It Kind of Depends on How Much I’ve Had to Drink

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer

Adam Stephens, half of the Indie folk rock duo Two Gallants, is headlining the Aquarium Monday night, August 9, in support of his upcoming solo debut ‘We Live on Cliffs’.

With his first single ‘The Cities That You’ve Burned’ available for free download at http://adamhstephens.com/, Stephens is well on his way to forging an intimate and emotional bond with fans and critics alike with words so personal they’re universal.

I spoke with Stephens from his home in California and while it wasn’t the easiest interview I’ve ever done it was certainly one of the most honest.

High Plains Reader Can you start by telling me about your musical history?

Adam Stephens: I guess my history as far as performing kind of started when I was in high school, just playing in coffee shops and stuff like that. I was sort of obsessed with the whole 60’s folk movement and all those people and I was kind of young and naïve and went and did it myself in some ways. I used to go to open-mikes and stuff like that in high school when I could get the night out, get permission to go out for the night from my parents. Then I tried to go to college for a second and didn’t really have any interest in it. I ended up playing music with my friend Tyson [Vogel] and we started a band, Two Gallants, and toured incessantly for like seven years or something…and then I started doing this. That’s where I’m at.

HPR: How long have you been pursuing your solo career?

AS: I guess about a year and a half. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do. At first I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to do it. I was all acoustic and then I realized that I wanted to be loud and got more and more people to play with me, so it took time to get to a place where I felt comfortable with it and feel like it’s finally there, you know?

HPR: You mentioned ‘incessant touring’. Does that have something to do with why you decided to do your own thing for awhile?

AS: No, not at all. I mean, I’m about to go on tour for a long time. This trip through September and then October and November, two months straight. It’s not the touring at all. I actually love to tour, that’s the only way that you can play every night. I get, I don’t know, a little lost if I’m not playing music all the time. I definitely love to tour. It’s just that my other band is a two-piece and we just kind of like drove ourselves into the ground. I think we both needed a break and we wanted to do something else, another outlet for our brains.

HPR: Can you tell me about how you write your music?

AS: Yeah, I can try. There isn’t like a method to it. Each song has its own demands, I guess. Sometimes they only take an hour, sometimes they take weeks and weeks. Most of the songs on the record that’s coming out in the fall [“We Live on Cliffs”] …I actually had like fifteen songs going in and most of the ones that didn’t make the record were older and ones that did make the record came together at the last minute. I kind of enjoy doing it that way, writing under pressure.
HPR: Do you have a particular place you prefer to play?

AS: I don’t know. There are certain towns that I really like but I don’t know if that has much to do with the shows or people that come out. On the west coast I’ve always really liked [a town] in Washington. I don’t even know why…I like the lifestyle there, I guess. I also really, really like the south, the Deep South, mostly because of the history. I used to be obsessed with southern history. I haven’t toured for a couple of years so I really look forward to going everywhere.

HPR: Do you play Europe much?

AS: Yeah. Tyson and I go to Europe a lot and I think we were actually far more popular over there than we were in America at first. We toured there probably seven or eight times.

HPR: How about influences, favorite music.

AS: I don’t know, it kind of goes through different cycles. Right now I’ve been listening to a lot of British folk music. I don’t have influences constantly going – they’re in flux at all times. Right now I’m listening to this record by a guy named Ralph McTell called “Not Till Tomorrow” which I’m liking a lot.

HPR: What kind of show do you put on?

AS: It’s a mind blowing extravaganza of rock (giggled). I have no idea (we both giggled). I guess it kind of depends on how much I’ve had to drink, how long I’ve been driving that day, or something like that. I try to have as much fun as possible. I really enjoy playing music and music can be very healing, very uplifting for a lot of people like it is for me. Pretty much every time I’m playing, as long as it’s not to a room with everyone’s back turned, I’m enjoying myself. I don’t consider myself an entertainer like in the old song and dance kind of style but I do like to have fun and for people to enjoy themselves as much as possible.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

If You Go

What: Adam Stephens, Riesage
Where: The Aquarium
When: Mon, Aug 9, 10pm
Info: 701.235.5913