By Georgina Langford

When No Devotion rose out of the ashes of Lostprophets, there was huge speculation as to whether they could overcome the negativity left behind by Ian Watkin’s heinous crimes. But when MTV met with Lee Gaze (guitarist, ex-Lostprophets) and Geoff Rickly (vocals, ex-Thursday) to discuss the motivation behind No Devotion, it was blindingly obvious that they have left the past firmly behind them, with all eyes now focused on the future of their new music.

While Lee never refers to his ‘previous band’ by name, he does explain how their long-standing friendship helped them to overcome the dark times at the end of Lostprophets, and why they chose not to quietly disappear from the music industry. “We came back with our fists up,” says Lee. “It was like, ‘f**k that, we’re not running away’”.

Having announced the launch of No Devotion with the '80ssynth anthem Stay, the band have just wrapped their first short run of UK shows – “I wish we’d booked more gigs!” says Lee – and are happy that they have got a fresh start. “Everything’s a first again, which is great, but we get to do it all with 15 years of knowledge and experience on our side,” Lee explains.

“While we might not yet have the support we had for our previous bands, we also don’t have the restrictions, so there’s a new sense of urgency and fun. We also know what mistakes not to make again!” laughs Geoff, whose iconic post-hardcore band Thursday previously toured with Lostprophets.

He began talking to the guys about the possibility of a new band before Lostprophets had even officially called it a day. “I knew that they hadn’t been happy for a while,” he says, “but before I met with them, I was also done with music.” Naturally, Geoff had his reservations about working with the Welshmen due to the Watkins association.“I didn’t want to get in the crosshairs – I didn’t want to be attacked. It was only when I heard the power of the No Devotion songs that I knew it was worth one more shot.”

First, the new bandmates had to bond. “To begin with I was definitely the outsider,” says Geoff, “but we have a healthy respect for each other and now I have this amazing, huge family.” “This band couldn’t exist without Geoff,” Lee continues. “The way he ties everything togetheris at the core of everything;there’s nobody else who could fill that gap.” In fact, Geoff has so far been the only member of No Devotion to speak on stage during their live shows – something that wasn’t planned, but that they are happy to continue with.

The music that convinced Geoff to frontNo Devotion is a combination of their broad personal influences. “I’ve had nearly 40 years of listening to music!” laughs Lee. “We could only explore a little corner of that with our old band; now we’ve blown the doors off and are exploring everything.It was very important for us to pick a style, have an identity and be a real band.” Both he and Lee are movie obsessives, and both agree Staycould have fitted nicely on the Drive soundtrack. “You would not believe the amount of people who have said that, but that’s a great thing,” smiles Lee.

Radio 1’s Rock Show host Daniel P. Carter premiered Stay, loving it so much that he played it twice in a row. No Devotion have been embraced with open arms by their musical friends and other industry members who just want to offer their support. “The guys from Biffy have said the nicest things, Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon has been f**king awesome,” Lee grins. “Even Gerard Way [ex-My Chemical Romance] bigged us up on Twitter, and talked about us doing a tour together,” Geoff adds.

Despite the support from their rock pals, Geoff gets frustrated at the fact No Devotion automatically get grouped with heavier bands - even with their new, pop, synth-driven sound - because of the members’ previous incarnations. “Seeingus get compared to 30 Seconds To Mars makes me scratch my head,” he says. “With no disrespect, I’m a fan of Jared Leto’s acting, but I don’t know what his band is meant to sound like.”

No Devotion have also had to ride out the preconceptions of their former fans. “I’ve been telling people that it doesn’t sound like either of our old bands,” says Lee. “I’m really glad that someone filmed one of the shows and put it on YouTube, because now people can go there and decide whether they do or don’t like this band based on our music alone.”

“If you like us, that’s so cool, but if you don’t, then go listen to our old records, because we are not going to try to be that again,” says Geoff.

They don’t want their old fans to pretend to like their new music; they just want the truth. “Someone tweeted us after the Manchester gig and said that No Devotion wasn’t for him but that he wished us the best,” Lee recalls. “That’s awesome, I couldn’t ask for anything more. The fact that he had listened and given us a chance made me want to give him a hug and say thank you.”

No Devotion's debut single Stay is out now