{"id":6282,"date":"2021-11-02T19:23:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T19:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=6282"},"modified":"2021-11-02T19:23:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T19:23:46","slug":"me-nd-adam-talk-with-scad-radio-about-influences-and-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2021\/11\/02\/me-nd-adam-talk-with-scad-radio-about-influences-and-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Me Nd Adam Talk With SCAD Radio About Influences and Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cher (SCAD Radio GM<\/a>) and I went to see Me Nd Adam in concert on October 10th at District Live. I want to start off by sharing my personal thoughts on Me Nd Adam and their live performance. For all that aren\u2019t aware–I get a bunch of submissions in my email (music@scadradio.org) in which I got an email from their manager (shoutout to Justine) and immediately liked the first song they shared. When I really like a song, I like to let the sender know. Ever since I showed my interest they showed theirs by sending me all their new releases. Honestly, I was never disappointed. I got excited every time I saw a new message. When I heard they were coming down to Savannah I knew it was finally my opportunity to meet them. I felt a combination of excitement and nerves leading up to the concert because it\u2019s one thing to have an online presence and another to have a live\/stage presence. I actually think their stage presence is different from the actual personalities of Adam and Vince. After interviewing them I learned this presence took time, but they looked confident up there as if they owned the stage. Some artists can end up overconfident and cocky but Adam and Vince are quite humble. They\u2019re very nice people, which was a great relief on my end. This was one of the biggest projects I took on for Radio and very personal since they\u2019re one of my current favorites. They\u2019re an alternative rock band from Austin, Texas. This is our interview with them after the show: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailey:<\/strong> Who inspires you to be the artist you are? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam:<\/strong> All my friends and peoples\u2019 stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cher:<\/strong> Is there a particular story that inspires you the most? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam and Vince:<\/strong> Vince and I write all of our songs very literally about things we\u2019ve gone through. Every song is a story piece. Usually what happens is we\u2019ll have a song and we\u2019ll talk about the character and any story, think about the arc of the story, so by the end of the song, there\u2019s some type of resolution. Usually, the way we get the story written is by drawing from examples of people we know that went through something. A character can be many people that we know put together. It\u2019s not always just like one thing. They\u2019re [the songs] created by combining lots of different tales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam:<\/strong> In terms of artists or musicians, currently I like Phoebe Bridgers a lot. I listen to a lot of modern music. We both agree that Blink-182 is good. We love old country music too; like Waylon Jennings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince:<\/strong> I am really into trap music. I love The Cure. I like screamo. My favorite trap artist or rapper right now is Polo G. I spend a lot of time listening to Meek Mill and old-school rappers like Jay-Z for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam:<\/strong> He\u2019ll listen to hip-hop and I\u2019ll listen to Jason Isbell or something, like singer-songwriters. But then we both like Blink-182 and basically all rock. We\u2019re pretty non-discriminatory when it comes to music unless it sucks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailey:<\/strong> Do you think of yourselves as a rock band? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam and Vince:<\/strong> Yes, we think of ourselves as a rock band. Ideally, as an alternative rock band. I hope the public can view us as an alternative rock band one day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hailey:<\/strong> You explained how family and friends inspired you, is that how you started creating music? What got you to wish to be a band? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam and Vince: <\/strong>To be honest I wonder the same thing. I\u2019m serious. I think we both started playing music in other people\u2019s bands and we always found playing music fun. But this project is the first time both of us were the primary songwriters. It\u2019s the first time we got to be co-pilots for each other\u2019s ideas and such. I think most of the time me [Vince] and Adam are more like producers and second gunners to other bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I [Adam] always liked to create music and always respected listening to stories and songs, and thought maybe I could do that. But I never thought I was the guy. Like I never imagined myself being the lead singer, or a songwriter even. And then I just started liking doing it. And then he [Vince] was like \u201cDude you\u2019re pretty good man, we could make a band.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I [Vince] have been producing a lot of other guys\u2019 music for a while. I was in New Orleans and I just called Adam and was like \u201cHey man, there\u2019s an empty night at the studio, I\u2019m not doing anything if you want to come over and record some music, we could just mess around,\u201d and that was like the last time either of us did that because after we started this band. We made \u201cFoolish Lover\u201d that first time we recorded music together and now it\u2019s one of our biggest songs. At first, we were like \u201cYo, this is fun!\u201d then our friends were like, \u201cDude, you\u2019re pretty good, you should put it [\u201cFoolish Lover\u201d] out.\u201d We didn\u2019t know what to call ourselves even. Then Vince was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know, how about Me Nd Adam.\u201d It was very humble beginnings. We didn\u2019t have big dreams really. But then when we went in we were like let\u2019s do it for real. We wanted to take it as seriously as we could if we were gonna make a commitment to each other. Which is the thing about a band where it\u2019s hard and good. It\u2019s like a marriage. I\u2019m [Adam] giving him [Vince] my whole life to him and he\u2019s giving his whole life to me and we depend on each other. Long answer short, he [Vince] inspires me to be an artist, and maybe I inspired him to be an artist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cher:<\/strong> In this metaphor, are y\u2019all already married or just engaged? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam and Vince: <\/strong>We\u2019re deeply married. We\u2019re well past the engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cher:<\/strong> Is there a band dynamic? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince:<\/strong> The dynamic has evolved a lot over time. I think when we first started Adam was more along for the ride even though he was singing; we haven\u2019t yet figured out what we wanted \u201cMe Nd Adam\u201d to be. So at the time, we were just doing what we felt came naturally. As we felt we should be more serious, or if we were gonna take it to the next step, we had to get more serious and Adam had to find his ideas that he wanted to be represented in the music. Cause I would just mix some beats and Adam would come over and be like, \u201cI like that one, let\u2019s sing on it for a while.\u201d And that really rapidly changed to Adam maybe coming over with a verse or something or an idea for a hook, and then we\u2019d be like \u201cok, let\u2019s work on that.\u201d That started redefining the voice of what we were doing. Before it was almost like we needed to figure out some melodies on top of some beats, almost like a rapper. And then it became more organic, ground-up development for a song from an idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam:<\/strong> We started as Vince\u2019s project aka the \u201cMe\u201d in \u201cMe Nd Adam\u201d, cause it was me singing on his beats. Then eventually we started growing together. The original stuff is way trappier. We liked The Weeknd and such, and still do. So it\u2019d be like hip-hop beats and singing with autotune over them. And now we incorporate more Americana, more alternative rock, more of my influences, and started embodying them in the music as well as the writing. We also found a lot of music we like together.  For example, we both grew up listening to The Eagles and got really into country music together. Before we started \u201cMe Nd Adam” I don\u2019t think either of us said we liked country to somebody else. But then those first couple of years we started listening to country and really actually exploring that genre seriously. I think we started listening to country ironically and then it rapidly became something we were deeply serious about. You have to cherry-pick the good stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cher:<\/strong> Where did the stage presence come from? Has it always been there, or one of those things that\u2019s kind of evolved? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam and Vince:<\/strong> It has not always been there. We were not good when we started. Like not at all. Like very bad. We actually had a big break show when we lived in New York and there was this big showcase where a lot of industry people came. We performed \u201cBaby\u2019s Alright\u201d and absolutely bombed it. It was a make-or-break moment; if we did this correctly everything would be done for us. We would be like, \u201ceverything has worked for Me Nd Adam, onward and upward!\u201d If we were to have nailed it, we probably would be in some kind of development deal. There were a lot of people that saw us but we just sucked. We weren\u2019t good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I [Adam] used to stand there like moving in slow motion trying to sing but just sounding really shy. You know when you\u2019re acting and you think you\u2019re doing these really big moves and then you watch a video of yourself and you thought you were being so dramatic but when you look at it you realize you\u2019re not at all. You have to over-dramatize. I [Adam] think we just developed it from playing music together for a couple of years now. When we started we thought we could like be a DJ… it was so different, it\u2019s actually crazy to think about it. It was horrible and we thought it was good because we didn\u2019t have to rely on anybody, and that was one of the main things, we don\u2019t want to be in another band where everybody makes things hard. Looking back, we were avoiding being what we were good at because we had both been in bands our whole lives. I [Vince] was always the bass player in every band I was in and I was always good at that, and then I just stopped playing bass. We kind of realized we weren\u2019t doing anything we were really good at; we should just do it the way we\u2019re good at it. Once we went back to that, that\u2019s when things got good. Now that\u2019s that. We\u2019ve been working on that for two years now; working in this format, with the drummer and guitar and everything. So you\u2019re seeing the version that is that, and we\u2019re very proud of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailey:<\/strong> How did you two meet? Are you both from Texas? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam and Vince:<\/strong> We were both born and raised in Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, we did not meet as little kids though. We kind of always thought maybe we did because we were in the same kind of circles.  We would both play soccer too and go to the same summer camps. But we didn\u2019t know each other as kids, but then we met in Loyola [University] New Orleans from both being in the music industry program there, and we became friends. Well actually, we didn\u2019t get along that well. It wasn\u2019t like love at first sight or anything, we were kind of enemies or frenemies first, then eventually I [Vince] was working on a record with some other friends and I heard a record Adam did and was like \u201cwow this guy is really talented,\u201d and I hit him up and I  spent some time sleeping on his couch that summer. Then I [Adam] slept on his couch for like a year. When I [Vince] moved back to New Orleans a couple of years later Adam was like \u201ccan I stay at your house?\u201d and I was like \u201cyeah!\u201d. That\u2019s like when \u201cMe Nd Adam\u201d kind of started. But to answer your question, born and raised in Austin, met in New Orleans, went to New York, had a terrible time, well a great time, but it was mostly like a drug-induced psychosis of like two years. There were times and months that went by that we had no idea what was happening. And then I [Adam] was like we need to go back to Texas. It\u2019s where we have our families. I think going back there is when we really started getting good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cher: <\/strong>What do you guys want people to take away from your music?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince:<\/strong> I think that mostly is just that you\u2019re not alone. I know that that\u2019s very tacky, but I think everybody is always disingenuous, like lame in their music, and I think that we are disturbingly honest about what we do, and whether or not you like it or not you can\u2019t really critique it for us being fakers. We\u2019re not posers. We tell it how it is; all the blemishes and the hard parts of life, and all the good parts. I think that\u2019s what our music is about. It\u2019s genuine.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check them out: https:\/\/www.mendadam.com\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cher (SCAD Radio GM) and I went to see Me Nd Adam in concert on October 10th at District Live. I want to start off by sharing my personal thoughts on Me Nd Adam and their live performance. For all that aren\u2019t aware–I get a bunch of submissions in my email (music@scadradio.org) in which I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":6283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265,530,48],"tags":[1156,1066,1157,50,1154,1155],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6293,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282\/revisions\/6293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}