Please let me congratulate you first with the release of your excellent CD! I have been a huge fan of your 1990 mini CD for many years now and it's great to see a full CD now released with all of the material DEVILS IN HEAVEN recorded, can you tell us first about your band?
Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to talk with me Gabor.  Hello to all the readers of Strutter Online Magazine.
Devils in Heaven started back in the mid 80’s when four teenage school kids, who all dreamed of playing rock music for the world, got together to chase their dream.  It wasn’t long and we were playing live shows, touring Australia, and living what we considered to be “our rock and roll dream”.  We were playing live 5 – 7 days each week to make money, and writing songs whenever we had free time, hoping we would gain the attention of the Australian record industry big wigs. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work too.

The early 90s AOR sound faced a hard time around 1991/1992, although some bands still had their short fame and fortune (such as ROXUS in Australia), but did you feel back then your band did not get the recognition it should have got?
Yes, timing is a big part of success, and the right group at the wrong time often gets overlooked.  We all believed that, had we been on the Australian music scene three or four years earlier, we would have gained a lot more support from the recording industry than we did, but it’s hard to say for certain.  Grunge had a negative impact on AOR groups such as ours, but as I mentioned, that’s simply timing, and there’s nothing any artist can do about it really.  Those grunge groups deserved their moment in the sun, just as all those who came before grunge did.  I guess you could say there is always an element of luck in recognition and success.

I guess JOURNEY was one of your main influences, but perhaps you can let us know more bands that influenced your pure AOR sound?
We, as individuals, had quite different tastes in music.  For example, Nelson (keys) (who has an enormous CD collection) and Phil (drums) were huge INXS fans, while Matt (bass) was heavily into AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Queen.  I was all over the place in terms of what I liked.  I grew up listening to ABBA, Tom Jones, Bay City Rollers, AC/DC, Moving Pictures, Foreigner, Little River Band, Queen, Supertramp, Giant, Toto, Chicago, Whitesnake, Dire Straits, Starship, Van Halen, Enigma, as well as solo musicians like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Eric Johnson, Vinnie Moore, Michael Lee Firkins… there were lots and I loved them all for various reasons.  And yes, we all loved Journey.  Somehow all of this played a part in influencing our songwriting, musicianship, and the overall genesis of our sound, although as you can imagine, it’s difficult to wrap your head around how we got US out of all the artists I’ve listed.

You also recorded some material in the USA, can you tell us all about that experience?
Recording with Arthur Payson in Hollywood was one of my all-time favourite experiences, not just because he’s an amazing engineer / producer, but because he’s a really cool guy with really cool stories.  He helped us feel confident and capable.  From the outset it was obvious he was passionate about what he did, and that he wanted to deliver the best result he could, given our limited time and budget (we paid for the USA recordings ourselves).  The studio we laid the three tracks down in was the same studio Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire used to rehearse their dance routines in, and the natural acoustics were really nice, as was the very old-school mixing console and 24-track analog reel to reel recorder.  There was a lot of character in that studio (as well as the odd technical glitch) and Arthur wanted to capture that as part of our sound.  We spent several days in rehearsal, in order to tweak the songs and improve their arrangement as necessary, before heading to the studio to record.  It was unfortunate that we couldn’t have recorded an entire album with Arthur.  I believe it would have been something really special.

I heard you lost your voice at one point, that must have been devastating.
Unfortunately, I developed a cyst on one of my vocal cords.  It happens…
Three different voice specialists and two surgical procedures weren’t able to repair the damage and so my singing career ended.  It’s difficult for a singer to lose their voice.  It’s a part of you.  It’s very personal.  As Chicago say in their song Hard Habit to Break, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”. 

What happened after the band split up and how many unreleased recordings do you still have on the table?
After splitting up (for various reasons, none of which had to do with problems within the group), we worked as two duos for a while, then I went solo, and Matt changed careers.  We did it for financial reasons really.  There were big changes happening in the live music scene in Australia and dollars, as well as venues, were becoming scarce for large touring groups like ours.  I setup a small home studio to record some of the unrecorded Devils In Heaven tracks, as well as a few tracks we never got to play as a group.  There are 7 unreleased recordings still on the table that may or may not see the light of day.  It all depends on demand I suppose.

Any chance you now reunite and record new material and perhaps perform live?
With my singing voice being non-existent, the passing of our drummer Phil, and the distance that now separates the three remaining members of the group, I can’t see us playing live again, although we have discussed recording, although I’m not sure anything will come of our discussions.  Time will tell I suppose.

So what does the future look like for you guys, both musically and on a personal level?
It really depends on how the new album is received by the listening audience.  If there is demand, we will do what we can to meet that demand.  On a personal level, we all have our normal lives, careers, families, and friends.  That will all continue unchanged.

Finally, a few short questions that you hopefully are willing to share with us:
- Favorite band of all times: Queen (their diversity is unparalleled)
- Favorite album of all times: Passion and Warfare (Steve Vai)
- Favorite music genre besides AOR: Heavy Rock
- Best concert ever visited: INXS and Dire Straits
- Last concert visited: Don’t ask me that lol.  It was Kelly Clarkson (A lady friend asked me to go with her, ok lol)
- Best performed concert/gig you did yourself: This is a tough question. As a group, Tracks Nightclub in Sydney.  As a solo artist, O’keefs Hotel in Tasmania.  Although these were not big venues, the vibe of the crowd was always amazing.
- Last performed concert/gig you did yourself:  As a group our last performance was in October 1993 in Sydney, Australia.  As a solo artist my last performance was December 31, 2004 in Tasmania, Australia
- First bought record (or CD): ABBA Arrival (don’t judge me)
- Last bought record (or CD): Starset Divisions
- Most precious moment in your life (could be non-music related): The birth of my three children
- 2020 was... The strangest year I’ve ever lived through
- 2021 is so far... The second strangest year I’ve ever lived through
- 2022 will be... Less strange than 2020 and 2021, I hope…
- First thing you do when restrictions is over and you’re free to do whatever you want to do:  Visit my elderly parents and two sons in Australia (I live in Canada)

Good luck with your careers and thanks for answering the questions.
On behalf of Nelson, Matt, Phil (RIP) and I, I’d like to thank you, and your readers, for your interest in our group.  It means a lot to us.

David Whitney