Hello adam. How are you?
Amazing, how are you?
Not quite amazing, but I’m glad to hear you are.
You should be amazing.
Why?
Well, I don’t know. Why not?
I’m a little sleepy. Glad to have you on the phone. How’s it going?
It’s going AMAZING. I thought I said that already. I’m amazing. It’s going great.
How do you pronounce your last name?
It’s Bravin (long A).
Where did the 12 come from?
That comes from, I’m a DJ. And I’ve been a DJ for a really long time, and like, you know, a lot of DJ’s like to have DJ names. So I used to have a DJ name that I hated. So one day I was with a group of friends and there was this kid named Truly Odd who was a DJ from Los Angeles who happened to be with them at the time. And we were trying to come up with a new DJ name for me and the turntables that are kind of the industry standard are called “Technic 1200s.” And playing off a police show from the 60s called “Adam 12,” Truly Odd thought it might be an interesting idea to call myself DJ Adam 1200. But I liked 12 better than 1200 so that’s where the name comes from.
What was the name that you hated?
Ahh. I hate even having to say it out loud. I had a nickname since I was a kid that was ‘Alphabet.’
Alphabet? So you were DJ Alphabet?
Yeah.
Were you good at spelling when you were a kid?
No, my initials are AB so like, kids used to call me ‘AB’ and somehow it turned into ‘ABC’ and then somehow that turned into ‘Alphabet.’
That’s not bad though, that’s pretty cool.
Yeah but, you know. When I was a kid it was cool.
So let’s talk about your current music a little bit. Why don’t you tell me, in your own words, what your music is, because I’ve heard endless comparisons and I’ve heard that you’re sick of getting those comparisons so I’m not going to say it. I just want to know what your music is about.
That is always the hardest question to answer, because I’ll be introduced to certain people that may or may not know that I’m in a band and they always say something like ‘Well, what is it like? What does it sound like?’ and I never really know what to say. The only answer I ever come up with that makes the most sense is that it’s dark and it’s dancy. I don’t really know how to explain it better than that.
Well the dark image that you have coming out of it, did you sort of cultivate that first or did that come out of the music?
I think it all came together at the same time, you know. There’s a lot of music that Justin and I share in common that we grew up listening to that tended to be a little on the darker side, as well as other types of music. But one thing that we definitely had in common in our musical vocabulary were certain darker bands and we’re both just really attracted to dark imagery, as well. As well as other imagery, again. Other stuff but you know, it all has to make sense, you know, and I guess the music came first and then you start thinking about once you actually realize you have to come up with imagery, which was something we didn’t think about in the beginning because we didn’t know really what we were doing or why we were doing it. We were just making music kind of for fun. But it all has to be cohesive and make sense and there are certain bands out there that do it well and there are certain bands that you see the imagery and you hear the music and you’re like ok that doesn’t make any sense. I think that all the visual stuff that we put out there just works. It’s very complimentary of the music.
I heard a little bit from somewhere on the internet that people were saying that the imagery was contrived or that you did it on purpose to evoke images of some of the earlier bands that you were influenced by. Is that true or totally false?
I think it’s more an of an homage. I mean, you know, everything’s been done kinda. I mean, how can you really come up with a new way to have the darker side of visuals and imagery and why not, you know, use things that have been influential in our lives and pay tribute to them and put our little twist on them. We don’t really pay much attention to what people say and their take on it. We’re much more interested in - people are going to like it or they’re not.
Well, clearly, it works for you because I think you sold 300,000 copies of your self-titled debut?
Something like that. I don’t even know.
So the number one for that was ‘Tear You Apart.’ And you got Joaquin Phoenix to direct. How did you manage to do that?
Joaquin has always kind of been around – some of our really good friends are really good friends of Joaquin. And Justin has known Joaquin indirectly for a number of years. And we were getting a lot of treatments from a lot of people for that song and they all pretty much sucked. People tend to, when people… want to do dark things and dark imagery and a lot of times it’s like ‘You guys are zombies and you have 20 foot arms and you are tearing these girls to shreds.’ A little too literal and a little too creepy. So, you know, it was really the fact that Joaquin, he had just directed a video for our friends, this band called ‘Ringside,’ so he was in contact with people at our label and he found out that we were looking for a treatment for that song and he called Justin and said, ‘You know what? I have this idea for a video for you guys.’ And he sent it over and we read it and we were like that’s it. A lot of people think that we went with Joaquin because he’s a celebrity or whatever but it was really because he had the best idea, and ended up being an amazing director. It just all worked out really well.
It sounds like an awesome experience.
It was.
So your second album is coming out October 9, it’s called ‘This is Forever.’ Tell me how it’s different from your first.
How it’s different, well, I think this album is a lot darker.
Is that possible?
It is. A lot of people say the first one was dark but I don’t really think it was that dark. I think that there’s a lot more hope and positive messages on the first record than people really gave it credit for having.
Are you speaking lyrically?
Lyrically, and even some of the music is on the darker side of things. Songs like ‘I don’t want to fall in love’ isn’t dark. Maybe lyrically it is, but like that music isn’t dark at all. I think, you know, we learned from being on the road the stuff that we could have done more of on the first record and I think that’s part of how the new record sounds. It’s definitely darker in tones, there’re darker themes, but we, you know, after having been on the road for a year and half, you become more evolved, not only as people but as musicians. And we had so many ideas wanting to get them all out from being on the road and not really having a chance to be in the studio that as soon as we got off tour we got into the studio and starting laying stuff down and, you know, I think we evolved as song writers…We wrote songs in new ways on this record. And I think people will hear that when they listen to it.
Would you say that you’re happier with one of them more so than the other?
You know, I can’t really compare them. They are both individual experiences. This is the first band I’ve ever been in and that was the first album I’ve ever been a part of making. There’s a lot of things on the first record that were so amazing that, you know, this time around, having become a little tiny bit better of a musician on the road, being able to express myself a little bit better through playing instruments, is more exciting to have some of these songs out there. I got to play bass a little bit more on this one, less keys. Well, same amount of keys, just more bass. It was funner writing songs this time.
You’re currently on tour now to promote the new album?
Not quite yet. I believe we leave on the sixth of October and we do a 6 week run in the States and then I think we go to Mexico for a couple of days right after that. Then we take off for the holidays and then we jump right back in in January.
And for our local readers, have you been to Chicago before?
Yeah.
Do you like it?
I just had this conversation last night, where I was explaining my favorite places in the United States, and Chicago is one of them.
How come?
It’s always - it’s a combination of - the people re always really really cool. The sushi was really good. Just the experiences of all of our shows in Chicago were always really great. We were fortunate enough to be invited to Lollapalooza last year so we got to see that side of Chicago, so a lot more people. The vibe of the city is just amazing.
Do you have any particular places that you like to be?
Everytime we go I go to this sushi place called Blue Fin. It’s in Wicker Park, I think. It’s where a bunch of streets come together.
So you said this is your first band and your first album that you really produced. So many people go through so many different bands and albums before they get successful if they do at all. Do you think you’re already a success and how did you do it so quickly?
I’m not quite sure what the word success means. I think everybody has their own definition of it. I’ve produced a lot of stuff over the years, and I’m a DJ for a long time. And I think that everything that I had done up until Justin and I hooking up was just a learning experience and preparing me musically and mentally for what Justin and I created with the first record. I think it was just really a lot of things. Watching other bands, how they do things. People, in general, how they do things. I think it was just everything happens when it’s meant to happen and I think it was meant to happen at that time.
Do you have any advice for someone that’s writing their own stuff, hasn’t produced it yet, wants to get to where you are?
I don’t know where we are. I think that advice that I always give when asked this question is come from the heart. I think when you think about it too much, that’s when, - I think every type of artist has to be as close to the truth as possible. I think that’s the best stuff.
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Written by Guest on 2007-11-15 18:47:59
She Wants Revenge kicks @$$!!!  |
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