Devilfire Interview

Devilfire Interview

Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views Interview with Devilfire frontman Alex Cooper

Birmingham based melodic hard rock outfit Devilfire are ready to conquer the world with their debut album ‘DARK MANOEUVRES’ out this October. We caught up with frontman Alex for an insight into this hard working UK band.

PD. What type of artist are you?

DF Alex. Well id say primarily Devilfire is a rock Band. I as a musician can be very melodic in my approach to the bands music. But it does have its raw elements and we do use a rather big pallet of musical influence but I guess the word rock is a pretty big category so I think we can only be described as a Rock artist.

PD. Tell us the brief history of yourself.

DF Alex. I’ve been a musician since before I can remember grew up very entwined In the Birmingham rock scene, played in bands since I was at college, spent a big part of my professional life as a recording engineer and producer working with some amazing people (spike/Ginger)and I started Devilfire as a way to exercise my creative side, kind of a natural musician therapy.

PD. Who are your musical and non-musical influences?

DF Alex. For me my biggest musical influence was Lenny Kravitz. Closely followed by Guns N Roses, Alice In Chains, Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth, Cinderella, Queensryhe, and more. Non-musical I guess I’m a big fan of history so there are a lot of historical figures that I could name.

PD. What are your dreams and goals?

DF Alex. They are kind of the same thing for me, I work towards my dreams like I work towards my goals but id love to see a stadium filled with people singing my lyrics back at me. That would be incredible.

I work towards my dreams like I work towards my goals but id love to see a stadium filled with people singing my lyrics back at me

PD. Who writes your songs, what are they about?

DF Alex. I write a lot of the stuff, pretty much all of the lyrics. The songs can be about anything but I do tend to stick to the epic subjects, Love, Revenge, hate, Hope, sex and death. I could write about going to the supermarket but its pretty boring to be honest 🙂

PD. How do you promote your band and shows?

DF Alex. We do a lot of social media work but we are also a little “Old School” in our approach we advertise in magazines and we also try and get out there into the venues and meet people, getting into the scene is the best thing you can do. It still carries a lot of weight.

PD. What do you think about downloading music online?

DF Alex. I can see it is amazing for people who want to listen to music; I love music of all types so id loves to have a massive music collection. But id be a totally lying if I said that getting something for free that cost money to produce was a good thing. We can see in less than two decades it has bought the music industry to its virtual knees. Bands like mine struggle daily to make ends meet. I do what I do because I love it. Does that mean I should pay money to make it a reality? Only to have to give it away? I guess I’m not as smart as some when I comes to this kind of thing but if you walked into McDonald’s asked for two cheese burgers and then walked out without paying they’d arrest you. I struggle to see how it’s any different. I understand for most people they will argue with me because they want it for free and technology allows that. Remember when we used to record songs off the radio to tape? Piracy is not a new thing but it’s still wrong in my opinion. I am however glad to see vinyl making a comeback in major retail outlets!

We can see in less than two decades it has bought the music industry to its virtual knees. Bands like mine struggle daily to make ends meet.

PD. What’s your outlook on the record industry today?

DF Alex. It’s a new frontier and with that frontier comes scary times for record labels who have to find new ways to make money, nothing is simple. Devil fire is pretty self-contained we do everything ourselves. We want to find new ways of making a band work as a business as well as finding ways to get our music heard. In a world so driven on throwaway moments giving them a record almost seems too much attention to ask for.

PD. What song do you wish you’d written and why?

DF Alex. Actually my favourite song to get me in the mood to go out is ‘Falling In love Is Hard On The Knees’ by Aerosmith so I guess I’d written that one.

I love a song that tells a story and that’s what I try to do in my songs.

PD. What are some of your pet peeves?

DF Alex. With the music industry? I guess the popularity contest it seems to have become. I love bands and I don’t just love one… I love many. It’s not a competition. You can like many bands at the same time and support those bands.

PD. What is your proudest moment in music?

DF Alex. (Devilfire supported former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turenen recently)… My proudest moment was going on for bows in Sala Palatuli in Romania for many reasons. 1. Everything had gone wrong that day. 2. We really had to win over a crowd and finally because it was unexpected. 2000 people giving a standing ovation at the end of our set so much that we had to return to the stage for bows! I was incredibly proud of my fellow brothers in the band we had won the day so to speak!

2000 people giving a standing ovation at the end of our set so much that we had to return to the stage for bows! I was incredibly proud of my fellow brothers in the band we had won the day so to speak!

PD. Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there.

DF Alex. We have got a couple of shows coming up:

Saturday 26th August @ the 02 Academy Birmingham

Saturday 02nd August @ the 02 Academy Sheffield HARD ROCK HELL SLEAZE

If I do say so myself, we’re a great live band… it’s what we’re built for… we love what we do and we try to have a lot of fun onstage… it’s a real honest rock show.

Devilfire links:

Band location – Birmingham England

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