User:The New Romantic Devils

The New Romantic Devils are an American Alternative Pop Rock Band formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 2001. They Moved to Fort Worth, Texas in 2013 and started playing clubs and casinos and restaurant patios. They are trying to set pioneer a gritty heavier sound mixed with a pop hook and mix in all genres of music in a melting pot. There range is from hip hop, country to hard rock to R &amp; B to pop and anything in between. There first stable line up in 2003 comprised Keith Hudson, vocalist and Drums, Archie Monroe, Lead Guitarist, Peyton Reed, Vocalist and bassist, Mike McCoy, guitarist, and Holly Kaye Ridge, Vocalist and Guitars. For a brief time from 2004 to 2008, Freddy Spencer was an additional guitarist he later moved into producing music for artists and has become the Devils main producer of their material. Archie's Father the late Roy Monroe was their manager from 2002 until his untimely death in 2013. There next manager Robert Crist was their manager until 2019 and his untimely death as well. They are now managed by Mark Preddy. In the beginning the band was co-led by Keith and Archie, but Archie has become the primary leader of the band. Peyton Reed is Archie Sister and Keith's Wife. When Holly Ridge left the band in 2008 the band continued as a four piece until 2014 When Archie and Peyton's younger sister Rachel Monroe joined the band as Lead Vocalist, guitar, keyboard, piano and synth player. The primary song writers starting out were Keith, Archie, Peyton, and Holly Ridge. At the encouragement of Robert Crist, the primary writing partnership turned to Rachel and Archie.

Rooted in 70's, 80's and 90's rock and pop, The New Romantic Devils started out playing covers in local area of Oklahoma City. Keith Hudson and Archie Monroe were childhood friends and classmates in 1990 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1994 Monroe's family moved to Tulsa. In 1996 Monroe formed a garage band with his friends Randy Mason and Tony Rich, the group mainly played material by Kiss, Led Zepplin, Eagles, Sex Pistols, Billy Idol, and Green Day. Monroe met up with Hudson again on 17 of 1998 when he came to Oklahoma City to visit family. Archie's diverse music collection of anything from Prince, the Beasty Boys and NWA to 80's new wave and metal to Korn and Pearl jam revealed they had shared interest. A musical partnership began shortly afterwards. They would often meet in Hudson storm cellar with Mason and Rich. The meetings moved to Mason house in early 1999 where Peyton Reed Monroe. Archies sister and Holly Kaye Ridge a local singer joined the foursome and they called themselves 4pastmidnight.

Early History

In March of 1999 they were playing the local scene at colleges, bars, and clubs covering anything under the sun. On April 7, they played at music festival in Oklahoma City and met Mike McCoy guitarist for a band Skipping Monday. By May of 1999 Skipping Monday was disbanded and Mike McCoy was without a band and placed an ad Guitarist looking for other like-minded musicians to play with. By June Tony Rich had left the band and Archie wanted to add another guitar player back in the group. At this time Peyton was playing Rhythm, Randy was on Bass, Holly and Keith on vocals, Keith on Drums and Archie was on lead. Archie was wanting another guitar play to share lead duties. By July Mike McCoy had joined the band. They continued to play the club circuit throughout Kansas and Oklahoma for remainder of 1999 into early 2000 mostly as casinos under the 4pastmidnight moniker. In mid 2000 they had started incorporating original songs into their setlist. Holly and Archie were dating at this time, and both had a love for theatrics and all things 70's and 80's. After watching a documentary about the New Romantic era that punk turned into with new wave, they changed their name to The New Romantic Devils.

2001-2004: Building a local following

The Group played several shows from late 2000 through 2001 with the lineup of Archie, Peyton, Holly, Keith, Mike, and Randy. They were still playing throughout mostly Oklahoma and Kansas, in early 2002 they had started to play some shows at bars and colleges in parts of Texas especially Fort Worth/ Dallas area. September of 2003, they had written and recorded roughly 22 demo tracks and paid to go into studio and record a proper LP they could sell at their shows of original material. They went into studio on October 17, 2003 and recorded their self-titled independent debut. The lineup was Holly Ridge on vocals, keys, synth, Peyton who had dropped the Monroe and was just going by Reed on Rhythm guitar, Mike McCoy on additional Rhythm and Lead, Archie Monroe on Lead guitar, Keith Hudson on drums and vocals and Randy Mason on bass. They were disappointed with the album sound and production values and shelved the project. Archie and Keith set down to figure out what direction to go in. Randy Mason quit the band in summer of 2004 leaving them without a bass player. Peyton suggested she switch to bass because it felt more natural. So once again the band was in search of a third guitar player. In July of 2004 Keith and Archie decided to move to Fort Worth, Texas to work and go into business together and the rest of the band followed. When they got to the Fort Worth/Dallas area they were introduced to a guitar player named Freddy Spencer who had just got out of his last band and had been working at a local studio. They hit it off and Freddy joined the band in July of 2004. They decided to re-record the self-titled LP with Freddy adding his guitar, Removing Randy Mason on bass and adding Peyton playing bass. They remixed the album and released it in September of 2004. The album did nothing even locally and Archie was still disappointed with the production values and sound of the record.

2005-2009: Texas and Louisiana building a home.

They continued to play the local scene in Texas as well as into Mississippi and Louisiana throughout 2004 and early 2005. They started working on demos to record another album. In July of 2005 they went into the studio to record a follow up to the self-titled debut. Since Freddy had learned a lot about production and mixing working for studio back in Oklahoma it was decided he would do double duties as guitar player and producer. Engineer. Early on in the process they realized that Holly, Peyton trying to fill in for Freddy as well as how much he could contribute was slowing down process and jeopardizing it even getting done. Archie met another local musician at this time John Taylor Dubach and asked him if he would come play on record. From September through October of 2005, they recorded Seize the Day and played clubs at night. In February 2006 Seize the Day was released again to little or no fan fair. The band totally discouraged discussed breaking up and going their separate ways. Archie has stated that a big problem with Seize the Day is that there are about 6 to 7 tracks that should have been left off. He said the writing is subpar everyone is either to drunk or two high with the exception of Freddy. Archie and Keith have both said that Freddy's production was brilliant he made crap sound good but even then, at end of day it's still crap. Holly Ridge and Archie were going through huge break up at this time which also interfered with the record. The band took a break from December of 2006 until October of 2007. In November 2007 they started booking shows for 2008 and 2009. Holly Ridge quit band in March of 2008. Peyton took over her vocal duties. Freddy also decided to quit by October of 2008 and decided to go focus on being a producer. The line up now was JT Dubach, Keith Hudson, Peyton Reed, Archie Monroe, Mike McCoy.

2009-2020: Finding their voice and refining their sound

From 2009 until 2014 the band toured from Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. In February 2014, Rachel Monroe, Archie and Peyton's baby sister moved to Texas after the death of their parents. Rachel is 13 years younger than Archie. She started singing one day when band was rehearsing, and everyone was floored. They convinced her to bring her musical talents a classically trained pianist and now confirmed singer to the band. The band knew they wanted to record another album and give one more shot to getting their sound and vision of the band right. They spent 2014 to 2019 playing rehearsing and writing. Rachel, Archie, Peyton, and Keith sat down and discussed what they all wanted, they wanted to take the silliness and grandiose of Rocky Horror Picture show, The epic theme songs and opening credits of a James Bond movie, The music of the 70's 80's 90's and 2000's break down all the labels and genres and throw it all in a blender and that is what you get when it comes out is us. They got started rehearsing immediately. They incorporated elaborate costumes grandiose epic sounding hooks. They would start with cover songs and twist them and turn them into the Devils sound. JT Duback quit in early 2014 so the band was now Archie, Keith, Rachel, Peyton, and Mike. They bought a barn on some property and turned it into a studio and eventually built a house next to it. In 2018 to mid 2019 they toured extensively in their same little track and worked on songs for an album. In November and December of 2019, they went in and recorded 11 tracks that would end up becoming Devil's Got Your Tongue. Archie reached out to Freddy Spencer and asked if he would come and produce and mix it. The album was set to come out in March of 2020 and The New Romantic Devils were really picking up steam as a live band when the Pandemic hit and shut everything down. Mike McCoy over the summer of 2020 decided he wanted to quit and leave which left a big problem since the album wasn't out and he had played on all 11 tracks.

2020-present: Devil's Got Your Tongue, Painting a Perfect Picture, Pop Rocks, Double Trouble, new album project and tour.

After some negotiations Mike agreed to let them release with him still on it and they paid him a flat fee up front. In September of 2020 Devils Got Your Tongue came out with a lot of buzz. Since the pandemic was still going on and going into early 2021 still couldn't play live, they went back into studio and recorded another album Painting a Perfect Picture. It was released January 25, 2021, to a lot of great reviews locally. In February a major winter storm came through the south and caused a major car wreck on interstate in Fort Worth. Both Peyton and Rachel were severely injured and had to have surgeries. Rachel had a tibia/fibula fracture. Peyton had broken clavicle, hip fracture and deflated lung. The band had just booked a bunch of dates that would take them through summer into September. Once the girls were confirmed stable and were going to get better, a decision was made to go ahead and keep tour dates and they would have to find fill in replacements. Keith and Archie reached out to Holly who considered it but eventually declined. They finally got ahold of JT who agreed to come in and play bass and drums for Keith when he is on mike. JT knew of a guitar player looking for work. The decision was made to hire Ed Anziotti to fill in for second guitar player at shows. Rachel was cleared from rehab and to perform 1 week before there first show there in Fort Worth. They would either bring her a chair or she would sit at piano while she sang. She continued PT during day. By August she was back up and moving around. Peyton finally came and made the last two months of scheduling in September and August.

During the Summer while out touring they wrote new material and worked on another album that turned into a concept double album titled Double Trouble. They once again asked Freddy to come in a produce. While he was working on Double Trouble, he went through left over tracks from Painting a Perfect Picture with Peyton and Rachel and convinced them to convince band to let him mix them and release that as an bonus LP as well. They released Pop Rocks the b-sides and leftovers album in late July. In September of 2021 they released Double Trouble and 6 singles off the album. The album got great reviews and has helped the Band pick up momentum through the fall and remainder of 2021.

They finished playing shows in mid-November and the decision was made to book time in the studio at end of November and through part of December around Christmas and New Year. The original idea was to do another concept album based on facing demons and depression and struggles and the ups and downs we go through. Bringing in themes from pandemic, election, riots ects as well as personal struggles from love, loss and life. They went through the existing and left-over demos from past projects all the way back to the beginning. The project was originally going to be called Somewhere between Heaven and Hell. The original idea was to do another Double album. During the recording sessions JT and Ed were made permanent members of the band. Freddy Spencer was brought in again to produce the album along with Atom. In going through the existing demos some new songs were written but most were disjointed or had been used previously and turned into other songs. The project then grew to a triple album idea and title changed to The Devil you know one and two. During December of 2021 Peyton and Rachel both left the recording sessions upset after a fight between them Archie and Keith.

Before Christmas Archie, Rachel, Keith, Peyton had two meetings. The first meeting did not go very well and there was indication that they might be leaving the group. The second meeting went much better, and JT and Ed were brought in and they recommitted to working through everything. It was decided that the stress and lack of rest and pressure to follow up Double Trouble was to much and the Concept album was scrapped for time being. Archie and Keith met with Freddy, and they picked 16 tracks to mix and master and release as a new album in January of 2022. The new album is titled These Lonely Streets and will be out January 21, 2022. The band has booked dates through May 2022 starting in February. The band is set to start rehearsing the first week in February and have stated they will return to working on the concept album and may record some while out on the road this spring. It is also discussed that they are going to work on a promo documentary style video with behind the scenes of the band,

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Discography

 * 1) The New Romantic Devils-2004/2020 re-release
 * 2) Seize the Day- 2006/2020 re-release.
 * 3) The Devil's Got Your Tongue- 2020
 * 4) Painting a Perfect Picture- 2021
 * 5) Pop Rocks-2021
 * 6) Double Trouble-2021

Band members
Current members Archie Monroe -Lead guitar and backing vocals (2001-present) Rachel Monroe -Lead vocals, Piano,synth,keys,guitar (2014-present)

Keith Hudson - Lead Vocals, Drums (2001-present)

Peyton Reed - Bass, backing vocals, some rhythm guitar (2001-present)

Ed Anziotti - Guitars, Drums, Bass, Vocals (2021-present)

John Taylor Dubach - Bass, Drums, Guitar, Vocals (2004-2014, 2020-present)

Former members

Randy Mason: 2000-2004

Freddy Spencer:2004-2008

Holly Ridge: 2003-2008

Mike McCoy: 2004-2019