Charm City Devils put Baltimore in the spotlight

March 20, 2009

Baltimore doesn’t get the recognition of other, larger cities, but a strong crop of no-nonsense, hard-working rock bands is starting to make waves on a national scale. Charm City Devils, with a sound that screams rock n’ roll in all the best ways, are at the forefront. A blind e-mail from frontman John Allen caught the attention of the folks at Tenth Street Entertainment and Eleven Seven Music, where the president happens to be a musician by the name of Nikki Sixx. The Mötley Crüe leader quickly made Charm City Devils his first signing after assuming his new role at the label. Their debut album, Let’s Rock-N-Roll, is set to hit stores May 26, and they will spend the summer on tour as part of Crüe Fest 2. At a recent show in Laurel, Del., Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki sat down with Allen to discuss the circumstances of the band’s signing, their new album, the Baltimore music scene and more.

Live-Metal.net: How did you go from playing drums in SR-71 to fronting your own band?

John Allen: We built the studio in my basement and on one of the downtimes I just started recording this song called “Burn Baby Burn.” I went down there and I tracked the drums on my crappy practice kit and tracked some guitars. I was like, “Ah, I think I’m on to something here,” and just kind of grew from there.

What was your first instrument when you were younger? Did you start with drums?

I actually started with guitar, but it didn’t progress very fast and I switched to drums pretty early on. I always meant to get back to the guitar ‘cause I knew that that was the only way I was really gonna be able to write songs. But it took me a long time to kind of get back to it. I finally started playing a little bit better a few years ago and kind of figuring things out, starting messing with slide and stuff. I’m really into old blues stuff. That’s the kind of stuff where my heart is a lot of times.

What were some of the bands that influenced you while you were writing these songs?

At the time, I was listening to a lot of The Hives and White Stripes—stuff that was real high energy, kind of raw stuff—and then going back to Iggy and the Stooges, stuff like that. Of course, always the mainstay, AC/DC and Zeppelin.

About three years ago, I saw you play and you were called Forty Acres then. Was that the original name of the band?

It was, yeah.

Why the change?

As soon as we started playing out with it, I wanted to change it. It sounded too country. I was looking for a name forever. Apparently, I’m the worst band namer ever, so I needed some help. Luckily, that came in the form of Nikki Sixx. He helped out with the name. We were talking about names that referred to our hometown of Baltimore—Charm City is a nickname. So yeah, it kind of combines the nickname of the city and kind of the vibe of a gang. I also like the fact that the word “charm” has such a light connotation, but the word “devils” is so dark. So you get a balance there. But maybe I’m thinking too much and reading too much into it.

It’s one of the better band names I’ve heard recently.

Oh, really? Cool. Thanks. Awesome.

I heard you just decided to e-mail Tenth Street [Entertainment] and they got back to you right away.

Yeah, it’s the most improbable way to get a record deal ever. I would’ve never ever thought anything would’ve come out of it. I sent the blind e-mail, didn’t know anybody at the record label, just sent it to info@[10thst.com] and they called me the next day. I couldn’t believe it. I looked at my phone, it had a New York area code. I thought, “Hmm, this could be interesting.” They got on the phone and said, “You sent an e-mail yesterday.” I said, “Yeah.” They said, “We like what we hear.” I couldn’t believe it. He was like, “We want you to come to New York and have a meeting.” I thought it was somebody fucking with me, quite frankly. But the area code being 212, I kind of thought it could be real. So, yeah, I went to New York and had a meeting with ‘em and they were like, “OK, let’s do it.” Again, I was kind of flabbergasted that it was that fast. But then, of course, the lawyers got involved and it took a year to get the deal done. [laughs]

When did you first talk to Nikki Sixx?

A little while after the lawyers got involved. Luckily, he liked what he heard, as well. He really dug it. I was actually recording some stuff in the basement studio. I don’t get good cell service done there, so I missed his called somehow—I was cutting vocals. The phone just showed that I missed a call and I had a voicemail. So I listened to the voicemail and it was like, “Hey John, this is Nikki Sixx.” I was like, “Oh my god, I have a voicemail from Nikki Sixx!” I was like, “I gotta call him back, but I’m kind of scared!” [laughs] But yeah, I called him back and he was so cool. That actually was the name conversation, where we came up with the name—or, actually, it was the beginning of talking about working on coming up with a name, I guess.

You went out and got to spend a few days on Crüe Fest last year. How was that?

It was really cool. It was a strange thing, man, to go out and be a fly on the wall, see how it all worked and to hang out with him and just spend a day hanging out with Nikki Sixx, this rock legend that I idolized as a kid—he and Mötley Crüe. It’s just bizarre circumstances. Last night, we saw them in Connecticut. We were at Mohegan Sun Arena last night in Connecticut and they brought me on stage. That was the most bizarre thing ever. I’m standing next to Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx on stage, singing backups with Mötley Crüe.

What song?

“White Trash Circus.” It was really, really surreal. It was very cool.

The album comes out in May. Did you record it all in your basement?

Actually, yeah, we did almost all of it. Three of the drum tracks were down at a friend of mine’s studio down in northern Virginia. We got a little bigger drum sound on those tunes. My basement, unfortunately, is kind of small and you can only get so big of a sound there. So we went down to Dragonfly East Studios and he’s a good guy who recorded SR-71’s stuff down there and Cinder Road. I cut the drums on a few Cinder Road songs down there for him. Yeah, just a great studio and we wanted to help him out. We mixed it at Right Way Studios.

Where did you shoot the video for “Let’s Rock-N-Roll”?

The video was shot in Baltimore, in Highlandtown. It was really cool. We were batting around conceptual ideas and I wanted to stick with the live shots that were real close to that original “Burn Baby Burn” video that I had done since we’re probably not gonna be able to use that—different lineup, different band name. But the cool thing was, we were talking about storylines and all this stuff, and I remembered that years ago I had an idea to showcase the city, show Baltimore in a video if I ever got the chance to. I felt like hitting myself in the head, like, “Hey dummy, here’s your chance. You’re the guy kind of in charge of this. It’s your band” or whatever. So I was able to do that. I was like, “You know what, can we get shots of the water, the Marine Terminal, the real industrial sections in town?” We actually shot it in a building in the Highlandtown section of Baltimore City, which is where my parents had grown up. It has a real good hometown vibe to it.

I live over on the Eastern Shore, so I’m not able to get over there as much as I’d like to check out the local bands. What do you think of the Baltimore music scene?

I’ve always thought that Baltimore had great musicians, it had great bands. The hard thing about Baltimore, I guess, is we’re not New York and we’re not L.A., so it’s hard for us to figure out how to take it to the next level. Generally, as Baltimore musicians and Baltimore bands, we work really hard on getting the live thing down and because that’s our outlet, we can play live. There were always a lot of venues around. We kind of hone our live skills and the thing that we sometimes forget is songwriting, and that’s a huge element. And I’m saying this in a past-tense form. I think the new bands are wise to that. I think the new bands are paying attention to the songwriting. I’m really heartened. I see a lot of good stuff in Baltimore.

Who are some of the bands that people nationally wouldn’t know about but should maybe check out?

There’s a great band called Evolver that we’ve played with a couple times. There’s a band called Black Day Seven, which are great songwriters, a great new band. 98 Rock, WIYY in Baltimore, who’s really been good to us, they’re doing a thing where they feature one local band a month and they’re playing them in the daytime, which is unheard of for a major radio station like that to do. They just played a band Tuesday, they had a female singer and it was really great—Fall Back Plan. I was really, really impressed. I think there are lots of bands out there—Beretta Jane I think is another really good band. They’re very similar stylistically to what we do, which I think makes me really dig ‘em. Yeah, there’s loads of band, I think.

And maybe with you guys getting out there nationally and having “Charm City” in your name, maybe that will bring some attention to the other bands.

Who knows? That would be one of my hopes, is to help the local scene out, if at all possible.

So I guess you’re doing some regional dates right now. When will the full touring schedule really pick up?

Well, I know we have a big tour planned from July to September. [NOTE: He’s referring to Crüe Fest 2. The official announcement of the tour’s lineup occurred two days after this interview.] But between now and July, I’m not really sure right now. They’re still working on finalizing stuff. We just did a Buckcherry/Papa Roach date in Worcester, Mass., and we play with them Tuesday in Sayreville [N.J.]. We have the Preakness.

And you’re also doing Rock on the Range. Will that be the biggest show so far?

Actually, Preakness will be big. They say that there’s 100,000 people at that one. That’s gonna be a big weekend. Preakness on one day and then the next day Rock on the Range—I think it’s like 50,000 or 60,000. From there, I don’t know. After that weekend, we’ll have to not play for a while, I guess.

[laughter]

Anything you want to add?

No, just check us out on Myspace, myspace.com/charmcitydevils, and charmcitydevils.com.