Gary Heffern: “Hand of the Devil”

In time for his visit to San Diego’s Casbah April 3 and 6 to reunite with the Penetrators and celebrate the pending release of his “Gary Heffern & Beautiful People” CD, Gary Heffern shares this new video for his song “Hand of the Devil” and describes the process of its creation.

“The video was shot at the school Rovala, which I am attending to learn the Finnish language,” Gary writes. “While there it struck me that I was one of the only English-speaking people there, and how many refugees were in my class … And there were many moments when I felt so insecure about what I was doing and why I was here.

“When I began to learn more about these people it seemed that my circumstances were smaller, and I also saw very plainly that they really have no future here in Finland, simply because of not speaking the language, or the color of their skin.

“When we were filming this, there were the two factions from Iraq, and there was some discussion about them not wanting to be in the same room together,” Gary continues. “The first time any of these folks heard the song was during the filming, and there were many, many tears. … And it doesn’t really show it, but at the end of the song they started singing along … and it was just one of those moments where you realize the power of music … The people there were from Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, Jordan. …

“Kristi Maddocks sings on this, and Al DeLoner from Midnight Choir as well, and of course the ever brilliant Chris Cacavas. Also David Rinck sent me footage from Haiti, and also Tamikrest from Mali and Arouna are featured in the video. (I will have only 50 copies of this when I get to the casbah show, as they are still being printed.)

“I can die tomorrow and feel like i have left behind something that is hopefully bigger than me as a person, or us as a band. … I’m still that 25-year-old kid who thinks he can change the world.“