DES DEMONAS - INTERVIEW : "I’m always drawing, everyday! It’s something I truly enjoy more than making music. More than life itself."

Jacky Cougar is the lead singer of the band DES DEMONAS. Originally from Washington, and signed to the Californian label IN THE RED Records, the band performed live this summer in Paris at Le Petit Bain, a well-known venue located on Quai de la Gare, at the foot of the BNF (National Library of France). I discovered Jacky Cougar through a newsletter from Slovenly Records, which featured the all-female trio SEX FACES, of which Jack is the drummer. Their new album is scheduled for release in 2025. Here are some questions I asked him via email a few weeks after DES DEMONAS' performance. They played an intense concert, full of a captivating groove and 60s-inspired energy, driven by Jack's mesmerizing vocals, delivering his personal and politically engaged lyrics, accompanied by an unusual trio—no bassist, but with Matt on drums, Paul on Hammond organ, and guitarist Mark Cisneros, a regular member of Kid Congo Powers' band The Pink Monkey Birds and also a founding member of The Make-Up.

Does this cosmopolitan city have a major influence on your approach to music and the way you write your lyrics?

Washington DC being the nations capital is all about  politics  and the people the city attracts are also quite type A, well educated and switched on, so most people you meet only talk about what they do for work and where they went to school. Coming up in the scene there wasn’t a lot of bands saying anything I wanted to hear which made it easy to write lyrics about things that affect me. I grew up in Nairobi Kenya which is a bigger city than Washington DC and my formative years there still continue to inspire me. By the time I arrived here all the big Dischord bands were no longer playing and their fans were quite obnoxious so I didn’t really check those bands out and the UK scene was far more interesting to me than the local scene until bands like The Apes, Greenland, The Points, C West, Foul Swoops came on the scene. 

Can you tell us about this city, both its culture and society?

it’s quite transient, loads of universities and schools and interns so lots of young people, it’s still quite diverse which means the bands and the music scene are diverse too; punk, hip hop, jazz go-go, hardcore, cumbia and rock! There’s always a protest going on down town, there’s always loads of tourists and the streets always smell of weed!!! All day every fucking day!

Trump recently deployed the National Guard to the city to restore order and combat gangs linked to drug trafficking.

Which is why they are patrolling the parks and the only checkpoints are on Black and Hispanic neighborhoods? I wish Presidents Trump would just come out and say he’s trying to make America a white ethnostate instead of pretending he’s waging a war on crime! Fucking clown!

The titles of your songs on this second album are quite explicit and often linked to themes of racism, but also with little personal stories about Africa and, undoubtedly, your situation as a Black man in a white society?

Yes. Duke Ellington Bridge is named after a bridge in North West DC and Miles Davis Headwound Blues is about a photo I saw of Miles’ head bleeding on his white suit because a policeman hit him for no reason other than he was standing outside having a cigarette. Arthur Lee Bomb Squadwas inspired by a caption of a photo that read “Lil Bobby Hutton was shot dead by Oakland police”, and Steve Biko. 

You have a way of singing that can sometimes seem close to slam poetry. I admit I really like The Last Poets, as well as Saul Williams and Linton Kwesi Johnson. They are committed poets. Do you feel close to their demands and their states of mind?

I’m not familiar with the Last Poets and Saul Williams but I rate Linton Kwesi Johnson. I feel close to Grace Jones and John Cooper Clarke and Mark E Smith and Danny Brown. Those are the artists/poets I’m inspired by…

I also saw that you create the album covers with your illustrations. Do you like graphic designers or plastic artists, for example?

I like illustrators. My all time favorite illustrator is Edward Gorey and a current  illustrator I love is Tim Presley who plays in the band White Fence.

How do you go about creating these?

I’m always drawing, everyday! It’s something I truly enjoy more than making music. More than life itself. 

To speak more specifically about music, DES DEMONAS is a quartet or a quintet in some photos with experienced musicians. 

Des Demonas started as a five piece but the rhythm section left and we got a new drummer, so now it’s a four piece. 

I knew Mark Cisneros from Kid Congo, but can you tell us how this desire to make music together was triggered?

He is a genus musician! And Matt & Paul are amazing too! I’m the non-musician of the bunch.

How do you compose your songs? Is it all in a rehearsal studio together, or do some of you work with predefined ideas?

Mainly at practice; someone brings an idea and we all work on it together. I’m always scribbling down lyrics and potential song titles in preparation. For the new record with the exception of ‘Miles Davis Headwound Blues’ was all new lyrics written for the songs as opposed to pre existing  lyrics. I was very proud with that! 

The groove is important in your songs, of course, and there are 60s influences, but this catchy, slightly trance-like quality can certainly be reminiscent of certain repetitive African melodies?

Probably because I grew up in Kenya and listened to a lot of African folk music. I also quite like The three Rs (repetition repetition repetition)

I think the idea was really to draw on everyone's influences?

I’m influenced by 90s hip hop and 80s post punk from England!

People must often talk to you about Mick Collins. Moreover, being signed to In The Red, I'm telling you this because a few years ago I spoke with Angelo Moore of Fishbone, who told me that in the 80s/90s

it wasn't so easy to make rock 'n' roll. Besides, with musicians from Living Colour, they founded the Black Rock Coalition.

America is so segregated and deeply racist which is why organizations like Black Rock Coalition are formed to provide equality for musicians of color. I find my generation and the one after me don’t give a toss about the mainstream or getting permission to create, I think the internet has almost made the playing field equal, in that you don’t need a record company or established venues to present your art or music. You can record at home or at your practice space and release it online. You can play house shows or DIY spaces. DIY/ punk spirit. I met Mick Collins once, he was quite nice to me, his guitarist refused to shake my hand…

Do you have a strange feeling playing in front of a predominantly white audience, even when talking to them after concerts (that said, I'm probably a little naive, considering I'm from France...)?

Not really, they are just people… I enjoy talking to people. Des Demonas fans tend to be quite serious and politically minded which makes for quite interesting banter.

How did the deal with In The Red come about? Does it benefit from an efficient promotion and distribution network?

The deal came thru Mark Cisnerros  being on such a storied label does help with the promo and distribution, but I’m just so proud to be label mates with some of my favorite bands.

How did you find the conditions for playing in Europe and the audiences?

It was fucking fantastic!!! Manchester and London didn’t disappoint and Newcastle, Glasgow and Nottingham were brilliant! Binic and Bordeaux were also surprisingly brilliant and the people were friendly, Paris was a shit hole…

I know that in the US it's not so easy to get paid properly, and the reception is quite unpredictable?

My advice is to get a guarantee that way you get paid what you were promised! Sex Faces played to two people in Kansas but we still made $300 because we had a guarantee! Venues just don’t want to promote shows anymore, you book out of town shows and they want you to promote them even tho you don’t know anyone in that town!!! 

I don't think you make a living from your art. You and the musicians of DES DEMONAS probably have to work on the side.

Yes we all have jobs. I work as a barista at a corporate coffee shop a block from the White House. 

The SEX FACES album was also released in 2025. I think you'll also be touring with this trio?

Yes! We did a week long tour of the south which was quite eye opening and bizarre , and we are working on new songs and plan to record soon and we’ll be playing the WE’RE LOUD FEST in Kenya in November. 

This band is totally different from DES DEMONAS, with songs with rather raw lyrics and rather short tracks?

Yes! Sex Faces is what I imagine Berlin in the early 80s sounded like. Loud trebly funny not masculine noisy sexy cool.

And to finish this interview, is there anything in particular you'd like to talk about? I would love for you to tell me about your recent favorites, whether it's music, literature, or even graphic and visual arts, or anything else.

The book “Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg. The second part of the Andy Warhol PBS documentary has the best beginning!! Theodora Danylevich & My cat Liliput bippity boppity Kleenex thee enigma. The song “Take the A train” by Duke Ellington Meats and Foods on Florida Avenue. 

Bands I like ; No Man Halpine Bottled Up That This Sensor Ghost Teen Cobra Krimeslugs( because they wrote a song about me) Genre is Death, Clear Channel, Sneaks, Fantazma, Sloot, Sessa, 504 plan, Italia 90, Vampyres from Africa.

Bands I hate; Pinky Lemon, emotional world, bad fuckin moves, kill Lincoln, Cryptid Summer and the Gories. 

Thank you Jacky

Interview by Philippe Chérencé