Hard and soft, dark and atmospheric, hopeful and full of despair, the new EP Skin – from L.A.-based rocker Devon Thompson – is a study in beautiful contradictions. The five track release, which dropped via Exquisite Feline in late-March, doesn’t shy away from heavy themes or gothic imagery, instead it embraces the dark elegance that can be found in the coldest, blackest of nights. All the while Thompson illuminates the power of modern alternative music as she carries the rock torch for a new generation.
When explaining who will enjoy Skin the most, Thompson said via Zoom that “fans of alternative music with a rock flare” will certainly enjoy the music as will “fans of gothic or dark poetry” and “people who like real and raw music done completely organically.”
She added, “There’s not an ounce of fake anything in this so it’s just dripping with realism.”
One of the EP’s many standouts, and a track that perfectly encapsulates Thompson’s talent for blending contrasting ideas, is the punk-infused “I Love You But It Hurts Like Hell.”
“Because that song is about loving someone whether it’s an addiction, you know, ‘I love you but it hurts like hell.’ It’s sweet and awful,” Thompson explained. “That’s sort of the whole point with the whole EP is the duality of the hard and the soft of what I think rock and alternative rock is so I’m definitely trying to emphasize that.”
Another highlight of Skin is “Straitjacket,” a catchy examination of self-sabotage, the newly released video for which finds Thompson coming to the realization that the person doing the most damage to her heart is actually herself.
“I realize [my heart] is gone and I have to figure out basically how to get it back,” she said of the video. “And what’s happening to me, why is this being taken from me? And at the end, I end up figuring out that I’m my own worst enemy and I’m the one who even took it in the first place. I stabbed it because I’m killing that ego because we are our own worst enemies.”
When it came to bringing “Straitjacket” to a visual medium, Thompson recruited her frequent collaborator, music video director Bianca Cruz.
“I love Bianca,” Thompson said. “We’ve done a couple videos together so it’s been great because Bianca is a peer of mine and she’s a college student, and we kind of have the same music tastes and also she’s a really good writer. So, I give her a concept of what I want to do and she helps me put the script together. It comes pretty easy when we work together.”
The “Straitjacket” video has a decidedly grunge vibe that balances throwback sounds and imagery with Thompson’s modern, more glossy production. Thompson is among a new group of artists mining what is still exciting from the music of the past and pairing that with fresh ideas, new voices, and modern technology to ensure that rock remains firmly planted in the conversation about popular music.
“All of that is continuing to go into the future because you have bands like Paramore and you have bands like Cage the Elephant who take aspects of alternative and of rock and put them together and make it palatable for the new music aesthetic,” she said. “There are so many things I love about new production aesthetics – and there are so many things that I don’t like about it – that I take the best of both worlds. I think that’s what we’ve always done, but there’s an organicness that a lot of people still want to bring into the new age.”
She added, “And people, I’ve noticed, love hard core stuff or really gritty or weird interesting things. Even in pop, people love weird concepts or really crazy sounds, like bigger bands – more hardcore bands are getting massive now. I really hope that people still carry the torch with that and I think that they will because people still want to hear music like that.
Thompson explained that Gibson Guitars, the iconic guitar brand which sponsored her, definitely still wants to hear music like that and empowers artists to continue to write riffs that melt faces. Currently, the Gibson SG and the Casino are the two instruments that Thompson turns to when creating her rock sounds.
“They both serve different purposes,” she explained. “The SG is fit for my body really well. I am a woman and my build is different and I do think the build of that guitar is slimmer and easier for me to move around. And anatomically, it’s easier to fit my body so it’s really easy to shred on that, so to speak. It’s really easy to move around. And, the Casino has a really deep reverb that is perfect for those heavy songs that really need that extra bass that I can use.”
Thompson was born and raised, and still resides in Los Angeles. She credits her artistic family with helping to nurture her love of music from a young age.
I kind of just grew up around the arts. I’ve had a very artistic family. That sort of spring boarded acting and starting to sing around the house. When I was six or seven, my mom was like, “Oh, you can do this shit kid,” And I started doing musical theater, that kind of stuff, and it all took place from there. I did acting and singing and I started making songs.”
Though Thompson is a Californian, she feels like she gets her best writing done when she ventures out of town.
“We worked with one of our writers out in Nashville,” she said of recording Skin. “I have a good track record working there. I don’t do that well when I’m working in L.A. I have too many distractions and I can’t be fully creative. What I need is a Nashville hotel room and a bunch of tequila in order to write. I don’t need my dogs, or my family, or my boyfriend. I don’t need any of it. I need to be separated from all of it. That’s where “So Close” and “Poison Me” happened. Maybe that’s why they’re so deranged in a beautiful way.”
She added with a laugh, “That’s a product of Casamigos, which is my plea to try to get them to sponsor me.”
Thompson has plans to tour in the summer and fall and she’s currently working on new material. She’s rebelling against the insatiable appetite of the algorithm and the constant call for more engagement by taking her time in releasing new music, prioritizing quality over quantity and speed.
“I don’t want to do another one until it’s done really right. We did some of the EP in the studio, but we did a lot of it in a garage and we really want to make sure we have a proper studio and a proper budget this time and shit’s expensive, so yeah,” she said, elsewhere adding, “I’ve gone back into writing. I initially really just wanted to put out a song next month, but now that I’m thinking about it, I really want to write the best quality music that I can. I’ll be traveling and writing and I’ll be working with some people so I’m thinking we’ll be up in Canada and in Nashville writing and recording so new music will be coming, I’m thinking summertime.”
Until then, check out Skin, which is available everywhere now, and keep up with Thompson by following her on Instagram. More information can be found at Devonthompsonmusic.com.