Devil's Last Stand

Band: Devil's Last Stand

Members: Shane Bohn, drums; Josh Bolewski, vocals; Alex Bolton, guitar; Chad Dick, guitar; Zach Sauter, bass

Who we talked to: Dick

How did you guys get together? About five months ago, . . . I was looking to start another band. I had played with a friend of mine about four or five years ago, and I randomly just called him up to see what he was doing. He got me in touch with the drummer that's in our band now, Shane. I've known him on and off for six or seven years and had lost touch with him. Through Shane, I met our guitarist now, Alex. Shane's from the Littlestown area, and Alex is from the Hanover area, and I'm from the Gettysburg area.

Where did the name come from? That was a long, drawn-out ordeal. (Laughs) All of us came together with a bunch of different ideas. We really liked the idea of something Greek because we like how the Greek language uses one word that meant a phrase or sentence. We found a couple phrases . . . that meant different things like "save yourself" or "becoming a better person." We're really a positive band, and we're also Christian, so we wanted to tie that in somehow in our name. We were thinking about Revelation and . . . the great war between the devil and God. We thought about the name Devil's Last Stand.

Describe your sound and style. We use a lot of metal influences. We do a lot of melodic stuff. We're influenced by a lot of Christian heavy bands, but we also like a lot of indie bands. We try to incorporate those two styles. As far as our sound goes . . . it's similar to (The Devil Wears Prada) in certain ways. We do some singing and some breakdown kind of stuff. We experiment with all kinds of different styles of screaming and yelling. There's a lot of hardcore . . . bands that just have a screaming vocalist.

What groups influence you? I don't really listen to a lot of heavy music. My favorite band is Alison Krauss and Union Station. I like the adrenaline and energy of the style of music we play. We all incorporate everyone's ideas. We're influenced a lot by Norma Jean . . . Every Time I Die, Underoath (and) stuff like that.

Is it hard for a Christian metal band to book gigs in this area? We decided to try to be a little more professional. We've all been in bands before. We're not really out to play 10,000 shows like a lot of bands do. We just want to make our music really, really marketable. We want to try to reach as many different people as we can. We have a lot of experience, and we're just trying right now to, like, focus it. We have a producer we're talking to. We're talking with a record company. We have full-time jobs or we're in school. It's hard to juggle being in a full-time band just to have fun and play and go on tour all year.

Are there a lot of places to play locally? Yes, I do think there is (and) not just in the Gettysburg specific area. There is calling around this area. There (are) a lot of places we can go to have shows. There (are) a lot of churches. We want to play places that promote the message we're trying to get out. It's going to take some time and effort.

What's coming up for you in the future? We just got done recording a six-song demo at JMR Productions (in Annville). It's a great studio with awesome equipment. It was great. The songs will be up on our MySpace soon. We're going to sell it at shows. All of us agree that as soon as possible, (we want) to get a video with our single and just promote it like crazy.

- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF