Adelitas Way formed in 2006 in their hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, though their breakout single “Invincible” did not come for three more years. With that song already topping charts, the release of their S/T first album in 2009 was a defining moment for the band. The release of their second album “Home School Valedictorian” pushed out more great songs, including the extremely popular “Sick” and “Criticize”, along with “The Collapse”. All of these songs landed on the Billboard Charts. The band was becoming more known to us all. By the time their third album “Stuck” dropped publicly, their single “Dog on a Leash” had already been playing for a couple of months and was already a Top 10 hit on rock charts. People knew the song and craved more. Knowing what the band had musically produced with their past two albums, people were exceedingly eager to own this new release. The album produced two hits that aired on stations like Sirius/XM Octane. The songs were well received but for such a wonderfully written and performed album, I was shocked that more did not come from it. There were so many great songs on this CD that were never released as singles. It is true that typically, only a couple of songs from an album make it to the single category, but songs like “Undivided”, “Drive” and ‘Something More” needed a chance to prove their strength. These songs are very worthy of topping the charts in my opinion. The band is continuing to push forward without the boundaries of a label. They have just released a 5-song EP titled “Deserve This”, which is the prelude to their upcoming fourth album. It includes their current hit single ‘I Get Around”, and believe me, it is certainly getting its share of “deserved” air time. As a fan of Adelitas Way, myself, I was eager to interview Rick DeJesus. On this beautiful and very important Saturday afternoon, the day of his daughter’s birthday party, Rick still set aside time to talk to me allowing me to dig deeper into what makes Adelita’s Way tick. After speaking with Rick about the band’s struggles, the balancing act of trying to be a family man and entertainer, and the validity of their music in the industry as a whole, all of the reasons that fans love them were fortified. This band has so much heart even through the minor setbacks that they’ve encountered in the past. Today, Adelitass Way is more focused and determined to prove their worth than ever. Part of that plan includes exposing people worldwide to their musical strength; something that should’ve been done long ago. I think we are in for a hellacious ride now that they have left labels behind and taken control of the reigns themselves.
Interview with Rick DeJesus of Adelitas Way
By Leslie Elder Rogers
Metal Exiles: Looking back on SnoCore, what made you guys want to do the tour this year?
Rick: The bands. We love Flyleaf and we like the guys in Framing Hanley and we just thought it was a really good package. A lot of people came out to the shows. The shows were really fantastic. Everybody treated each other with respect. We all understood what each band brought to the table and we all understood what each band has accomplished and how much hard work each band has put into getting where they are. The tour itself was very much a good time and everyone had that mutual respect for each other.
Metal Exiles: What were some of the better moments of the tour for you?
Rick: There were a lot of great moments. I think that the bands showed a lot of comradery. We did a lot of things together. We did a lot of band photos. There was a lot of band interaction with all the dudes on the tour. It was “SnoCore” tour so there were some shows where it was snowing and like negative 30 degrees outside and I think that some of the most memorable moments for us were doing whatever it took to get to the shows. I remember we were driving through Louisville and there was a huge snowstorm. We went through hell to get there and when we got there, the promoters cancelled the show. We took that day off and just enjoyed the snow a little bit and hung out together. The thing that’s most memorable about it was that we got there man. We didn’t want to let the fans down. We didn’t want to let the show down. The promoter ended up letting us down in the end but we made sure that we weren’t the ones that let anyone down. We really worked hard to get there.
Metal Exiles: For a band like Adelita’s Way touring is a way of life. How do you guys cope with a lot of touring and being away from families?
Rick: You know, I think that I still have a couple of years left of really enjoying what I’m doing. I enjoy going out on the road with the guys. I enjoy being playing with other bands. I enjoy playing on the stage with bands and I love music. I love rock and roll. I know there’s gonna be a time when I have to make a decision and I have to come home and be a full-time dad but I do a pretty damn good job right now balancing the two; going on the road and then coming home and being a great father so right now I feel like I’ve got a good balance. I still have a couple of things I want to say as far as making records and there’s still a couple of things I want to do on the touring front so I have some goals set still. I still love to do it but with that said, I think people have to appreciate us while we’re here. I think people have to come out and see us live and people have to listen to our records because there will be a time where, well, family is always more important and there will be a time where I have to do what’s right.
Metal Exiles: You mentioned that this will be the first time your music will be released worldwide. Virgin was a worldwide label. Why weren’t your albums marketed worldwide previously?
Rick: Here’s the thing. We were on the biggest record label in the world. Virgin is owned by Universal Music Group and I think sometimes these record companies get lazy and they don’t want to spend the dollars. They look at the bottom line and the bottom line for them was that the biggest place for Adelita’s Way was in the United States. They didn’t want to spend the $20,000 to ship the records overseas and do that work. It really affected our brand because there’s a whole world out there that needs to hear our music. It feels good because right now, I got on iTunes and I go on Spotify and I go on all the places that people listen to music and I can see the statistics and people all over the world are listening to our music. It feels great to see that we already have 5000 Spotify listeners in Germany or we have 400 sales of our single in the UK already. It just shows you that even though we’ve been held back from that, we still found a way to make our way overseas and to other countries; that our name still trickled over there through our hard work. Now is the time that we get to release full albums to the world. We’re very excited.
Metal Exiles: You guys just dropped your new 5 song EP “Deserve This” on your own label. Where did the title come from first of all?
Rick: I don’t like to put negativity on anything because there’s already a lot of negativity in rock and roll right now with everyone saying that rock is dead; there’s too much negative energy in it. Well, our third album was supposed to be our arrival and to be elite in rock music. We were supposed to be the ones selling out venues and continuing our rise to the top. We worked really hard on the “Stuck” album and nothing went right. Nothing clicked with the record company. Nothing clicked with the promotion for it. Nothing clicked on any end so the album cycle for it was every bit the nightmare of what the worst case scenario could be and so “Deserve This” is basically our feeling. With all the hard work we put in and all the time we put into everything, even making the record we spent every minute of every day making sure it was a great record and we thought it deserved a little more, we didn’t think we deserved to be treated like a half-ass release and that’s what happened. So it’s kind of a little dip into our story.
Metal Exiles: Focusing on the EP, “I Get Around” is already getting huge air time on a lot of stations. How do you feel about that?
Rick: It feels great honestly. It feels amazing for us. We’re very proud of everything we do and now for the first time we own everything. When someone buys a single on iTunes, it goes to the band. When someone buys the EP, it goes to the band. This is the first time in our career that it’s ever been like that so seeing the success that we’re seeing with “I Get Around” without really anybody is great. We’re doing it on our own with the 15 or 16 amazing radio stations that are supporting us and I wish that some more of our friends were supporting us because we’ve done so much with rock radio and we are such big advocates for the format. We really appreciate everything that everyone has done for us over the years. I wish people would jump on the band wagon that we’re doing things the new way and that the way we’re doing things is going to be the new model for it. I think people just have to get used to adjusting. We’re not really the guinea pig but we’re the first ones that have gone for such a bold move. We’re the first ones that are putting our foot down and saying that we’re not gonna stand for this anymore. We’re almost the test subjects for all the other bands that are about to come out and do what we’re about to do right now. People are gonna follow if I have success with this. People are gonna ask me what I did and try to follow the steps that we’re doing because it feels amazing owning our rights. It feels amazing being able to make the decisions that you want to make. It feels amazing being able to release music whenever we want to release music. I’ve never felt anything in my career that has felt this invigorating. After the “Stuck” album, I reevaluated my career, it literally had me doing a career check. We were opening up for bands that I felt that we should never have been opening up for. We were supposed to be on our rise to the top. We’d made this record that we were really proud of and we loved and we felt like no one was hearing it. We were supposed to be a headliner and when “Stuck” came out, I felt like everything went so wrong, I felt like we took two steps back. “Stuck” got no love, it didn’t get any promotion really. That record took so much energy out of me that I felt like maybe I needed to step away from the game and let some of these young guys come in and do whatever they’re doing because I came back and the rock format changed completely. There’d be one guy running the live stations that didn’t want to play bands like mine. The record companies are saying rock is dead and I really got down about it a minute and started questioning my faith in music because I’d worked so hard for everything and at this point, I couldn’t imagine it ending this way. In the end, I chose to take that energy that I was feeling and do the opposite. I chose to use it to fuel the fire in me. I felt like I wasn’t going out like this and when I walk away from the game, I’m gonna do it on my own terms. It’s gonna be after I’ve said everything I want to say and I’ve played every stage I want to play and I’ve given all the fans that have supported us everything that they deserve from Adelita’s Way. We have people who follow us and travel with us and get tattoos of our band name and lyrics and I’m not gonna be just a flash in the pan to those people. I want to make a career to where when people look back, we’ve given them everything they wanted and we’ve given ourselves everything we wanted to accomplish. If someone got an Eagles tattoo or Zeppelin or Ozzy, they don’t regret it because those bands have put out some many great records and had a real career. I don’t want somebody to get an Adelita’s Way tattoo and then we make three albums and we’re out. Our legacy is not that. We’re better than that. We’re something that when we walk away from this game, even if we don’t become the biggest band in the world, I bet you ten years from now we’re gonna be bigger and more respected that we are right now at the current moment. People are gonna go back and listen to our back catalog and think “Man, I can’t believe these guys weren’t more known than they were” or ‘I can’t believe these guys never had their big break” because I think our big break moment has passed us. I think right now, it’s all about us making great records and having die-hard fans and being the chains of the underground. Rock and roll is becoming underground and there are some great bands that were chained to the underground like the punk band Refused, who still sell out shows. That’s what I want. I’m more focused on us going out and all of our fans coming out and us filling rooms and them sharing their energy with us. I’d rather my career go out that way than me being all over MTV and being this famous rock star. I’m more concerned with being an artist that has a legacy of being great live performers and that makes great records. At the end of the day, I use the negative we dealt with as a motivation to move past it. Maybe one day, people will go back and listen to our stuff and it may take some time to appreciate it but maybe ten years from now a new batch of kids will come in and think “Hey, man what is this? This is wild, I’ve never heard anything like this”. It’s there for the remainder of our lives. It’s there until the earth goes away. I always think that every record we make can stand the test of time.
Metal Exiles: “Sometimes You’re Meant to Be Used” comes across pretty blatant. What moved you to pen that song? (It is pretty hard and has some awesome guitar riffs).
Rick: I think “Sometimes You’re Meant to be Used” is a bit more sultry and sexual than complaining about what we’ve gone through as far as the label and all. It’s more based from a male to female conversation or female to male conversation. It’s also inspired by things I’ve had people say to me throughout our career and things that I’d done when I was single and I was younger. It’s inspired by my life and a lot of things that personally happened to me. Even for myself, being the victim thinking that you’re hitting it off with a girl and thinking everything was going well and then they never call you again. I think everyone deals with that a little in their life.
Metal Exiles: You guys are writing your new album right now and to fund it you did the Pledge Music route. With major labels being left behind by major rock bands, is this the way it will be for you guys from here on out? If the right deal came along would you do another label?
Rick: Something so bad happened to me when we were doing stuff that I vowed to myself that I would never let anything like that happen again. We had the record finished and the record company wouldn’t put the record out. For two years, I sat, I was off. I wasn’t touring. They wouldn’t let us tour. They wouldn’t put our music out. They wouldn’t let me make a living. There was a point where I couldn’t even afford to buy formula for my daughter because they kept me out of work for so long. I had a one year old daughter and they were not letting me feed my child and they were using legal tactics to assure that nothing would happen, so, I vowed that would never happen again. That’s the last that they’ll see of me. We’re focused at this point in our career on doing the things the way that we want to do them. At the end of the day, however it turns out, whether we become the most successful band in the world or we continue to rise at a slow pace or we can just continue to give our die-hands fans what they want, when it’s all said and done, the terms that I walk away on will be my own.
Metal Exiles: Showing your appreciation for the people who have already pledged was done by way of acknowledging them, one by one, in the “Filthy Heart” YouTube upload. This was an awesome gesture. What inspired you to do this?
Rick: Do you mean doing all the cool items for the pledge? Like I said, Adelita’s Way fans are a different breed. It’s not like these pop bands that just come and go. We have a core of fans that appreciate us and the work we put in and everything we do. It’s almost like a cult of friends. We see people we’ve met at our shows. They become friends and they meet at our shows and ten or twelve people go out together after an Adelita’s Way concert and it’s the best night of their month or their year. We want to make sure that everyone knows that we see them. We see each and every one of you that supports us. We don’t just take the money and run. We don’t just have a blind eye to how we’ve gotten here. Whenever you pledge, we want everyone to know that we appreciate you guys for giving us the opportunity to tell the record labels to fuck off and release music when we want because if fans didn’t show up, we’d be in a much worse position. Every time a fan comes out to our show and every time a fan buys a t-shirt from an event or our pledge, it’s one more step in a direction that we can show everyone that we can do whatever we want and that nothing is impossible. It’s a great feeling to be able to go and release records when you want man, and tour when you want and do things when you feel like doing it.
Metal Exiles: What direction is Adelita’s Way going with the fourth album? What is fueling the writing right now?
Rick: The same thing that always fuels my writing, you know; life. It’s funny because people always ask why “Stuck” sounded so different from “Home School Valedictorian”. It’s like “Of course it does”. We are constantly trying to use our influences that we grew up on and we’re constantly trying to challenge ourselves as a band. I don’t want to make the same record. I can make “Home School Valedictorian” every single time but the bottom line is that we want to really try to carve our own sound out and continue to grow. When you hear Adelita’s Way on the radio, you’ll know who it is and on this fourth album we’re trying to be excellent just like we were on the third album and on the second album. We’re trying to be the best we’ve ever been. I’m writing about what I see in life, the things that electrocute my brain from the earth and the energy. That’s how I’ve done it since day one and on every single song I’ve written. I remember the very first song I wrote. I was laying on the floor and I was thinking about my family and I got like a signal that just went right into my brain and it was a melody and a lyric and that’s how I’ve written every single Adelita’s Way song. I get struck at times with melodies and lyrics and that means something to me. I run with that. Then, also, we try to feed off of each other. You know Nirvana, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, these bands get together and they jam and they come out with great songs. That’s how their legacies were built. We get together and we jam. We react off of each other. I’ve been playing with my drummer for eight years and my guitar player for five years. We get into the room together and he starts playing a riff or my drummer starts playing a drum beat, I react; we react and that’s how “Filthy Heart” came about. It was us in a room reacting off each other and the emotions of what we’d just gone through. We’d just got off of a tour that we were just really disrespected on and we didn’t feel good about it so when we got together to jam, we all let that out.
Metal Exiles: What is your take on the music scene in general with the whole theory behind rock being dead and the reactions people have had to that statement? Do you think it will remain healthy enough to support bands and labels with the new way of doing things?
Rick: Let me tell you about the Gene Simmons comment. A lot of the things that Gene said are right. He said that a band today will never have the chance to be what “KISS” became. He’s right because we never had a shot. We never had a chance from the label. We never had a chance from the media. I remember when our record company sent every one of our singles to TV, to Jimmy Kimmel, to Jimmy Fallon, the answer was always the same “Oh, we’re not doing rock and roll right now”. Let’s talk Top 40. When was the last Top 40 song that had guitars in it? Maybe Shinedown in 2012 had a Top 40 hit that rocked. You know what I mean? Think about that. That was 2011 or 2012. That’s three or four years ago and since then zero bands crossing over from rock to the popular charts. There’s no band taking over. If you look right now on the Top 40 chart, all Taylor Swift and One Direction, you know. It’s all boy bands and pop music and EDM so Gene Simmons says a lot of things that are correct. Back in the day, record labels would push the button on a band like KISS and they would put em’ on MTV and they would put em’ all over every radio station. They would put em’ on late night TV. We never even had a smidge of that and a lot of bands didn’t. It’s not just us, it’s a whole plethora of bands. I could name a hundred bands right now that work hard and that are as good as anything that’s out in the world right now but they’re just getting no love because they’re rock bands, so again, a lot of things Gene said were right. Now do I think rock is completely dead? No because I think it’s underground. I think he’s using the wrong words. I think he needs to say rock and roll has become indie and underground. You have to sneak into a dingy bar or a music venue to get blasted in the face with rock guitars nowadays. It’s not the biggest and coolest thing to do. You gotta sneak out and go to a rock show and not tell your friends. It’s just a different game now. It’s like something that you’re doing that feels even a little naughty, like “oh my God, I’m at this rock show and I’m smoking a joint in the back and no one knows”. It’s like that’s what it feels like. It’s a rebellion, we’re the rebellious ones. Everyone nowadays can be found being hipsters and playing banjos and living life like it’s happy go lucky but not all of us have that mentality.
Metal Exiles: Stuck was released last year on vinyl and you are doing the next one on vinyl as well. What is your opinion of music resurging on vinyl these days?
Rick: I’m not gonna lie, I’m not gonna sit here and talk about the resurgence of vinyl. We made vinyl because we felt like it. We didn’t know if it was gonna impact us dramatically. We don’t sell so many vinyls that I think it’s changed the game. I’m gonna be honest with you, we made vinyl because when we made “Stuck”, we believed we made something that sounded like a classic sounding album. We believed we made a record that could withstand the test of time, even though it didn’t get the love or the reviews or whatever from the critics. We were on a different edge with our music. That record was influenced by The Bee Gees and The Beatles and Zeppelin and The Eagles and bands like Nirvana. I mean all these bands that today people just don’t even know who they are or don’t even think they’re cool, so, yeah, we made a record that could be timeless and classic and kids today and people today just didn’t connect with it, with the tones and the sound that we did. We put it on vinyl because we felt like it had to be on vinyl but vinyl isn’t changing our lives. We don’t sell that many vinyl records. We sell enough to want to keep making em’. Streaming is the way. Everyone is gonna stream. Spotify, Beats Music, I mean, streaming is the future, it is now. We’re not gonna fight it. The only thing we ask our fans is that if you’re gonna stream our music, buy a t-shirt or go to a show. If you’re gonna stream our music, yeah, buy a ticket to the show. That’s all we ask. We know you’re not going to buy the record. We know iTunes is about to go away. Putting our record in Best Buy doesn’t even sound like a worthy option anymore financially so if people are gonna stream our music, we’re cool with that. Go ahead and stream it but we’re not getting paid off of the streams. We get nothing. For a million streams, I get a check for fifteen bucks. If you’re gonna stream our music, come check us out live and see if you like it.
Metal Exiles: Do you see a summer of full on touring or just concentrating on the next album?
Rick: Summer is gonna be full on touring. We’re going out May 26th, I can’t announce the dates and the tours that we’re doing yet but we are going out May 26th with a band and we’re gonna hit the whole United States. We’re gonna headline right after that in July. May, June and July, we’re gonna be out playing. We’re gonna be headlining on tour and then we’re gonna go back and record the record in August. We’re writing the record right now and we’re gonna finish writing it so we can record it after the tour.
Connect With Adelita’s Way:
Website: http://www.adelitaswaymusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adelitasway
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adelitasway
Instagram: https://instagram.com/adelitasway
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/adelitasway
Watch their video for “I Get Around” here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGGIk0_Jj_4&sns=em
Visit their PledgeMusic site to help support the band @ http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/adelitasway
Interview with Rick DeJesus of Adelitas Way
By Leslie Elder Rogers
Metal Exiles: Looking back on SnoCore, what made you guys want to do the tour this year?
Rick: The bands. We love Flyleaf and we like the guys in Framing Hanley and we just thought it was a really good package. A lot of people came out to the shows. The shows were really fantastic. Everybody treated each other with respect. We all understood what each band brought to the table and we all understood what each band has accomplished and how much hard work each band has put into getting where they are. The tour itself was very much a good time and everyone had that mutual respect for each other.
Metal Exiles: What were some of the better moments of the tour for you?
Rick: There were a lot of great moments. I think that the bands showed a lot of comradery. We did a lot of things together. We did a lot of band photos. There was a lot of band interaction with all the dudes on the tour. It was “SnoCore” tour so there were some shows where it was snowing and like negative 30 degrees outside and I think that some of the most memorable moments for us were doing whatever it took to get to the shows. I remember we were driving through Louisville and there was a huge snowstorm. We went through hell to get there and when we got there, the promoters cancelled the show. We took that day off and just enjoyed the snow a little bit and hung out together. The thing that’s most memorable about it was that we got there man. We didn’t want to let the fans down. We didn’t want to let the show down. The promoter ended up letting us down in the end but we made sure that we weren’t the ones that let anyone down. We really worked hard to get there.
Metal Exiles: For a band like Adelita’s Way touring is a way of life. How do you guys cope with a lot of touring and being away from families?
Rick: You know, I think that I still have a couple of years left of really enjoying what I’m doing. I enjoy going out on the road with the guys. I enjoy being playing with other bands. I enjoy playing on the stage with bands and I love music. I love rock and roll. I know there’s gonna be a time when I have to make a decision and I have to come home and be a full-time dad but I do a pretty damn good job right now balancing the two; going on the road and then coming home and being a great father so right now I feel like I’ve got a good balance. I still have a couple of things I want to say as far as making records and there’s still a couple of things I want to do on the touring front so I have some goals set still. I still love to do it but with that said, I think people have to appreciate us while we’re here. I think people have to come out and see us live and people have to listen to our records because there will be a time where, well, family is always more important and there will be a time where I have to do what’s right.
Metal Exiles: You mentioned that this will be the first time your music will be released worldwide. Virgin was a worldwide label. Why weren’t your albums marketed worldwide previously?
Rick: Here’s the thing. We were on the biggest record label in the world. Virgin is owned by Universal Music Group and I think sometimes these record companies get lazy and they don’t want to spend the dollars. They look at the bottom line and the bottom line for them was that the biggest place for Adelita’s Way was in the United States. They didn’t want to spend the $20,000 to ship the records overseas and do that work. It really affected our brand because there’s a whole world out there that needs to hear our music. It feels good because right now, I got on iTunes and I go on Spotify and I go on all the places that people listen to music and I can see the statistics and people all over the world are listening to our music. It feels great to see that we already have 5000 Spotify listeners in Germany or we have 400 sales of our single in the UK already. It just shows you that even though we’ve been held back from that, we still found a way to make our way overseas and to other countries; that our name still trickled over there through our hard work. Now is the time that we get to release full albums to the world. We’re very excited.
Metal Exiles: You guys just dropped your new 5 song EP “Deserve This” on your own label. Where did the title come from first of all?
Rick: I don’t like to put negativity on anything because there’s already a lot of negativity in rock and roll right now with everyone saying that rock is dead; there’s too much negative energy in it. Well, our third album was supposed to be our arrival and to be elite in rock music. We were supposed to be the ones selling out venues and continuing our rise to the top. We worked really hard on the “Stuck” album and nothing went right. Nothing clicked with the record company. Nothing clicked with the promotion for it. Nothing clicked on any end so the album cycle for it was every bit the nightmare of what the worst case scenario could be and so “Deserve This” is basically our feeling. With all the hard work we put in and all the time we put into everything, even making the record we spent every minute of every day making sure it was a great record and we thought it deserved a little more, we didn’t think we deserved to be treated like a half-ass release and that’s what happened. So it’s kind of a little dip into our story.
Metal Exiles: Focusing on the EP, “I Get Around” is already getting huge air time on a lot of stations. How do you feel about that?
Rick: It feels great honestly. It feels amazing for us. We’re very proud of everything we do and now for the first time we own everything. When someone buys a single on iTunes, it goes to the band. When someone buys the EP, it goes to the band. This is the first time in our career that it’s ever been like that so seeing the success that we’re seeing with “I Get Around” without really anybody is great. We’re doing it on our own with the 15 or 16 amazing radio stations that are supporting us and I wish that some more of our friends were supporting us because we’ve done so much with rock radio and we are such big advocates for the format. We really appreciate everything that everyone has done for us over the years. I wish people would jump on the band wagon that we’re doing things the new way and that the way we’re doing things is going to be the new model for it. I think people just have to get used to adjusting. We’re not really the guinea pig but we’re the first ones that have gone for such a bold move. We’re the first ones that are putting our foot down and saying that we’re not gonna stand for this anymore. We’re almost the test subjects for all the other bands that are about to come out and do what we’re about to do right now. People are gonna follow if I have success with this. People are gonna ask me what I did and try to follow the steps that we’re doing because it feels amazing owning our rights. It feels amazing being able to make the decisions that you want to make. It feels amazing being able to release music whenever we want to release music. I’ve never felt anything in my career that has felt this invigorating. After the “Stuck” album, I reevaluated my career, it literally had me doing a career check. We were opening up for bands that I felt that we should never have been opening up for. We were supposed to be on our rise to the top. We’d made this record that we were really proud of and we loved and we felt like no one was hearing it. We were supposed to be a headliner and when “Stuck” came out, I felt like everything went so wrong, I felt like we took two steps back. “Stuck” got no love, it didn’t get any promotion really. That record took so much energy out of me that I felt like maybe I needed to step away from the game and let some of these young guys come in and do whatever they’re doing because I came back and the rock format changed completely. There’d be one guy running the live stations that didn’t want to play bands like mine. The record companies are saying rock is dead and I really got down about it a minute and started questioning my faith in music because I’d worked so hard for everything and at this point, I couldn’t imagine it ending this way. In the end, I chose to take that energy that I was feeling and do the opposite. I chose to use it to fuel the fire in me. I felt like I wasn’t going out like this and when I walk away from the game, I’m gonna do it on my own terms. It’s gonna be after I’ve said everything I want to say and I’ve played every stage I want to play and I’ve given all the fans that have supported us everything that they deserve from Adelita’s Way. We have people who follow us and travel with us and get tattoos of our band name and lyrics and I’m not gonna be just a flash in the pan to those people. I want to make a career to where when people look back, we’ve given them everything they wanted and we’ve given ourselves everything we wanted to accomplish. If someone got an Eagles tattoo or Zeppelin or Ozzy, they don’t regret it because those bands have put out some many great records and had a real career. I don’t want somebody to get an Adelita’s Way tattoo and then we make three albums and we’re out. Our legacy is not that. We’re better than that. We’re something that when we walk away from this game, even if we don’t become the biggest band in the world, I bet you ten years from now we’re gonna be bigger and more respected that we are right now at the current moment. People are gonna go back and listen to our back catalog and think “Man, I can’t believe these guys weren’t more known than they were” or ‘I can’t believe these guys never had their big break” because I think our big break moment has passed us. I think right now, it’s all about us making great records and having die-hard fans and being the chains of the underground. Rock and roll is becoming underground and there are some great bands that were chained to the underground like the punk band Refused, who still sell out shows. That’s what I want. I’m more focused on us going out and all of our fans coming out and us filling rooms and them sharing their energy with us. I’d rather my career go out that way than me being all over MTV and being this famous rock star. I’m more concerned with being an artist that has a legacy of being great live performers and that makes great records. At the end of the day, I use the negative we dealt with as a motivation to move past it. Maybe one day, people will go back and listen to our stuff and it may take some time to appreciate it but maybe ten years from now a new batch of kids will come in and think “Hey, man what is this? This is wild, I’ve never heard anything like this”. It’s there for the remainder of our lives. It’s there until the earth goes away. I always think that every record we make can stand the test of time.
Metal Exiles: “Sometimes You’re Meant to Be Used” comes across pretty blatant. What moved you to pen that song? (It is pretty hard and has some awesome guitar riffs).
Rick: I think “Sometimes You’re Meant to be Used” is a bit more sultry and sexual than complaining about what we’ve gone through as far as the label and all. It’s more based from a male to female conversation or female to male conversation. It’s also inspired by things I’ve had people say to me throughout our career and things that I’d done when I was single and I was younger. It’s inspired by my life and a lot of things that personally happened to me. Even for myself, being the victim thinking that you’re hitting it off with a girl and thinking everything was going well and then they never call you again. I think everyone deals with that a little in their life.
Metal Exiles: You guys are writing your new album right now and to fund it you did the Pledge Music route. With major labels being left behind by major rock bands, is this the way it will be for you guys from here on out? If the right deal came along would you do another label?
Rick: Something so bad happened to me when we were doing stuff that I vowed to myself that I would never let anything like that happen again. We had the record finished and the record company wouldn’t put the record out. For two years, I sat, I was off. I wasn’t touring. They wouldn’t let us tour. They wouldn’t put our music out. They wouldn’t let me make a living. There was a point where I couldn’t even afford to buy formula for my daughter because they kept me out of work for so long. I had a one year old daughter and they were not letting me feed my child and they were using legal tactics to assure that nothing would happen, so, I vowed that would never happen again. That’s the last that they’ll see of me. We’re focused at this point in our career on doing the things the way that we want to do them. At the end of the day, however it turns out, whether we become the most successful band in the world or we continue to rise at a slow pace or we can just continue to give our die-hands fans what they want, when it’s all said and done, the terms that I walk away on will be my own.
Metal Exiles: Showing your appreciation for the people who have already pledged was done by way of acknowledging them, one by one, in the “Filthy Heart” YouTube upload. This was an awesome gesture. What inspired you to do this?
Rick: Do you mean doing all the cool items for the pledge? Like I said, Adelita’s Way fans are a different breed. It’s not like these pop bands that just come and go. We have a core of fans that appreciate us and the work we put in and everything we do. It’s almost like a cult of friends. We see people we’ve met at our shows. They become friends and they meet at our shows and ten or twelve people go out together after an Adelita’s Way concert and it’s the best night of their month or their year. We want to make sure that everyone knows that we see them. We see each and every one of you that supports us. We don’t just take the money and run. We don’t just have a blind eye to how we’ve gotten here. Whenever you pledge, we want everyone to know that we appreciate you guys for giving us the opportunity to tell the record labels to fuck off and release music when we want because if fans didn’t show up, we’d be in a much worse position. Every time a fan comes out to our show and every time a fan buys a t-shirt from an event or our pledge, it’s one more step in a direction that we can show everyone that we can do whatever we want and that nothing is impossible. It’s a great feeling to be able to go and release records when you want man, and tour when you want and do things when you feel like doing it.
Metal Exiles: What direction is Adelita’s Way going with the fourth album? What is fueling the writing right now?
Rick: The same thing that always fuels my writing, you know; life. It’s funny because people always ask why “Stuck” sounded so different from “Home School Valedictorian”. It’s like “Of course it does”. We are constantly trying to use our influences that we grew up on and we’re constantly trying to challenge ourselves as a band. I don’t want to make the same record. I can make “Home School Valedictorian” every single time but the bottom line is that we want to really try to carve our own sound out and continue to grow. When you hear Adelita’s Way on the radio, you’ll know who it is and on this fourth album we’re trying to be excellent just like we were on the third album and on the second album. We’re trying to be the best we’ve ever been. I’m writing about what I see in life, the things that electrocute my brain from the earth and the energy. That’s how I’ve done it since day one and on every single song I’ve written. I remember the very first song I wrote. I was laying on the floor and I was thinking about my family and I got like a signal that just went right into my brain and it was a melody and a lyric and that’s how I’ve written every single Adelita’s Way song. I get struck at times with melodies and lyrics and that means something to me. I run with that. Then, also, we try to feed off of each other. You know Nirvana, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, these bands get together and they jam and they come out with great songs. That’s how their legacies were built. We get together and we jam. We react off of each other. I’ve been playing with my drummer for eight years and my guitar player for five years. We get into the room together and he starts playing a riff or my drummer starts playing a drum beat, I react; we react and that’s how “Filthy Heart” came about. It was us in a room reacting off each other and the emotions of what we’d just gone through. We’d just got off of a tour that we were just really disrespected on and we didn’t feel good about it so when we got together to jam, we all let that out.
Metal Exiles: What is your take on the music scene in general with the whole theory behind rock being dead and the reactions people have had to that statement? Do you think it will remain healthy enough to support bands and labels with the new way of doing things?
Rick: Let me tell you about the Gene Simmons comment. A lot of the things that Gene said are right. He said that a band today will never have the chance to be what “KISS” became. He’s right because we never had a shot. We never had a chance from the label. We never had a chance from the media. I remember when our record company sent every one of our singles to TV, to Jimmy Kimmel, to Jimmy Fallon, the answer was always the same “Oh, we’re not doing rock and roll right now”. Let’s talk Top 40. When was the last Top 40 song that had guitars in it? Maybe Shinedown in 2012 had a Top 40 hit that rocked. You know what I mean? Think about that. That was 2011 or 2012. That’s three or four years ago and since then zero bands crossing over from rock to the popular charts. There’s no band taking over. If you look right now on the Top 40 chart, all Taylor Swift and One Direction, you know. It’s all boy bands and pop music and EDM so Gene Simmons says a lot of things that are correct. Back in the day, record labels would push the button on a band like KISS and they would put em’ on MTV and they would put em’ all over every radio station. They would put em’ on late night TV. We never even had a smidge of that and a lot of bands didn’t. It’s not just us, it’s a whole plethora of bands. I could name a hundred bands right now that work hard and that are as good as anything that’s out in the world right now but they’re just getting no love because they’re rock bands, so again, a lot of things Gene said were right. Now do I think rock is completely dead? No because I think it’s underground. I think he’s using the wrong words. I think he needs to say rock and roll has become indie and underground. You have to sneak into a dingy bar or a music venue to get blasted in the face with rock guitars nowadays. It’s not the biggest and coolest thing to do. You gotta sneak out and go to a rock show and not tell your friends. It’s just a different game now. It’s like something that you’re doing that feels even a little naughty, like “oh my God, I’m at this rock show and I’m smoking a joint in the back and no one knows”. It’s like that’s what it feels like. It’s a rebellion, we’re the rebellious ones. Everyone nowadays can be found being hipsters and playing banjos and living life like it’s happy go lucky but not all of us have that mentality.
Metal Exiles: Stuck was released last year on vinyl and you are doing the next one on vinyl as well. What is your opinion of music resurging on vinyl these days?
Rick: I’m not gonna lie, I’m not gonna sit here and talk about the resurgence of vinyl. We made vinyl because we felt like it. We didn’t know if it was gonna impact us dramatically. We don’t sell so many vinyls that I think it’s changed the game. I’m gonna be honest with you, we made vinyl because when we made “Stuck”, we believed we made something that sounded like a classic sounding album. We believed we made a record that could withstand the test of time, even though it didn’t get the love or the reviews or whatever from the critics. We were on a different edge with our music. That record was influenced by The Bee Gees and The Beatles and Zeppelin and The Eagles and bands like Nirvana. I mean all these bands that today people just don’t even know who they are or don’t even think they’re cool, so, yeah, we made a record that could be timeless and classic and kids today and people today just didn’t connect with it, with the tones and the sound that we did. We put it on vinyl because we felt like it had to be on vinyl but vinyl isn’t changing our lives. We don’t sell that many vinyl records. We sell enough to want to keep making em’. Streaming is the way. Everyone is gonna stream. Spotify, Beats Music, I mean, streaming is the future, it is now. We’re not gonna fight it. The only thing we ask our fans is that if you’re gonna stream our music, buy a t-shirt or go to a show. If you’re gonna stream our music, yeah, buy a ticket to the show. That’s all we ask. We know you’re not going to buy the record. We know iTunes is about to go away. Putting our record in Best Buy doesn’t even sound like a worthy option anymore financially so if people are gonna stream our music, we’re cool with that. Go ahead and stream it but we’re not getting paid off of the streams. We get nothing. For a million streams, I get a check for fifteen bucks. If you’re gonna stream our music, come check us out live and see if you like it.
Metal Exiles: Do you see a summer of full on touring or just concentrating on the next album?
Rick: Summer is gonna be full on touring. We’re going out May 26th, I can’t announce the dates and the tours that we’re doing yet but we are going out May 26th with a band and we’re gonna hit the whole United States. We’re gonna headline right after that in July. May, June and July, we’re gonna be out playing. We’re gonna be headlining on tour and then we’re gonna go back and record the record in August. We’re writing the record right now and we’re gonna finish writing it so we can record it after the tour.
Connect With Adelita’s Way:
Website: http://www.adelitaswaymusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adelitasway
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adelitasway
Instagram: https://instagram.com/adelitasway
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/adelitasway
Watch their video for “I Get Around” here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGGIk0_Jj_4&sns=em
Visit their PledgeMusic site to help support the band @ http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/adelitasway