Devon Cole has been making waves with her fresh mix of funk and country, and in this candid interview, she takes us behind the scenes of her rise to viral fame with “W.I.T.C.H.”. From her creative process to what’s next in her musical journey, Devon opens up about her bold new EP Two Shades Blonder and the unique sound she’s bringing to the stage.

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How would you describe your music and how has it evolved since the beginning?

I would describe it as funk-try, so like funk and country kind of mixed together. At the beginning of my career back in 2020, I was just writing to whatever kind of track and releasing whatever. In the past couple of years, I’ve really been focused on finding out what my sound is and what makes a Devon Cole song, a Devon Cole song. I think my sound is more identifiable now than it might have been in 2020, but it’s still something I’m working on.

But in the beginning, I released a rock song! There was kind of a mix of everything and now it’s pretty funky-ish, I would that’s my niche.

During the pandemic you dueted a producer’s track on TikTok and that’s when your viral hit “W.I.T.C.H.” came to life. Did you expect that to blow up?

I feel like that was during a golden age of TikTok where it wasn’t as hard to go viral, but I never expected it to go as viral as it did, and I’m still to this day, so honoured and grateful and blown away by its reception, and it’s introduced me to such a lovely community of queers and witches that are really supportive of me and I feel so grateful to be part of that community.

Did you have any musical influences growing that helped shape you into the artist you are today?

I was just talking about this with my mom! Growing up, Shania Twain was everything to me and still is, so I grew up listening to a lot of her music. Also just the pop girls of my time like Britney Spears and the Spice Girls, but Shania Twain was definitely my girl and I love her.

I love her voice, but I also love her songwriting. She’s always been very powerful and writes with a feminist edge. I think she’s always done that really well, and I just look up to her so much.

Is Shania Twain your #1 person you want to collaborate with?

Oh I would love that for sure, but I think if I had to choose somebody, I would probably choose Sabrina Carpenter or definitely a pop girl. I could see myself collaborating with Sabrina but collaborating with Shania Twain is everything. I would die and go to heaven.

What was the inspiration behind naming the EP “Two Shades Blonder”? What was the whole process of making the EP like?

It was so fun and it was really a reclaiming of my sound because “Two Shades Blonder” is a song I wrote before “W.I.T.C.H.” and it’s one that I hadn’t outgrown.

Sometimes I’ll write a song and then two months later I’ll be like, “I hate it!” but that one always kind of stuck around with me and I was kind of guided by my label to not release it, and so I did that for a couple of years and It really wasn’t good for my mental health. A: I don’t like being told what to do, and B: I just decided that I need to start making my own decisions. So that EP is a list of songs that I feel really confident about, and “Two Shades Blonder” was one of them. I just think that’s a great title for any feeling, and it kind of encompasses what I’ve been struggling with a lot in the past couple of years which is feeling lost and feeling like there’s an unfillable void. It really captures where I’m at and it felt really good to release it after so many years.

Do you have a favorite lyric from the EP?

I would say my favorite lyrics are from “Superglue”, which is “I could hit erase like Mr. Clean

I could write it off like graffiti.” When I wrote that I was like, “I’m spitting bars right now!” Every time it comes on, I’m like “are you guys listening?”

What’s the most rewarding part about being a musician and what’s been the hardest?

The most rewarding thing is definitely getting to go on tour and sing these songs with everybody. I think this is from a Katy Perry documentary, but she said ‘all I ever wanted to do is sing my songs and sing them with the audience, and have the audience sing them back to me.” And that’s truly the best part, is meeting and connecting with people on the road. I’m really looking forward to doing that in the next couple of weeks. The hardest part I would say is giving myself grace. I think I’m really hard on myself, and I’ve accomplished so much so far in my career, but I’m constantly trying to rewire my brain to live in that abundance mindset and live in that gratitude mindset rather than I wishing I was in a different place. Like thinking “I wish I had played here” or “I wish I was doing this festival” or 

“I wish I was nominated for this” which are all further down the road goals. It’s very easy to compare yourself to people and I’m trying not to let my inner critic win. It has been the biggest struggle for me and the biggest growth journey. I’ve really been focusing on being happy and being grateful for where I’m at and knowing it’s all part of the journey.

Is there a song you’re particularly, particularly most excited to perform?

I’m really excited to perform “Dickhead.” It has always been one of my favorites to perform live, and I think for people who don’t know it, it’s really easy to pick up because the chorus is really easy. I would say I’m excited about that one for sure, and “W.I.T.C.H.” is also really fun for me too.

What can people expect from your upcoming tour?

It’s very cinematic! We are treating this tour and upcoming tours as if we’re playing an arena, so we’re trying to make it very cinematic with the transitions and the flow of the show. You can expect outfit changes, you can expect choreo with my bandmates, you can expect lights, and little games. It’s going to be so much fun. We’ve really put a lot of work into the show and it’s unlike any show I’ve ever done before. We just scrapped the whole show we’d ever done and started fresh and it’s really, really good. I think people are gonna be really pleasantly surprised with what kind of show we put on with these small venues. Not that they’re small, but we’re thinking arena level and we’re definitely not arena level yet, but that’s where we’re trying to put our energy towards.

Do you have any rituals or superstitions that help you get into “performance mode”?

We always run a song together in our green room or wherever we’re doing our makeup. We listen to “Like A G6”, that’s our song. A little throwback for us. Recently I’ve started saying a prayer before we go on stage. I’m not religious at all, but there’s some sort of poem that I say or some kind of thank you message before I go on stage to remind us how lucky we are to be able to do this for our careers. If I told my eight year old self that I’m a pop star right now and I get to do this, she would literally die. Like even saying that out loud is so crazy. So, that’s a new thing that I’m starting to implement is having a grounding message before we go on stage and playing every show like it’s our last.

Any exciting new projects you can share with us?

I have a couple of singles coming out this year! I’ll be teasing them or playing them at the shows, which is really exciting. I don’t have a date for them yet, but one of them is coming out very soon, like this spring. I’m also currently working on a bigger project. I’ve never released an album before, so that’s where my mindset is at and I’m just taking some time to get settled into LA cause I just moved there and am working on some funky music to share with the world. So that’s where I’m at, but definitely some new singles coming out this spring and this summer.