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Interview with Dave De Roo
of
Adema |
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Adema is full of slightly mannered angst, as well as the usual mixture of
portentous ballads and thunderous hard rock tracks, often with a decidedly
thrashy edge. Mark Chavez manages to growl ferociously even on the tender slow
songs ("Speculum"), and he has a fascination with death that, even
for a hardcore act, is pronounced ("I wish I could watch you drowning /
And die" is one of the disc's many such touching couplets).
Coming together in the same Central Valley breeding ground that spawned
bands like Korn and Videodrone, Adema is the most buzzed-about heavy rock
sensation of the year. After months of major label bidding warfare that reached
massive proportions, Adema signed with Arista Records and began not only a
series of high-profile gigs, but recording one of the most anticipated debut
albums of 2001. . Lead singer Mark Chavez was growing up in Bakersfield--where
he worked as a day care supervisor and flirted with becoming a teacher--the
then-teenaged vocalist was well acquainted with many of the popular local acts,
like Juice and SexArt, out of which came the musicians who would form Adema,
Mike Ransom being the first. DeRoo and Fluckey were in Juice, the band that
grew out of the ashes of SexArt, which included Davis and guitarist Ryan Shuck
of Orgy. But Chavez had another connection as well: his older half-brother was
Jonathan Davis, lead singer for Bakersfield's most successful export, Korn.
Adema sent two dozen record labels into a literal feeding frenzy on the basis
of demos alone? Nothing less than a powerful, hard-driving, yet richly
emotional fusion of heavy rock foundations, street sensibilities, and melodic
modern rock flourishes that create one of the most original sounds on the
already saturated "nu metal" scene. "When they called, I was
just thinking, 'okay, I'll just do the demo and check it out,'" recalls
Kohls, who was still in Videodrone at the time. "But they came to my
house, they played me two songs, and they just blew me away." The band had
been rehearsing and demoing material for a year before Kohls joined, but the
demos they did with him earned the attention of the record industry before
Adema had set foot on a single stage. After clinching the deal with Arista, the
band members retreated to a cabin in northern California for the intensive
writing sessions that yielded the material for their debut album. Songs on the
album, such as "Everyone" and "Freaking Out," reflect
darker sides of human nature. Adema got together in L.A. with producers Bill
Appleberry (7th House) and Tobias Miller (guitarist with the Wallflowers) to
record their long-awaited, self-titled debut. by Record Label
.................I
Interview with Dave De Roo
Q: How's it going ?
A: This is Dave De Roo
Q: So Sno-Core tour is up next
uh?
A: Actually, we're getting ready
to start. We're starting in a couple of days. Our first date March 2.
Q: So what cleaning house before
you take off ?
A: Yeah. We're finishing up -
wrapping up Project Revolution right now. We have three more dates left on that
with Linkin Park and Cypress Hill.
Q: I think that one kind of by
passed us. went on to LA
A: That's actually tomorrow - the
Long Beach one.
Q: So, you guys are hot and ready
to roll?.
A: Yes. I'm looking forward to it
actually. Sno-Core should be ready fun. We've played a couple of radio shows
with Alien Ant Farm and stuff. Those guys are from like Riverside and I've met
a couple of guys in the band from other bands. It should be pretty interesting.
It'll be fun.
Q: So your from
Bakersfield
A: Yes.
Q: Do you ever get used to that
heat "wow! Its like 120 in the summer.
A: You never really get used to
it; especially after being gone - we've been gone all year on tour, so when I
go home, it's unbearable. It's a pain in the ass.
Q: Before Adema and Korn came out
of Bakersfield, I guess the only musicians were Buck Owens.
A: Yeah. Buck Owens and Merle
Haggard.
Q: Merle Haggard to huh.
A: Yeah. I think Dwight Yoakam was
there - I don't know if he was from there, but I know he lives there. He lives
in the mountains outside of Bakersfield.
Q: What band were you in before
Adema?
A: Actually I was in a band called
Juice with Tim for a few years. We went and toured Europe and sold independent
CD that we put out that we sold quite a few of and then we actually had some
interest from the majors, but nothing ever happened with that. Actually we were
with a band called Sex Art with Mark brother vocalist Jonathan Davis about 10
years ago.
Q: Wow, you actually did the whole
Europe thing already.
A: Yeah. Actually, Adema went over
there as well with Linkin Park and Puddle of Mud a few months ago. We were
actually in Europe on September 11th. The first gig of the European tour was on
September 11th in Hamburg, Germany.
Q: Did you get stranded there for
awhile?
A: Actually we got home okay. We
left a couple of weeks later, but I thought we might of got stuck in France. We
flew out of Paris to Atlanta and I think we were going to get stuck in Paris.
Q: So what videos are in the works
A: We have two videos out. We just
released one "For the Way You Like It" and a video for "Giving
In" as well. That was the first single. Q: I don't check video's as much
as I used to.
A: My neither. Well actually,
recently with this new bus we got a new satellite on it that's got MTV and MT1,
so I get to see a lot of vidoes.
Q: What's your favorite song on
the album?
A: I don't know. I like the whole
record, but I guess my personal favorite is "Sanders Weekly," but I
think maybe "Trust" or "Giving In."
Q: That's getting a lot of
airplay here too. Is that true that you guys didn't even tour that much before
you were noticed.
A: We actually never played live
before we signed our record deal. Q: It's amazing how bands like yours don't
have to really go 10, 20 years on the road before you get noticed.
A: Exactly. Well the thing is we
all kind of done that individually with other bands. You know what I mean. Like
Tim and I were in a band and we toured Europe independently a couple of times
and had to work jobs and get the van and go on little tours for the weekend and
end up getting fired from our day jobs or we'd have to end up having to quit
because we'd take off for a week here and there and then Chris had been in the
same band for about 10-12 years. So, we all kind of individually paid our dues
in different bands. It's like the old saying 10-years overnight success.
Q: Well then you guys already have
a lot of talent behind you and been through the trenches.
A: Yeah. Pretty much.
Q: Is that true that you guys had
Adema tattooed on you?
A: Actually the whole band has
Adema tattooed on their wrists
Q: Are they small ?
A: It's pretty big actually. It's
pretty visible. We actually got them for when we signed record deal, just to
kind of a unifying thing. We always both believe in the music stuff and believe
in each other and believe in this band and this is kind of a way of showing
that.
Q: Did some of you guys used to
play with Korn on the side?
A: I did. I used to play in a band
with John about 10 years ago, when I was in high school. Actually, that was how
I met Mark. Mark was a few years younger than me and he would come over and
hang out with John and come down to our band practice, but he was in junior
high when I first met him. I was like 16 and Mark was like
13.
Q: So you started when you
relatively young?
A: I've been playing since I was
about 15.
Q: Before you signed with Arista
records, was there a couple of other record companies knocking at your door?
A: Actually yeah. It was really
weird. We'd released a three song demo that a friend of ours recorded for us on
a CD in L.A. and then had a few connections and he shopped it around and the
next thing we knew there were like 15 - 20 labels there were interested out of
networking. So, we were right on the border.
Q: That's actually to your
advantage because the then as far the dollar figures get a little higher if
they're bidding against each other. A: Oh yeah. Then it starts a little feeding
frenzy. I mean if you'd a told me that we would have a bidding war without
every having played live, I would have thought you were crazy. But that's the
way it worked out for us.
Q: Talk about pumping up your ego.
A: Well you know it's also a lot
of expectations and a lot to live up to too you know. There were a lot of
nay-sayers and player haters out there who thought maybe we couldn't pull it
off you know what I mean. So it was up to us to go out there and prove them
wrong.
Q: So what's been your favorite
place to play so far?
A: Honestly man, any day on the
road is a good day and there are certain cities, if I had to pick, I like New
York a lot. I love to play home whenever we get a chance. Unfortunately it
seems like we tour the Midwest a lot and the east coast pretty extensively. But
what's cool about Sno-Core, is that we're going to have a lot of dates in
California. So that'll be interesting. It'll get us to some places we haven't
been to before.
Q: Do they have a club scene in
Bakersfield?
A: Not really. Actually when I
was in high school it seemed like there was more - there wasn't much of a club
scene then in Bakersfield - but there was maybe a little bit more so then there
is now. It's mostly, downtown Bakersfield is pretty much like sports bars.
There's really not a whole lot as far as real clubs. There's a pizza place
downtown that's got kind of a dungeon in the basement down there, that's pretty
much the only gig in town. I mean, we did maybe two or three clubs when I was
in high school and they all sucked. But now there's nothing.
Q: So you had to run off to L.A. I
guess?
A: Basically yeah. You had to
either go down south or up north, out of town to go gig.
Q: That's tough, but on the other
hand there's like two or three bands that have come out Bakersfield and I guess
you guys just drove a lot.
A: I guess it adds some kind of
incentive to want to get out of there. I makes you have a drive. If you're
going to make something of yourself, you kind of have to get out of there to do
it, there's really not much there. But I think its kind of funny when people
ask was that the Bakersfield sound and I don't think ... I don't know if
necessarily there is a sound that's Bakersfield aside from country music, you
know what I mean. I think if you grow up in any small town and you're
surrounded by bigger cities within a couple of driving distance, it's going to
add incentive to want get out of there. Plus, I think since there isn't a
scene, like a lot of bands in L.A., you have a tendency to maybe be influenced
and jaded by the other bands that are around you as opposed to really develop
on you own.
Q: You have pretty good hard core
rock sound going there.
A: Thank you. I think we're
probably about as influenced by Korn as any other band in this genre of music,
or there wouldn't be Limp Bizkit or a Linkin Park or Stain if there was no
Korn. You know what I mean.
Yes I do, thank you
for your time see you on the road ! By Randy Cohen
........This is the Official Rock Publication Web Site
All photos and written material courtesy of Rock Publication
.Copyright © 2002
E-mail at
Rockpub@aol.com
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.Members of
Adema
Mark Chavez - vocals
Tim Fluckey - guitars
Mike Ransom - guitars
Dave De Roo - bass
Kris Kohls - drums
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...........Jan / 2002
