Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?
D: Dirty Blues Rock with a hint of Grunge.
PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc. What is the band’s lineup?
D: We’re all from Yorkshire. Andy (Me) on Guitar and Vocals, Matty on Drums and Symon on Bass. Andys background is Communications and Tech Leadership. So talking shit to an audience comes as 2nd nature. Matty’s background is in engineering in the nuclear industry and his talent with heavy machinery feeds well into his drumming. Matty was the first drummer to come and try out when I put ads looking for band members. Instant click. And Symon we found in a skip. We just saw a lanky foot and a Fender Precision headstock poking out the top and thought “That’ll do.”
PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?
D: Our influences are many, but if we’re name dropping then the headliners are Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Tea Party, Alice in Chains. What inspires us to make music is the enjoyment. Pure and simple. We had a mission from day one. It must be fun above all else. Or else. And when it came to writing we set only one rule. We each write for our own instrument and not step into each other’s areas creatively. This keeps each of us laser focussed on making our own parts the best they can be. Then we just had fun with it. Many of our songs are written very quickly as a result. It’s common for us to have a full song composed in under 30 minutes. At least in terms of the music and structure. Then I’ll go away and come up with lyrics and vocals for the next rehearsal. What I choose to write about lyrically really depends on what’s going on in my life. I write about my reality. So, if I’ve lost a bunch of money trading Crypto, I write about that. Or if I just saw a band that week with terrible Cliched lyrics I write about that. Theres no boundaries really but it must be real and relevant to my life.
PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?
D: To have fun. Play some cool gigs. Give people something to enjoy that’s a little different from anything they’ve heard before. We all missed our chances as young guys to hit the big time so we’re just in this to enjoy ourselves and see what happens.
PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?
D: No doubt the release of our debut album. We just wanted something we were proud of when it was finished and weren’t really thinking beyond just the three of us hearing it. But I think the result surpassed all our expectations. Once it was mastered and we had the artwork done and decided on the name, we really felt like we had something special. And the response from people who are finding it has been amazing. We couldn’t be happier.
PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?
D: Good actually. Maybe we have a bit of an advantage with my experience in Tech and my other businesses, I’ve been able to put together everything we needed to record, publish and distribute all our own music and Merch. I set up our own record label. That Attitude Records. Which is part of a band merch business I already had operating. And I also run a print business that makes the band merch amongst many other things. So, we have everything we need to make our own merch and distribute everything ourselves. On top of that I built our website and online store, so we had a place to sell these things. And I know my way around graphic design, content creation, video editing, social media marketing and advertising so we’ve been able to promote ourselves quite effectively. To be fair we’ve been putting everything we make back into the promotion just so we can reach more people. But it’s working well. We recently widened our marketing to include North America and the EU and were selling as much into those regions as we are the UK. In terms of other artists and competing, we don’t really think about it. We just go about our business. And we’re grateful for everything we achieve. One of the positives to come from this is that we’re able to promote the fact that it’s us making and shipping everything. So, when someone buys a CD or T-Shirt it goes directly from our hands into their hands. I think people appreciate that and it makes the experience for them more connecting.
PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?
D: That’s me again. They guys help out when they can but for the most part it’s me chasing down venues and promotors for dates. Truthfully, we’re still trying to break into the wider gigging circuit that our style of music is well suited to. The established promoters and venues are learning about us but perhaps don’t yet see us a commercial benefit to their larger events. We’re hoping that will change in time. Until then we’re happy to play our favourite small venues and pubs. There’s some really beautiful people supporting the grassroots music scene, and we cannot thank them enough for giving us a chance to play their venues. Perhaps it might be time for us to look for a bit of help in this area and find someone to help us land these bigger gigs. With regard to upcoming shows we have plenty of shows booked already for this year and expect to confirm more. People can check out the Tour page on our website. Or follow us on our socials.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?
D: Might get myself in trouble because I seem to have a bit of a controversial opinion on this. I see them as a good thing. I know it’s common to view streaming platforms as taking advantage of artists by not paying them what they’re worth for all the streams they get. It’s true that the pay model for streaming could be better. But I think the idea that the companies like Spotify, Apple etc are taking advantage of artists for their own benefit is a little misguided. I’m old enough to remember the old Wild West days of the internet, when a whole generation of music fans became accustomed to illegally downloading music for free from Napster, Kazaa, eMule, Limewire and news groups. That really was a dark time for artists because they had ZERO control and visibility over how their music was being consumed. So someone had to come up with a way to coax all these music fans back into a legal framework for consuming music. But how do you convince millions of people who had been getting something for free to start paying for it? It had to be cheap enough that they felt they were getting a fair deal. So I see the situation were in now as the market meeting the demand of the consumer and not necessarily a bunch of greedy execs trying to take advantage of artists. And I think that comes with advantages. The desire for music fans to have something physical never really went away so the opportunity to sell CDs, Vinyl etc never went away either. In fact Vinyl overtook CDs in 2022 as the top selling physical format. But what the streaming services do is give artists a way to reach many more people, more quickly than they ever could before. Thru playlisting and sharing on social media, artists have an immensely powerful and largely free marketing platform. So even the smallest artist can potentially reach a lot of people. But yes, that comes with the choice to allow people to hear your music in all its glory for basically free. But fans will support and invest in the bands they find that way. And just like any industry that follows social change, artists have had to adapt to finding new ways of creating income. It’s evolution.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
D: The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin. From a guitar players point of view this is an absolute masterpiece. Jimmy Pages use of unusual alternate tunings and perfect blend of acoustic and electric guitar on this song is just out of this world. Creativity beyond any normal human capability.
PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?
D: Lots. But we try not to be negative and just go about our business our way. And work within the boundaries we find as we go. I could talk about all the sketchy financial dealings, gatekeeping and egos that you encounter around the music business, but it is what it is. We work with people we like in ways that we find positive. Buuuuuut, if there was one thing I would change I would encourage small/mid-size venues to give original bands more of a chance. They tend to favour tribute bands as a safe bet. Which I get. You have to pay the bills. So my solution to this would be to encourage these venues and the tribute bands they put on to invite original bands to support them in these venues. Oh and pubs that play sports on big screen TVs while bands are playing can fuck right off.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
D: Vinyl release. When we released our album, we launched on CD only at first as we were poor and had no idea if we’d even sell one copy. And even if we did sell any we expected once it launched on streaming, sales of the CD would fall off a cliff. In fact, the opposite happened. More people found us, and we sold even more CDs and merch. And we started getting asked a lot for Vinyl. But funding a release to vinyl is not cheap. So, given how much we we’re being asked for it, and how well the CD had done (and how much we all personally wanted to have a vinyl copy) we decided to bite the bullet and fund a release to vinyl. The vinyl mastering is done, the lacquers and stampers are currently being made. The sleeve design and artwork are approved, and we launched a presale event on our website last week so people could secure a copy. And many have already. We’re releasing two versions. A standard edition and a limited run of 100 hand signed and numbered copies. We hope to have them ready to ship late March or early April.
PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online, have you any Social Media links that you can share?
D: Website is the hub for all things Dogshark. Here you can exclusively buy all our merch and music.
We’re active on most social media platforms but Facebook is the best place to get the latest news and updates.
https://www.facebook.com/dogsharkband
And if anyone want to get a taste of us as a live band then we also do a weekly session on Wednesdays from 9pm on TikTok LIVE.
@dogsharkband
Dogshark links:
Band/Artist location – UK
Website – Facebook – You Tube – Soundcloud – Merch –
X(Twitter) – Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – TikTok – Last Fm –
Check our page for Dogshark
