Ahead of their first show back home in months – at Melbourne’s East Brusnwick Club on February 6 – Devastations frontman Conrad Standish tells DARREN LEVIN he still calls Australia home.

What prompted the return to Melbourne?
Tom [Carlyon, guitar/vocals] and Hugo [Cran, drums] are back living in Melbourne permanently now and, as I had the opportunity to come home for a bit, we thought it would be silly not to do a show. We haven't really played in Melbourne half as much as we would have liked to in the past few years. Also, this is going to be the last Devs show for quite some time, and we didn't really want to do that anywhere else other than at home.

It's hard keeping up with you. Are you based in London now? Or Berlin?
I'm still in London. We haven't really all lived together in Berlin for a couple of years. Hugo was the last to leave, which was about halfway through last year.

Is Melbourne still "home"?
Yes, of course. Even though I haven't lived there for a few years, it's always home. Having said that, I'm becoming more and more settled in London. I think it's possible to have two homes, or as many as you want really. Obviously, the place you grew up always stays with you somehow. I guess wherever you feel comfortable, or wherever your loved ones are is “home”. Anyway, Melbourne is still definitely one of those places and always will be. We're as Australian as Ampol.

Are you still technically on hiatus? And why did you take a break in the first place?
I guess we are still technically on hiatus. We took a break after we did Primavera last year. I think we were just exhausted. None of us were really getting along as well as we perhaps could have been. The band didn't feel like an enjoyable thing to be a part of, so a few days after getting back to Berlin we all met up at a cafe and basically talked about either splitting up, or just putting the band on ice until it felt right again. I think it was the best thing we could have done. If we had have kept touring at that point, or if we tried to make another record we definitely would have broken up, or worse. Things are fine now, we just needed to know when to say “when”.

What do the respective members of Devastations do when you're on a break?
Wrestle with 808s, go nightclubbing, buy pedals, invent recipes, sing, scout for locations, get paid, drink coffee, DJ, travel, go techno.

Blonde Redhead's Kazu recently added vocals to Yes, U’s instrumental track 'Misericordia' for AIDS benefit compilation, Dark Was the Night. Did you ever envision vocals for that track? And what do you make of her interpretation?
I don't think we ever envisioned vocals on that particular track, at least not from us, or definitely not from a male voice. We're really pleased with the way it turned out. Kazu has got a really singular quality and atmosphere to her voice which really adds to the song, in a way that we never could have pulled off. Most of our songs would sound 10 times better if Kazu sang them. In fact, most people’s songs would sound better with Kazu singing them.

You've also covered tracks by Suicide and The Cure for two recent compilations. Does this signal a sort of new life as a tribute act?
I would hope not. The Cure one we were asked to do ages ago, and it was for a good cause, which is the Invisible Children charity. We'd never done anything like that before. The Suicide one I was asked to do as a “solo artist” by Paul Smith who runs Blast First. That was kind of nerve-wracking as Suicide aren't really a band who you feel like you should really tamper with. I just kind of got around that by doing a fairly different interpretation of the track. It was done pretty quickly. Aaron [Cupples] from the Alpha Males recorded it at his place in London. Ben from Fuck Buttons played some great dubby synth on it. I'm proud of it.

How's album number four coming along? Last time we spoke to you, you had two songs written.
We'll revisit that stuff when we rehearse for the show. If it still sounds good, we'll play new stuff. There aren't any solid plans to get into the studio in the near future. Actually, I don't know. Making records isn't something we take all that lightly and none of us want to undertake doing another one unless we're all feeling good about it, and feel as though it's the right time. I'm perfectly happy to do a Portishead, or alternately, record one in the morning. I guess the point is, there will be another record, just don't know when.

What can we expect from your East Brunswick Club show? Are you playing any new tracks?
You can expect two (presumably) suntanned boys and one grey looking one. Plenty of Devastations covers. No Cure ones.

When was the last time you played a gig? And how did it go?
The last show was in June last year at the Primavera Festival, in Barcelona. The show itself was great - one of our best probably, but the days after that involved some of the worst excess and bad feeling that we've ever put ourselves through really. That was kind of the catalyst, or one of them, for taking a break.

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