Adam Freeland
By: Matt Anaya |
Monday June 29, 2009 |
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not just a Shoeglazing DJ |
| Adam Freeland has been an influential electronic, drone, break, and Shoegazing DJ for nearly 15 years. And after years of touring the world as a DJ his career has evolved into producing and directing his self-titled band, Freeland. “For me we are trying to combine my love of Shoegaze, drone, and indie rock,” says Adam. “I try not to adhere to any genre and that frustrates some people and some people love it.” Freeland consists of Tommy Lee (drums, duh), Twiggy Ramirez on the bass, Joey Santiago (guitar), new frontman Kurt Baumann (vocals) and helping Freeland co-produce the new album Cope is label mate Alex Metric. “My role is, I do keyboard, backing vocals, and I run the stuff off the computer and I help Kurt (Baumann) with vocals.” Before it was cool to brag about dropping out of college to pursue one’s musical aspirations, DJ Adam Freeland was touring across the world. “Things took off for me when I was at university in London. My first album came out in my third year, and the day it came out, I just quit (school), I went on tour to America (laughing).” This new album departs from DJ Adam Freeland’s norm but Adam says it is his career that is evolving and he is just going with his career’s flow. “It’s a forum for what I do, it’s the next step (in my career) or the next level. For me it’s about being a consistent evolution.” Cope is a record with a bevy of talented artists and with so many influential names it may imply all Adam wanted to do was sell records but he refutes those claims. “It’s just the way it happened. It wasn’t supposed to have loads of names on it. But I moved to LA, Tommy (Lee) was the only drummer I knew, Twiggy (Ramirez) was the only bass player I knew, and so it was easy to make. It was not supposed to be some crazy rock star collaboration. It’s really about the band and Kurt (lead singer) and Alex Metric, who I am a big fan of. I know my limitations and I hooked up with people more talented than me.” Working as a DJ for so long and now switching to band member has been a tough transition for Adam but he is now getting used to it. His band just got a new tour bus, as opposed to the van they were briefly touring on and he has began to enjoy playing both DJ and band mate. “They both keep each other exciting. I like the ease of DJing, its like you can rock out, do your show and with your band it’s a lot different thing, it’s harder work. It’s really nice touring with your friends and its fun with the synchronicity and everyone gets together on one point, it’s a real buzz, quite the different energy.” Adam continues, “I really like both; I enjoy DJing a lot after going on tour because there is not sound check (laughing). I’m fortunate to have both in my life.” Even though on tour, Freeland is always working and it sounded like I interrupted a meeting or a sound check hours before his show at Cargo in England. “(I am) Always working. (I) Just did a remix for a Canadian band Metric, their new single. I’m also talking to a couple bands about producing them, but I kind of want to focus on the next record (Cope). “ After touring, Adam plans to go back to LA and help produce some bands and get back to the DJ booth. There are future plans for the band Freeland and Adam says, “We are already working on the next album. I think we got a really good unit now and I think it’s a fun band. I want to work with a few other people along the way but I really want to focus on the good thing we got going now. We have a really tight unit now and I want to roll with that. I didn’t have that when I started the band. It’s really evolved into something like a real band.” You can catch Adam Freeland in North America June 30 through July 11th. |
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