Charm
City Devils is a kick ass rock band straight out of Baltimore, Maryland and was put
together by vocalist, singer, song-writer John Allen in February of
2006.
The band consists of frontman John Allen cranking it out on
vocals, Jason Heiser getting down and dirty on the drums, Vic Karrera
and Nick Kay rocking out on Guitar and Anthony Arambula kicking ass on
Bass; put these five together and you have on hell of a band!
Today I got to do an interview with John Allan from Charm City Devils who recently signed with Eleven Seven Music and here's what he had to say.
JennaGold: After deciding to take stage as a drummer for SR71 what made you decide to switch directions from drummer to vocalist and create your own band?
John Allan: Well you know, we built a studio here in the basement and I just figured I should start learning how to use it. I started writing some more songs, then as the songs came back; I was like, "wow!" I’ve got like 3 songs, then I had like 6 songs, then I had like 9 songs and I was thinking, "wow, I got a whole record here". I really felt like I was on to something musically at this stage of my life and career, I felt confident enough to come out from behind the drum kit and start fronting the band.
JennaGold: How have you guys grown since forming the band in 2006 to now in 2009?
John Allan: Well hopefully, the song writing’s grown a bit, I’ve become a better singer, better on stage. Jumping from behind the drum kit out to the front of the stage is a little bit of a learning career. "Gotta figure out what to do with my hands!" I’m always like drumming, hitting stuff!
JennaGold: Already being established as a touring artist, how does this album differ from any other album that you’ve ever worked on in the past?
John Allan: Well how it differs first and foremost is I’ve recorded most of it in my basement studio, so I had control over a lot of the between the sounds and how things were implemented because I produced it. How the tracks went, how they were arranged, stuff like that. Instead of having an outside producer up for the majority of the record; I handled all those duties. So, in that way it kind of catered to my being a total control freak with everything and I like that a lot.
JennaGold: How was it working with such a phenomenal rock legend like Nikki Sixx and how did he go about finding and singing you guys to Eleven Seven Music?
John Allan: It’s incredible working with Nikki Sixx, like you said he’s a rock icon. The guy just really knows the business and he’s just an all around talent as far as going from a song writer to a musician, to a incredible business accument; now he’s getting into photography and he’s great at that. It’s humbling and I hope to learn a lot from him. How it came about was a really unbelievable path to me. I know there are all kinds of different paths to get record deal. We were getting air play here in our home town and the song was doing really well. I just shot a blind e-mail in to 10th street, I didn’t know anybody there. I just said, "hey, I’ve got a song, it’s doing well on the radio, I need some help to take it to the next level" and they called me back the next day. It was fast, it’s just crazy how it happened!
JennaGold: Burn Baby Burn has a real party feel to it, it sounds like a mix of ACDC and Buckcherry in a way. Are there any particular bands that influenced Charm City Devils?
John Allan: Well it’s interesting you mention that song in particular, that song is really the song that really started me on this path. It was really inspired by a band from Australia, well actually they’re from New Zealand...called the D4, my old band had played with them and those guys were just so raw and so fast and just kinda raunchy! The intro, the counting off, it was actually when we did a show with them. The drummer was yelling that in between songs one time, during their set and I thought it was a really cool intro that he was doing from the song. but he was yelling at the singer, he was saying “no, no, no!” because his high hat had completely fallen apart, he was such an animal back there! The singer was talking and he was trying to get the singers attention to let him know, "hey don’t go into the next song". I’m sitting in the audience just loving the set, loving this band. I’m loving the ferocity of the drummer, how he’s just reducing his drum kit to sawdust and he’s yelling: "NO, NO, NO!" and I’m waiting for that song to kick in, it never did, so I decided to write a song taking the idea of that intro.
JennaGold: The video for “Lets Rock and Roll” is pretty bad ass! It looks like you guys were having a blast making it, how was making the video and what’s your opinion on the outcome?
John Allan: I love the video, we did have a good time making it. We did it here in Baltimore and we did it in one day. I shot some of the exteriors the day before, but it was just a good time. I really loved how it turned out. I had a buddy of mine shoot the video for that, he also shot the video for: "Burn Baby Burn", but it was just a different line-up for this band, it was when I was still playing guitar. He did such a great job with that video that I was just like, "you know what, we gotta give him another shot at another one".
JennaGold: Do you guys have an album out yet if so, when was it released and if not when is it due out?
John Allan: The records not out yet, It’s due out later for the spring 2009.
JennaGold: What’s the inspiration behind the album?
John Allan: I don’t know, you know. The inspiration of the individual songs, I mean a lot of them are commentary of the bits and pieces of my life, some of them have some social commentary I guess; observation over the years. Lets Rock and Roll seems like a party song, but it’s really about just never giving up; the endless road. It’s kinda talking about, It’s me beating my head against the wall. Continually striving to get ahead and to make it; just never giving up. I think that’s a good theme to have, it runs through a lot of the records.
JennaGold: Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?
John Allan: I’d like to say, please check out the music, check out the record when it comes out! Come out and say hello when we come to your town and if we don’t make it to your town soon enough for you, hit us up on myspace and drop us a line Myspace.com/CharmCityDevils Or on CharmCityDevils.com
For More on CHARM CITY DEVILS
be sure to check out:
CHARM CITY DEVILS Official Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/charmcitydevils
CHARM CITY DEVILS Official site:
http://www.charmcitydevils.com
