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Sierra grad making mark on music world as Dev
DEV--Story-Photo1
Devin Tailes – who performs under the name Dev – poses with her roommates and friends The Cataracs during the filming of her first music video in Downtown Los Angeles. - photo by Photo Contributed
Devin Tailes already had a bright future when she moved down to Los Angeles in August.

With the help of Berkeley-based club duo The Cataracs, Tailes – who goes by the stage name Dev – had already established a following in Northern California and put out tracks that had gained international acclaim long before she ever stepped foot in the entertainment capital of the world.

Now she’s riding high in the City of Angels with the launch of a world premier video on mtvU. She’s putting a face to her song “Fireball” that she hopes will establish her as she gears up for a busy year for her budding music career.

“It was definitely surreal to me. We worked really hard on making the song and the video, and it really seemed to pay off,” Tailes said. “I had to ride a bicycle around Downtown L.A. for like eight hours in heels. It was crazy, but it was fun and it was good to see when it was all over.”

The Sierra High Class of 2007 alum, ironically, didn’t let a lot of people know during her formative years that she had a passion for singing. It’s a love that she harbored with dreams of pursuing a career as a performer.

After teaming up with The Cataracs – who are now her flat mates in downtown L.A. – Dev began to realize that the possibility of achieving that goal was within reach. It wouldn’t be long before she found representation from the Indie-Pop label and set out to stake her claim.

“Singing was always something that I kind of loved, and now that I get to live that is just crazy,” she said. “It’s such an addictive thing – I absolutely love recording and performing and everything that goes with it.

“It gives me a feeling that I’ve never had with anything else, and now that I’m getting to do this I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else.’

According to the underground music blog The Slap Report, Dev is “one of the baddest young singers that I’ve come across in a while, a rising pop superstar from the Indie-Pop camp. She’s an A&R’s dream: her voice is on point, her songs are catchy, danceable, and well produced, and most importantly, her mind is right in that her approach to music comes unencumbered by the kinds of petty hang-ups that truly destroy promising young careers.

The Slap Report also stated that her music has already traveled around the globe to exotic destinations like Rio de Janeiro and Milan.

In a few weeks, Dev plans to drop both an album and a mix tape, adding to her tracks like “Fireball” and a song she performed with the Far East Movement that are already available for purchase on iTunes.

She’s also staying sharp for live performances, and hopes that events like the College Music Awards that she performed at in New York City will start to come more often as she becomes even more established.

“It’s the best feeling in the world when I know that I rehearse and I go out there and give it everything that I have and people enjoy it,” Dev said. “I do this for people to enjoy, and by doing that it’s something that I get to enjoy.”

To hear some of Devi’s music visit her MySpace page at www.myspace.com/devishot or check out some of the tracks that are available on iTunes. She also keeps a blog at www.devishot.com.