Devil City Angels serious about rock n’ roll, meant to be and on tour in October

Standard Examiner  — Devil City Angels is a hard rock ’n’ roll band that was simply meant to be.

For each of the members — who happen to hail from Poison, L.A. Guns, Cheap Thrill and Cinderella — the law of attraction was key to making the music happen.

The rock band was born just months ago when Tracii Guns from L.A. Guns sat down with Rikki Rockett of Poison, and decided to form a band. Eric Brittingham, previous bassist of Cinderella, was an obvious choice to Rockett, but deciding the lead singer took some time.

Enter Brandon Gibbs, 29, previous lead singer/guitarist of rock band Cheap Thrill.

“He doesn’t come from a band from our era that everyone would go OK, I know what that band is going to sound like because that’s what the singer sounds like,” Rockett explained. “We’re happy to have him.”

The four-piece won’t soon call itself a supergroup, but indeed the all-star lineup might argue otherwise. Devil City Angels embarked on its first last month, and will hit Ogden at Kamikazes on Oct. 11.

Meant to be

Gibbs grew up on the stage and started playing shows with his brother when he was a youngster, around 14 years old. He’s got years of experience as a front man, and notes the blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan as some of his biggest influences.

For Gibbs, it was an act of fate when Rockett texted him and asked if he was interested in singing for the new band. Gibbs explained that just moments after he hung up the phone with members of Cheap Thrill, telling them he wanted to part ways, he received the message from Rockett.

“You’re going to think, you’re going to pray, you’re going to hope something comes your way, right? And it was, I’m not kidding you, I’m not making this up, maybe 10 minutes later Rikki Rockett texted me and said ‘Hey dude, I want you to think about joining me and Tracii Guns in this new band,’” Gibbs said, laughing as he told the story. “ We haven’t named it yet, we haven’t done anything like that, but we are going to become a band and we’d like you to become the lead singer.’”

Guns had the final say on whether Gibbs would make the cut, and shortly after the text was sent, he called Gibbs to confirm that he was the guy, and the rest is history.

Guns, not unlike the other members of the band, has seen his share of music projects flare and then fizzle. He said Devil City Angels has a more simple approach to rock than other bands he’s been with in the past.

“They’re really nice guys and they all have a ridiculous amount of experience doing this so it’s just a pleasure to be with guys that just want to play and write great music, there’s not a lot of work involved,” Guns said, calling from home in Los Angeles. “This was certainly the easiest thing and the quickest thing I’ve ever done to roll forward and have that law of attraction really kick in. Music fans gravitate toward (Devil City Angels) really easily and very quickly. So I guess it was meant to happen, it sure seems that way.”

Serious about rock ‘n’ roll

Rockett never left glam-hard rock band Poison to start other projects or work outside of the band until now. He explained that he is still a member of Poison, and is ever loyal to that band.

“This is a whole new thing for me and I take it very seriously; that doesn’t mean I’m not having fun with it,” he said, also calling from Los Angeles. “And having fun with it doesn’t mean I’m not taking it seriously. I just expect great things, really.”

The other members shared his sentiments, with Gibbs expressing his eagerness to move forward with Devil City Angels in the recording process. So far, the band has released four songs that are streaming on its Reverbnation webpage. After this tour, Devil City Angels plans to hunker down and record a full-length album.

“Devil City is not a quick thing that we’re throwing together, it’s not a phase, its kind of a way of life for us and we’ve become a family and there’s a lot of creativeness coming out of each person in this band,” Gibbs testified. “There’s going to be several records from us and you just gotta come see our show.”

Recently, KISS bassist Gene Simmons shocked the music world when he stated that, “Rock is finally dead.” Rockett, instead of feeling indignation at Simmons for his remark, said he understood what he may have meant. Many fans of the genre were up in arms immediately after the “Esquire” interview was released, and Rockett argues that was the initial point.

“Maybe ‘Uncle Gene’ knew something we didn’t know, and that’s just to bring up the subject like that and get everyone to start talking about it again,” Rockett said.

“So all these people start going, ‘No, no, I’m rooting for rock, man,’ and it takes somebody like Gene Simmons with that much influence to upset the world that much with a statement like that. So I think it’s kind of cool, quite honestly, that he said that.”

Perhaps Devil City Angels is immune to Simmons assertion because the band isn’t setting out to reinvent the rock sound, Guns said.

“Each guy is unique on his own and when we come together that’s why it’s so easy,” he said.

Generations of rock

While Guns admitted that most of his fan base consists of an older crowd of 45 to 60 year olds, having Gibbs as the front band helps encompass a younger generation of rock fans. He referred to himself as a “young-old guy” and said Gibbs has an old soul.

“The three of us guys are just really stuck in the late ‘60s early ‘70s because that’s what we grew up on, but the great thing about Brandon is he’s a real blues guy,” Guns said. “When you put the three of us together with him, it is fresh and it is different and he’s got a very old soul, and we’re kind of younger-old guys so it’s working.”

Rockett agreed, and attests Gibbs was born in the wrong generation, but sometimes the age gap is obvious. He continued, saying because of Gibbs’ years of experience, he was a natural fit for Devil City Angels.

“He’s a young guy but he’s got 15 years experience. There are other guys who are 30 that have only eight years experience or five years,” Rockett said. “He’s really been out there. It just works out perfect for us.”

The live show combines the different generations of rock present in the formation of the band itself. Instead of hearing soon-to-be hits from one band, the audience can expect to jam to numbers from all three older band, Poison, L.A. Guns and Cinderella.

Gibbs covers vocals for all the old hits and was given creative control on the vocals. He said Rockett and the others allowed him to make the songs his own, although Gibbs still wanted to pay homage to the original rock songs.

“Everyone kind of has their own show within the show, but together we’re a very humbled unit,” Gibbs said, adding that he and Guns have a dueling guitar solo for one song.

“It’s kind of we all know what we’re there for, what our purpose is and another thing too is we’re all very happy to be there.”

The above interview courtesy of Raychel Johnson and Standard Examiner

October shows:

Oct 10th – Count’s Vamp’d – Las Vegas,NV
Oct 11th – Kamikaze’s – Ogden, UT
Oct 15th – Buffalo Rose – Golden, CO
Oct 17th – Aftershock – Merriam, KS
Oct 19th – Expo Five – Louisville, KY
Oct 21st – Rockhouse Live – Memphis, TN
Oct 23rd – Bubba’s Bar & Grill – Sauk Rapid, MN
Oct 24th – The Metal Grill – Cudahy, WI
Oct 25th – Green Bay Distillery – Green Bay, WI
Oct 26th – Twisted Spoke – Pekin, IL
Oct 27th – Rascal’s Live – Moline, IL

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