Off The Record with Adelitas Way
Adelitas Way have been a trailing rock force since hitting the scene with their 2009 self-titled debut album. From small club venues in North America to thousands of devoted fans in arenas and festivals across the world. Adelitas Way are on tour with The Stir & Stone Broken in support of Fozzy’s headlining Judas Rising Tour. We caught up with Andrew Cushing of Adelitas Way to discuss touring, rock music’s future and the Judas Rising Tour.
OTR: Andrew from Adelitas Way, thank you for joining us, how is your day so far here in St. Louis?
AW: It’s been nice, it’s been a great day out. The shows the past few days have been hot but its perfect here.
OTR: How do you guys prepare for a summer tour like this? I imagine driving from town to town on hot days the AC doesn’t want to work while you make your way throughout this tour.
AW: We have a lot of experience with summer tours, we just pack like we’re going on summer vacation and thankfully our vans AC is up to date.
OTR: At this point you guys are veterans at touring so what are the things you look forward to on tour and what is it you don’t look forward to?
AW: The thing I don’t like about touring is lack of sleep, being on the road is a little bit harder than most people might think. It’s not always partying and playing, it’s a lot of driving and waiting around so you have to stay up for that for when you have to go up on stage. My favorite part is visiting cities I’ve gotten to know well and places I’ve never been before, experiencing new things and getting in touch with the scene and the city that I visit.
OTR: With your music, you have a distinct rock sound that separates you from other bands. What advice would you give to rock bands who are coming up in this digital age?
AW: It’s really tough now, like we were talking about earlier before we started the interview about radio not doing so well. It’s definitely tougher for new bands but I would say stay focused on social media, that’s a big thing, YouTube is alright for exposure and work with getting your stuff on Spotify, Apple Music. That’s really the future as far as I can tell and everybody has that so everybody is gonna have your music in their pocket whether they want to listen to it or not. You just have to promote yourself.
OTR: Now this next question might be subjective but do you think Rock ‘n’ Roll is dead or is it taking a break?
AW: I go through phases with my thinking on that, I’ve said that it’s dying before but right now it’s in flux. There’s a lot of new bands coming out, 12 Foot Ninja, Greta Van Fleet. Rock may not be popular in the mainstream but it’s still going strong I feel like, especially our shows at least, there’s more people every time we play, we’ve headlined more than we ever have in the past 2 years than in our whole career and we feel pretty good about rock. I don’t think it’s dying at all.
OTR: What do you expect from these club shows and the intimate spaces as opposed to the big shows you’re used to?
AW: I’ll tell you what man, I expect them to have a good time. It doesn’t matter if there is 10,000 people there or just 10 you know, have fun. Thats why we play, we play for you to have fun and enjoy the music maybe discover something you’ve never seen before and that’s just what it’s all about.
OTR: After Notorious, your last record, when is your next record coming? Have you begun writing?
AW: We haven’t started writing yet but we’re working on a lot by ourselves and we’re gonna start collaborating later this year. Maybe record by January or March if we have time and hopefully we’ll have a record out by the end of next summer next year.
OTR: What are your favorite songs to play live? For the shows on this tour what are you looking forward to playing?
AW: I’m more fond of the heavier stuff, that’s just the way I grew up but I do like playing the softer songs a little more sometimes. “Good Die Young” is one of my favorite songs to play, “Sick”, “Still Hungry” is a new favorite and our newest single, I love playing that one.
OTR: How do you guys go about choosing which song is going to be the next single for a particular album?
AW: Usually when we pick a single from an album we just sit down as a group, listen to it and figure out what’s going to connect the most. We hope that our music, all of our music connects with everybody but you know you can’t play all of your songs on the radio. We usually go with something really catchy thats got a really good rock hook in there or a ballad, it’s pretty standard.
OTR: You’re touring with Fozzy, The Stir.. what’s it like touring with those guys?
AW: Fozzy is great, The Stir I had never heard about before but they’re really solid and also Stone Broken from the UK and they’re really good. Everyone has been chill on this tour, very nice people, we’re having a lot fun and the weather has been nice so I’m just happy all around.
OTR: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and hope we can talk again the next time you’re in town.