Adakain interview with Ryan Ray lead singer and guitarist. Discusses Never Coming Home album.
Adakain Interview
– What’s new in the world of Adakain?
A: A lot! We have all new merchandise, new tour dates, a new album (“Never Coming Home” – 11/6/15) coming out, a new website, new gear, just a lot of newness, and it’s all good things!
– How was it recording your album “Never Coming Home”?
A: Recording the album was a great experience. We went to Los Angeles and worked with Sahaj Ticotin at Sun God Rock Studios. Corey (guitar) and I wrote a ton of guitar riffs, and I wrote several vocal ideas and lyric ideas, and we took them all into the studio with Sahaj, who co-wrote the album with us. He’s really amazing at taking the ideas and concepts we wanted to go with, and turn it into the best product, while not compromising on tonal quality, and eliminating any “cheese” factor to the music. Basically, he help us keep it nice and heavy, while maintaining a catchy, hook filled, energetic, and very listenable quality to our songs. Sahaj, in my opinion, brought the best out in us as writers, and recording artists, and is very committed to maintaining musical integrity in the face of a “do anything it takes to sell units” type of environment that rock music has been in for some time now.
– How did you go about making the artwork?
A: That’s an easy answer! Trevor Neimann at Visual Entropy (www.visualentropy.com) did all the album artwork, as well as the layout, and all our merch designs. He’s amazing, all I have to do is give him a basic concept and he runs with it, he also created the Adakain logo.
– When writing a song, is there such a thing as investing too much time?
A: I don’t think so, unless you just hit a wall and you can’t seem to find what you’re looking for. If that happens, then sometimes it helps to walk away for a while and come back to it with fresh ears and eyes.
– Adakain is going on tour in a few days. How many shows do you play per year on average, and how crazy does the schedule get?
A: The show per year average is going to drastically change now that we have a bad-ass album to push. Most of 2015 has been spent writing, recording, and preparing for launch and touring. We’ve got a bunch of dates with Trapt and First Decree, and we’ll be adding more shortly. We’ll be touring the rest of this year and well into 2016. You can keep up with our tour dates here: http://www.adakain.com/
– How important is merchandising? Could artists survive without?
A: Merchandising is extremely important, and I can only speak from my experience in the rock world, in which I can say that no, I don’t believe artists like us and others in our genre could survive without.
– Could you describe some of your earliest influences in life and in music?
A: Believe it or not, my earliest musical influences came from my Dad, who is a jazz guitarist and guitar teacher in the Dallas, TX area. I started playing guitar at 6, and was fully enveloped in it from that moment on. I listened to a lot of music with him, like Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Miles Davis, as well as classical guitarists like Andres Segovia. My main rock influences started young too, Jimi Hendrix was probably the most influential on me, but The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, The Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd were influential as well. When I turned about 12 is when I started really getting into the bands that would eventually influence me to take the musical path I’m on now, which would be Metallica, Pantera, Korn, Slipknot, Sevendust, Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and more recently Lamb of God.
– In your opinion, which album would be essential to have if someone were stranded on a deserted island?
A: Alice In Chains – Dirt
– Do you see a biography being written someday about the experiences you acquired or will acquire in your life?
A: I can’t say that I can currently see that happening, but I wouldn’t be opposed or unopposed to it!
– Any words of wisdom to share with aspiring artists?
A: Yes, support your local music scene. You don’t have to love every band’s music in your scene, city, or genre, but show your support for people going after their dreams, because all it does is make your scene stronger. Bands don’t always stay together, and from what I’ve seen, the more you are involved and know the musicians in your area, the more likely that as time goes by, the more serious ones will be weeded out and will find each other to form stronger and stronger bands. Also, don’t talk shit, because being known as someone who hates on other bands does NOTHING for anyone, and makes you look small, even if you feel cool for those few seconds. The last thing would be to be kind and willing to help to everyone involved in the process, because you don’t know how far that goes with sound guys, bartenders, promoters, owners, loaders, door people, security, fans, friends, other bands and their fans, etc, and NEVER GIVE UP. Never give up on making music your career if that’s what you truly want to do in your heart, because perseverance and constantly being willing to grow and accept change is what will get you out of the dive bars and onto tours, and eventually making a living.
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