Spring birds sing praise to Adam Freeland in his backyard as he describes the spirituality of rock and electronica. “It sort of encompasses the texture and layers of the Aum-ness. The aaa-uuu-mmm,” he says as he holds the word at the back of his voice box for a few seconds. Honestly, the guy must welcome the change what with all the stuff he listens to on a daily basis.
The internationally renowned producer/dj/mad hatter blew the hinges off his studio door with all the people that made appearances on the Freeland album, “Cope™.” There’s Tommy Lee, Alex Metric who co-produced, Twiggy Ramirez who played bass, Joey Santiago probably made everyone laugh, but he also played guitar, Brody Dalle and Tony Bevilacqua of the Distillers/Spinerette fame stopped by, Gerry from DEVO and Freeland has a new lead vocalist in Kurt Baumann. Phew. Did you notice that trademark in the album title? Good, cause that’s a sort of tongue-in cheek reference to the corporate structure of our society and how we love to buy useless grills or blankets that cover our bodies.
In Adam Freeland’s video “We Want Your Soul” the main character is bombarded with products to better his life, but every company logo is blurred as though it were a body part not suitable for the evening news.
“The logos are so offensive, that we should pixelate them, because they’re like objects in a porn film. This is corrupting to our minds, and we should sort of block it out,” he says while flashing his hands over his face.
Freeland thinks that the only thing that can save us is the big guy in the sky, but he doesn’t use the J-word in his music. “I’m interested in that concept of salvation, the idea an external entity can save someone, whether it be a corporation or religion,” he says, holding the two in the same lineup. “But I’m not a Christian, there are these same methods of salvation, whether it’s a corporation or an organized religion. We’ll give you the symptoms and sell you the cure.”
The album cover for “Cope™” says it all with a tear dropper feeding a flock of hands.
But lets go back to the aum moment with Freeland - the idea of this one-ness with his music.
“It’s something kind of meditative and heavy about that and I like that. I’m trying to infuse something like that with my electronic production,” he says while trying to make sense of the noise and the silence.
By Nathan Solis
Check out Adam Freeland at Vanguard in Hollywood this Saturday |
