Having been a big fan of singer Cory White's previous band (which he was booted from) called DDT, and the fact that they are a Canadian band, gave me more of an initiative to track down the goateed singer to chat about their new album titled _Devil Rock Disco_ (on Linus Entertainment).

"I am excited about what I am doing right now with Shocore", starts White down the line from Vancouver. "I thought that DDT got a little too poppy for me and that wasn't really my taste. I loved the first DDT record, but when it came time to work on the second record I really wasn't involved too much with the writing and I didn't like the direction it was going. This Shocore record has a lot more balls. It is definitely a lot heavier."

"Things keep changing as the years go on for me", he says. "I don't really have a grand master plan of what is going to go on. After I got kicked out of DDT, Terry "Sho" Murray called me up and asked me if I wanted to come down to the studio and work on stuff. We had worked before in the past on some stuff and it was lots of fun to just be in the studio doing this stuff. When we were in the studio, every week we'd have a keg of beer and our friends would come by and play stuff. There really seemed like there was no pressure working on this disc. When I had recorded with DDT, there was this whole crazy pressure with people coming into the studio and it just added a ton of pressure onto you. This was very low-key, as if you were just hanging with some of your friends and writing/recording music. We [the band is rounded out by Chon Chikara, Andy Simpson, Paul Floyd and Stevie Ericson -- Adrian] just made a record that we wanted to make."

White has seen a lot of ups and downs in his career so far. His ex-band DDT had seen success in the early to mid-'90s with their EP _Living Off the Generosity of Other People_ and eventually signed to Metallica's Lars Ulrich's imprint label TMC (which worked in conjunction with Elektra Records) to release _Urban Observer_. And then came the departure from DDT, with White cast out to the musical world, and soon after that, DDT broke up. What inspires him to keep creating music? Is it the only thing he is good at?

"This is definitely one of the only things I can really do", he laughs. "Being in a band and creating music is just a great outlet for me. I love to travel and I like to create and perform and entertain. I am not a rocket scientist. I don't plan on changing the world. I am not political. I just like to have a good time. I know if I go to see a band play for $10, I want to be entertained. That is what I put into all of this with Shocore. I am not a rocket scientist at all, I just like to rock!"

Talking about the new disc, he says, "I like all of the songs. My favourite songs on the record change from day to day, really. I have been living with the record for a year now. There are a lot of songs I like to perform live, songs like "High School Punk" or "Legendary Camaro"."

"I have been through so much so far in this music business, and seen a lot of stuff happen, and I am just glad and excited about what we did with this record. We made something that we really love and it just came out of us. It wasn't forced. We weren't trying to be a certain sound. It just happened. And it just keeps going with us. We are already working on the second record for Shocore."

Shocore are not afraid to try a lot of new ideas and bring them into the fold, though a lot of other bands sometimes bring too much variety and ideas to their music, causing some to lose interest.

"When I first listened to this record, I kind of felt there was a real '70s rock feel to it", he reveals. "I grew up listening to records like that with my parents. Not to say we sound like that, but there was that rock feeling inside. When we worked on the disc and were looking for samples and sounds to fit what we were doing, I noticed that we made sure we took in ideas that would enhance our music and sound cool and draw the listener in."

"The music scene in Canada has always been tough for young bands to get noticed", answers White when asked about the Canadian music scene. "You have to be pretty straight head rock to make it here. And all the power to bands like that playing in Canada, but to me that is just music that is playing it safe. Not that we are jumping through circles of fire, but I think that we are playing our music the way we want to and not worried about playing it too safe." He laughs. "Making music has always been fun for me. That is why I enjoy doing this. This isn't easy at all -- vans breaking down, living homeless, which I have done -- but it is a lot of fun as well, fun that most people never get to experience. This is real riot and you amass such a vast amount of experience from being in a band."

The final question goes out to Shocore's frontman: how does he feel about working within the music industry?

"I like the corporate engine working for you, but I don't like it taking over what you are doing", he states. "I have been in that situation before [with DDT] and I don't want to have that again."

He finishes off, "I like what Linus is doing for us and I think they really believe in what we are doing. They are good people. We both want this band to be a success."