Chris Adler - Lamb of God

June 30 2009 (Trabendo - Paris)

It's in his own tour bus that Lamb Of God's very skilled drummer Chris Adler welcome us, smiling and answering with real interest to our questions. At last, we're going to be able to attend one of their show in Paris, France, after the cancellation at the HELLFEST 2007 and of the upcoming show in Nîmes, opening for Metallica.

Fab : You already have conquered the american market. The sold-out show tonight in Paris means you're going to get us Europeans too?
Chris Adler: (laughter) Well, I Think, I don't know if we've conquered anything, but we've certainly become quite a big band in the U.S., and we worked very hard for that. And now, with the new record label (ndlr: Roadrunner for Europe) that is finally doing the right thing across Europe, I think we have a chance here as well. And of course, tonight being our first sold-out show in Paris, we're flattered. It's not arena yet but it keeps us very humble, and we know we have work to do but it's great. I can't wait to play tonight, I love this city.

Fab: And we were waiting for you. Any tips about tonight set-lists?
Chris Adler: Because of the new label, because they've done a good job with the new record "Wrath", we're going to focus a lot on the material from it.

Fab :A word about the very disappointing cancellation of your gig with Metallica in Nîmes?
Chris Adler: It is (looking very disappointed, trying to stay cool), I couldn't be more disappointed, that's one of the most beautiful places to play, I was looking forward to that more than any other show on the tour. But, I know they wanted to do a DVD, it makes a little bit easier for them if nobody is on the way so…What can I say? I would have loved to play, I'm glad that we've been able to find a show in Lyon, and I'm looking forward to play that show as well.

Fab: Your latest album "Wrath" is for me is really different from, let's say "Ashes of the wake" and "Sacrament". It sounds more mature as you've mastered the often very difficult link between musical violence and melody? Do you agree with this?
Chris Adler: I do! I think we have, individually and as a band, I think we've all become much more confident in ourselves, in our playing, and also…but we're still very hungry to continue to learn, and for me, specifically on this record, on "Ashes of the wake" and "Sacrament" the two you've mentioned, I felt like they're very good representations of my drumming, and you can hear the cool little things that I'm doing, and I was very proud of those records, but I felt like they are very similar, and I wanted to push very hard this time to do something difficult for me. In areas that I was not good on those records, not bad but just not my strong points, so, the one thing in listening to those records is, what I can tell, is that for me personally, I thought that I could do more with my hands, on the toms, on the drum-kit.

So I focused on bringing that into this record, and rehearsing. I think everyone in the band has begun to understand what they're very good at and what they need to work on, and we pushed each other to work on those things to make it even more balanced. The same with song writing, we know, now after 15 years of being a band, maybe a little bit more how to do that well, to accentuate everyone's strong points in the band. So yeah, I agree, it's a bit of a maturing.

Fab: And the voice of Randy is fuckin'awesome, he covers a larger spectrum.
Chris Adler: Yeah, I think (in) every album, he's trying to not completely change but to add a new character if you will. Something…a new weapon in his bag of tricks.

Fab: I Love the artwork, the drawings of "Wrath". Is there a chance to see one day a comic book about the lyrics and your music?
Chris Adler: Wouah! That's a very cool idea. Well, we haven't thought of it but thank you for giving us the idea (laughter).

Fab: You're welcome (laughter).
Chris Adler: I think, Randy (Blythe - lead vocals) is actually very good friend with several comic book illustrators and writers. I think that could be very cool. The original artwork was for the plagues, and this was before the final lyrics obviously, since the lyrics don't have to do much with plagues (now) but, it is really a beautiful package and we work with the same guy Ken (Adams) on all of the albums, and he works very closely, he had… he never comes up with the stuff in the dark. We send him the music, you know, and this is what he's listening to while he's beginning to put this thing together. And we had this title in mind that we wanted to call the album "Wrath". So this is one of the seven deadly sins, and he kind of went with that, and worked with this kind of, more of an Egyptian slant and these kinds of things. So, for us it was really cool. It's fun to work with him because he's such a creative guy. And we feel like we're working with a real professional.

Fab: Drumming wise, you have a special way of put the hard-hitting style with a real definite groove? How do you achieve that? Do you work especially for that? Do you listen to different kinds of music to find an odd inspiration?
Chris Adler: Wouah. I do listen to some things outside of metal. One of my favourite band right now is a band from Holland called The Gathering which was kind of a melodic speed metal band but they're kind of a mellow band now. I'm listening to some jazz, different things like that, but I think the groove for me has always been the most important part of metal. The bands that I loved the best in metal always had that kind of groove. And, as much as I love you know, the faster stuff and things like this, I think when you chase just the idea of speed, it's very hard to write a song. And for me, I want to be able to, I wanna feel the song, not dance but being able to headbang to the song and understand the beat, understand the riff, where everything's not 800 miles an hour and you don't know what's going on. It's amazing that guys can do that stuff, but that's not always the best thing to do. So for me, it's an important part of the song, to have something that makes people move.

Fab: What do you say if I tell you that, for me that playing the way you do, you're putting your brand on this band, like Mike Portnoy's drumfills are doing in Dream Theater? Drumfills are getting recognizable like guitar riffs! And it's far more difficult to do.
Chris Adler: Well I think, in my playing …I didn't start playing drums until I was 21, and I played guitar and bass up until then. So when I sat down first to play drums, I never thought of playing the drums as giving a beat to the guitar player. I always look at the drums as...the guitar player has a riff and he comes in, and I look at my drum-kit and I say "what's my riff?" you know? Not just back him up, I want to kind of meet him in the middle, and when these two things are to meet properly, it elevates, it's better than either one of them individually, right?

So, I like to work with them and not just to support them. And yeah, I think Mike is right with exactly that, and I always thought the drums and the drummers…the good drummers that I respect were always recognizable part of the band: they were doing something that, without them, the band would still be probably good, but it wasn't the same, you know? They offered a good personality behind the drums and I hope to be able to offer that to this band.

Fab: Speaking about drums, what is your personal musical background? I mean, did you go through music schools or something?
Chris Adler: No, I have some… when I was a young boy, my mother was a piano teacher, classical piano teacher, so I got 8 years of piano lessons from her when I was very young. And from there, I found rock'n'roll, and I bought a guitar, and I was listening to Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, etc…so by the time I picked up the drums, I was listening to The Police and Megadeth, all kind of different things and everything in between, The Beastie Boys, Slayer, all kind of different stuff. So, there was not…I never took lessons or any training but I think (that) listening to so many different things and being inspired by different kinds of music has helped me (to) not just copy metal beats but try to bring in different things.

Fab: A word about the fact that you've been nominated for the Guitar Hero Smash Hits awards?
Chris Adler: I heard that there was something, some kind of drumfill award or something? But there's no drumfills in the song!(general laughter). So, I don't know. I'm flattered, it's cool that someone recognize me in a guitar game for an award, that's pretty good, I guess I'm doing something right (burst of laughter).

Fab: This year was the 2009 edition of the HELLFEST, the French festival. What souvenirs have you in mind about the cancellation you've suffered in 2007, and about the fact that after Korn decided to do their "rock stars" and cancelled their own show because of the rain, everybody in the audience were screaming your name for you to replace them?
Chris Adler: Really? (seemed very surprised). No one has ever told us this.

Fab: Seriously.
Chris Adler: Wouah.

Fab: Apparently there was a technical problem, it was too late for a replacement.
Spirit: Your name was called during all the afternoon, and when Korn left, at about 6 p.m., but we didn't know if you were still there.
Chris Adler: Yeah, the promoter came and told us that he would have to cancel us. We were there very early, and waiting and waiting and waiting. And something kind of generator behind the stage caught on fire, and then the wind picked up, and the stage was gonna blow from side to side…there were tractors pushing the mud out of the way and (laughter). So they cancelled us. There were maybe 4 or 5 bands before the time we were supposed to go on, and one by one, we watch them start to cross'em off the list, the promoters crossing'em off the list, and we were hoping and hoping that we were get to play. And when they cross us off the list, we were really disappointed. Here in France, we've had a very hard time breaking into the market. And it is a very important place for us to do the small work, right? The club shows, these kind of things, that's important. So when we had this spot on this big festival here, we were very very happy because we were gonna get a great audience and probably a lot of people hearing us for the first time. So it was a great opportunity for us. It's very unfortunate that we lost that opportunity, so I certainly hope that we're invited back again, it was not our fault, and we still love to play.

Fab: Fun question: I asked the same question to Mike Spreitzer of DEVILDRIVER. Between his band and LOG, who can claim to have created the world's largest circle pit?
Chris Adler: (burst of laughter). Well, I think that… I don't know how many LAMB OF GOD shows you've seen but we get some really great circle pit going on. I've seen DEVILDRIVER many times, we've bring them on tour with us very often in the States, because they're good guys and they're fun, and we have a good time. The crowd have a very good time with both of our shows. I've seen their circle pit and they're big, and our circle pit are big too. Maybe what they don't have that we have, is this…we don't try to make it happen, but every show, there is this crazy "wall of death - braveheart" thing on our song "Black Label". So I think that maybe they try that sometimes, but we don't even try that and that happens, so…maybe we have one advantage (laughter).

Fab: You and your brother Willie seem very cool and zen guys. How did you end up playing metal where guy have to be angry?
Chris Adler: Yeah. I think that if we did not play metal, we would probably be jerks. So I think that playing and letting everything out in the music, that keeps us all… everybody is kind of hippie in this band you know? But I think if we didn't play we would probably be a bunch of dicks (laughter).

Fab: I know that you're probably the guy in the band who's the most involved in LOG. In your spare time, do you still do things only revolving around LOG?
Chris Adler: Yes. Other then, my wife and I recently had a baby girl named kensie.

Fab: Congratulations.
Chris Adler: Thank You. So now that has become a very good part of my life obviously. Outside of her and making sure that she's safe and fed, yeah, it's all LAMB OF GOD. It's really important to me to be a part of this band. Maybe we'll never become the biggest band in the world, there's probably no hall of fame in our future, but, if we can leave behind a legacy of a good talented hard-working rock band that didn't sell out, that's important to me. And at the end of the day, when I'm done, when I put her to bed, and when I sit on my porch and look back at everything we've done, I want to be very proud of the decisions we've made. So, that's the goal right now.

Fab Do you still go to your rehearsal studio with your bike?
Chris Adler: Yes, I've had two bikes but they've been both stolen from my house in Richmond (Virginia) which is, kind of a crime filled area. Not actually right here but the city in general. So I keep buying bikes, but I think the record has to do better here in France for me to buy a bike, over here…No, I'm kidding (laughter). I do have a bike and I ride it everywhere, yeah.

Fab: Will you do someday a show at Vatican city?
Chris Adler: Vatican city? (smiling) You know, I was thinking today when we went down to Notre Dame in Paris, I thought "why can't we play here? LAMB OF GOD at Notre Dame??" (laughter). Why not? Paper view!! (general laughter). Vatican city? I don't know, I think we might just burst into flames if we got in here!

Fab: In your "Set To Fail" video, you're surrounded by crazy headbanging fans, was it not hard for you to play amongst them?
Chris Adler: It was not hard, no, no, no. It reminded me of… the idea was to be similar to our early days in the band when we played at parties and everything. Many of those parties were just like that, people falling into the drumkit, and you know, knocking people around…That's how we started so we're still used to that kind of things.

Fab: A last word for those who don't know LAMB OF GOD yet?
Chris Adler: Well, if you're into heavy metal bands that are hard to categorize but will make you bang your head and slam your friends around, check out some LAMB OF GOD!