Dev - Do Not Call Her A Party Girl!


When your first appearance on a song makes it an anthem you set the bar pretty high for yourself. This is exactly what Dev did when she first came on the scene singing the hook on Far East Movement’s “Like A G6.” She followed it up with the club songs “Bass Down Low” and “Booty Bounce,” but when I caught up with her she let me know that she’s not a fan of “party girl” label. During our interview Dev also revealed she’s in no hurry to complete an album just to have product to push. She does, however, have some future plans with her sisters, and she also discussed her Twitter interaction with DJ Pauly D of Jersey Shore fame, and the strangest thing anyone has ever handed to her at a club.

Adam Bernard: I already know a few things about you, for instance, you like your beats fast and your bass down low. What are some of the other important things I, and everyone else, should know about you?
Dev: I’m 21, I don’t have a favorite color, my birthday’s in July, I have two little sisters, and I’m Portuguese and Mexican.

Adam Bernard: Two little sisters? So you’re setting the example now.
Dev: I am! I’m the big sister, man.

Adam Bernard: Do you plan on taking them on tour with you during their summer vacation?
Dev:{laughs} I don’t think my kind of tours are an appropriate place for a 13 and 16 year old. One day, of course, I’d love to. That’s my goal.

Adam Bernard: Yeah, 13 might be a little young.
Dev: Yeah, I'm like popping champagne on stage. That might be too much. I have to wait till they’re at least 15, or the other one’s at least 18, I guess.

Adam Bernard: Wait till the other one can take care of the youngest one.
Dev:{laughs} Exactly. That’s so good. Once they can drive me around and stuff. {laughs} “You guys can come on tour IF you drive me around.” I’m just kidding.

Adam Bernard: I think probably the number one assumption about you after hearing your first few singles and appearances is that you’re a bit of a party girl. Would this be fair to say?
Dev: I don’t really like to say I’m a party girl, I think that’s like super corny, but I do be sippin, and sippin and movin, but I’m not necessarily a party girl, but I can party.

Adam Bernard: You attend events at night that have loud music and alcohol.
Dev: That’s exactly it, yes. I attend events at night, sometimes in the middle of the day, that have loud music and alcohol, that I consume.

Adam Bernard: So as someone who’s been to their fair share of events at night that have loud music and alcohol, what’s the weirdest thing anyone has offered you, or given you, at one of those events?
Dev: Someone gave me a drawing of myself one time, which was the last thing I would expect. That’s not really weird, but for being a club atmosphere I thought that was a little strange. Other than that everybody’s kind of cool to me.

Adam Bernard: Was it on a napkin with his phone number?
Dev:{laughs} No, thank God. That would have been completely creeped. It was on like a piece of computer paper.

Adam Bernard: Speaking of art, you have a lot of it on your body. How many tattoos do you have and do any have special meanings, or are they all just sort of like “I felt like getting somethin done?”
Dev: I’ll roughly say around 12, maybe. Most of them are all “I just felt,” but I have some that are in Portuguese and Spanish, so I guess there's meaning behind that, the fact that I’m Portuguese and Mexican, but other than that, they’re kind of “I just felt like getting them.” Personally I’ve never really wanted to have something where where I’m like yeah, well the meaning behind this is because der der der. They’re just for funsies.

Adam Bernard: It can get a little pretentious if you have seven paragraphs about what your tattoo is.
Dev: Exactly. Like well this means blah blah blah, and this means strength and some other random Japanese.

Adam Bernard: "I got this when I fell off my bike when I was eight."
Dev: Exactly. So yeah, they’re kind of just there for funsies.

Adam Bernard: And you said you have some in Spanish and Portuguese. Are you tri-lingual?
Dev: I am technically not, no. I only know the demanding words like go to bed, and don’t touch that, or don’t do that. Things like that. Things that my family used to say when I was little.

Adam Bernard: So you can discipline a dog in any language.
Dev: I can discipline a dog and order really good food and beer, and that’s about it.

Adam Bernard: That’s the basics. You can get through life with that.
Dev: Yeah. It’s good enough, I guess.

Adam Bernard: Since you’re not disciplining dogs for a living, let’s talk a little bit about the album. Hit me with the title, the scheduled release date, and what your hopes are for it.
Dev: Well, there is no title yet. I know everybody’s like completely on my ass for that, but there will be soon. And there is no date. We were set for April, but we pushed (it) a little bit. I think I’d like to spend some more time on it before I put it out there. So far I just spent three weeks in Costa Rica recording for it and there are a lot of great ideas and songs set down. I’m excited for everybody to hear it when it does come out and when it’s finished. There’s a lot of different textures and tempo and stories. There are some songs where I’m rapping the whole thing and there are some songs where it’s just me and a guitar and I’m singing the whole thing. So I’m excited for everybody to see that I can make songs about me being 21 and having a good time and they can have a good time and I can make songs that are a little bit more than that, and have a little bit more depth to it, even though both are great. People will definitely be able to tell I grew up listening to a bunch of different stuff and (am) influenced by a bunch of different stuff. I’m really excited for it. I’m 21 years old, I’m young, and I think that it’s a good representation of where I am and what I’ve gone through, so I’m excited for it.

Adam Bernard: I like hearing that you’re going to take some more time on it, because “Like A G6” threw you into the limelight pretty quickly. Was there pressure on you to rush the album?
Dev: You know, with “G6” there was a little bit. It gave me enough attention without it being too crazy and putting me in some sort of unrealistic place, but it did give me a lot of attention and I know that we definitely didn’t want it to die down, we wanted to keep things moving. When the wave comes you sorta got to ride it, you know what I’m saying? Luckily we had “Bass Down Low” already all done and finished and we could push that out, and I feel it was a great follow up, but I wanted to spend a little more time on this and get it right. I’m figuring out more and more about myself every day, so yeah, thankfully there wasn’t too much pressure, but I have to keep movin.

Adam Bernard: Yeah, and “Bass Down Low” got quite the big ups from Pauly D on Twitter.
Dev: Yeah, you see that? That’s my man right there {laughs}. He tweeted I’m obsessed with @DevIsHot OMG. It was so cool.

Adam Bernard: Have you linked up with Pauly D?
Dev: I haven’t yet. We just kind of tweeted each other back and forth a little bit that one time, but hopefully I’ll meet him or see him at a show or something. I caught him playing at a Christmas show out here in LA for the radio station and he was really dope, so we’ll see.

Adam Bernard: You linked up with him through Twitter, and you linked up with the Cataracs through, and I know this sounds so 2006, MySpace. What’s your working relationship with them now? Are they producing your entire album?
Dev: Exactly, so 2006. That was amazing. A lot of people brought up different ideas for the producers and stuff, but it was important to me that the Cataracs produced all of it and I wanted that. They found me on MySpace three years ago and have worked with me ever since. They taught me everything I know. When I met the Cataracs I didn’t even understand how to write a structured song or anything like that, so yeah, they’ve kind of taught me everything and I’ve kind of grown with them and it was just really important to me that they be the main production on it. The know me so well. I’m so lucky to be an artist that started out with these people and I’ve grown with these people, because most people meet their producers and they’re like “hey, let’s try to make an album in six months, nice to meet you,” or “I remember you back in the day, let’s hook up and try to,” but I’ve lived with the Cataracs for a year and a half, and I’ve been best friends with them for three years, I’ve toured with them. They’ve known everybody I’ve dated, and they know what food I like, so it was really important to me that that sort of authenticity and the sort of genuine feel behind that was in the album and represented with the album and all the songs. And we just work really well together.

Adam Bernard: And you live with them now. Is this a Big Love situation. Are you all married and being filmed for HBO?
Dev: We’re all married and we have six children together. No. No way. They’re like my brothers. We should have definitely had a TV show, though. There were definitely some crazy times in the house, but those are like my brothers, they have my back and I have theirs and I’m very fortunate to have that relationship with people that I work with. I don’t think most people can even stand people that they work with and I lived with mine, so I think I’m pretty lucky for that.

Adam Bernard: One comparison you get is to Ke$ha, I think there are some notable differences between the two of you; your beats are more minimal, and your vocals are lower and at times slightly disaffected, while Ke$ha’s are up and chirpy. Are you happy with the Ke$ha comparisons, because she’s one of the biggest artists in the world right now, or would you rather they cease altogether?
Dev: I respect all artists, whether I listen to them or not. I’d be a fool not to because this industry is absolutely insane, but I don’t like being compared to anybody. {laughs} I’m like such a brat, why would I want to be compared to anybody? So it’s whatever. People are gonna make the comparisons, that’s the easiest for people to do. They feel safe. They feel safe listening to me because I remind them so so and so, and that’s fine, and it’s cool, but they’ll definitely be able to tell when I sing it doesn't sound like that and on songs where I’m more rapping it doesn’t sound like that, but I can understand comparisons coming from people only hearing me on an eight bar hook from “Like A G6” and on a sort of party influenced song on “Bass Down Low.” So that’s that, but people will see when the album comes out and then they can make their comparisons then. I’m sure they will.

Adam Bernard: Finally, your Twitter handle is @DevIsHot. Modest much?
Dev: Yeah, modest much? No, it’s like a joke because I’m completely NOT like that. I don’t have DevIsHot and have my background with modeling headshots of me. My Twit icon was of me with like no hair. I completely chopped all my hair off. So it’s more of a play off of the fact that I’m so not like that.

Related Links

Website: devishot.com
Twitter: twitter.com/devishot
Facebook: facebook.com/devishot

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