Known to readers of Essentially Pop as the former vocalist for Austin set, Name Sayers, Devin James Fry is now based in Denver, Colorado, and has set out on his own with new single, ‘Half Pit Half Bloodbath’ plus a range of remixes. These can be streamed and downloaded via his Bandcamp page.
On top of all this, there’s also a music video which sees Fry literally strip back – taking off a load of jewellery, chains around his neck, nose, lip, and forehead piercings, a tooth cap, and makeup. It’s a striking visual as he goes through a series of different guises while looking in the mirror. Suddenly, after wielding a knife, it seems he’s even gone as far as stripping off his skin – he holds up a blood-covered hand before putting on a Ronald Reagan mask. Ah! That would be the bloodbath part of the song. Fry himself describes it as “an econ trauma-informed capitalist regression flick with a touch of gore” – so there you go!
That should give you a clue to Fry’s mindset. He’s pissed off. He’s had a look at the state of the world and is angry at the rich, especially, as he says, the “arrogant, mostly white male twerps who build headless corporations that sacrifice workers and the plan for profit”.
Fry has owned boutique surgical sharpening firm, ‘The Sharpist’, for the past 16 years, and with that, he’s felt like he’s a part of the capitalist plot. He adds, “This song is a Fuck You to that creeping complicity. I wanted to say it, and say it again, and keep saying it”.
The video mix of the track, the “soapbox version”, has a disco feel that’s paired with a spacey electronic vibe. There’s a sort of jarring quality to the synths, with pops and toots that soon give way to a more orderly electric guitar, seemingly wailing with its own complaints about the mess we’re all in.
Fry isn’t one to do things by halves, of course. An active organiser with the Denver chapter of the Industrial Workers of The World, he got in touch with eight electronic artists from that city’s modular synth scene, and asked them to make their own remixes of the track. Local synth wizard, manmademadman, had his way with tracks 2 and 9, in the former giving the track an uptempo makeover, and a somewhat more sinister mix for the latter.
It’s given the rave treatment by Atonal Stimulant in track 3, and in the hands of ALX-106 it becomes an old-skool EDM banger at number 4.
You can stream and download the entire remix package for ‘Half Ball Pit Half Bloodbath’ via Devin James Fry’s Bandcamp page.
Find out more about Devin James Fry and his music online on Instagram, YouTube, and his official website.
