INTERVIEW: Indie Alternative Rock Band Adam’s Nest

Adam’s Nest consists of Răzvan Nicolae Rusu (vox & guitar), Vlad Alui Gheorghe (guitar & vox), Gabriel Belcescu (bass), and Andrei Hâncu (drums). Adam’s Nest appeared in 2017 in Iași, first as an acoustic-experimental project with no high hopes. In April 2018, after their debut with the eponymous EP, the band started growing, recruiting new members, putting on their new shoes and was ready to make the giant leap to the main stage. Their debut album will be launched in May 2020.

1. How long have you been performing and recording as Adam’s Nest and have any of you had any formal training?

Adam’s Nest: We started in August 2017 as a duo, as we’ve thought it was more comfortable this way. In 2019 we hooked up with a drummer and a bassist as we’ve started getting bigger gigs. None of us has a professional music background, although we’ve been playing music for ten years in other projects.

2. For our readers who haven’t heard of you yet, can you tell us anything about the band you’d want us to know? Who have been your major influences in your writing style?

Adam’s Nest: We are an indie-alternative rock band from Romania (https://www.facebook.com/adamsnestt/) that tries to make it to the big scene and make it out the iron curtain. It’s not easy as an Eastern European band to make it happen. We all have day jobs and highly domestic family lives, but we manage to offer the band a good part of our time, ninety percent that is. Being four members, there are four different visions that collide, and most times, we end up fighting. And sometimes we write music. Bands that influenced us? Kings of Leon and Pearl Jam can be heard in our music, while Oasis and Blur guitar riffs are almost always present.

3. With the music industry always changing and evolving, what are the things you like and don’t like about it? What aspects of the industry do you feel can hurt or help your career today? If you could change anything about how the industry works, what would it be?

Adam’s Nest: There are advantages when being a small band-you have a certain degree of independence. We think the music industry right now is sacrificing some artists, shaping people in such a way they fit current trends, this being an aspect we don’t like. The positive thing about the current music industry is that it’s easier to be heard, more accessible than ever. At the same time, this comes with disadvantages: there are a lot of artists trying to get there, that are willing to do anything it takes. Aspects that can hurt are mostly related to music production- it’s harder for bands to make it big while producing themselves when compared to artists that work with different producers. We would make it easier for bands to work with producers it might help them find their voice.

4. When you write any new music, can you tell us what the process is like? Describe to us what happens in a typical writing session? Which of the members do what during this process?

Adam’s Nest: Usually, Razvan comes up with a guitar theme (most of the times on the acoustic guitar) to which Vlad adds different riffs. After that is done, we meet with the others, put the parts together, blending them into a song.

5. Where do you do most of your recording and production work? And do you outsource any or all of these processes?

Adam’s Nest: Our drummer owns a recording studio, and our bassist is the one responsible for our recordings, so we can say we’re pretty lucky. We never tried outsourcing any of the processes because we did not have to, being able to do it on your own worked better for us.

6. Studio work and music creation, or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer, and which do you think is more important for you today?

Adam’s Nest: One hundred percent live performance. Studio work would be in vain without concerts. The crowd needs to feel the raw vibe that comes from the stage.

7. What is your favorite part about this line of work? Your least favorite? Why?

Adam’s Nest: We love to write music, we love to perform, but we hate to travel long hours to gigs, and we believe we are not the only ones in this situation.

8. Is there a particular song in your upcoming album or in your past tracks on which you feel you’ve delivered your most perfect performance, technically and emotionally? And is there maybe one song that you keep thinking you should have done differently in some way?

Adam’s Nest: There is one song – it’s called Stockholm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4UqRB8maPM), it was our first single, and it has the beauty of being clumsy here and there, not at all perfect in the usual way, with the garage-rock feel, a song that traveled to radio stations in more than 20 countries all over the world. The same song, listened today, feels like it needs an intervention, but we are not willing to break the magical spell.

9. What do you consider as the essential elements of your music? What do you think gives Adam’s Nest its distinctive sound.

Adam’s Nest: To be fair, we think our sound is mostly based on the electric guitar riffs drenched in reverb and delay combined with the frequent use of falsetto. This, and the non-musical parts we deliver live when every show becomes a story with a lot of jokes and improvised sections.

10. Vinyl records, cassettes, CDs or downloads? Which do you ultimately prefer and why? 

Adam’s Nest: We launched one EP in 2018, and we mainly promoted it online. At one point, there were some CDs made, but the public nowadays prefers the ‘music to-go,’ and we are sticking to Bandcamp (https://adamsnest.bandcamp.com/), Spotify and Apple Music for the upcoming album. If all goes well, maybe we’ll do some CDs and Vinyls just for the sake of it.

11. What are currently some of the most important tools and/or instruments you’re using in creating your sound?

Adam’s Nest: We try our best to be as analog as we can. If there’s an instrument we need, we will try to find someone to play with us, instead of using a backing track. Delivering a complete live performance is the most important thing, and the public knows and loves this.

12. So far, out of all your songs, which was the most difficult track to record the way you wanted, and why?

Adam’s Nest: There is one song from the upcoming album that is not that complicated when you listen to it, but it was a burden for us. It’s a manifest against unfair work, against the modern-day exploitation of the young workers in any field.

13. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as purely an expression of technical and poetical artistry and entertainment?

Adam’s Nest: There were lots of examples when music played an essential role in delivering political messages, and we firmly believe that it can make quite an impact. As it is for us, we tried writing some rebel songs, but every time we were carried away and forgot why we were so angry.

14. If you had a choice to go on tour with any acclaimed international band, which tour would you pick and why?

Adam’s Nest: This is a tough one because it is to list all the bands we love, this interview will have five or six pages extra. Musically speaking, we would be fit and extremely grateful to open for a band like Foo Fighters.

15. Do you consider Internet and all the social media websites as fundamental in building a career in music today, and what is your personal relationship with the new technology at hand?

Adam’s Nest: Social media is a vital tool today. Without it, we would have been a small band from Eastern Europe that toured only in Romania with a max of 30 concerts per year. Having this immense tool helped us to reach places we never thought we could.

16. How essential do you think video is in relation to your music? Do you have a video you would suggest fans see, to get a better understanding of your craft?

Adam’s Nest:  The music videos are the next level for bands in general, and we say that because nowadays music became more ‘portable,’ and through streaming services like Spotify or Soundcloud, there is no need for video, but having it anyways-on Youtube is a fantastic feeling.

17. What is the best piece of advice regarding the music business that you actually followed so far, and what is the advice you didn’t follow, but now know for sure that you should have?

Adam’s Nest: The one we followed – ‘You are always as good as your last show/album’, and the one should have – Never walk on a stage drunk…

18. How is Covid-19 affecting Adam’s Nest and its members? Do you still manage to interact and work on music?

Adam’s Nest: It’s hard for everybody, but we are trying our best to stay sane. We are quite lucky because we’ve recorded our whole album in January and February, and now we are working on the finishing touches. We interact through video calls, and we refused to play music online.

19. What would you consider a successful, proud or high point in Adam’s Nest endeavors so far?

Adam’s Nest: The summer of 2019 was pretty amazing, with concerts and festivals almost every weekend from May to October. Thousands of hours on the road, hundreds of gas stations visited, we laughed, we cried, we went crazy, but we managed to make it the best summer of our lives.

20. Do you have a specific musical vision that you want to realise during 2020?

Adam’s Nest: We want to release our first album. In the current global situation, we think if we can pull that off and play some gigs in big cities afterward, then we can say it was a good year.

STREAMS: BANDCAMP – SOUNDCLOUD – SPOTIFY – YOUTUBE
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