PAUL: “Just for those who aren’t yet familiar with the band, can you give us a quick run down of the history of Lost City Angels.”
ADAM: “LCA started in 2000, basically as an outlet for 5 guys that had all this pent up energy and raw emotion to let out, but didn’t have the motive to release it.”
PAUL: “Is it true that in the early days of the band, you and Ron would record on an 8-track in your apartment? Have any of those early demo songs made it onto the album?”
ADAM: “It is true, to certain extent that is, the whole band used to practice in a room in my apartment on Centre St. in Boston. And yeah we actually, on an 8 track, laid out some early shit which later became full fledged LCA songs. “First Things First” was later recorded along with 6 other songs, and that became the first demo (and if you have one you are one lucky bastard). ‘Caught in Time’ was actually on there too, but it was an all out rock song with everyone.”
PAUL: “There’s a definite sense of the likes of The Stooges and AFI influencing the band on record, what other bands have helped to create the LCA sound?”
ADAM: “The dark pop of Social Distortion is definitely a component, the anthemic rock punk of Rancid, the overdramatics and depression of the Cure, with endless engry like Bombshell Rocks, the Bosstones of course, and shit yeah Danzig.”
PAUL: “Last year you signed to Nitro Records. What is it like on the label and are there any other bands on it you really like and have become friends with?”
ADAM: “The Nitro Expeirience, which it is, has been amazing. To see behind the music is quite the eye opener. As far as us and other bands, we hung out with AFI here and there before and after we were on Nitro, we are good friends with Jay from T.S.O.L. Well he used to be in T.S.O.L, when we were all on the Unity Tour with Agnostic Front and the Casualties, Jay came back to Boston early with us and set it off! Who knew the rest of the band was sober, next thing you know Jay is no longer in their band. I blame myself.”
PAUL: “You co-produced the album with Nate Albert. Why did you pick Nate to produce the record, and why did you decide to have a hands-on approach by co-producing it?”
ADAM: “Honestly Nate came to us, he heard us through a friend and wanted to help us arrange, we became amazing frineds and it just worked. We ultimately
don’t like the sounds of the album and the time it was made was a very trying period in the world. The arrangements came out great, but the sounds are a bit too polished for us. We recently decided we a producing record number 2.”
PAUL: “Yeah, the album was recorded during the week of the September 11 attacks wasn’t it? What can you remember of that day?”
ADAM: “I remember being bombarded by phone calls, and totally blowing them off. I was at my girlfriends house in Cambridge Mass, and it sure as fuck ain’t quiet over there, trucks, busses, screams, all kinds of shit. When one minute it was dead, totally dead, no phone, no siren, nothing. I jumped out of
bed turned on the television and my mouth dropped in awe. Keep in mind I was due in the studio in 1 hour, my phone was dead, no one was on the street and I
had to leave my girlfriend who was scared shitless. It was insane. I did not want to leave her, but we had already paid for the studio (Nitro was not in the picture) so we couldn’t lose our money, and I had to record drum tracks in particular. It was painful, akwardly painful, and all on a beautifully sunny day – September 11 the year 2001.”
PAUL: “Fat Mike of NOFX fame is particularly vocal in his hatred towards George Bush, do you have an agenda to maybe use your position as a band to pass on a political message?”
ADAM: “Lost city Angels is not intentionally a political band, but we do have our own standpoints. I personally feel that George Bush is a smart man, too smart for his own good. I also feel that he grew up in a family that had an
agenda, a buisness agenda, the oil buisness agenda to be exact. And now the baby who’s been worked up his whole life gets a stab at daddy’s business and
is just running his mouth off and pissing people off. War for oil is bullshit and so is he. To quote Fat Mike “Bush ain’t my president”.”
PAUL: “You guys come from Boston, what is the scene like up there and what bands would you recommend to people from outside the region?”
ADAM: “The scene? To some it’s a scene, well it’s actually a scenesters paradise, where you can dress up like a punk rocker and be someone! But that is
bullshit, to me and mine it’s a way of life, and that’s that. But bands…fuck yeah! First off my roomate is in the Dropkicks so I gotta shout them, The Bosstones of course, our brothers in The Kings Of Nuthin’ (R.I.P Danny Edge), Kicked In the Head are great guys, those Unseen boys are awesome, Hope Conspiracy just released an amazing record on Equal Vision, The Explosion and that Million Dollar Matt are tighter than pleather!”
PAUL: “You recently went out on tour with Andrew WK, a guy that’s known over here more for his (lack of) dress sense than anything else. What’s he like, and how did that tour go? I mean, you’re hardly matched up musically…”
ADAM: “Andrew and his crew are among some of my favorite people on the face of this earth, don’t fret Paul as you are too, and get my permanent backing. Yes he smells like ass, yes he only has two pairs of pants, yes he is an amazing musician, and yes he does really party!! It’s no lie, I actaully heard before the tour that he doesn’t do anything. All I can say is NOT TRUE.”
PAUL: “Going back to the album, many of the songs seem quite negative – there are titles such as ‘Think Yer Alone?’, ‘Lost and Gone’ and Another Beaten Soul’ for example. Is this a conscious thing when you write or was the general mood of the band quite negative when you wrote the album?”
ADAM: “Well, every person in this band has a “thing”, a tick, a vibe, a stlye. No of our “styles” had positve sides during the years we wrote these songs. I actually self medicate everyday, as does Ronnie, I’d say Drew too, and a majority of our friends do. We’ve all seen the light of day, and we’re trying not to be held back by it, so we take a hit of the weed and roll on.”
PAUL: “In the sleevenotes, you personally thank Clonopin, pot and Xanax. I recently interviewed Marko from Sugarcult, a band famed for their excesses…are Lost City Angels are a band that like to dabble in drink and drugs and enjoy themselves while out on tour?”
ADAM: “Paul, we will party circles around Sugarcult. We actually partied with them in Boston, we played together once, but had met before that. It was a blast, it was actually the night of the day we signed to Nitro. Very nice guys. We set it off. We don’t know any other way.”
PAUL: “What is the funniest thing that has happened while out on the drink? Have any of the band been arrested or injured because of it?”
ADAM: “I’d love to tell you, but c’mon. If you go to our site if you’re lucky you’ll find a streaming video of what happens when the pirate ship is on
the high seas, it is absolutely brutal, that’s all I can say. Okay, I got one. Recently we played to a sold out crowd at Axis in our hometown of Boston Mass, and the club brought us 6 bottles of the shittiest champagne they could find, for it was New Years. So Drew goes and downs a bottle onstage, while there were about 50 people on the stage, then proceeds to fall on his ass break his guitar and give himself a concussion. The bottle of champagne $30, Drew falling on his fucking face…priceless.”
PAUL: “You have many dedicated fans, who you’ve lovingly tagged the Angel Army. What is the weirdest thing that a fan has done to you or the band?”
ADAM: “It’s not really what they’ve done, it’s what we’ve done. We once took a kid and cut his hair, dyed it black, threw all his clothes away because what he was wearing was a fucking joke, and spray painted clothes on him. Oh god, this kid. This kid fucking runs up to me somewhere on the Flogging Molly
tour, and is like “I love you guys I’m in the Angel Army, this place sucks I gotta get outta here”, and meanwhile I’m the one who started this whole thing, so I’m like besides myself, so I say “fucking awesome dude”. And he pulls out a razor and starts shaving off his eyebrows. Too fucking weird, but I’ll never forget that kid.”
PAUL: “Finally, what do you have planned for the rest of the year? Are we likely to see any new songs, or even better, a UK tour?”
ADAM: “This year is going to be our busiest yet, non-stop touring. As it turns out we are coming to Europe earlier than we thought, I think we’re looking at as early as the spring! We cannot wait. And new songs, we’ll have them up on our site, I think one in particular, our favorite one.”
*Paul’s note – Since this interview was conducted it would appear LCA will be coming over to Europe between April and June to support Randy.*
PAUL: “If there’s anybody you wish to thank, give shout-outs to or any general messages you’d like to leave, please do so now!”
ADAM: “I’d love to thank you Paul, for having an awesome site with bad ass up to date info. Everyone in this band loves the site. Please check out www.lostcityangels.com for everything LCA, and easy access to dates, news,
online merch and more interactive shit! Sign the Email List Too! Thanks again Paul, this was fun as hell!”