
Punching a hole through the dull clouds overhead, Deva St. John threw a coarser tone into their incendiary live display of heavy pop-rock at Saturday’s Reading Pride festival event.
Sporting a set of multi-coloured patchwork trousers, The 27-year-old artist ripped through the first two songs, Reckless and Information Age, on the 19th anniversary of the bustling town’s LGBT+ event, pushing an emphasis on the grainy heavy-rock guitar and vocals over her usual pop sensibilities, and complimenting the harsher sound with her own on-stage frantic theatrics.
The Maidenhead native performed her latest three singles - two of which are set to feature on her soon-to-be-released EP, Nauseous Ad Nauseum, where she pulls from her internal struggles, her experiences with living with Cystic Fibrosis, and concerns over glorification of mental illness within her own scene - all the while letting her lyrics boldly declare her own optimism.
Discussing the upcoming EP, featuring the latest single DIE!, Skye Bennett/Deva (pronounced ‘Dayva’) said: “The EP is a four-track EP, the first two tracks are DIE! And Pity Party, which I played here. The third track, Poser, is about posers in the alt-rock scene who glorify mental illness and addiction - just how toxic it is, especially as these artists sometimes have a really young fan base.
“The fourth track, The Curse, was written when my health was on the decline and I was in the hospital doing a really intense IV treatment - they compare it to Chemo, because of how aggressive it is. I wrote about how tired I am, how I need to deal with it, and I’ve been dealing with it. The theme of the EP is sort of all over the place.
“Like most of my songs, it has an undertone of hope even though the themes are quite dark. I don’t like to leave it at that - I like eliciting an emotional response in the listener, but I don’t want to depress people too much.
“I think the general theme is dark rock, but with a hopeful undertone. I think I’d describe my music kind of like that.”

Comments