Canadian rockers LOCKART are set to release their debut album! The band consisting of Devon Kerr, Jason Junop, and Fabio Alasandrini, play a classic 80s style high energy AOR/Metal, but with the synths up front. If you like that 80s AOR sound, you’ll want to check out City Pulse, which comes out in various formats through High Roller Records. I spoke with frontman Devon Kerr a few weeks back, where we discussed the band and the new album, as well as talked music in general, record collecting, favorite bands, etc… Check it out. *Also check out the videos (included), and the links below…..
You guys had an EP out in 2022…
Yes.
What led up to getting a full album out in that time?
So up until that point, 2022, we only had those three songs written. I had no idea how the reception was going to be at the time. The songs were 10 years old, even in 2022 or ‘23.
We started writing those in like 2014. They came out and just kind of feeling it out. And people seem to really take to it, considering we don’t have any marketing. We don’t have any. We got nothing at that time. We just put songs out to the world and saw what happened.
And the support and the number of people that actually enjoyed was overly positive. So it made sense to hit back into the studio and start writing some new songs and making an album. And so that’s basically how it happened.
It was done by us, but because of the reception from the EP from fans.
There seems to be a lot of a bit of an uptake or whatever in 80s AOR and hard rock influenced and inspired bands. Some of them are a little more satirical in that. I don’t know how you got on to that direction and how deliberate and serious it is as opposed to, like, say, Steel Panther.
I’ve always loved this music.
Same with Jay, same with Fabio. It’s definitely not a joke. I mean, this music from the 70s all the way through into the 90s is just top quality music, in my opinion.
The songwriting that goes into bands from the 70s, like Journey and Boston into the 90s, like what Mark Free was doing at that time. It speaks to me. It always has.
So we wanted to do that for real. I know that there’s a resurgence of this type of music or maybe even just a continuation, in Europe. But it seems like, Canadian listeners might understand this and, it seems to be like out on the other continents that a lot of AOR music is like their Nickelback, you know, they’re just kind of generic rock music.
It’s they just fall on to it falls into AOR, where here we got that kind of like country, infused, you know – butt rock stuff. I’m talking about like, it’s kind of like whatever grunge turned into. So we’re trying to stay away from that ‘music by numbers’, generic AOR that’s all digital, nothing’s recorded with amps, none of the artwork’s done by artists – It’s just computers.
We want to stay away from that. But we also want to stay away from any sort of idea that we’re joking around. I know that we’re crazy looking and we do everything to an extent that, some people might think “Are these guys for real?” But we’re just trying to be authentic. We’re trying to do it exactly the way that it’s always been done. It’s just people started getting self-conscious maybe in the ‘90s about the way they looked in bands. We’re trying to get rid of that. Let’s be crazy again, right!? More is more.
I’ve had criticism from family members, they’re like – “What the hell are you doing?” And “Dial it back maybe a little bit!?” And I go, “No, no, no. Turn it up!”
That’s the whole point of this. Let’s go nuts.
The rock star image seemed to have taken a beating over the years. But there’s obviously like watching the video. I mean, you guys get it with the dress and that. There’s a band in Sweden, are you familiar with called Nestor?
Yeah. I listen to them a lot.
And there’s a band from Brazil called Creatures.
Yeah. They’re also on High Roller.
I wonder if we can talk a bit about some of the songs. Do you guys all write or is it mainly you?
I don’t want to sound…I don’t know the word. But yes, it’s primarily my writing. Ninety nine percent.
Jason did write the song “Together As None.” That’s his work. And I just “LockHart-ized” it with keyboards and big vocal choirs and all that. But this project kind of emerged because of I’m feeling sort of in a corner with my other band Axxion. Vocally, I wanted to do something that really showcased what I could do as a singer. So I just went off on my own for this stuff, and this is this is what came of it. I’m still loving playing an Axxion, I’m still doing that. I just wanted to showcase my other abilities as an artist and bring in guys like Fabio and Jay to who are pros. And to leave their signature on it as well. I don’t control any of Jason’s writing or playing. And Fabio’s drum work is entirely him.
I just gave him the music and he, in studio recorded all the drum parts for whatever was in his head. And then we went from there. I never sent him back into the studio to change anything. We used exactly what he heard.
What sort of what sort of things do you influences or inspires your writing lyrically, musically, whatever, like songs like “City Pulse” or “Can’t Shake It”?
They all come from different either experiences or “Can’t Shake It” is just a story about young love. I’m sure almost everyone’s got something similar when they’re in their teens and they’re infatuated with somebody and that experience of either just meeting up, and the second verse, you end up, you’re actually driving around town in the car together, going to the beach. It’s kind of like seeing things come together.
And then we’ve got songs like “City Pulse”, which is finally going to make sense. I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve done with international interviewers, but you’ll probably remember City Pulse – the news program in Toronto. That’s what we named the album after.
But the song was written about Robert Pickton, the guy out in Vancouver that was the serial killer. I didn’t write about Pickton, it’s about – there was a detective, Kim Rossmo, at the time, who kept being like, “It’s Pickton” to the Vancouver Police Department. And they kept being like, “It’s not Pickton, leave him alone.” And he just kept killing and killing, and it drove this detective, Kim, crazy to the point where he had to leave the police department. And that’s what “City Pulse” is about – Detective Kim Rossmo, my perceived frustration that he must have felt like trying to catch this guy. And in turn, City Pulse, a news program and a true crime story, they kind of come together. I wrote the music for that before the lyrics, I had no idea and I was listening to a podcast about Canadian true crime, and I thought, “This is an interesting story…. And it’s Canadian.”
So, finally, I get to talk about City Pulse – the news program, and someone knows what I’m talking about!
I’ve spent a lot of time on those YouTube channels watching true crime and cold cases.
I actually reached out to Detective Kim Rossmo. I found him on Facebook. He’s just a guy, he’s not famous or anything. And I sent him the song. I said, “I wrote a song that was kind of inspired by a podcast. I’m not a police enthusiast by any means; I just thought it was an interesting story…and maybe you’d be interested in hearing this and letting me know like, do the lyrics speak to you at all?” And he said that it made sense. He actually ended up buying the single – digitally, and I sent him the record. So somewhere out there in the world, this guy, I got a chance to speak with the detective behind the Picton case, which was interesting.
Another song that caught my attention was “You Wouldn’t Know Love”. It kind of reminds me of Heart in places.
Well, that’s a cover song. That’s the one cover we have on the album. You have to read into the liner notes. We didn’t make it obvious because, this record is here; it’s on High Roller Records. It’s not like we’re trying to sell and push the record on people, but this record is being presented to a crowd of metal fans. All three of us are metal guys that are playing AOR – ‘80s pop rock style music. I’m really trying not to use that word because it discourages people from listening, but that’s what it is. But it’s a Michael Bolton song. He wrote it; he did record it. It’s also featured on Cher’s Heart Of Stone album. We wanted to get a song that we thought was kind of groovy and heavy in there, that was by someone like Michael Bolton or Cher, which metalheads would never give a chance to.
Not only that, but we got Nick from Municipal Waste and Vulture to play the guitar solo on it. We found the heaviest guitar player we knew; I asked him on his tour bus if he was interested in doing the solo on this particularly interesting song on the record. And he was all over it. So, that’s the story behind that one.
It’s interesting when you say like ‘metal’ because the songs are pretty synth keyboard led songs. And then you get the big solos. I don’t think there’s any big guitar riffs on the album as far as opening.
No, it’s like a ‘lead synth’ band, right!? The synth sits forward in the mix. The guitars are primarily rhythm guitars. I do dual guitar solos throughout the record there. And I mean, that’s something that you find in traditional heavy metal bands everywhere. There’s some guitar parts that I’m playing lightning fast, like the end of the solo in “Under Fire”, it’s some of the fastest playing that I was able to even pull off.
So, my solos are from metal, and the chord progressions that we use, a lot of them are classic metal chord progressions, but they’re flooded with analog and old FM synthesizers, and big vocal parts that take four singers to pull off.
It’s interesting when I think of like a keyboard led band that it has the more of the metal image and the guitar. The one band that comes to mind is Guffria with Greg Guffria.
Yeah, exactly. That’s a good comparison. We don’t sound like them, but I definitely appreciate what they did and how the keyboardist was actually at the forefront of that band.
In all the bands you’ve been in, aside from being a singer, are you usually on guitar or usually on keyboards?
I’m always just been a lead singer. Now, I play guitar as my first instrument; that’s what I learned how to play music on. But I almost exclusively write music on a piano and then bring guitars into it. I’m sure people hear that in Lockhart, because you listen to the beginning of “Just Can’t Wait”, and it’s a keyboard melody, and then the guitars come in and they’re just chugging along, supporting that keyboard riff. All the vocal parts are written on a keyboard or on a piano.
I’m not an amazing keyboardist, I’m not like Jens Johansson from Yngwie Malmsteen or anything like that, shredding the keyboards the way I do guitar, but I write on the keyboard and I create all the vocal parts. It’s definitely my most expressive instrument. I would say, though I’m a more proficient guitar player, playing keyboard is more like having two guitars in your hands because you’ve got 10 notes you can play.
I assume you guys are going to play live at some point!?
That’s the goal. We’re currently assembling a live band because at our core here we’re a rhythm section, a bass and a drum kit and a lead singer. So, we are currently working with a guitar player, Johnny Nesta, and we’re working with a keyboardist. There’s actually been a few guys who have reached out about getting involved with keyboards, which is good because those are hard to find. But really, everyone needs to be proficient singers. They all need to be able to be lead singers, essentially, in this band. That’s kind of the determining factor of who we’re going to end up going with. We’re going to need a five man band and three, at least, are going to have to be strong singers.
Is it harder in Ontario finding those live shows or are you looking at going elsewhere?
You’ve got to go to like Detroit or you got to go to Toronto, at least for me. I’m similar to you, I’m living in a city that’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. You’d think that London would have an independent (from the rest of the province) kind of music scene because there’s nothing around here. We’re not like attached to another city or anything like Oakville would be. But yeah, it seems that here it’s cover bands, tribute bands all the time. And it seems like anytime I want to see an original act, they’re always touring through Toronto or the Toronto bands that are able to hold enough people to justify a show with original music they have to play in a big city like that. So, me being right square between Toronto and Detroit, I just fluctuate between the two cities.
About the album cover. Who did that? And is there a little bit of a story behind it or anything?
It was a guy, I believe his name’s Julian Elias. (Sorry, Julian, if I screwed your name up,) but he was an artist I found, funny enough I was just looking for a screen saver on my phone, (something that was better than whatever comes with the phone) and I found this Vinnie Vincent Invasion fan artwork on Google. And I was like, man, whoever did that’s awesome. I clicked the image to save it, and it was actually an Instagram page. It took me to his artwork, and he’s an airbrush artist. So I reached out to him – “We’re recording an album. I’m looking for an artist, and I really like what you’re doing.” I sent him a few of his pieces that he’d already done, and said, “If you could do something like this, we’d be all over that.”
He worked with us for months, back and forth, putting different pictures of us together in the sky, finding the right set, finding where to put our logo and the city-scape and everything. And the most difficult part is he was from Argentina, so he spoke Spanish as his first language. And a lot of the things that I would say, I had to make sure I wasn’t using slang, or things that you and I would take for granted because he would take it literally. And then we’d get something that said ‘The City’, the album would be called ‘Night Pulse’. You know, the album is literally called ‘City Pulse’, if you’re supposed to draw a city. So, there was a few times where we would get kind of lost in translation. But yeah – awesome dude! We’re going to give him a shout out once the album is released, and people have actually seen the album cover, because the guy deserves some recognition.
Is the album coming out on vinyl as well?
Yeah, it comes out on black vinyl. And tt comes out on a splatter vinyl through High Roller Records and us. It comes out on a night sky sparkle version. So, it kind of looks like the night sky vinyl we’re currently sold out of that one already in the pre sale. And but that’s available through High Roller. And then it comes out on CD through High Roller and us directly. But we are the only ones who are selling the cassette tape.
The City Pulse cassette is available through our Bandcamp page.
Do you still buy a lot of vinyl?
I do. I buy records. I buy cassettes. I’ve got a whole hi-fi system set up inside. Well, yeah.
I’ve got a big collection, but I’m kind of a little more careful, cautious with what I buy nowadays, with the prices.
Well, now it’s a lot more expensive. Like, I started collecting records in 2008 or something like that. I could buy Malmsteen’s Odyssey for $1.75, and now I see the same record for $35. If I knew that I could invest in these records back then, I’d be a billionaire.
(I relay my story of picking up the entire Kansas catalogue at a flea market 30 years ago for $2 a piece).
What sort of stuff did you grow up on? As far as what do you listen to the most favorite albums and artists and stuff?
My favorite artist, my favorite band of all time is Survivor. Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan, I think they’re amazing songwriters. Jamison was an incredible singer…and Dave Bickler, I mean, the passion in his voice when he sings almost makes me emotional. But those guys from top to bottom, from their first record to their last is nothing but top quality stuff. So I’ve been listening to those guys for years and years to the point where I know everything inside and out. Kansas was a band I was really into growing up (that’s one you just mentioned). I got into Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and all exactly what you’d expect a young metal head to be into. And it kind of grew into like more of a Macauley-Schenker Group, where you’ve got the UFO guitar player, but playing in a hard rock/AOR style of band, where you still get that metal in there as well. It’s completely different than Survivor where it’s all AOR.
That’s kind of what I’ve grown up listening to. It started with your, like I said, Iron Maidens and Kansas and developed into stuff like Survivor within the last 15 years. And then I’ve just stayed there. So maybe it’s a slow change now than it used to be between the first 15 years of my life. But if someone can find me a band that can top Survivor, I’m waiting.
Have you heard the Cobra album Jimi Jameson did?
Yes, I have.
I’ve got that, and I’ve got the Target albums he did.
Oh, okay. I haven’t even heard those. I’ll have to check that out.
Any other newer Canadian bands that you listen to, or would recommend?
I would say, you should check out Cauldron, (I want to say check out Axxion, my other band); Manacle, from Toronto – they’re a new band. Amo, from Toronto – another metal band; Spell from out on the Westcoast. I haven’t heard of anything coming out of the Metalian side of things, but back when we were playing all the time, Metalian was a huge one. Right now there’s not as much going on as there used to be. Funny, when people ask me what my favorite Canadian guitar players are, I start by saying Bobby Orr, and then just start(lol) naming off random hockey players. But they can’t be Canadian, it’s got to be from some guy halfway across the world. Gordie Howe is my favorite keyboardist, I told someone once, because I couldn’t think of one. And they just go “Oh yeah…” But, for Canadian bands, I’m still waiting on some more AOR bands. But I would say, If you haven’t heard Cauldron – give them a listen. They’re one of my favorites. Goat Horn is the predecessor band to Cauldron, an amazing band; a little darker than Cauldron, doomy, more like growly vocals. Those are like our sister bands, Jay plays in Cauldron, and Ian – who did the guitar solo on “Can’t Shake It”, plays in Cauldron.
I’ve got the new Spell and new Crown Lands on order.
That new Spell video and single, “Lilac” is pretty sweet; I love it. The video is totally “Time Stand Still” – Rush, but the sound is very unique; kind of gothic, awesome keyboards…
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/listentolockhart/?hl=en
Outsider Rock 