slightly addicted to!).”
Katy, who has experienced mental health difficulties throughout her adult life, was inspired to write the song by the onset of a sudden and brief depressive episode in February 2020. Originally written on the guitar, Katy arranged Devil for a cappella voices as part of a project funded by Arts Council England. This project gave her space, time and resources to experiment and explore the process of creating music with just her voice (and a bit of body percussion). The new album Alone On A Hill is the result of this playing and experimenting.
“As with all my music videos of the last year or so, I created the video for ‘Devil’ at home. The video is made from 2 short films – one of me singing the song, one of me moving to the song. All the layers of the video are created from spliced and processed (sped-up/reversed/filtered/multi-layered) versions of these films to create what I hope is an increasingly unsettling video accompaniment to the song.”
While this track highlights the amazing vocals of Katy, what’s equally striking is her storytelling. The looped and layered vocals accentuate those voices in the head while the overlaid visuals and her expressions feed the confusion and torment. It brings into focus the helplessness that often comes with mental health issues and the isolation and loneliness many experience.
Don’t miss her special upcoming live dates with her new accappella group: Katy Rose Bennett & The Frankley Beeches; more below.
Katy Rose Bennett Dates
I’m really excited to be bringing this song and the whole album to life on tour later this month with a new accappella group: Katy Rose Bennett & The Frankley Beeches. We’ll be playing a few select dates in September:
22/09 Green Note, London
26/09 Kitchen Garden, Birmingham
29/09 Live To Your Living Room, Online
More information at www.katyrosebennett.com
The single, Devil, is released this week on Thursday, 9th September 2021.