Story Of The Year

From the highs of a near platinum selling debut to being discarded by their label, Story Of The Year have seen the best and worst that the music industry has to offer.

Two weeks out from their third tour down under, bass player Adam answered the following questions for us…

Interview w/ Adam (Bass) Story

Of The Year (US)

By Cameron Chambers 

Hey man, how are you today? 

Good man, how are you? 

Fine thanks mate. Where

are you calling from at the moment? 

Los Angeles, just chilling

in my apartment.  

Are you in between tours

at the moment? 

Right in between actually.

In about thirty hours we head over to Europe.

How have the crowds on your

“The Black Swan”? 

Really well! I think everyone’s

really enjoying the new record and um, I think it’s lived up to the

expectations of everyone. 

I read in a recent interview

Do you think you successfully achieved that? 

Yeah, I think we pulled it

off. I think um, having a year pretty much to write a record definitely

gave us plenty of time to hone in on our best qualities as a band…

and I think we did that. 

“In The Wake Of Determination”

album? 

I think the only thing, and

I’m not one to regret anything, but the only thing we didn’t have

on the last record was enough time. We rushed it a little bit and I

think we had a lot of factors that made the record not sell as well

as we’d like. 

But on the level of what I’d

like to do differently I just would have liked more time. 

What do you think it was

about “Page Avenue” that made it such a success? 

I think the songs were definitely

accessible and we had written a certain kind of song at that time. Songs

like “Until The Day I die” were easy on the ears, which is a good

thing… they had that pop accessibility. 

At the same time there was

a lot of good timing as well. Everything fell into place with that record

as far as timing went. Getting added to certain radio stations and getting,

you know, things just happened. Right when “Day I Die” was blowing

up we got onto a Linkin Park tour so it just fell into place

on that scenario as well. 

For those that are un-aware,

the band might struggle to go on? 

Um, we definitely had some

not so positive feelings floating around but I dunno, I don’t think

any of us were in the position to give up at all. We had at that point,

and still have so much left to say as a band musically, so it definitely

wasn’t the time to quit. 

After we’d written all this

music for our next record, up until the point where we were dropped,

we decided there was no way we weren’t going to release it. We ended

up getting picked up by Epitaph and now we’re in a better place

than we ever were.  

Did it come as a shock that

to scoff at! 

Maverick actually folded as a label so it was more Warner’s decision

to let us go, because all of the Maverick bands were floating around in limbo after the label folded so we were

kind of on Warner’s plate.  

Even the bigger bands from Maverick, who I won’t name at this point - bands I thought Warner definitely should have picked up – had to showcase for Warner before they’d get re-signed. Just shit that I couldn’t

believe. If I was running Warner Brother’s there are certain

bands they let go that I’d definitely want on my label! 

How did you guys approach

the way you approached the record, both lyrically and musically? 

It definitely didn’t affect

the writing at all. It affected our game plan for the record as far

as the release and all that shit… we even thought about releasing

it on our own. As far as writing though, it was just the usual, we’d

go home and start writing. 

Some of the methods were a

little different so we explored everything but for the most part it

was just the usual… write too many songs and choose the best twelve.  

You guys recorded 4 of the

been there without him? 

Um, it’s hard to say but

we’re definitely really happy with the way it turned out. I’m glad

we decided to work with him on those songs because they are four great

songs.  

Do you think

given that you had 2 different producers working on it? 

I can definitely pick it apart

and you know, I see the differences in half a second… they’re right

there. But to the average listener I don’t think they’ll hear them.

Everyone I talk to so far is into it so I think it’s on an even plane.  

What was the band hoping

and fan response? 

Um, I think like you said,

we tried to bring both elements of both records in, which we pulled

off for sure. More than anything we wanted to kind of avoid following

any trends for the sake of being current or whatever. 

We just wanted to be ourselves

and that’s what we did. I think that’s the only way to be a musician.

If it’s your goal to make radio hits then you follow the trends but

if you’re just being a musician coz you love it then you just need

to be true to yourself. 

Your Australian tour kicks

off in a couple of weeks, what can your fans expect this time around? 

A lot of arse kicking! We’re

definitely going to do three or four new songs and its just going to

be a good time as usual! 

We just have a quick, final

5 questions that I’d like to run through if possible? 

Who are some bands that

you’re digging at the moment that you’d like people to check out? 

A band called Monty ARI.

They’re from Providence, Rhode Island and they’re just amazing and

they’re good friends of mine. 

There’s this girl group called The Pipettes. They write fifties pop music and it’s like listening

to an oldies station but it’s awesome. I got the new Goldfinger

record, which is awesome. He Is Legend is another band that I

love. They’re working on a new record and they’ve got a couple of

records out and they’re pretty bad arse.  

Oh yeah, old faithful Pantera and Metallica… always! 

Who do you prefer, the Olsen

twins or The Veronicas? 

Olsen twins. 

What’s the most ridiculous

thing you’ve done for a buck? 

You put me on the spot man.

Well, I was straight edge for four years and I drank a six pack of beers

for $250 US dollars, ha ha, and I haven’t been straight edge since.  

Any embarrassing tattoos? 

No, nothing too embarrassing. 

Finally, what’s your biggest

fear? 

It’s kind of a toss up man.

I don’t want to die, at all, ever! Coz I want to see things you know,

just see things happen. I’m not afraid of dying per se, I’m just

afraid of not living and seeing things.  

That’s all we have time

for mate, is there anything else you’d like to add? 

Just uh, buy the record coz

it’ll kick your arse!