Interview: Devin Lima
by Bushman
Second chances are what this country is all about. Hell, our government is on about its thirty-second chance and we still back the team. Artists, probably more than any other career path, have the option of re-invention. There is a time curve in any musician’s career that it becomes almost expected, or run the chance of regurgitating the same sounds over and over. But what happens when you ‘make it’, sell a couple million albums and then disband within the space of a couple of years.
Ask Devin Lima.
As a member of boy-pop band LFO, their song ‘Summer Girls’ cracked the Top 10 in 1999 and earned them a Billboard Music Award for Top Selling Single of the Year. But the ride was short. After a follow-up album that didn’t do as well, (although ask any band if moving 300,000 units is considered a disappointment) the band went on permanent hiatus as of 2003.
But true creative spirits are restless, and for the last few years, Devin Lima has been honing and refocusing his musical drive with a more band orientated, indie pop direction. Deep grooves with catchy vocal lines, only made catchier by stellar backing vocals (all Devin in the studio) that fulfill the pop sensibility, but the chemistry of the band lends a deeper level of creativity and musical depth. A remarkable progression forward from the radio pop of his past. A lightness and warmth in the flow hints at Devin’s new found sense of spirituality which resonates throughout the release, making it glow with groove.
Devin Lima & The Cadbury Diesel will drop their debut album on September 11, 2007.
Take that you terrorists.
What bands do you think of when someone says ‘indie rock’?
Devin Lima: I can’t answer that because I’m so far out the loop. I’m still listening to Hendrix and all those cats. I have an idea of what indie rock is to Brad, with his label One Eleven. It’s cool. We are doing our thing and they are doing their thing and we are co-existing.
So if you were pushed to define your band…
It wouldn’t be indie rock… it would be some kind of pop. There are different colors and textures. There’s still the whole thing of the two minute song and trying to get the most candy ass words and trying to color it in that aspect, I think of it as pop. All the melodies are really catchy. I tried to trim as much of the fat as I could.
There’s a high quality of backing vocals to support obviously vocally driven songs. Since those are coming out of you in the studio, are the songs written with those layers in mind?
I don’t try to put too many things on it before we get in the studio. When we get in there, this idea only comes up after the guitar is in there and this other idea only comes up later after you tried something and didn’t like it. You do as much as you can and then take away what you don’t need.
I find it fascinating when people are writing ‘on the clock’ in the studio.
It’s amazing. It’s those experiences, I understand what that is. It’s gorgeous. “Hanging With You” is like that. We had to pre-demo it before we did it. I didn’t have a bridge. The cat said, ‘Hey man, what’s up with the bridge?’ and it came to me right there. I didn’t expect to do that. Whatever that moment was, that was an amazing experience.
Most bands pretty much have their songs mapped out, but every once in awhile, you hear about bands that go into the studio for six months and write and album.
The next album will be like that. I experienced this version of it. Writing it for five years and then going in there semi-prepared. The next album, I want to go in there, do whatever we do, smoke some pot and get it going on. Hopefully having enough time to say, ‘This can be better.’ and just have fun with that studio aspect.
What’s the story behind being broke as a joke but still managing to play the 2006 Grammy awards?
Yeah… I’m still broke as a joke to. (laughs) I’ll keep this slim. I got a great manager. He manages Sly and the Family Stone. I was happy to be along and he said I could do this. I got to meet a lot of beautiful people. It was a great experience. It goes by so fast. The people were cool. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were really cool. I was treated like a peer.
What happened to all that LFO money?
Some of it I spent on music. A lot I gave away. It goes… and you gotta do what you gotta do.
Rumor has it you sold the gift bag.
You got to. (laughs)
What where the choice items in your gift bag for playing the Grammy’s?
There was an amazing coffee maker. A Gibson guitar. Some sunglasses. Some alcohol with some kind of fruit inside going on in there. It’s all elaborate, fancy stuff. It was a nice, pompous feeling like a king moment.
What else have you had to sell to support your artistic directions?
I had to sell haircuts at one point. I was giving fades and shapes and lines and graffiti on their head. Five bucks here, ten bucks there.
The new album “Mozart Popart”, please explain the story behind the title.
It’s one of the lines from a Chili Peppers song. I’m a big fan of theirs. And we recorded on a Mozart board. We recorded in Atlanta and my manager came down to check out the stuff and we ate at the Mozart Café. All this shit started just popping up so I wasn’t going to fight it.
“Me Veda” has a laid back, cruising smooth groove. What’s the heart of that song about?
Some of its bullshit, some of its fiction. You gotta find the right words to rhyme with it. But it was my high school years. ‘Veda’ is ‘life’ in Portuguese. So it’s maybe kind of how I felt back then. Being older now and adult somewhat, I was trying to write from that sense back there.
Do you speak any other languages?
Just English. And the quiet language. Where you don’t say shit. That’s a good language.
Do you feel there is a lot of expectation on your sound due to your musical past?
Probably expectations for it to suck right? (laughs) If I can get another check and help out with the rent and get another chance to do some more music, that’s cool. As an artist, stepping aside from it, it’s a great album.
What was the last thing that inspired you?
It was today. I went up the street to the store, and I was reading the new Rolling Stone. It was the ‘Summer of Love’ issue, the 40th anniversary. Because I’m a man, but I have no money, I felt like a kid sneaking in the store, reading as much of the book as I could. And it happens to be my favorite moment in time with that whole summer of love thing, with the psychedelia and the flowers and guns and all that. But then just walking away, no longer being attached. Five years ago, I HAD to get the magazine. The fact that it was enough for me to read a few lines, and it’s cool with just that moment alone. There is a reason why I’m here. There is a reason why I’m broke. Luck, that shit don’t exist. Whatever comes my way, good or bad, I have to accept it, fully.
2007 Mozart PopArt (One Eleven)
