RED DEVILS’ FUTURE IS LOOKING UP

I ndependence and freedom aren’t just empty words to the members of the Red Devils, who have learned the hard way that musical freedom isn’t any easier to win than the political or personal variety.

Although it has been four years since the Red Devils arrived as one of the most exciting bands on the Southern California music scene, the group is still waiting to cut its first album. That’s largely because the band has insisted on pursuing musical directions that at times have cost them record company and audience acceptance.

But as the group gears up for its Fourth of July show with Fishbone at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, things are looking up once again, thanks to its new association with a prominent recording engineer and national television exposure for one of its songs.

“We’ve been patient as hell,” said lead singer and bassist Emy Lee in a recent phone interview from Minnesota, where she was visiting relatives with her husband, the group’s guitarist-songwriter Dave Lee. “Everybody’s been waiting for us to make a record for four years. But we have to have our own values, our own sound.”

“We want to have our own market--not be pushed into someone else’s,” Dave Lee, 29, said. “To make the record I want to make will be difficult without money and a lot of time in the studio. We don’t want to put out a quickie record that sounds hollow. We want something that will stand up to ZZ Top and the Stones because that’s our competition.”

While confident that a new tape they are recording with the help of engineer Dave Jergens (Rolling Stones, Herbie Hancock) will finally land them a record contract, one way or another they plan to put out a record by the end of the year.

“He knows a lot of people at the record companies, and we know he can help us get the sound we want,” Emy said. “So even if a label doesn’t sign us, we’ll put it out ourselves.”

It’s been a particularly hard waiting period, especially since few bands have generated the kind of immediate sparks and overwhelming excitement that the Red Devils did when it first appeared during the Orange County rockabilly resurgence of 1982.

Fronted by Emy Lee, a magnetic singer with as much charisma and vocal talent as Lone Justice’s Maria McKee, the Red Devils epitomized rockabilly’s raw enthusiasm and spiritual innocence.

But it wasn’t long before the group got its first taste of record business machinations when some label scouts encouraged two band members to abandon the others.

“I was told, ‘We like you and the bass player. Get rid of the other guys and you can go far,’ ” Emy said. “But I have to look at myself in the mirror every day. I couldn’t do that and live with myself.”

In early 1984, however, a personnel split came anyway, the result of a schism over the group’s direction. Emy and Dave wanted to pursue a more contemporary sound, while drummer Scotty Campbell (brother of James Harman Band bassist Willie J. Campbell) and bassist Jonny Ray (Dave’s younger brother) opposed the move away from rock’s roots.

Ray and Campbell quit--or were fired, depending on the source--while Dave and Emy continued, with former Jimmy & the Mustangs drummer Troy Mack as a trio. (Ray went on to join members of X and the Blasters in the Knitters, while Campbell hooked up with the Paladins, a San Diego rockabilly band.)

“We’re all still friends, but it’s always hard to make a big decision like that,” Emy, 25, said. “There was such a big rockabilly scene and it was a lot of fun. We never regret what we did. Every big band starts out doing certain things, but you have to move on. Some people can’t handle that. We were growing, and now we are growing again.”

Added Dave: “Our first responsibility is to ourselves.”

In shifting to a brash, up-tempo punk-metal hybrid, the revised Red Devils lost most of their original following and drew few new fans. The high-energy approach was less successful because it gave Emy Lee’s rich voice little room to stretch, while Dave’s colorful guitar leads gave way to thrashing power chords.

In the past year, however, the Red Devils has begun the audience-rebuilding process and has been gradually edging back to meaty blues rock with an emphasis on melody. The group also recently got network television exposure--about 40 seconds worth--when a tape of one of its songs was used in the ABC-TV movie “Brotherhood of Justice,” which aired in May.

The group has kept a low profile in Southern California, performing only about once a month. The next Orange County date is an Aug. 8 show at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach.

But the band members are more encouraged about their own chances because of the recent commercial success of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the veteran Texas blues band that currently has a Top 10 single and a Top 20 album (“Tuff Enough”).

“We’re getting a lot more all-guitar music,” Dave said. “People like (Bob) Seger, the Del Fuegos, George Thorogood, Stevie Ray Vaughan are doing back-to-basics, no-frills, good-time rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not fake. Records with a lot of keyboards and big production get boring after a while.”

They are also optimistic that roots music groups will have better prospects with record labels, several of which have expressed interest in but have never signed the Red Devils.

“The record companies all liked us; they just didn’t know what to do with us. It’s not our fault,” Emy said. “It seems like the record companies aren’t interested in developing you; they just want to change you.”

LIVE ACTION: Dates of two Pacific Amphitheatre shows have been changed: Robert Palmer has been moved to July 21, while Jeffrey Osborne has been moved to Nov. 2. . . . Social Distortion will be at Night Moves in Huntington Beach on July 10. . . . The Wild Cards will play Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach on July 18. . . . Eric Burdon will perform at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on July 18.