Hear Americana Trio the Devil Makes Three’s New Song ‘Paint My Face’
The members of the Devil Makes Three aren’t ones to get hung up on pleasantries. “Paint My Face” is the Santa Cruz, California, trio’s first original song in five years, and here they go straight for the heavy stuff: contemplating death and the afterlife. It’s the first track to be premiered from the band’s next LP, Chains Are Broken, due out August 24th.
Chains Are Broken marks the Devil Makes Three’s seventh studio album and first of originals since 2013’s I’m a Stranger Here. The group recorded the new LP at Sonic Ranch Studios near El Paso, Texas, with producer Ted Hutt (Gaslight Anthem, Dropkick Murphys) and, for the first time, had a full-time drummer on the sessions, Stefan Amidon. “Paint My Face” reflects the extra rock & roll edge that Amidon, the band’s touring drummer, brings to the equation, as the song is a crunchy shuffle with a quivering, cascading electric-guitar line.
Despite its somewhat sinister tone, “Paint My Face” is as much a song about rebirth, both spiritual and creative, as it is about death. “‘Paint My Face’ talks reincarnation and unlived lives,” says singer and guitarist Pete Bernhard in a release accompanying the album announcement. “It partially discusses being a musician or an artist. It’s like a letter written to a child [that] I don’t know saying death is not the end, as I believe, it’s the beginning of another life.”
The third album that the Devil Makes Three has released with New West, Chains Are Broken is the follow-up to 2016’s Redemption & Ruin, a covers album that reached Number One on the Billboard Bluegrass chart and Number Two on Heatseekers. They play Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on June 16th.
Here’s the track list for Chains Are Broken:
1. “Chains Are Broken”
2. “Pray for Rain”
3. “Paint My Face”
4. “Can’t Stop
5. “Need to Lose”
6. “All Is Quiet”
7. “Bad Idea”
8. “Deep Down”
9. “Native Son”
10. “Castles”
11. “Curtains Rise”