Southern Voodoo

Surrealistic hypes and down-to-earth attitudes

Interview with vocalist/guitarist Do De Vos of Southern Voodoo in May 2007

Text: Vera & Pics: Gino Van Lancker, Jany

In times of sophisticated, over-produced and multi-layered productions it is sometimes a real refreshing experience to meet with a band who says “fuck off” to all those magniloquent efforts and simply goes for a straight rocking sound. Fall into reveries about our deeper intentions in the cosmic position of our humble human breed may be interesting from time to time but on the other hand: do not forget to LIVE! That’s the feeling bands like Southern Voodoo invoke. Your heart beats, so let’s have a good time! Twelve new statements of that are collected on their second album ‘Devil’s Drive’. It is about time to contact the moving spirit of the band: Dominique De Vos (vocals and guitars) and give it a go!

Well Do, now that you second album ‘Devil’s Drive’ is launched at the rocking crowds, it is time for a proper introduction! Let’s start at the beginning. Who are the founding members of the band and can you tell about those early days?

That's an easy one. I'm the only remaining member from the original line-up. Stef came aboard a couple of years later. Pieter en Jeem joined about a year ago. In those early days it was hard finding musicians that wanted to play rock 'n' roll the way we had it in mind. It was actually all about not giving up and keep on going. In the first years we were still looking for our musical identity. Early Voodoo was more garage rock influenced with even some powerpop touches. When Stef got in the band I finally had a drummer who has the same love for raw, over the top rock 'n 'roll. So that kind of put us in the right direction.

How did you get into heavy rock? What were your first musical preferences and how did it lead to play in a band yourself?

I knew I wanted to be a performer since I discovered my mum's Elvis records but it took a while before it kicked in that I actually had to do something besides dreaming of being discovered. :-) Hell, I was already 17 when I started playing guitar. I'm a late bloomer. I only wanted to sing but learning to play guitar was necessary if I wanted to write my own songs. And that was what I really wanted. I got into heavy rock pretty soon through some older friends who introduced me to records of Zeppelin, Rainbow, Ted Nugent, … stuff like that and I was immediately hooked on the raw aggression and the larger then life imagery. But that got my seventies obsession started. My teens were a decennium later but I was always crazy 'bout those seventies productions. I clearly remember hearing a copy of "Rainbow Rising" from a friend who stole it from his elder sister. Man, I was totally blown away. I felt like I was on the top of a mountain ready to conquer the world.

Southern Voodoo is notorious for its legendary quarrels and – let’s give it a decent name – “looking for the right members”. What happened in the past that gave you this image?

As I said, it wasn't easy finding musicians in the early days and as I went along I was less and less inclined into making compromises since compromising never got me where I wanted and I had and still have a very clear view of what I want to do. So instead of wasting each other’s time it's better to move on to something else. You don't get respected for being nice so why bother. Voodoo had a lot of line-up changes but that doesn't seem to affect our evolution, so… Stef is my perfect counterweight for all this, he's more controlled and he keeps me from blowing up the band about once a week :-)

We've been playing with this line-up for about a year and that's the longest since I started Voodoo. Let's wait 'n’ see but as long as it lasts I'm very happy with these guys and to be clear: everyone in the band has equal rights. Southern Voodoo is a band and at this moment that means Stef, Pieter, Jeem and I. We're some kind of fucked up democracy but still a democracy. Some people think that I'm the leader but actually I got shit to say :-)

The debut album got rave reviews – even in the U.K. – and got some airplay in the media (though that could’ve been better). What was the result of this first full-length album?

All of a sudden we became somewhat of hype and that was so surreal. We just recorded our debut on a no-budget status and we were even doubting if putting it out was a good decision. Am I am glad we did. The immediate result was that we were able to attract a manager and that our gig list skyrocketed. We became somewhat of a small organisation. That was pretty weird.

‘Devil’s Drive’ marks the coming of new guitar player Pieter Minne and new bassist Jeem Talloen. Did they contribute in the writing process already?
They joined Voodoo a few months after the release of "The Love Militia" so they were there during the whole tour afterwards. By playing that much we became a well oiled machine. And yes, they certainly had a large impact on the sound on "Devil's Drive" and I think that can be clearly heard. Pieter contributed a bluesier guitar-style opposed to my punky riffing style and they blend really great. And of course his solos are simply superb, I love his style. Jeem is a dream for every rock band, it takes him about two seconds to figure out a song and then he comes up with parts were young Steve Harris would be jealous of. Hell yeah. I write the songs but we arrange them as a band and they have definitely played their part there. There are arrangements on this album which I couldn't have come up with. We are four strong egos but when we succeed into putting those egos at work in favour of the band results are great.

I think ‘Devil’s Drive’ marks the transition from making music just for fun to a more serious approach, reflecting in the recording process as well. Any comments on that? :-)

Good question, I haven't thought about it actually. You are probably right unto a certain point. There's more pressure, that's for sure. It was fun starting from the underdog position but that's changed a bit now. We're still a small band but it became more difficult to surprise people :-) But it still is fun, it has to be. And the recording process? Yep, that's different now. For "The Love Militia" we didn't have high standards since we thought we were recording a demo. That was very different now. I think we recorded almost as quickly as "The Love Militia" but we were much more focussed. We even started over now and then :-)

You went to Sweden for the mix and mastering. It must have been a new adventure. Maybe some more details about this experience and your work with Chips Kiesbye and Henryk Lipp?

You got it totally right there, a new adventure. That's why we did it. We could have done it ourselves again. It worked for the first one, so why not again? But we already had that experience, so working with an external mixer seemed much cooler. It's not like we had a list of producers, we went like "ok, which albums do we really like sound-wise?" and the first ones we came across were The Hellacopters albums produced by Chips K. I began looking for some contact address and pretty soon I got hold of his mail address. He turned out to be a real cool guy and not some rockstar producer who only works with smaller bands for the money. He really made us feel like he cared. Either that or he's a very good actor :-). He came up with Henryk. At first we were a bit concerned that Chips might be a 'take the money and run' guy by hiring a technician and only putting his name on it if everything is finished but it turned out that they were actually a team that regularly works together. And that Henryk was so much more than a studio technician. They had a strict working scheme and while Stef and I were in Gothenburg they worked their asses off to get it right. I gotta tell you; this was a real cool experience. I'm a very cynical guy but these guys are really in it for the love of music. I was totally at ease working with them 'cause I knew they were going for the best result. And hell, did we get it!

So, what are from your point of view, the main difference between the debut and the sophomore album?

You can look at it from different points of view. Musically it is still pretty much the same stuff: raw rock 'n 'roll. The big difference is sound-wise and the arrangements. This record sounds much more open and professional. For instance: the drums really kick ass and make you feel you're on a stage next to Stef. The arrangements are very different then on "The Love Militia". The songs on that album were written for a three piece live band so we had to keep it fairly simple. Since then we have a line up of two guitarists of which one – Pieter- is a very talented solo guitar player so that broadened our perspective a lot. The songs on "Devil's Drive" were all written for two guitar players and you can really hear the difference. It was more fun for me as a songwriter, I love working with different guitar arrangements but I couldn't always do that on "The Love Militia" 'cause I couldn't pull it off live. The end part on "Drama Queen" for instance is our own little homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd freaking out but we couldn't have done that without Pieter.

Southern Voodoo is above all an attractive live band. Sometimes with pyro’s and female dancers. This is the moment to make some publicity for that…

Well thank you Vera, I'm glad our efforts pay off :-) Rock 'n' roll is all about energy. Whether it's sexual energy, aggression, or whatever. It doesn't matter but it should never be about calculation. Too many bands fool their audience by faking it. Where's the passion in that? Fuck 'em. We want to go all the way and playing live is searching for our own limits. All the time. So bringing pyro and a go-go dancer from time to time is to keep ourselves and our audience alert. I want Voodoo to be an experience, not just something you watch from a comfortable chair. You can do that when you're old. We're a fucking freakshow and we're not afraid to say so.

Are there plans to support the album with a tour?

Yeah, we just played our asses off from March 'till about now. We're taking it a bit easier for the summer since our album came out a bit too late too get on the festivals but we knew that. We do some cool gigs the coming month but from August on and especially the second half of the year it's getting much more hectic. It looks like we'll have an as busy year as last year. Which is great, of course.

Do you focus on Belgium or it is about time to cross the border once again?

It's always time to cross the border but it's not always easy. Like last year we're also focusing on the Netherlands and there seems to be something moving there. And other countries? Our record is released now in a lot more countries later this year so let's wait and see what happens. The guys from our management are working on some stuff and hey, you gotta try and we're trying. And if that doesn't work, we'll try Japan :-)

You played in Spain at Bilbo Rock. What about this event and will these contacts turn into more gigs over there in future?

That was a great drunk, chaotic experience but at this moment there are no plans for going back. We'd love too but you know what it is? It's really hard for bands from small countries to get out there 'cause of economics. Labels in Belgium don't sell enough, so they can't weigh on the international scene were the big contracts are settled. We can go out there for some gigs on our own, playing in bars for 20 people or so but that wouldn't help us much. Hmm, but it would be fun though… :-)

You made a videoclip for ‘(Such A) Random Night’. Can you tell a bit more about the making of and are there hopeful signs it will get some airplay?

Aha, the clip. We became experts in making no-budget video clips. I first seemed like we weren't going to make one for this album 'cause we can be really lazy sometimes but Kris De Man, our manager, persuaded us into making one. He did all the work really, we just had to show up some day and there were cameramen and some beautiful girls which I didn't know and who were about to play a part in our video. I don't remember that much 'cause I had this huge hangover from the previous day. I was there, that I can tell. The clip is now on a compilation DVD with bands like Masterplan and After Forever which is pretty cool. It's been on the VPRO web-channel but I don't think they already have shown it on Belgian television yet. Maybe because of all those girls, héhé.

Southern Voodoo is still a fairly young band on its way to grow, but what were the highlights until now?

Oh, there were already many. Having the chance of releasing two CD's, getting rave reviews, Bilbo Rock, Schwung, getting in the top 5 of video chart list "Puur Belgisch" with "Honey Smile", playing with bands like Alabama Thunderpussy, Ted Nugent, Saxon, WASP, … Also doing all those gigs last year and this year. That's a highlight every week. Getting thrown off a festival with the whole band for the first time for being too drunk, being released in the States with "Devil's Drive", working with Chips and Henryk … Lots of things, we're pretty happy people no? :-)

If there are any plans for the near future I did not cover, go ahead to share them with us now…

Well that's a tricky one. We make about a 100 plans every day but there's a big gap between dream and reality. So what we really do is plan from day to day. I'm happy the new record is here and that it works fine. But there's no real future plan. I don't even know if we'll ever make it to a third record. I'm a very impulsive guy so it's not easy planning ahead. If I get bored I might start something else, even while we are pretty successful. I do have a lot of dreams but that's a different thing. You got a week or so?

Hehe tell me at the bar… now last words are for you guys…

Don't let anyone fuck with your mind; it's the only thing that is your own. Everyone says that we like to party but that's only because we want to make as much as we can from every experience.

In your mind you can always be free…


Beekstraat 1 - B-2640 Mortsel - Belgium