Devier
A Return To Romance
By: Adam Bernard
Last updated February 12th , 2010

R&B singer Devier has an approach to music that has a lot of ladies swooning at his concerts and melting at every spin of his latest album, Romance & True Love. "My philosophy is that I believe in love and romance. A lot of youngsters these days are singing about gettin busy, about kickin it with a girl. That's all fine and dandy, but I feel like every woman deserves to be romanced."

Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in the Bay Area of California, Devier grew up in an artistic household. By the time he was seven he was listening to The Temptations and imitating them to the best of his abilities. "I would stand in front of the mirror and relate what they did," he remembers, "I would make like Eddie Kendricks or David Ruffin."

It wouldn't take long before Devier's mirror was exchanged for a live audience. At the age of ten he performed a song and accompanying piano piece he had composed himself. A handful of years later, at 16, his high soprano voice was noticed by a local singing group.  Everyone in the group was 21, but they wanted Devier to join them.  It was an easy decision for Devier, who was in love with performing and just a few years earlier had discovered the effect his talents could have on the opposite sex.  "I got a lot of girlfriends from singin," he says with a laugh, "I'd get girls' phone numbers and sing to 'em over the phone."

Once he joined the group, Devier didn't need the phone anymore. He was singing to packed houses in nightclubs. "I got my first standing ovation when I was 16," he remembers, "and I loved it. After that it was like, I gotta keep doing this."

During this time Devier also took up the martial arts and became very proficient at it. With ten years of Tae Kwon Do and five years of Hung Gar Kung Fu under his belt, Devier could be found testing his skills at tournaments all over California and Utah. Something happened at one of those tournaments, however, during a full contact sparring bout, that reminded Devier of his real goals in life. "I got my nose broken and after that I was like wait a minute ... the music thing became more important than getting my nose broken."

Although he still works out on a regular basis, his life's focus is on his music, and his latest album, Romance & True Love, is something he feels people are really going to connect with. Devier says one of his goals for the album is to "bring back baby makin music," adding "I want ladies to dream of someone sweeping them off their feet with romance and love." These are ideas that aren't often heard in today's modern R&B music, and Devier has some theories as to why that is. "Some people are going with the flow," he explains, "because nobody's steppin to the plate since Luther (Vandross) died, and Gerald Levert died. Nobody's steppin to the plate, everybody's jumping on the bandwagon."

One thing you won't hear Devier sing about is taking another man's woman. "I don't sing songs about promoting adultery and taking someone else's woman because I don't believe that's right," he states. "There are many beautiful women out there, why would I want to take another man's woman?" Devier actually knows all about the many beautiful woman out there as he has plenty of them throwing themselves, and occasionally their undergarments, at him every time he performs. Most recently, at a show in Benecia, CA, he says "ladies were coming up to the stage. They wanted to hug me. It was a nice feeling. It let me know that what I'm trying to promote, there's a chance that it could go big."

The ladies want it and, with Romance & True Love, Devier is clearly ready to be the singer who brings them a return to romance.

To check out or purchase Romance & True Love, click here.

[Tags] R&B

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