Own Device cuts CD, Post-Bulletin

Date Modified: 03/17/2008 1:50 PM

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Left to their own devices, rockers cut a CD
3/5/2008
By Tom Weber
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

The members of Own Device are quite candid about the silhouettes on the cover of their debut, self-titled CD. "We didn't want people to see 40-year-old rockers," said guitarist Kyle Watkins, age 40-something.

Truthfully, though, the members of Rochester-based Own Device admit they probably couldn't have recorded this album when they were younger.

"I wouldn't have had the patience to do it back then," said lead vocalist Tom Rime.

"It's not garage band at all," Watkins said. "It's very polished."

The members of Own Device -- drummer Rick Miller and guitarist Dan Garmers, besides Rime and Watkins -- have played in bands for years. When they got the itch a few years ago to make music again, they decided to opt out of the cover-band routine.

"We didn't want to go back to playing cover material and being in the bars late at night," Rime said.

So, the four of them wrote their own songs and spent the better part of four years in the studio perfecting and recording them. Then they made a firm promise not to play the songs live. Own Device is strictly a studio band.

That creates some marketing challenges when it comes to getting the music heard and selling CDs. "But we never went into this thinking 'Oh, we're going to sell a million copies,'" Watkins said.

Instead, the band members approached the project from the standpoint of experience and maturity. They would take their time, record what and how they wanted to, and simply enjoy making music.

Their audience? "Us," Miller said. "If you can't appeal to yourselves, you can't appeal to others."

Starting from that base, Own Device intends to branch out in search of like-minded listeners. The album, which Rime describes as '80s-style rock with today's sound, is available on iTunes and CD Baby.

And if somebody searching for a song for a movie or video game soundtrack comes across Own Device's music, all the better.

"All it takes is for a group of people to download a song," Miller said.