Kevin Devine Has 'Nothing to Do' With the Brooklyn Music Scene

Posted on Dec 23rd 2009 12:00PM by Justin Jacobs
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When New York Magazine lists the top 40 songs that define Brooklyn's sound, there's no denying that the so-called "scene" has gone mainstream. Few folks are so aware of the Brooklyn scene -- without being a part of it -- as Kevin Devine.

The longtime singer-songwriter grew up in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood where he continues to reside today and has seen areas like Williamsburg grow and change, all from an outsider's perspective. "It's only weird because I have absolutely nothing to do with it," Devine tells Spinner. "To see your neighborhood become the magnet for the beautiful and well-informed from all over the world -- like a Polish family that's been there since 1950 or a Puerto Rican family, watching all the storefronts change to cafes and record shops -- that's the double-edged sword of gentrification."

While Devine knows Brooklyn like few others -- he's even got a paean to his borough, 'Brooklyn Boy,' from 2006's 'Put Your Ghost to Rest' -- his music is just as at home in a Southern dive as a Greenpoint bar, with guitar-driven, always-confessional folk rock. In that way, he's long been an enigma to many, without a scene to call his own.

"The hipper outlets -- the BrooklynVegans of the world -- to them, I'm just a thing. And that's great. I wouldn't turn them down if they did, but the more those places write about you, the quicker the chance you'll get blown out of proportion," Devine says. "And no one can ever make that argument about me."