Adams Wilson

The Last Six Months, Part 1

2011-09-29T07:30:00.000-04:00

It’s been more than six months since my last post. During that period, a couple of pretty important things have happened, and I’d like to share them with you, but I also don’t want to ask you to read seven pages worth of blog, so I’ll break it up over a few days. Ergo, here is:

The Last Six Months
Part 1
A New Album

On Friday, May 13th, we released Adams Wilson’s third album, entitled, “Everything We Know...” For those of you who are only recently familiar with the band, you might think, “hey that’s cool, but really no big deal.” However, if you’ve been around since the old days (waaaaay back in 2007), you might know that it’s taken us around three years to put some new material out there. You may also think that’s pretty weird, considering the fact that we are writing new songs CONSTANTLY.

I have some pretty pretentious artisty stuff I’d like to share about the album itself, so if you’re into that, read on, but if you’re someone who’s more interested in lighter reading, maybe check in again tomorrow.

You may have noticed that the phrase “Everything We Know...” does not appear in the lyrics on the album. The title occurred to me very late in the process of making the record... during the mix phase, after everything was already recorded, so yeah, I didn’t really have an option there. In any case, the title has two distinct meanings for me, and I’d like to share them both.

Meaning #1: In order to make sense of this meaning, you need a little history. As I said, it’s been about three years since we finished “My Best Guess,” with nothing to show for it since then. That’s a kick in my teeth every time I think about it. Why? Well, I’m a bit of a workaholic, and it wasn’t like we were sitting around staring at each other saying, “gee I wish we had more songs.” Quite the opposite. We recorded an entire album with our buddy Ken and then shelved it, largely due to losing our drummer, Josh, and gaining a new drummer, Darren, in the middle of that process.

On top of that, in between recording the “Ken sessions,” I recorded two albums’ worth of acoustic demos, which I’ve called, “This Ship Was Meant for Sinking,” and “The Wars We Wage.” None of those songs have been released, and only about half of the songs from the Ken Sessions made it onto “Everything We Know...” We wrote five new songs AFTER we shelved the project. Are you getting an idea of just how much work we were doing during this period? With no actual finished product to point to? This is all while playing a few shows a month, and working full-time jobs, and having families.

So, that catches you up to Summer of 2010. At that time, we had spent a lot of energy, and all our money, on the Ken Sessions, and had decided that if we were going to do any more recording, we were going to do it ourselves. And that’s exactly how it played out. “Everything We Know...” was written entirely by us, recorded by us, in a studio space we put together, and edited by us. We did the artwork. We wrote the lyrics. It literally was, EVERYTHING WE KN(E)W how to do. It is a few months of our lives encoded onto a plastic disc. If the album sucks or succeeds, it is entirely our fault. There is no producer to blame. No engineer or studio to point at for choices made. It’s entirely in our hands. That’s meaning #1.

Meaning #2: To understand this meaning, you have to pay attention to the ellipses at the end of the title. The title that I wanted to use for this album, but did not, thanks to the wise advice of those closest to me, is, “Everything We Know... is {Meaningless}.” There’s another word that goes in between those brackets that I’ll just leave to your imagination. This is an all-ages blog after all.

Looking back on it now, I would like to think that “Irrelevant Truth” was about realizing that different people have different ideas of what is important, different meanings of the same words. I’d spent the majority of my life believing that everyone should believe the same thing... that there was very little room for doubt or differing opinions. I was going through the process of discovering that, for one person, a given idea might be worth dying for, or at least worth dedicating your life to, but to someone else, it may be total nonsense. I was struggling with that. Re-read some of the lyrics from “IT” with that in mind and see if that colors your experience.

“My Best Guess” was more of a mourning process. I’d given up a lot of the things I’d once defined myself by, and I was figuring out my own new definition of what was important, and what wasn’t. I was shedding a lot of skin at that point, and in a hurry, and some of that took the form of anger or bitterness (Dear Jesus, Blackout), and some of it came out as catharsis (This is Me Smiling, Just Another Song).

“This Ship Was Meant for Sinking” and “The Wars We Wage” have only been heard by three or four people to my knowledge. The lyrics aren’t posted anywhere, so all I will say about them is that they’re pretty dark and heavy. They represent a pretty rough patch of time, and if you were to listen to the songs individually, you might not pick up on that, but if you put them all together, you might need medication.

“Everything We Know...” is me having my mind explode. It’s me realizing that there is a grander scale at work than we can ever fully appreciate. I was discovering a lot about science and the way we understand ourselves, our world, and our universe. At the VERY bottom of that infinite pile is me saying, “whoa.” Some of that comes out as epicurianism (Devil’s Wife, 100 Mile Wind, Say What You Will), and some of it plays out as discovery (Find Myself Believing, Wide Awake). Some of it is just about the process of change itself (If You Wanna Run, Bleed, Dead Leaves, Somehow, Another Night).

For both meanings, there’s a lot of “me” and “us” in there. Don’t let that limit your experience. If you dig the lyrics, and/or the music, and you want to take things in your own way, please do, and please ignore everything I’ve said. I don’t want this to be “MY” thing/experience/process. It should be “OURS.”

THIS IS A METAPHOR

2010-12-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours? -lyrics from Jesus Christ Superstar (Tim Rice)

Do you like magic tricks? Sure you do. Everyone does, right? So, you watch a magician do a trick and then, like most people, you think, “How did they DO that?” Whenever I have that thought, I try and stop myself from finding out the answer. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW THEY DID IT. Why? Because knowing how they did it cheapens the illusion for me. Finding out that what they did WASN’T impossible is such a let-down. I want the mystery. I don’t want to see the strings. I don’t want to know where the trap door is. Just do the trick already, and make it good.

Caption: After watching Penn and Teller explain how they do this trick, I STILL don’t get it.

A while ago I read a tweet or a blog post or something from Carl Newman, a vocalist from one of my favorite bands, “The New Pornographers.” (If you like indie-pop, you should check them out. If you are already into them... high fives for you. Conservative friends, don’t be scared by the name... it’s not what you think.) Carl admitted that the lyrics for one of the band’s songs, “Letters from an Occupant” were meaningless. The words just sounded good/cool, so they kept it.

That BUMMED ME OUT. I wish I’d never read that statement. The trick, as it were, was ruined for me. Before I read that, the song was mysterious... aloof... it fascinated me. But now... it’s just another song.

After hearing my songs, people often ask me about the lyrics.

“do you really mean that?”
“did that really happen?”
“I know ____ never really happened to you, so why did you write about that?”
(...sometimes that last one gets shorter and more judgmental...) “WHY did you write about THAT?”
“who (or what) is this REALLY about?”

I don’t understand this... not even a little. If I told you what was “true” and what wasn’t, would that change the song for you? Would it make it more enjoyable to find out that something was “true”, or would it make it less interesting? C’mon, do you REALLY want to know? Is “The Matrix” less entertaining because it’s fiction?

I feel like I have to put quotes on “true.” I did not go to the moon. To be perfectly frank, I’ve never even been to space. But, in many ways, “Spaceman” is one of my most honest, straightforward, pulled-from-life songs. However, the words in that song may have a very different meaning for you or for someone else. GOOD. Keep it that way. “The Movie Song”, by contrast, is written in a confessional voice, but it’s entirely possible that not one bit of that song is true in any way, shape, or form.

Yes, I WRITE songs. I think about them, I structure them, I re-write, I throw away and start over. I create characters. I make stuff up. Sometimes I take a thought or idea and build a set of lyrics around it. Other times I spout nonsense, and work backwards; meaning takes shape later. But no, my lyrics are not all confessions. Sure, sometimes I want to make “Into the Wild.” But a lot of times, I want to make “The Matrix” and every now and again, I want to make “Mulholland Drive.”

As far as my songwriting goes, or really as far as any art goes, truth is not a black or white deal. Is it? Even if a song is “true”, elements may be re-arranged or changed or exaggerated to get to a point or to alter the ending. The names may be changed to protect the innocent.

All that being said, some of my songs are very much “true” FOR ME. There are literal circumstances on which the lyrics are based. Some of them are exaggerations. Some of them are total and complete fabrications. Most of them are a little bit of all of the above. Some of them are easy to figure out. Others are more obscure.

If all of my songs are nothing more than journal entries, then I should just write a blog and stop there. If, on the other hand, the lyrics I write are observations, memories, thoughts, metaphors, theories, lies, stories, characters, wishes, poems, judgments... then, in my mind, they work as lyrics, and setting them to music just makes sense for me.

Up till now, I’ve been posting explainers with all of the lyrics on the website, because I assumed people would want to know the deal for every song, that it might make the songs more meaningful for you. I think I’m going to stop that practice, beginning with the upcoming album. I don’t want you to see the strings anymore. I want you to enjoy the mystery.

A few months ago, Darren and I were talking about the lyrics on My Best Guess, and he confirmed one of my worst fears... up to that point he believed that all my lyrics were confessional... 100% factual. I was, according to the lyrics on MBG, a drug-addicted, adulterous jerk who must have burned through dozens of relationships and translated all of my emotional baggage into my songs.

At first, this horrified me. After all, I had even gone to the trouble of saying “THIS IS A METAPHOR” at the beginning of “Blackout” (albeit in German) but after I thought about it for a while, I stopped freaking out and had a realization. I guess he’s right. It’s all true. No qualifications. I am all of those things.

We have poor taste in extra-curricular activities...

2010-11-05T16:23:00.003-04:00

Since we've been spending the last several weeks cramped in a small, un-air-conditioned, furniture-deprived office space working on nothing but recording, recording, recording, a few weeks ago, the band decided to go on a field trip. Where did we go, you ask? Dave & Buster’s, the Philadelphia Zoo, or a bar, at least? Close. We went to a small arena in Salem County, NJ, where we had a team-building session with professional equine* therapists Shannon (my wife) and Jeanne (not my wife).

How does an equine team-building session work? Well, Shannon would assign us a task, for example: “put a halter on one of those four horses,” and then we would fumble our way through the task, after which Jeanne and Shannon would evaluate our choices, behavior, and interactions. Since 3 out of 4 us have never even been near a horse before, and the 4th of us (me) has only minor experience with equines*, we found these simple tasks quite challenging.

The post-task evaluations were enlightening. Together we discussed a wide range of topics:

--why I decided not to inform the band how to put a halter on a horse, even though I knew full well how to do so. (my answer: “uh... what now?”)
--why Matt had to hold the halter up to his face before attempting to put it on a horse.
--how Darren took advantage of Matt’s moment of distraction and stole his horse.
--how we communicate (or, more often than not, FAIL to) with each other.

We covered so many different areas about how we work as a team, and each area was something we had NEVER thought about before. One area in particular jumped out at me and has stuck with me since, though I’m not sure exactly why. Shannon instructed us to get a horse to move over a long pole, and to stand in a box... without touching the horse. We thought about it for several minutes and came up with a few solutions for this challenge, all of which failed MISERABLY.

We tried forcing the horse to walk over the bar by pulling it underneath his legs, but the horse just stood there (and possibly laughed, though I’m not a horse whisperer or anything so I could be mistaken). We tried running over the bar ourselves, while encouraging the horse to follow us. Once again that solution was met with horse derision and laughter.

Our last and biggest idea that we were SURE was going to work has two important distinctions: 1) It has never been tried by any other session participant and 2) is impossibly stupid. Believe it or not, we actually tried walking to the opposite end of the arena, and ignoring the horses, in hopes that they would get curious about what we were doing and follow us as we casually walked over the bar and into the box. Surprisingly, this was NOT effective. The horses did walk over and sniff us a few times (one even bit me on my lower back), but they wouldn’t follow us anywhere.

After our colossal failure, we talked the situation over with Jeanne and Shannon, and discovered that Jason had an idea that he kept quiet about during our planning stage. He had wanted to throw a barrel into the arena and roll it behind the horses, chasing them over the bar. Jeanne asked Jason why he didn’t share the idea. Jason sorta shrugged and said something about the band being set on the “let’s just ignore the horses” idea, and for the sake of a unified attack, he held back. Jeanne said the idea probably would have worked, which of course meant that though we already felt stupid about our awesome “ignore them” idea, we now felt AMAZINGLY stupid.

After we finished discussing our fail-itude, we tried the task again (slightly modified to waving our sweatshirts and jackets instead of rolling a barrel to herd the horses) and we were able to get TWO horses to jump clear over the bar and stand in the box, with no problem. (Note: If you ever do an equine team-building session, which I highly recommend that you do... you can’t cheat and use our idea. You have to come up with something on your own, cheater!) And, though Matt was nearly killed in the process when the herd chased him into a corner of the arena, I think we all learned a valuable lesson: If Matt is frightened of a charging herd of horses, he hides it very well.

Since no one took any pictures of the event... here's an "artist's rendering": That's me heroically yelling for Matt to run to safety, and Matt (that's a hoodie he's wearing... he's not a hunchback) taking no thought for his own person. Also, that last horse was from the Wizard of Oz.

Speaking of which, I think most blogs are supposed to come to thoughtful conclusions, or have a lesson that you can take away and apply to your life. I’ve always avoided that kind of thing, perhaps because I watched too much Full House and Family Matters as a kid... Whenever they would start playing that sappy music and Bob Saget would teach an Olsen twin an important lesson (“lying is not, in fact, good; it is very very BAD”), they kind of lost me.

Saget-failure notwithstanding, I’m very tempted to try and squeeze a life-changing soundbyte from our unique equine experience, but I think that’d be missing the point. Our experience was OUR experience. It might not mean anything to you, so I don’t want to force it on you. We learned a lot about how we work together, but chances are you don’t work with us, so how does that help you?

Well, how about this: let me take a step back and say that the four of us were all skeptical about this event before we got involved with it. Therapy? Horses? Whaaaa? However, we unanimously agreed that it was a positive, beneficial, thoroughly awesome time. So, the lesson is, try something new? I, uh, guess? Oh god that’s weak.

*The term, ”equine” is Spanish for “large hooved dog.”

Your grandkids will mock your Facebook posts

2010-07-29T08:23:00.000-04:00

I’m always hesitant to put ANYTHING online*. Once you post something, even if it’s a flippant afterthought, it’s there FOREVER. Which means, a year later, when you look back at that Twitter update you wrote and you shake your head in disgust and disbelief at what a ridiculous person you were/are, there ain’t nuthin’ you can do about it. It’s out there.

That’s right, people have read that distasteful Facebook comment. Some of those people remember what you said, and will hold it against you for years to come. 20-50 years from now, barring a global apocalypse, your grandkids will be able to read it. Just think about that. Once you hit “send”, IT (whether IT be a status update, a photo, a video, a song, etc.) is completely out of your hands, and that’s a scary feeling.

My only hope is that any descendants of mine will have more important things to worry about than what I wrote off-handedly after watching Inception. (Note to future descendants: go study, or practice piano or something, stop reading this crap!)

What does this have to do with anything? Well, the same principle applies to music. There’s an uncomfortable finality to recording a song and posting it online. You can’t edit it anymore. You can’t re-do that flubbed guitar track, you can’t add any more harmonies. You can’t scrap the project and start over. Once it’s out there, it’s out of your hands.

Over the past year, we as a band have recorded some tracks at home, and some with our buddy Ken at his studio in PA. We’ve written new songs, we’ve tossed old songs, and now, we’re finally going to release our year of hard work and creativity......... to a shelf........ in my house.

Why?

Because the recordings we’ve made up to this point don’t sound like us. They sound like us a year ago. Due to a bunch of factors, including money, scheduling problems, a drummer leaving and another joining, the recordings are not where I want them to be. With that in mind, I’ve asked the band if we can start over and take a better shot, and that’s what we’re doing.

We’ve built a makeshift recording space where we normally practice, and we’re experimenting with different setups and sounds. Right now, we’re recording ourselves live, and, so far, I really dig what we’ve done. In the not-too-distant future, I hope to have a nice collection of our songs that we can pass along to you.

In the middle of all of this, we’re also trying to figure out the best way to get these songs into your hands. Should we invest in printing CD’s? Should we just distribute online? Should we go vinyl? (just kidding.) We’re thinking about all of that, and we don’t know what the answer is yet. But, as soon as we do, we will tell you what’s up.

Believe me when I say that starting over like this isn’t easy. I wish more than anyone that we were done, and that we had songs to give you. But, like I said, once you put something out there, it’s never coming back, and we refuse to do that with something we’re not 100% proud of. So, as soon as we have something we CAN be that proud of, we’ll let you know. Until then, we invite you to join us at our upcoming shows and hear the new songs as they’re meant to be heard, 100% LIVE.

PEACE,
Adams

*As a small example of this hesitance, I re-wrote this blog twice.

Mind BLOWN

2010-07-02T09:04:00.004-04:00

I’ve been internally debating all week whether to share this story... but I don’t think I can keep it to myself. It may be... scratch that... it IS one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.

Two years-ish ago, a Pennsylvania woman heard my song, “If Ever” on a local radio station. She dug it. A lot, apparently. She played it for her fiancee who also dug it. It became their song. You know, like THEIR song. Pretty awesome if you ask me, and that alone would be worth sharing with you, but that’s not all.

Last year, this very same woman contacted me and asked if I would play the song at her wedding reception, as their FIRST DANCE. Wowsers. That’s even awesom-er. I accepted.

Last weekend was the wedding, and, I still haven’t recovered from the mind-blowing awesomitudiness.

Now, I usually get a little anxious before playing any show, especially our 3-hour marathon sets, but I was probably more nervous than I’ve EVER been before the reception, and I was only supposed to play one song. I mean, this was someone’s WEDDING. What if I broke a string? What if I forgot the lyrics? On top of that, the 15-piece (give or take) wedding band was unbelievable... motown, soul, rock, hip-hop... every song was perfect. How was I supposed to compete with that? All I had was a little acoustic guitar (actually it’s a jumbo, but you know what I mean) and a mic.

To make matters worse/awesomer, just before the reception, the bride and groom (whom I’ve never met) recognized me, hugged me, and got their picture taken with me. They then told me how much “If Ever” meant to them, and that they had gotten the lyrics, “I love you and I always will” inscribed on their WEDDING RINGS! That was when my mouth dropped open, and I fell into shock. I stayed in that state for pretty much the rest of the night. For hours, I just kept stammering, “wow, thank you, that’s awesome, wow.”

The time came. I got up on the stage in front of one of the best bands I’ve ever heard, and played my little song. The bride and groom danced. Normally, I’m very serious and concentrate-y when I play. During this song, however, I never stopped smiling.

After the song was over, the couple thanked me again, and the groom introduced me to some of his friends who are in the entertainment industry. You caught that, right? This is HIS wedding reception, and he’s taking the time to connect me to people who might be able to help ME out. We talked, I handed out CD’s, we ate some mind-blowingly good food, and we talked some more.

Later in the evening, I got to meet the bridal party and their families, and I spent the rest of the night hanging out with them. Awesome people, all. We shook hands, we hugged, the maid of honor tried to teach me how to dance, (during which, guests pointed and laughed) and a few hours later, I went home, realizing that I had just had one of the greatest nights of my life. And, for that, I want to thank this couple (I don’t want to mention their names until I get their permission) for giving me such an amazing gift on their wedding day.

This is actually the third time I’ve played “If Ever” at someone’s wedding. Once was for my sister, and the occasion I mentioned above would be the second time I’ve played it for someone I’ve never met. I think it’s funny how accomplishment is not always what you imagined it would be. Let me explain...

Over the past couple of years, I’ve set some goals for my music. I wanted to put a band together. Yup. I wanted to get a song played on the radio. Cross that one off the list. I wanted to be interviewed on-air. Did it, bought the t-shirt. I never actually set a goal to impact someone’s life and love with my music, and to share in the happiness of their wedding day. But I’ve done that THREE times now. So, I think I will allow myself to add that one to the list retroactively. I will also allow myself to move it to the top of my list.

CHECK.

PS: I added a link for “If Ever” below. If you sign up for the mailing list, you can download it. If you’re already on the mailing list, well, you probably have the song already. :)

Keytars and Chicken on a Stick

2010-06-01T12:37:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, June 1st. I just spent Memorial Day weekend playing three shows, all of which were AWESOME. Best weekend of recent months, and best Memorial Day weekend I can remember.

Saturday was our first gig with Darren, a sort-of acoustic-y set at Auburn Rd. winery. Great weather, great turnout, great show. We got to roll out a couple of our new songs, and there's no better place to do that than at the winery. They love local, original music, and it shows. Also got to catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in months, and others I hadn't seen in YEARS!

On Sunday, we flew up the Turnpike with NO TRAFFIC to Oradell, New Jersey for our first straight-up rock show since January. It was a super cool street fair in a beautiful town that none of us had ever been to, or even heard of before. Hot as hell, but another great time! We got to meet a bunch of cool people, and we got to hear this awesome all-girl punk-pop band (complete with keytar) called the Petal Pushers.

Saturday night, Matt went home, but Jason, Jason's girlfriend Justine, and I hung out with Darren and his wife Jodi (fantastic human beings). The absolute highlight of the evening was when Darren and I SOUNDLY defeated Jason and Justine at pool. What's the big deal, you say? Well, Jason is probably the most competitive person I've ever met, so when and if you can beat him at something -- anything, it's a pretty great feeling.

Sunday, we hopped over to Haledon, New Jersey and played another street fair. By now, we were all in our groove, and we had a BLAST. It was ungodly hot, but that didn't stop us from playing as hard as we could. We got to sign some CD's for some new fans, (if that doesn't pick up your day, nothing will) and I got to two-hand some shiskebobs. Chicken and beef on a stick is one of mankind's great achievements.

After the show in Haledon was over, we walked around for a while, met more cool people, and then drove back down the Turnpike with NO TRAFFIC for the entire ride. Did you catch that? Memorial Day weekend... New Jersey Turnpike... NO TRAFFIC. That's a great way to end the weekend if you ask me. Except, it didn't quite end there.

When we got home, Shannon and I made a Turkey vegetable greenery type dinner thing, and it was the best food I've had in weeks. I've gotten used to eating 2 or more meals every day at convenience stores, thanks to my crazy schedule. So, when I got to eat farm-fresh lettuce, turnips, and greens combined with slow-cooked Turkey... well, that's one hell of an improvement over a Wawa sandwich. (No offense, Wawa.)

Just had to share what a ridiculously great weekend that was. :)

Mixed Winds

2010-05-28T14:42:00.000-04:00

Late Spring 2010. I haven't written anything for the blog since October. Yikes. But I guess that makes sense. It was right around that time that our drummer, Josh, took a job in Maryland, which meant he had to leave the band. After we found that out, the band's once busy schedule came to a crawl. The website fell into disrepair, and we were unable to make any progress on booking or recording.

We had a couple of New York shows back in January, which were the last shows that Josh played with us, and after that, we just had the wind knocked out of us, I suppose. Maybe it was the ridiculous Winter we had this year (which gave me 8" of water in my basement and destroyed a ton of my belongings). Maybe it was the fact that we had been recording since the Summer, and still didn't have much to show for it.

Come to think of it, it sure didn't help that those shows in New York cost us all a TON of money. Due to our whacky schedules and the fact that we all live in different parts of Jersey, we ended up taking FOUR cars up to the city, and renting three hotel rooms.

When you add meals, gas, tolls, and paid parking for four vehicles into that equation, and couple THAT with the fact that the shows were no-pay gigs... I think we realized just how difficult it can be to be an indie musician.

But that all changed several weeks ago when I got an email from this guy named Darren. Darren was a drummer from North Jersey who heard some of our music way back when, dug it, and randomly volunteered his drumming services for the band. We met up, we jammed, and a few practices later, we knighted him as the fourth Beatle, so to speak.

He's a kickass drummer, and a swell guy. Come up and say hi to him at one of our upcoming shows, and maybe offer him some gas money... the poor guy drives an hour and a half to every practice!

Now, if you know me at all, you probably know that it takes a LOT to get me excited. So, it is not lightly that I say that Darren's joining was an AWESOME turn of events that put some wind back in the sails (if you'll excuse the mixed wind metaphors). We've booked a bunch of gigs, a few of which are at bigger-scale venues than we've played in the past. We revamped the website, and took some new band pics (something I dread). And, we're working HARDER than ever at finishing up the album.

Speaking of which... many of you have asked me what to expect with the new album, but I don't want to say too much. When I've talked in advance about the last two, I may have inadvertently misled some of you into the wrong idea. When I said "My Best Guess" would be heavier than "Irrelevant Truth", people expected to hear Metallica or something, and were a bit disappointed when their mental pictures didn't match up with reality. Other people got confused or annoyed by all the "it's coming soon" statements.

So, about the album, I think all that I will say is, this album is a little more "music-y" than the last two. Yes, definitely more music-y. And, oh yeah, it's coming soon. :)

Writing binges and caffeine highs

2010-05-28T13:58:00.003-04:00

I've been in a funk... no other way to put it. The band hasn't been playing out very much, mostly due to scheduling problems. Summer, my favorite season, is clearly over. It's dark when I go to work in the morning, and it's starting to get dark by the time I get home. Not cool.

We had intended to spend the whole Summer recording as much as possible... just here or there when we had the time, but, as is so often the case, that made a lot more sense on paper than it did in real life. We spent the majority of our time setting up and tearing down, and never actually did too much recording. We got SOME things done, mind you, just not a lot, and certainly not ENOUGH.

The good news (from my point of view, at least), is that I've/we've been on a bit of a writing binge. I've been working on a bunch of acoustic songs that I'll probably make available at some point in the next six months or so. Don't know exactly what that will look like... CD, mp3s, free, cheap, expensive, etc... These are songs that didn't quite work for where the band was going, but in my opinion, are good songs, and I'd like them to be heard. So there.

The better news is that the band has a bunch of new songs that we're ready to put down, and we've scheduled a lock-in type weekend at the end of October where we will refuse to leave the house until we've recorded six or more songs. It's an ambitious goal, but we feel like we have to make up for lost time. Hopefully, this will work out really well, and after one or two more lock-ins, we'll have something good to show for it.

Ken Kelemen, a friend of ours who's worked with David Janes and a bunch of other Philly local bands, will be stepping in to engineer and to keep us from going off the deep end by adding in all those totally rad kazoo solos. Check him out at his myspace here.

SO, with all of that said, I will now go watch leaves fall off of trees, and hopefully, in a little while, we'll have some new songs to share with you.

Peace!

-Adams

PS - I've been addicted to good lyrics lately... Songs or albums that really capture EXACTLY what a person feels in the situation the song is talking about. Examples: Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker. Is there any better album to listen to when you're in a funk? Or if I'm on a caffeine high and just want to be thrilled about life, I'm pretty sure I'm going to play Weezer's Pork and Beans. I'd love to hear what albums/songs/artists you listen to when you're in a given kind of mood. Shoot me an email, and maybe I'll post your thoughts on the site.

PS, PS - you are following our Twitter feed, right? It's chock full of all kinds of awesomeness. http://twitter.com/adamswilson. Throw me a link to yours, and we'll be awesome together!

The Noises in My Basement

2010-05-28T13:58:00.001-04:00

I JUST realized that it's JUNE. Wowsers. I keep thinking that I should catch everyone up on what's going on with the band, and then I let other things pile up, and I forget. I had every intention of doing it last week, when I came down with the worst poison ivy and oak that I've had in YEARS (that's what I get for trying to do yardwork), which made me pretty lethargic. It was all over my face, arms, legs, chest, blah blah blah. I'm recovering now, but I'm still very itchy, and very cranky about being itchy.

In any case, I've been feeling that vague sort of "busyness" for a while now, and it won't seem to go away no matter how much I try check off on my to-do list. The same thing would go for the band, I'd say. We started off the year with a bunch more shows than we were used to playing, and it seemed like we weren't able to work on new material, because all of our time was devoted to rehearsing for the next gig. Sure, there are worse problems to have, but keep in mind, writing new music is hands down the thing that I enjoy most about being a musician, so I was looking forward to slowing down a little and focusing on new songs.

So, with Summer just ahead, we're doing just that: We've slowed down our bookings a little (which is good timing, since our drummer, Josh, spends his Summer Saturdays playing for Dave and the Wranglers, the Cowtown Rodeo house band. When your drummer's out of the picture, it's a little difficult to play a good show!), and we're working on recording some of our newer songs in my little home studio. For those of you who follow our songs pretty closely, that might include "Downfall", "All I Ask", "Meant to Be Us", "Numbskull", "Down to the Letter", "Oh", "Dead Leaves", and more. It also might not. We'll see. :)

Since the band as it now exists started after "My Best Guess" was finished, several of the songs that we play from that album have a much different feel when we play live, and we want to capture that on tape. Well, on disk, really. So, we're also working on recreating some of the songs from that album... mostly just for fun.

When we were thinking about the new songs that we have, and the older ones that we wanted to re-work, we considered going to a studio, or doing it ourselves at home. The decision fell to home, for several reasons, but mainly because going to a studio is really constraining... scheduling all of us into a room for two weeks would be a nightmare, and also, once you've spent all that money, and the work is finished, you're stuck with it. However, if we record at home, we can be a little more flexible with the schedules, and we can try and hone a better sound through trial and error, without having to worry about costly studio time.

So, there you have it! That's what we're up to right now, and as soon as we make something listenable come out of my basement, I'll be sure to share it with you, so keep an eye out for that! Hope your Summer is going great so far!

We do have a few shows coming up (just not as many as in the past...), so I'll send an email out in a couple of days to remind you of times and places!

-Adams

Woodstown is NOT boring!

2010-05-28T13:57:00.009-04:00

We're a Woodstown-based band*. Four out of five of us live here (or within a mile or two of it), and many of the shows we play are in town. In fact, by way of a shameless plug, we have a show coming up at the Woodstown Diner/Theo's Pub on March 21st. In preparation for that show, I've made a concerted effort to connect with Woodstown people on myspace and personally invite them to the show.

While paging through the profiles of all these Woodstown-ers, I noticed a VERY common theme in the comments, blogs, and "about me" sections of many users: everybody who lives in Woodstown thinks Woodstown is BORING. Huh. Is it? Let's think about that. Here are some things Woodstown has to offer: (I should preface this by saying that I am not sponsored by any of these things/businesses... I'm just an honest believer in our town.)

1) Woodstown has the oldest weekly running rodeo in the United States. That's something, isn't it? It HAS to be! In fact, whenever someone asks where I'm from, I say "Woodstown... you know... Cowtown?" Lots of people have been to the rodeo. And, if they haven't, they probably would love to go. And, if you do go, make sure to say hi to Josh, our drummer, who plays for the Cowtown house band "Dave and the Wranglers."

2) The Cowtown Flea Market. If you've never been to this thing, you absolutely have to. It's insane. There are people everywhere, and you can buy anything from furniture to underwear to a used Mac (I have done all of the above).

3) Like to drink? Why not try the Woodstown Hotel? Mr. D's? Corner Bar? Woodstown Pub (Theo's)? We've got to have one of the highest ratios of bar to individual in any city anywhere. There's always someone hanging out drinking somewhere. In Woodstown, it's always five o'clock. :)

4) Woodstown Fall Festival. Have you been to other towns' fall festivals? A lot of them are pretty crappy. Woodstown's is always a good time. It's actually a shame that it only happens once a year. You always see tons of people, and there's a ton of events going on all day.

5) Auburn Road Winery. We have a %$#-ing winery! In our town! We're one step away from being the next California! Not only do they make wine, but they also have bands play there every weekend. Are you going to tell me that's not cool? It also leads me to...

6) Local music. You may or may not have seen this coming, but on any given weekend-night, you can find 61 North, A Little Affair, Northern Lights, or Adams Wilson :) at some local venue. There's probably other bands that I'm missing. Even if there's only those four, that's still a good excuse to go hang somewhere, meet new people, and listen to music. If you go see some band in Philly, you'll pay for gas, toll, parking, and a cover charge. Plus, the drinks and food will be astronomically expensive. I think you can have a great time on a weekend in our town for less than $20 bucks. In THIS economy, how can you pass that up?

I'll end with this: if Woodstown IS boring, what are you gonna do to make it more interesting? I've always believed that if something is broken, you shouldn't wait for someone else to fix it; you should do it yourself. I think we can make this place a scene. I think our town could be the next hot spot if we got up off our rear-ends and did something! What are your ideas? How do we do it? Email me: adams@adamswilson.net.

Let's start something! No idea is too crazy! We can make Woodstown the place to be. WOODSTOWN IS NOT BORING!

*Whenever I say Woodstown, I mean to say Woodstown/Pilesgrove. We're basically the same town. Same school. Same library. Same post office. Same zip code.

You ARE a Damn Job!

2010-05-28T13:57:00.007-04:00

Today is January 16th, so I am legally prohibited from saying "happy new year" to you all. I really WOULD, but, hey, I'm bound by the rules... everyone knows you can't say it after the 15th. That's just the way it is... rules are rules, and if I were to break that rule, our societal fabric could collapse in on itself. No one wants that.

That being said, I would like to tell you our most recent news: we have completed another video... (HOORAY!) This one for the song "Picture Frame." I'm sure you're expecting that I've gone with standard protocol here, and dropped the band in a field or warehouse, and filmed us playing the song in the rain. However, you would be mistaken. I decided to break with tradition... This video is a black and white, grainy melodrama about a husband and wife who realize that they hate each other and are miraculously granted the ability to go back and change the one decision that ruined their lives. Heavy, huh?

We had a great time making this thing! I think the greatest moments happened when we were filming the big fight scene. No, I don't mean martial-arty fights, I mean domestic dispute. Justin and Diane, the people playing the husband and wife, were having a difficult time arguing with each other, as they'd only just met. (You can't imagine how awkward that is.) I tried giving them topics to wrangle over, like "she should get a job", or "he should come to church with me" etc. At one point, Justin and Diane went with the job thing, and in the heat of the moment, Diane yelled "YOU ARE A DAMN JOB!" We all "broke scene" and cracked up for several minutes. It was absolutely hilarious.

I would love to show you that moment and a few others, but, since it was a music video, we didn't need sound, and I left the camera mic off. So, in the footage, all you see is two people arguing and then laughing heartily. That doesn't make for great television.

The concept for this video has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the song, which you can read HERE. I was driving to a supermarket one day, and I thought about the line in "Picture Frame" where it says "or I could cheat / just be discreet / wipe off your feet / when you come in the door." I thought it would be funny if the video turned into a story of a guy cheating on his wife, but then I thought, "nah, the rest of the lyrics wouldn't fit." But then I thought about all the lyrics, and THEY ACTUALLY DO FIT! That's right, the ENTIRE song matches the story of the couple in this video, but that's not AT ALL what I was thinking about when I wrote it. Weird.

So, the only problem with all of this is that we're having some difficulty trying to get the thing online. We shot it in HD, and I'm trying to preserve the quality in uploading it to youtube, but the connection keeps timing out on us. But that's just a roadbump... we'll figure it out and get it online soon. (***EDITORIAL UPDATE: THE VIDEO IS NOW ONLINE!***)

These projects are expanding one video at a time... in "If Ever", it was me and a cameraman. In "Spaceman", it was me with the camera, three actors, and a couple of people acting as crew. With "Picture Frame", we've graduated to 2 camera-persons, a cast of 6 and a crew of about the same, although most of the cast WAS the crew and vice versa. Next time, we'll probably have to hire a food services vendor and some union gaffers. In any case, I'm definitely having a blast while living out my dream of being a musician-filmmaker. :)

So, what's coming up? Well, we're in the "pre-production" phase of a video for "Blackout." Hopefully, we'll get filming underway pretty soon. It is a very loose goal of mine to have a video for each song on this album. That may not happen, but I'd sure like it to... We'll see. In order for that to happen, I'll probably have to relinquish control, and that's just not very easy for me. I'm working on it though.

Peace,

Adams

I don't ever want to say this, but...

2010-05-28T13:57:00.005-04:00

So... this is not a blog I want to write. I just wanted to be clear about the canceled gig tonight. I was in contact with someone back in July about playing a charity event at a tavern in Haddon Twp, NJ on December 5th. I agreed to play, and we have been planning on it since that time. The organizer said that she would contact closer to the event to nail down final details. However, I never heard from her again, and despite repeated attempts to get in contact with her, I was unable to get a hold of her.

Last night, I called the tavern to see if they knew anything. As far as they were aware, no show of any kind was taking place. The owner recalled speaking with someone several months back who wanted to do a charity show... but said that he told her to come back closer to the event, and they'd see what they could do. But they never saw her again either.

So, the show tonight is canceled. However, I wanted to be clear that it is NOT the fault of the tavern, nor does the fault does not lie... or lay... how about sit... with us. I apologize to anyone who was planning on attending. This is certainly not how I like to run things. Believe it or not, this is the third time this year that something like this has happened... People plan charity events, and they get other people involved, and then, for one reason or another, they back out at the last minute. Frankly, I'm getting really annoyed about this type of behavior. Wah wah wah.

So, I think we've all learned a valuable lesson here: Don't plan a charity event unless you're going to go through with it. It's just wrong. It hurts your charity, and it hurts bands... And the people who might have attended.

Again, please accept my apologies if you were going to come out tonight. We WILL be playing tomorrow at the Black Tie & Blue Jean Ball, so please come out and hang with us there. Or, if you're busy tomorrow, we WILL be playing at the Auburn Road Vineyards next Saturday. We'll see you then!

Adams

Most of the Band Celebrates Christmas...

2010-05-28T13:57:00.003-04:00

Last year about this time, a friend of a friend asked me to play a song in her wedding. Of course, I was honored to be able to participate. But then, she took it one step further, and had me play "If Ever" (one of my songs from the first album) WHILE she walked down the aisle! As it was happening, I remember thinking "I can't believe this. It can't get any better than this."

Since that time, I've had a couple more moments just like it: The first time I realized I was playing as part of a band... The first time I heard "Irrelevant Truth" on the radio... the moment I realized that I was in an actual recording studio, making an album of my songs... and then last night, when we were guests on 93.7 WSTW's "Hometown Heroes" program, talking about our music on the RADIO. I'm writing this the day after, and I still can't believe it happened.

Last night, when Mark Rogers (the DJ) said that the first hour of the show was finished, we all had a hard time believing him. It felt like we had been in the studio for 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure that's a solid indicator that we were having an awesome time.

A couple of highlights from the evening:

(In case you missed the interview, you can check out the podcast here:

http://adamswilson.net/music/20081130_heroes/heroesthis1.mp3

http://adamswilson.net/music/20081130_heroes/heroesthis2.mp3

http://adamswilson.net/music/20081130_heroes/heroesthis3.mp3

http://adamswilson.net/music/20081130_heroes/heroesthis4.mp3)

-Later in the evening, we gave away a prize-package on-air. The package consisted of a Tshirt, a CD, and tickets to our upcoming show at the Gloucester County Dream Park. When the winning caller was giving us her information, she said, "...so, what did I win again?" I filled her in. She was quiet for a second, and then asked, "so, is there any chance of winning a Britney Spears CD?" Nice.

-Some of the text messages we received throughout the evening were very supportive, and we are very grateful for those of you who sent them. However, some of the messages we received were completely random, not to mention hilarious. Someone asked if we celebrate Christmas. What exactly is that supposed to mean? Someone else asked if we liked Eddie and the Cruisers. Hmm.... none of us have ever seen that movie, so we'll have to get back to you. Another one asked if we liked hot chocolate...? We are divided on that subject.

-The dumpster outside of the studio had a logo on it that looks STRIKINGLY similar to our own. Don't believe me? Check it out below.

We're considering taking legal action...

All of that said, we still can't believe it all happened. What an awesome thing. And we hope that moments like this continue to occur for a long time.

Naked High School Dreams

2010-05-28T13:57:00.001-04:00

Have you ever had one of those dreams, where you're back in high school for no logical reason ("we just realized you never actually finished world history") and your old friends are there, and then you're naked...?

Well, I have those dreams ALL the time, but yesterday, I got to go one step further and LIVE that experience. We played the SJ Pumpkin Festival, which was beautiful, and was hands-down THE MOST professional and efficient organization of that scale that I have ever been a part of. They were so good to us, it's not even funny. However, one of the band members... "fell ill" at the last minute, and was unable to attend. And so, instead of walking onto the stage to rock the world's socks off (like usual), the remaining members got up and started playing the show "unplugged."

And then, I broke a string for the first time in over two years. Lucky for me, I brought a "B" guitar as a backup. I threw it on and started to play. The jack was dead. Ouch. After Matt and I did a little shuffling of guitars and seats, we were back on track. But the damage was done. We pretty much set the ship on fire, and then sank it to the briny deep.

To top it all off, three of my high school friends were in the crowd, all of whom I haven't seen in years. That's right... the one show they show up to is the one where we tank. Awesome. And I was naked for some reason... But that's another story.

Someone said that you have to have bad shows to make the good shows feel better. Well, if that's true, the next show is going to be AMAAAAAZZZZIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!

PEACE.

Thanks for Being a Larry, Billy Graham Crackers

2010-05-28T13:56:00.007-04:00

It's official. "My Best Guess" has been "released." The CD Release Party simply could not have gone any better. There were gaggles of family and friends, piles of cheese, rivers of wine (so I hear... wine dries out my throat, so I didn't indulge), and even more music. The weather was perfect, the band was kickin'... Every base was covered; there were no loose ends as far as I'm aware. The whole experience was fantastic.

As I sit here, astounded that it went so well, I consider two things.

First, you just never know who's going to watch your back. A couple of years ago, I walked into the brand new Woodstown Music store, and bought some guitar strings. I shook hands with the new owner, Larry, and left. No bigs. Over the time hence, Larry has hooked me up time after time with guitar repairs, festival performances, playing our music in his store, and general emotional support. Fast forward to this weekend, when Larry gave up his entire Sunday evening to manage this show at the Winery. He served as backup bartender, sound guy, and... what would you call it... band relations? He helped us set the stage, he chatted us up to guests in the winery, and as it turns out, even sold a couple CDs.

Larry didn't get paid for any of that! He did it just because he's a cool human being. That's pretty awesome if you ask me. If I can wax philosophical for a moment, can't we all be so selfless for at least one person??? (it doesn't have to be me...but it can be if you want it to!) If you already do that for someone, and you never get thanked, I'm thanking you now. Thanks for being a Larry!

I also think it important to offer thanks to the other people who supported this event... The crew at the winery were flat-out awesome for hosting our party. They have been very flexible in working with us, and they are heroes for supporting local music like they do. Thanks Auburn Road Vineyards! Additional appreciation goes to my wife Shannon, who bought and made tons of food, and put it all together with help from her Mom, who is also awesome. Say what you will about Mother-in-Laws, mine is one heck of a cook. Continuing in my philosophical vein, if you're dating someone who's mother can't cook, get 'outta Dodge.

Anyway, as I said, you never know who's going to get your back, so you should probably be nice to everyone you ever meet. I think that's the selfish person's golden rule.

Second thing that hits me after this weekend: we STILL DO NOT have a name for the band. We plugged the show as the "as yet unnamed band." This makes me a sad Adams. Several people have asked me why we don't just leave it "Adams Wilson." The answer is: I want to make everything we do from here on out a BAND effort... A collaboration of all members. My name does not represent that. In fact, the name Adams Wilson only ever came into use because I couldn't think of a good band name for my solo stuff. I really wish I had chosen something else back then.

Of course, we HAD a name for all of 30 seconds. There was a moment when we all committed to "Useful Yesterday." However, deep down, I wasn't feeling it. I just wanted to have something... anything, so I settled. But even though I tried my darnedest to get used to it, my intellectual honesty interfered, and I simply couldn't make it work. After a month or so, I called a band meeting and asked if we could reconsider. If you ever want to watch four of your bandmates' faces go from generally happy to sad/pissed... suggest changing a bandname.

Things have been a little edgy since then regarding the name. We've tried to come up with an alternative, but we've got nothing... we've got bupkis. Time and time again, we almost settle on another option, but then one of us isn't on board. I won't make the mistake of trying to force it. We all have to agree in my mind. I should mention, there have been names that we all liked that were inappropriate (sexual hand grenade), or names that were cool (jetpack zero, billy graham crackers) that didn't fit our genre. So, we continue on, sans name. You'll be the first to know when that changes.

PEACE.

Musical Fat Camp

2010-05-28T13:56:00.005-04:00

I know I must be an immeasurably large loser, because I've been obsessing about the First Continental Congress of late. Well, to be more accurate, the entire era of American Independence. For some inexplicable reason, I've found myself endlessly fascinated by these ill-equipped, oppressed people who stood up to the might of the world's largest empire and won their freedom. I'm in the middle of watching the John Adams miniseries on DVD. I recently watched the director's cut of 1776. Both films are totally worth watching. However, be warned, one of them is a musical. I'll let you discover which one...

Though the films are as different as two films can be, both contain a similar scene following the vote for independence. Just after the vote is carried, John Adams (great-granddad as I call him) stands there in disbelief... unable to process all of what has just happened. He cannot grasp the fact that all of his efforts, all of his struggles, and all of his sacrifice has finally led to his ultimate goal: independence. He is awestruck. I can only assume that he must also have been thinking about what would happen next. Would Britain win the war? Would they hang all of Congress as traitors? Would America die before it is even born?

You're going to laugh when I say this, and you should, as it's utterly ridiculous, but a similar moment hit me this last week. What, he's started his own country? No. Not yet. Though this moment had NONE of the gravity or life-altering consequence of my ancestor's situation, I can tell you that it was a moment of genuine confunditude. Several boxes full of copies of my album arrived at my door... and I couldn't believe it. I still can't, really. I cannot wrap my brain around the idea that after more than a year, this work is complete. If I wanted to change anything now, I can't. It's done. Final. Complete. This is it.

Another moment of brain-freeze occurred during band rehearsal on Sunday. We were going over "Burnout Fireflies." We've re-worked it. It's tighter now. The chords fit better. It's like we sent it to fat camp, and it came back all sexy and 100 pounds lighter. That was pretty cool. But while we were playing the song, I thought "I actually have a BAND." A group of four other people come to my house every week and we play music together. And they're good at it. AND it's fun. AND they don't ask for money when they leave! (not much anyway...) I've waited YEARS for this. I can't believe it's happening!

It's really difficult to continue writing at this point, as my brain is fried from all of the "I can't believe it" moments. I suppose I could conclude by saying that you can take part in everything that's going on when we have a CD release party in the late Summer/early Fall. You could also come to any of the shows that we're having where we'll be playing the new songs, and a couple of oldies that we've reworked.

To commemorate the plethora of eurekas, I have given the website another facelift. Check it out at http://adamswilson.net/

PEACE to every one of you.

Adams

Healing Ooze

2010-05-28T13:56:00.003-04:00

It has been said that God created the ENTIRE WORLD in six days and rested on the seventh. That's never seemed as stunning to me as when I consider that I've created nothing more than ten songs to put on a plastic disc over the course of an entire year, and I'm still not finished. It helps to keep perspective, I suppose.

Regardless of universal origins and their relationship to space-time paradigms, I can tell you that in each step of this recording process I've found it quite tempting to write to you and say "I'm almost done." In retrospect, I now realize how foolhardy that would have been. For now, and only now, after a protracted series of disappointments, struggles, obstacles and finally, triumphs, am I ready to say "I'm almost done." That's right, ALMOST.

The album has been written, staffed, scheduled, practiced, recorded, mixed, and mastered, and now it is time to do all that after stuff... like finish the artwork, get it duplicated, load it into CDBaby, Itunes, and what have you. As far as I'm concerned, the album sounds very very great. Brian, the producer, feels the same, and Paul, the mastering guy agrees. And, since we are pretty much the only three people who have actually heard the entire thing, I think it's safe to apply the commonly-accepted methodology of political straw-polling, and report that the album is "universally loved" by 100% of respondents.

While all of that is happening, I feel that it's time to start getting back into the world at large and play some shows. But, no more of this acoustic-y solo crap... I'm gunning for a real-live band complete with the geetars, and the bassomophone, and what with the drummidy drums (I'm not entirely averse to including spoons).

And so, like some action hero in trenchcoat and sunglasses fighting an apocalyptic army of soulless machines, I am trying my absolute darndest to put together a live band that will do justice to the work that's been put into this album. Tomorrow is our first practice. I know it will be very tough to hold a band together - lord knows I've been through about seven "almost" bands, but I feel that this is the only way I can truly get out there and expose myself to the Delaware Valley and the world beyond. That's right, I want to expose myself to the Delaware Valley.

So, if you think of it, (and you'd better...) send out a prayer of healing light and calming warmth to ooze over the band that will be rehearsing in my unfinished home at about 4pm Eastern Standard Time this Saturday. For as we are all well aware, this music can't survive without your healing ooze.

Peace.

liftoff

2010-05-28T13:56:00.001-04:00

So, it’s Saturday. Like any normal Saturday, I’ve just woken up, eaten an egg sandwich, and watched two episodes of "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" with Shannon. What sets this Saturday apart is that I’m about to go into a studio and continue to record music for my new album. Huh? That’s still just a little too surreal for me to handle: the fact that Bono and I could very well be sharing the same schedule today... But it’s true. Before I go, I just wanted to give a little updateage about where the whole process is.

In nervous anticipation of the day that I'd been waiting for for about a year, I woke up at 4am, unable to fall back asleep. Not a good start. However, hours later, as I pulled up to the studio, Counting Crows' new single was on the radio, which was undoubtedly a sign from the recording gods that their blessing was upon us. Indeed, they would test our faith, but we would remain steadfast.

We all got to the studio at about 11:30, and I know what you're thinking: the groupies, alcohol, and fans were all there to greet us and we partied until Dawn. You would be wrong. We didn't actually record any music until 4:45 - Harry and I pretty much just sat on our duffs while Gary, Brian and Amy set up the drums. Lest you think we're some kind of geeks, you should know that we had some totally rad discussions on the finer points of Star Trek lore, and how Brian (the producer) really is awesome because he's actually tasted Romulan ale. Jealous?

In any case, I'm sure the average layperson would assume that miking a drumkit is a relatively simple process, but as I was soon to learn, there are wavelengths, phases, parities, and all sorts of technical whatsomajiggers that need to be jiggerized. All I know is, by the time Brian and Amy (producers and studio owners) were done with that drumset, it sounded like a totally different kit. Even Gary was impressed.

As soon as we finished getting the drums ready, Harry spent all of five seconds plugging in his bass and another 30 seconds tuning. (It's hard to be a bass player.) After that, we were ready to go. Then the computer FROZE. For some unknown reason, the recording gods decided to see if we could endure a test of this magnitude. However, we were unfazed, for I had an entire jar of peanuts to engorge myself upon, and we had come prepared with all manner of things to discuss while we waited for the new system to get up and running:

1) How Back to the Future truly is a grossly underrated film.

2) How Macs have a reputation as being more reliable than PCs but really, Justin Long is a worthless liar and should burn in a fiery hell.

3) Why some of us can go three days without visiting the "necessary" and others require three visits a day. (I think that's a Haiku.)

4) Why sandwiches in the city are so full of meaty goodness and are reasonably priced, but sandwiches in the suburbs are skimpy and expensive.

5) Why Harry's underwear has such a high opinion of him. (see pictures)

Anyway, after we ran out of things to discuss, we had a lovely visit from one of Brian's famous friends (who will remain nameless) who taught us all how to say "I am horny" in German (not that we asked), and a few short minutes later, we were laying down tracks like ninjas throw ninja stars (rapidly and accurately).

Over the course of Friday and Saturday, we would lay down the bass and drum tracks for all ten songs, which puts us just a tiny bit ahead of schedule. So, that's where we are. Tomorrow's Easter, during which we will not be doing anything other than eating rabbit eggs and petting baby chicks, and come Monday, I'll be back in el studio putting down my hardcore rap lines and fat beatbox rhythms. Alls I can say is, Gary and Harry are undeniably phenomenal musicians, and Brian and Amy are irrefutable geniuses. I can’t wait to see how this record sounds. Hooray! Happy Easter!

artistic communism

2010-05-28T13:55:00.007-04:00

I know I've been a bit quiet recently, but that's only because I've been focusing on getting the new album underway. So stop judging me. Anyway, I have returned! I bring forth crazy Adams Wilson-y news for you all!

Firstly, I have built a little jukebox into my site that will let you play all ELEVEN songs from Irrelevant Truth - totally free. So, when you get that Adams Wilson itch, and you don't have the album to scratch it, just go to ADAMSWILSON.NET and play through the album, why don't you.

Why do I do it, you ask? Why do I let you hear the entire album for free? Because I'm just that kind of guy. Sometimes, I just feel like sharing. I've never liked capitalism anyway. I think this was all brought about by a recent visit to the Philadelphia Art Museum. We went on a Sunday, when they let you pay whatever you want! Can you believe that? It's one of the greatest art collections in the country, and you can see it for free! So, inspired by this spirit of artistic communism, I bestow this gift upon you all! Better check it out before I change my mind! I hope you enjoy it!

This offer is available for a limited time only. Not available in all areas. See Adams Wilson for details.

Secondly, the prep-work for my "sophomore" album (still untitled) is coming along nicely. The band has been recruited, the studio has been scheduled (finally), and the vacation time has been approved by my boss. We start rehearsals next week! I'm really excited about this, but I'm also a frazzled wreck from all the phone calls and messages back and forth with everyone else who's involved. Hopefully, though, this will come out as spectabulouwsome as I hope it will, and we'll all have a new album to enjoy by the summer.

More news to come in the near future. PEACE TO YOU ALL!

adamswilson.net

I wanna get burned...

2010-05-28T13:55:00.005-04:00

I wanna get burned.

I give up...

Here is the thing. Several people have admitted that they have burned my CD and given it to other people. While, at first, this may seem mildly upsetting, as I have invested a fair amount of money, work, and time into this project, it then occurs to me that I am probably never going to make the money back anyway, so I might as well at LEAST get rewarded for the work and time.

After all, the most important thing is that I want people to hear the music. That's all that really matters to me right now.

The comment I hear most frequently about my CD is that people initially listen to it reluctantly, but then are pleasantly surprised at how much it grows on them. That makes me a happy Adams. However, that initial reluctance means that people are less likely to drop any kwan on the album.

So it is with much deliberation and a significant lack of perserverance that, I, Adams Wilson, now condone, endorse, and encourage the BURNING of Irrelevant Truth.

In fact, I'm asking each of you, my die-hard fans, to burn my CD for at least 5 people. It's a simple thing, and it's easy to do. It will help me get out to the world at large, and hopefully expand my reach, so to speak. I'm sincerely asking for your help. LET'S GET THE MUSIC OUT THERE!!!!

After all, if you can't beat them (with a stick or club-like object), join them.

Glutton for Punishment

2010-05-28T13:55:00.003-04:00

Let's keep this short, sweet, and to the point.

Ever since the completion of my first album, Irrelevant Truth (which not enough of you bought, and some of you even burned – for shame. . .) I have felt a gigantic hole inside. One hospital visit and a few dangerous surgeries later, my perforated bowels have been repaired, and I find myself longing for something to do while I recover.

In all seriousness, I thought that I was going to milk the Irrelevant Truth songs for a year, or two, or seven, and then finally return with a "sophomore" album that would really just be a cost-effective dance remix or work-unintensive acoustic rehash of the songs from Irrelevant Truth.

However, my conscience, creative drive, and a good dose of boredom have gotten the better of me, and I find myself having written about thirty songs since the end of March when Irrelevant Truth was finished. And so, it is with disappointingly little coverage from the national, local, or high school press that I announce that I, Adams Wilson, have officially begun working on my next "studio" album, tentatively titled, "Ready to Go Nowhere."

Regarding the style, the content, or the mood of the album, I can tell you that it will most likely be a little heavier, a little darker, and a little more like Ryan Adams and the Counting Crows than is probably healthy or legal.

At this particular juncture, I refuse to set a release date, as my wife and I are selling our home and looking for some new property. This fact, I imagine, will greatly delay my ability to work on music in any form, but it WILL happen eventually.

The fact remains - At the very least, I have answered the lingering question that hangs in the minds of both of my really cool fans, and that answer is "yes, even though I just finished an album, which had a mild reception, and even though I haven't played more than a couple of no-name shows, I am absolutely ready to start over from scratch."

Peace.

I set a date...

2010-05-28T13:55:00.001-04:00

A few people, let's call them "friends", have asked about the progress of my album, let's call it "Irrelevant Truth." The answer I often give in response to said query is: "It will be out...soon."

You might say that I've been giving that response for quite a while now... let's say round about two years. And you would be correct in saying so.

However, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for the afore-mentioned album, (Irrelevant Truth) packed with loving care, tenderness, and eleven songs, should be out in the month of MARCH, in the year of our Lord, 2007.

Oh, that's right, I've committed to a date. (Well, a month and year, at least.)

Right now, as we speak, the album is being mixed and mastered. It will thence be shipped off to print.

So, worry no more, and pray without ceasing, for lo, the album you have heard so much about is soon to be held in your gentle grasp!

Just to be sure you don't miss it, make sure you sign up for the mailing list!

What Now?

2010-05-28T13:54:00.001-04:00

So, the album is done. People seem to be responding pretty well. I've gotten a lot of encouraging statements and so forth (thanks you all). Worst case scenarios I've had were that some people think it's cool - but it's not for them, and I'm okay with that.

Whether people like it or hate it, the question becomes... NOW WHAT?

I played a coffee house that was plopped in my lap. (thanks Carl) Songs were sung, fun was had, product was moved. So... now what? Do I make another album? Do I send costly CDs to dinky lil' coffee shops and beg to play open mics? Do these shops exist? How should I know?

So, here's where you come in - if you know of places to play, (places that are open to newcomers, and are in tune with my type of music) then DROP ME A LINE WHY DON'T YA?

(funny story - I played a coffee house in Glassboro a while ago, where the guy running it thought I would be GREAT with a scream-o band and a teen-emo band lineup - I lucked out though, because neither of the bands showed, and only two people showed up -- incidentally, they were awesome people.)

ALSO, if you like the music - SPREAD THE WORD! I REALLY need help with this! I only know like three people! Let's start a movement or something!

In other news, I did just finish "shooting" and "chopping" a music video for If Ever. It might surprise some of you that I chose that song. It sure as heck surprised me. The content might be just as surprising.

I'll be posting it soon.

PEACE to you ALL!