The Key To Dev's Heart

If you're a little boy or girl wantin' to hook up with Dev B, you might want to bring along some cheese and beer:

Recently, Banhart did something that seems, from a distance, out of character: he let one of his songs, "At the Hop" ("Put me on your plate/ 'cause you know I taste great"), be used in an advert for Cathedral City cheddar. Did he need the money? The publicity? Or was he just monkeying about? His answer, at least, has more cheek than cheese about it. "Well, I love that cheese," he says. "I grew up eating that cheese. It changed my life, you know? The song was written by me and Andy Cabic, and we thought, this is ours, let's use it for commercials. It got used for a beer commercial and we got some free beer. And we love beer. So, they asked for a cheese commercial and we thought, let's get some cheese. Had to buy another fridge for all that cheese and beer. Next up we got bread, napkins, forks, a house commercial, then a car commercial... and then a party!"

Kevin Harley's Independent interview with the boy-man also includes this quip:

Asked why this "wyrd" folk scene has re-emerged to acclaim for the first time since the late Sixties, he is sufficiently self-aware to quip: "Oh, we're a corporate strategy - we were groomed to do this. My beard isn't real. I can't wait to get out of these nasty Seventies rags. I'm more a cargo-shorts-and-Hawaiian-shirt kind of man. And this," he says, pulling on his hair, "is a strap-on ponytail."