Adema: exclusive interview with Drummer Kris Kohls for earache.com
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This is the first album with your new line-up…what actually happened with Marky and Mike?
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“Well, we made the ‘Unstable’ record. That was our second record and it was called ‘Unstable’ for a reason. The band was very, very unstable at the time. Marky and Mikey didn’t talk to each other, not once, for a whole year and a half. They didn’t like each other and the other three guys in the band were caught in the middle of all the arguments. Without going into too much detail, Marky’s a hard guy to deal with. He’s not the easiest guy to get along with. It just came down to a mutual split. We weren’t getting along, and if you’re not getting along, why be in a band together? We appreciate this, we love our fans and we love the fact that we get to make music for a living and we’re very passionate about what we do and we take it very seriously, and we all wanted to make the best record we’ve ever made and put our heart and soul into it and nothing else, have no distractions and put in 100 per cent effort. |
You can hear it on the record. All we did for a solid year was concentrate on making this record. Marky wasn’t in the same headspace. He had other things that were distracting him from making the kind of record that we wanted to make.”
How did you discover Luke?
“We tried out about 40 guys. Through email and voicemail we went through about 40 different singers, and about 10 actually made it into the studio. Through a process of elimination we narrowed it down to four guys that we thought were really good and what’s cool is that we made a documentary of the whole process of finding a singer. We filmed most of the process. What we did is we narrowed it down to four and the documentary is about those four guys. We’re still editing it right now, so I’m not sure when it’s coming out. Sometime around when the record comes out, or a month or two later, we’re going to put out a DVD that’s basically the making of ‘Planets’. But basically Luke was the guy. We knew right away. He’s awesome. He’s a great singer, he has a great attitude and he’s a great writer. We had some great lyrics worked out before he joined but since he came in he’s been able to make it all even better. It’s not easy being the new guy, with me and Dave saying ‘Okay, this is the way it is’, but he adapted very well. When we decided he was in the band it was one of those rare situations because the music was all done. Basically we just needed to find a singer to do the vocals, so we picked Luke and we just let him sing and start writing and do whatever he wanted. We knew we could trust him. It was just one of those things where we felt that magic was happening!”
What does Luke bring to the band that wasn’t there before?
“He brings passion and love for the music. He has the same desire to create music and perform it, as well as to get out there and tour. He’s 100 per cent dedicated to the band. He brings a very melodic approach. We’re a much more melodic band now. We’re able to capture a more melodic sound now, and that’s what we’ve always wanted. It’s more of a classic rock sound now, whereas before we were always pegged as a nu-metal band, a Korn kinda band, and I never liked that at all. We’ve been able to branch out a lot more. It’s harder to categorise. We’re just a rock band now and I really like that. Luke’s more of a rock guy than a nu-metal guy, that’s for sure. His favourite singer is Robert Plant!”
Why is the album called ‘Planets’?
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“It was just one of those magical things where the planets aligned. One day it’s like ‘We don’t have a singer anymore. What are we going to do?’ and we could’ve packed it in right there, but we believe in the band and we wanted to keep it going and make a quality record. We just kept focused and we knew we’d find someone. It’s a funny story, actually. I called Luke on his phone. He was in a local band in Bakersfield and I’d never met him, I’d just heard a CD with three songs and I called him, left a message, didn’t hear back from him for about two weeks. Well, his cell phone had been turned off because he hadn’t paid his bill. Then his band won a local ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest, so he got paid, turned his phone back on, heard the message from me and called me back and said ‘Of course I want to come down and try out!’ |
Honestly, from day one it was like that brother thing. I don’t know how many bands say this, but we can speak 100 per cent honestly when we say that the chemistry of our band right now is phenomenal. We feel we can make records for a long time to come. There’s no drama in our band anymore. We just want to make music for the fans that love Adema. We’ve always had the greatest fans in the world and we just want to please them and make them proud of us.”
Is it true that Luke used to be a Marine?
“He served his full four years. He’s from Alabama and he was stationed down in San Diego and met a couple of guys from Bakersfield and he moved down there to join their band. He’d only been there for six or seven months. It’s one of those weird, meant-to-be things.”
So he’s a pretty tough guy then? Do you all have to do as you’re told?
“Ha ha! He’s actually very humble and has a very good work ethic. He is definitely very disciplined and very mature. Me, Tim and Dave and Luke, we all have a passion for music and we know we’re going to do this no matter what, and it’s hard to find people on that level, that live and breathe music. Luke loves playing, performing and writing. As far as being tough and hard, he’s definitely a tough, stand-up guy but he takes it easy on us!”
What happened with Arista/BMG?
“Basically what happened was that we didn’t sell enough records for their tastes and we got dropped. The president of the company that signed us left and went to Def Jam, and the people that were left and the new people that came in weren’t familiar with Adema and didn’t care about it. We didn’t sell as many records on the second album as we did on the first, and for a major label that’s a really big deal so they let us go. Internally, at the time, the band wasn’t where it should have as well. There was a lot of drama in the band. We have a new label now, and a new manager, and we feel like this is a newborn, fresh band now. So basically it was just the guy that signed us wasn’t there anymore. There’s no one there anymore at that company, including ourselves, that was there when we first signed. Everyone got fired or left.”
So, typical music industry bullshit then?
“Absolutely. Unfortunately the music business is a business. You try and make the best music you can and keep moving forward and try to not let outside influences affect us, or to listen to people saying you have to sound a certain way because that’s what’s on the radio. Major labels give you a lot of that stuff and we don’t want it anymore. We want to make the music we want to make. If people like it, cool. If they don’t, whatever! We now have the freedom to make the music we want to make. Especially now we’re on Earache, they’re extremely cool and let us do what we want and they trust us. We let them know we were going to make a great rock record and that was it.”
How did you end up with Earache? Did a lot of labels come forward to offer you a deal?
“We were talking to a couple. Obviously we’d re-evaluated everything we wanted to do and we had a few new songs going. We were talking to a few different labels, and Earache just seemed to be…for one thing, Al Dawson was extremely cool.
We were playing a show in Bakersfield, this thing called the Freak Fest, and he came over from New York to see us. It was basically a show at the speedway track, and it’s kind of the epitome of Bakersfield. There’s a lot of crazy people there, a lot of good ol’ boys. It’s kind of the Texas of California, if you know what I mean! Lots of good ol’ boys chewing tobacco and drinking beer. It took place in this open field, and there’s lots of motorcycle riders jumping jumps and barbecues and fires goings. It was a really cool show. Al flew out to the show, and it was in the middle of nowhere and really hard to find, and he showed up and him and Vanessa from the label, and we met them and got on really good and just kept in touch. When we were ready to make the record they were the ones that wanted to do it most. They were real passionate about the band and we felt they could really do this and get it out there. They understood the vision, that we wanted to make a really good rock record and that it was going to be very different from the first two records.”
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How would you describe the new album?
“We wanted to make something a lot more atmospheric and open, not so cookie-cutter-ish. The last record was very verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and on this record we did a lot of expanding and a lot more jamming and the songs were much more freeform and open, but there’s still the hooks and the big choruses. It’s a classic sounding record like the stuff that we grow up on, like everything from Depeche Mode to Van Halen to Guns N’ Roses to Judas Priest to Metallica to Pantera. It’s all in there in one form or another. It’s basically like a big pot of stew that we’ve made from all our past influences as well as our chemistry as a band.”
Earache’s known mainly for extreme metal, so you stand out a lot…
“They were just so open about doing what we wanted and we knew that they were known predominantly for speed metal and death metal and frankly we like a lot of that stuff! I think Morbid Angel is awesome and we love Deicide. We listened to a lot of that stuff growing up. I remember listening to the first Carcass album. Ross Robinson turned me onto all that stuff way back when. It’s always been a credible label, and as far as we’re concerned good music is good music, and although we’re not a death metal band, fans of Earache are open-minded enough to listen to us for what we are. They’re not going to go ‘Oh, they’re not a death metal band so we can’t listen to them’. We’re a solid rock band just as Deicide are a solid death metal band. I think the main point is that Earache is a label that’s always put out good music and we’re just another band putting out good music too. Earache lets bands be themselves, and they allow bands to express themselves creatively. They were quite involved when we were making the record, checking how things were going. This is the first record we’ve produced ourselves. A major label wouldn’t let us do such a thing! Earache let us have complete creative control and that’s a great thing to have. We trust them, they trust us. It’s a great relationship.”
What’s ‘Tornado’, your new single, all about?
That song is about Lukes bad relationship.While he was in the Marines and was away from home,she was cheating on him with the next door neighbour, who he knew. He was thousands of miles away and couldn’t do anything about it and was lying awake at night fuming. To know that it’s a guy that you know…it’s basically about a bad relationship that’s on the way out.
Would you say that the lyrics on the album are all fairly personal?
“There’s all kinds of different stuff on there. There’s a lot of personal stuff on there. There’s a song about my daughter. There’s a song about Dave’s mom that passed away. We definitely wrote from the heart on this album.”
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Has it been easier to be more open lyrically now the band is functioning well again?
“What happened is that when we split ways with Marky we all went away and wrote lyrics and music. It was just me, Tim and Dave. We have a really good chemistry, so when Luke came in he just expanded on that. There were no creative boundaries. At the end of the day, everyone’s really open in this band. There’s no ego. No one thinks their stuff is better than anyone else’s. We’re all out to get the best music and lyrics that we can. This was definitely the first time we could write from the heart and not worry about someone criticising it. We’d never really done that before. It was a collective effort. A lot of bands say that, but it truly was for us. For instance, the song ‘Chel’, that’s about my daughter and it’s kind of a heavy subject. I was telling Luke what I went through and my experiences of our relationship and how it’s not as good as I’d like it to be and so forth, and he just wrote out all the lyrics, but from my perspective. Every song has a different scenario of how the lyrics came out. Each song is very special to us. It’s one of those albums where it’s very hard to pick a favourite song. I love them all.”
When do you expect to start touring and how extensive will the tour be?
“We’re going to start in June and it’s gonna be very extensive. We don’t wanna come home! We’re hoping it’ll be a year, a year-and-a-half. That would be the goal. Obviously there’s got to be the demand for it, but hopefully people will want to check us out. We have this production that kinda ties in with the title and the vibe of the record, the whole ‘Planets’ thing. It’s gonna be a cool show. We’re going to have lot of cool things going on. Visually it’s going to be really strong. And the music will be great too, obviously!”
Are there any bands you’d particularly like to tour with?
“There’s tons of bands we’d love to tour with, and that we’ve toured with in the past. We loved touring with Godsmack. That was one of the funnest tours we’ve done. Touring with Linkin Park was awesome too. We’ve had the fortune and the opportunity to tour with a lot of great bands. I’d really like to go out with Velvet Revolver. That would be really cool. We just know that we’re starting in June and we really want to get overseas and tour for as long as we can.”
Tim and Dave recently contributed to a Tsunami Relief single…how did they get involved in that?
”A buddy of mine, Michael Johnson, he manages Jason Miller who wrote the song. We know Jason, who was in Godhead. We’re friends with him, and he invited a couple of us to go out there, Tim and Dave went and it was definitely a good time. They said it was definitely a great experience.”
What was it like working with Ralek Gracie? ( The next gen. of the legendary martial arts family ,who contributes vocals on the track Bad Triangle, as Rio Life)
“It was awesome! To me it was an amazing experience. I’m a blue belt in Gracie ju-jitsu and Brazilian ju-jitsu and I started training with Ralek and his brothers about two and a half years ago. We were on tour doing the Ozzfest at the time, on the main stage playing with all these great bands, but I was partying a little too much and not taking care of myself, so I decided to get into some kind of martial arts or some kind of physical activity, so I started training with the Gracies down in L.A. and basically it’s changed my whole outlook on life and everything. I’m a very healthy person now, physically and mentally, and I cherish things in life a lot more. I’m very appreciative of everything, my band and my friends. Doing ju-jitsu you definitely feel a lot more positive and confident about yourself. Also, Ralek was the first person who taught me how to break someone’s arm! So having him in the studio and on our album was awesome. Getting to work in a musical context with someone you admire so much is always a great experience.”
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So have you ever had to break anyone’s arm?
“Well, I compete. That’s quite intense sometimes. I do tournaments now and it’s something that’s a huge part of my life. I hope some day to get a black belt and to teach. I’m constantly training and practising ju-jitsu. In fact, I have a tournament coming up next month…”
On a slightly less healthy note, you’re credited on the Brides Of Destruction album. How did you get involved with them?
“That was also after Ozzfest, in 2002. After we did the tour, it was the last day, Ozzfest was ending and we’d been on the road for nearly two years and we were going to take a three month break. I’d played with Tracii Guns previously, when he was in L.A. Guns and I was in an old band of mine called Cradle Of Thorns and we toured together. He was just a friend of mine. Basically they were looking for a drummer, so he had Nikki call me. I remember being ready to come home from Ozzfest and getting a call from Nikki Sixx. Everyone wanted to talk to him! At the last Ozzfest show Nikki came out, saw me play and hung out on the bus with his wife Donna, and he was a cool guy. |
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So I spent the next three months with him, Tracii and John Corabi, who was also in the band at the time, and we basically started the whole thing. I did nine songs with them and then three months later I had to leave because Adema started back up and began writing the ‘Unstable’ record. They got a new drummer, Scott Coogan, he’s awesome, a really great drummer, but they ended up keeping four of the songs I recorded for the record. They didn’t put the album out until about two years later, but they kept four of my tracks I thought that was really cool. To me it was so cool. I’m a huge Tommy Lee fan. He’s one of my favourite drummers and I was hugely inspired by him growing up. I was a big Motley Crue fan and I thought Tommy was the greatest drummer in the world, so playing with Nikki was definitely an honour. At one point he made a comment that got out on the internet where he said ‘Sometimes when I play with Kris it feels like it did when I played with Tommy’. It was funny because they were obviously wanting to write new songs for Brides Of Destruction and I’d come in every day saying ‘Let’s play ‘Shout At The Devil’! Let’s do ‘Dr. Feelgood’!’. It was pretty crazy.”
You’ve covered a Metallica song on your new single. Why did you pick that track, and how big an influence are Metallica on Adema?
“Ah, come on now! It’s Metallica! We love Metallica. Especially ‘Master Of Puppets’ and ‘Ride The Lightning’ and ‘Kill ‘Em All’. Those albums were pretty much non-stop in all of our CD players when we were growing up. We listen to Metallica all the time when we’re on the road. They’re a great band that keep writing great music. The reason we picked ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’…well, ‘Master Of Puppets’ is our favourite Metallica album and one day in practise Tim, who is definitely the most metal guy in our band, he’s all about Metallica and Pantera, he mentioned covering that song. So we listened to it and thought yeah, that would be awesome. We wanted to do something a little obscure to make it interesting. Listening back to it it’s definitely a trip. It reminds me of being a little kid, rocking out with a mullet haircut!”
What are the band’s ambitions now, in the short and long term?
“Well, the album’s done and we really believe in our hearts and souls that it’s the best record we’ve ever made, and so the short term goal is to get the record out and start touring. And we’re making a video here in the next two weeks, for ‘Tornado’, the first single. For the next year to two years we’ll be touring and then we’re definitely going to make another record. We want to continue being a band, carrying the Adema flag. We love playing music, we’re very confident in our band and we’re going to make music for years and years and years to come.” |
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News item added: 18/2/05
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Adema trades guitars for guns
America's Finest
