WMMS Interview
(from www.wmms.com)
In the coming months, you are going to hear a lot about Adema, and their
"Korn Konnection." You are going to learn their name, and almost certainly,
you are going to hear about how they are very tightly connected to Bakersfield's
most famous band. Vocalist Markie Chavez is the half brother of Korn vocalist
Jonathan Davis. Drummer Kris Kohls was in a band called Videodrone, which
was one of the first signed to Korn's Elementree record label. And yes,
they do have that "patented" Bakersfield sound that is extremely reminiscent
of Korn. But after a few listens to Adema's self-titled debut, you will
quickly learn that there is a lot more going on here than a band riding
the coattails of a famous relationship. This is one of the tightest, best
bands currently making the rounds. As they prepared for their August 7th
release on Arista Records, we caught up with Adema drummer Kris Kohls
to get a history lesson on the development of Adema. Here's the highlights:
Hey man. Great record, and a great live show too. I got to catch you
guys at Peabody's a few weeks ago, and you guys rage live. I don't know
who's who in the band, but the tall guitar player, he rages onstage. I
wouldn't want to f*ck with him for anything.
(laughing) Oh, Fluckey�Tim. Actually, he was a basketball player. He had
a scholarship and everything. He went to college. He's from Illinois.
He came out to California to make it in music, and gave up sports. He's
a serious basketball player. He's won dunk contests, and all that kind
of stuff.
I just couldn't believe the way that guy raged on stage. He was thrashing,
and broke his guitar strap in half when he was playing. It was cool.
That's what you get when a guy that's 6'10" goes off.
How did Adema get together?
We're all from Bakersfield, California. We've all grown up together. Markie
and Mikey had Adema going for awhile, for the last three years actually.
Fluckey, the tall guitar player, and Drew were in a band called Juice,
which was also from Bakersfield. They were a really big local band there.
They toured Europe and put out a couple records by themselves. I was in
a band called Videodrone. We were on Korn's label, Elementree. Basically,
we just knew each other. We've known each other for the past 12 years.
Bakersfield's a really tight scene. If you are a musician, you basically
know the other musicians in the town. What happened with Adema was that
Markie and Mikey had it going, but there were a lot of member changes.
The band Adema broke up for about six months, and Markie went off and
was reflecting and fishing a lot. He would go out and fish, and come home
and right songs. He put the band back together after Juice broke up. They
were looking for a drummer, and they called me. Videodrone was fizzling
pretty fast, and I was about to leave and do something else. They called
me, and since we were friends before we were in the band, I was like,
"come out and play me a couple songs." They came out, and played me some
stuff, and I literally flipped out. It was the greatest thing I had ever
heard, and was exactly what I wanted to do. They were doing a demo, and
they asked me to play on the demo. They said they were looking for a favor.
They didn't know if I wanted to be in the band. I just told them, "I want
to do this for the rest of my life." Three months later, we were signed
to a major record company. Two months earlier, we were going through a
crazy bidding war. It is very surreal. It was weird. I still kind of pinch
myself. It was just, musically, a perfect combination and it just came
together perfectly. I couldn't ask for anything better than what happened.
We've all been with bands that have been through the ringer, and fell
to the wayside. The first 15 minutes we played together, we just knew
it was right. We were just laughing because we knew.
How did this "mini-tour" with Systematic and Puddle Of Mudd come about?
Since we all had a lot of prior live experience, but not together, we
were just like, "put us out in clubs. We don't care if there's 2 people
there or 500 or a thousand. We just want to go out and hone our skills
before the record comes out. Already, we've been out a month now, and
we feel that we're on top of our game. We just really want to give everyone
a great show and be 100% each night. Before that, we were like, "let's
just get out there." The record was done, and we had been working for
eight months straight. We basically didn't have one day off. Once we finished
the record, it was kind of boring and we didn't know what to do with ourselves.
We were like, "can we please get on the road?" So, we've been on the road,
and we're not planning on coming off the road any time soon.
You guys go right from this club tour to being out with Staind, right?
Yeah. We go home this weekend, and then we do a video, and then we fly
back out for another week of shows on our own, and then we do the Staind
thing, which is really cool. I just heard that we're going to be doing
some shows with Saliva and Stereomud after that. I'm excited about that.
It can't hurt to go out with the #1 band of the moment, can it?
I know. It's insane. I'm really happy for those guys. They're cool. I
did a couple shows with them in my last band. We did a couple shows when
they were just starting out. They are really nice guys.
One of the things that I noticed was that you guys are on Arista, and
not Elementree, which would have made sense given your history with them
and Markie being Jonathan Davis' half brother. Did they even put up an
offer?
They were into it. Basically, we just wanted to do our own thing. Those
guys are friends of ours, and obviously there is connections and all that.
We love their band and are fans of their band. But the obvious connection
we knew was going to come out anyway. I don't know if trying to distance
ourselves is the right term. We just want to do our own thing. We met
with tons of labels, and they (Arista) was just very passionate. Everything
they said they were going to do, they've done, and then some. It just
felt right. I know we've made the right decision. It's more and more obvious
every day.
With Arista, it's not known for being a rock label at all.
A lot of people were saying, "what are you guys doing?" They didn't know
if that really was the right decision. People were giving us there opinions.
To us, that was one of the most appealing things. I can name lots of bands
that were on labels where the label wasn't known as a rock label, and
now the label is. If the label is behind the band, and the band's good,
and people like the record, then it doesn't matter. They are a great label,
and they've proven that they can sell records for great bands. One of
the things was that we felt we would be a priority there. A lot of labels
will tell you that and make you feel like that, and then you wind up just
sitting on the back burner while they work their big band of the moment.
I don't want to get too political, but it just felt right. They've been
really cool and treated us great. Every label we met with was cool, but
we just got a different vibe from this one. But Arista has definitely
upheld their end of the bargain.
How long are you planning on touring?
Well, we're planning on being out for at least the next year and a half
to two years. As long as people want to see us, we'll be out there playing.
And hopefully they'll go from there to the record store.
Yeah, definitely. We're a live band though. When you grow up in Bakersfield,
playing out is what you want to do. There's nothing else to do on a weekend
or a weeknight. If you can book a show and play a show, that's a really
big deal in that town. That's why I got into music, because of seeing
bands and wanting to be onstage and playing. We're just going to take
the show on the road and play for as many people as want to see us.