Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Fulfilling The Prophecy With CHRIS ADAMS From SMASH INTO PIECES
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Well, I'm Chris Adam from Smashing the Pieces and I'm
- 0:03Speaker 1: the singer of the band since the beginning two thousand
- 0:07Speaker 1: and seven, two thousand and eight. I met Benjamin in
- 0:10Speaker 1: the Winner of two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight,
- 0:12Speaker 1: and ever since, you know, ever since then, we have
- 0:16Speaker 1: been working really hard to get where we're today and
- 0:20Speaker 1: the rest is history. So right, thanks for joining us today, Chris,
- 0:24Speaker 1: Thank you, Chris said a lot of Christmas in the room.
- 0:28Speaker 2: It's a good start, man, it is made. It isn't Dana.
- 0:31Speaker 2: Smashing the Pieces hit Australia for the first time ever
- 0:33Speaker 2: this August for three shows, starting in Melbourne on the
- 0:35Speaker 2: twenty second, then hit in Sydney and Bridge consecutive night.
- 0:39Speaker 2: So I suppose the first person made it. You've been
- 0:41Speaker 2: a band for seventeen years now, so why have you
- 0:43Speaker 2: neglected Australia for so long?
- 0:46Speaker 1: I guess we I mean, it's it's it's really it's
- 0:51Speaker 1: a good question because ever since the start with Smashing
- 0:54Speaker 1: the Pieces, I've seen over the years over the analytics
- 0:59Speaker 1: everywhere that you guys are the top ten country for us.
- 1:04Speaker 1: And I guess when we were kind of new as
- 1:06Speaker 1: a band, we didn't really afford to get there, and
- 1:12Speaker 1: we didn't really sell tickets you know, back in the days.
- 1:15Speaker 1: So I think it's a it's a it's a mix
- 1:17Speaker 1: between those two. You know. The interest has always been
- 1:20Speaker 1: there to go there, of course, but as I said,
- 1:26Speaker 1: that's that's probably the reasons why we couldn't get there before.
- 1:30Speaker 1: So but now it's time we you know, we own
- 1:33Speaker 1: our music, we own our all like everything in the
- 1:36Speaker 1: company we own, so we can now afford certain things
- 1:41Speaker 1: because of vladiva'st all and then you know these couple
- 1:44Speaker 1: of last three years ever since basically six feet Under.
- 1:49Speaker 1: So yeah, it's time, definitely time to go there. And
- 1:52Speaker 1: they're yeah, I mean that's the show has been selling
- 1:55Speaker 1: really good. I think I think it's like sixty seventy
- 1:58Speaker 1: percent sold out all ready every show. So yeah, it
- 2:02Speaker 1: looks it looks nice.
- 2:04Speaker 2: Now that the tour is called the mainor Heaven Prophecy Tools,
- 2:07Speaker 2: So what does that actually mean.
- 2:11Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's it's it's basically uh ah, I continue
- 2:15Speaker 1: of the of the of the last tour we did,
- 2:19Speaker 1: so it's like, you know, to be continued thing for us.
- 2:24Speaker 1: So it's it's it's also have a lot of things
- 2:28Speaker 1: to do with the new album that's going to be
- 2:30Speaker 1: you know, out really really soon. So yeah, I can't
- 2:34Speaker 1: really tell you too much.
- 2:36Speaker 2: That's what I want, I want to push to send.
- 2:38Speaker 2: But so does that in effect mean that, like the show,
- 2:42Speaker 2: because it's based on the new album, does that mean
- 2:44Speaker 2: you're planned the whole the new album for it or
- 2:46Speaker 2: is there a mixture of songs.
- 2:48Speaker 1: You I guess we're we're gonna we're gonna do some
- 2:54Speaker 1: some adding and you know, for the settlest for Australia
- 2:58Speaker 1: of course, I mean we haven't we haven't played there before,
- 3:02Speaker 1: so we're probably going to do the set that we're
- 3:04Speaker 1: doing right now in Australia, probably going to add some
- 3:07Speaker 1: more songs. I don't really know yet, but yeah, we're
- 3:12Speaker 1: we're definitely gonna do something surprising for you guys.
- 3:15Speaker 2: So nice. Now. The press release describes the show as
- 3:19Speaker 2: being powered by a bold new era of storytelling in sound.
- 3:22Speaker 2: Like that sounds fantastic, man, But can you elaborate on that?
- 3:25Speaker 2: What does that actually mean?
- 3:26Speaker 1: Do you mean for the album, Yeah, the tour actually the.
- 3:29Speaker 2: Live show, Like there's a bold new era of storytelling
- 3:32Speaker 2: in sound.
- 3:34Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, if you're talking about the tour. Yeah,
- 3:38Speaker 1: I haven't really seen it myself, that's my answer, because
- 3:43Speaker 1: we're you know, we're we're we're we're working on different
- 3:46Speaker 1: areas in this company, and one of the sides of
- 3:50Speaker 1: the company works with the live shows. Basically, they're going
- 3:53Speaker 1: to present it to us, you know, based on our
- 3:56Speaker 1: visions of course. But so I can't really answer that
- 4:00Speaker 1: question yet, but as always, it's going to be amazing
- 4:04Speaker 1: and I really I really have faith in my personnel
- 4:10Speaker 1: and I think they're going to bring a really good
- 4:12Speaker 1: tour for us.
- 4:14Speaker 2: Essentially, the concept revolves around AI in the threat that
- 4:17Speaker 2: it may one day pose on humanity. So is that
- 4:20Speaker 2: someone that you've researched or is it more your dase
- 4:22Speaker 2: on the situation.
- 4:23Speaker 1: I guess that's like if you look at it, it
- 4:26Speaker 1: goes so fast everything now with every technological thing, and
- 4:31Speaker 1: if you actually you know, understand what where we're going,
- 4:36Speaker 1: that's probably going to be like the thing that's going
- 4:38Speaker 1: to be more and more in our society. So but
- 4:44Speaker 1: we're taking it, you know, we're taking it really far,
- 4:48Speaker 1: if you know what I'm saying. But I mean it's
- 4:52Speaker 1: based on reality. You know, where we're heading as human beings.
- 4:56Speaker 1: I guess we're going to probably be a half hal
- 5:00Speaker 1: thing in the in the future, you know, with probably
- 5:03Speaker 1: body parts and you know, it's it's it's it's really real.
- 5:08Speaker 1: It's real. It's real, you know as we speak now.
- 5:11Speaker 1: So I think that, and we always like to fantasize,
- 5:16Speaker 1: you know, further and also bring the Arcadia story with
- 5:20Speaker 1: Apoc and ghost this and everything. So yeah, that's where
- 5:24Speaker 1: we're going. And we're taking it a bit far with
- 5:28Speaker 1: this storytelling, so yeah, but that's the direction we're going now.
- 5:32Speaker 2: So so that that concept and the whole whole performance
- 5:36Speaker 2: with the concept, Like is that the lyrics and everything
- 5:39Speaker 2: in the music as well or is it just a
- 5:40Speaker 2: visual set sort of representing the concept.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's the whole album. We have had
- 5:46Speaker 1: this like storytelling from the beginning and ever since we
- 5:50Speaker 1: started doing the new album, so it's definitely in the lyrics.
- 5:55Speaker 1: But we're all so like tweaking it, so it's not
- 5:58Speaker 1: too much like seeing about a computer, but more like
- 6:02Speaker 1: you know, flirting a little bit with the whole the
- 6:07Speaker 1: whole concept and the ideas that we have and try
- 6:12Speaker 1: to we always tried to be like with all our
- 6:16Speaker 1: lyrics we tried to not take them too far so
- 6:21Speaker 1: people can resonate with their own thing to it, you know.
- 6:26Speaker 2: And the new album like that comes down in September,
- 6:29Speaker 2: I believe. So can you tell us a bit more
- 6:30Speaker 2: about that?
- 6:32Speaker 1: Yeah, that's news for me. September is basically I basically
- 6:38Speaker 1: put the last I basically put the last vocals on
- 6:42Speaker 1: it a couple of days ago, so it's it's finished
- 6:48Speaker 1: in that regard. So the time, I mean, the the
- 6:53Speaker 1: deadline for the album is it's here now and it's done,
- 6:57Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna try to focus
- 7:03Speaker 1: on the tour now and try to like put it
- 7:08Speaker 1: together so it makes sense. And yeah, I hope that
- 7:14Speaker 1: was the answer to your question. I kind of forget it.
- 7:17Speaker 1: Forgot it because I had some I had some. I'm
- 7:21Speaker 1: sitting at a at a hotel in Sweden and we're
- 7:24Speaker 1: kind of big here, so I'm seeing kids. Kind of
- 7:34Speaker 1: that's my old fault that I put this location to
- 7:38Speaker 1: do this meeting, but hey, it is what it is.
- 7:43Speaker 2: It is. So have you had the album musically? Then?
- 7:45Speaker 2: Is what fans would expect from smashing the paces or
- 7:48Speaker 2: trying to pickles in there?
- 7:50Speaker 1: That's a really good question.
- 7:52Speaker 2: Man.
- 7:52Speaker 1: We're we were trying to always try to always like
- 7:58Speaker 1: re how do you say, like redo ourselves or or
- 8:04Speaker 1: try to We're always searching for the new thing for us,
- 8:11Speaker 1: and I think that if you listen to all the
- 8:14Speaker 1: albums ever since the first album, Unbreakable in twenty thirteen,
- 8:19Speaker 1: you can you can really hear the progression of the
- 8:22Speaker 1: sound because that's a thing that we're constantly thinking about
- 8:27Speaker 1: that we need to evolve all the time. And I
- 8:30Speaker 1: think like the thing that evolves us is the new
- 8:38Speaker 1: concepts that we're trying to find and and do for
- 8:42Speaker 1: for the Arcadia, st worry In and everything. So it's
- 8:45Speaker 1: it's it's it's always a progression. So I don't I
- 8:49Speaker 1: don't think we're really it's like built into smashining pieces.
- 8:54Speaker 1: You know, we're not really like, oh we need to
- 8:57Speaker 1: sound like this or that or where you as a group,
- 9:02Speaker 1: we're always like finding new ways and inspirations and yeah,
- 9:08Speaker 1: it's it's been, it's in our dna. I guess that
- 9:11Speaker 1: we want to evolve. So we haven't really been sitting
- 9:14Speaker 1: down and like we need to sound like this, and
- 9:18Speaker 1: it's a thing that happens naturally, so but there's there's there.
- 9:26Speaker 1: There's definitely a difference between Ghost Code and this album
- 9:31Speaker 1: that's gonna be out now, so and I can also
- 9:34Speaker 1: I can already hear it, you know. So it's not
- 9:39Speaker 1: it's not really a forced thing. Sometimes sometimes it sometimes
- 9:46Speaker 1: with our sound. I mean, if if you listen to
- 9:49Speaker 1: the first two albums and then you hear the third album,
- 9:52Speaker 1: which is Rice and Shine, we found a new producer,
- 9:55Speaker 1: and you can really hear that something has has happened
- 9:57Speaker 1: to the sound, you know what I'm saying. So you
- 10:00Speaker 1: it's also a thing that it depends on which people
- 10:03Speaker 1: you're working with. And uh, for example, now we have
- 10:08Speaker 1: we we've gone back to Dinovet and Hotzik a little
- 10:11Speaker 1: bit more that we have done the past albums with.
- 10:15Speaker 1: And also Pair is mixing now in Smashing the pieces,
- 10:19Speaker 1: so he has really brought his side to it as well.
- 10:22Speaker 1: So that's our like main two producers. And also a
- 10:25Speaker 1: guy called Julian It's it's a German guy, so there's
- 10:33Speaker 1: and also like Philip from Normandy, he's the singer of Normandy.
- 10:38Speaker 1: He is also one of the producers for for a
- 10:40Speaker 1: lot of the songs now nowadays, So we have a
- 10:43Speaker 1: different couple of producers which are bringing their minds to
- 10:49Speaker 1: the sound. You know. It's so it's always a progression there.
- 10:53Speaker 1: It was a long answer, but I tried.
- 10:56Speaker 2: A little bit further that they're like you spoke about
- 10:58Speaker 2: ghyst Code and that was a massive, diable success for
- 11:01Speaker 2: you guys. Was it tempting just to rehash that winning
- 11:04Speaker 2: formula once he founded or was it still important to
- 11:07Speaker 2: drive musically on the next one?
- 11:18Speaker 1: That was a really good question.
- 11:19Speaker 2: Man, Thank you.
- 11:28Speaker 1: Queen mentioning the piece of says okay, So I'm going
- 11:37Speaker 1: to give you a little bit longer answer to your question.
- 11:39Speaker 1: To your question if that's okay. We as a band,
- 11:46Speaker 1: we started with nothing, and we have had all the
- 11:49Speaker 1: members of this band has had this mindset that we're
- 11:51Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna do this, you know. So we we
- 11:56Speaker 1: did this thing. And we were all also signed during
- 11:59Speaker 1: their like first twelve or thirteen years with different labels,
- 12:06Speaker 1: and we kind of signed away our fortune, if you
- 12:09Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Like usually like the same old
- 12:12Speaker 1: story that every band does in the beginning of their career.
- 12:18Speaker 1: So we started with that and we were like, man,
- 12:21Speaker 1: we don't earn anything, you know, this, this is catastrophe,
- 12:25Speaker 1: you know. And then all of a sudden, we came
- 12:30Speaker 1: out of the last record deal that we had and
- 12:33Speaker 1: we started to earn like ninety percent of our own music.
- 12:39Speaker 1: That was like a deal breaker, and that was the
- 12:41Speaker 1: first year in the pandemic. And then we could afford
- 12:47Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we could afford things that we
- 12:49Speaker 1: couldn't afford before. For example, we could employ ourselves us
- 12:55Speaker 1: five in the company, and then we could bring in personnel.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Also we can pay for their you know, paychecks and everything.
- 13:04Speaker 1: So and then like things started to happen and we
- 13:10Speaker 1: kind of went into this like sonic mode where we
- 13:14Speaker 1: were like, Okay, we can actually do this, you know,
- 13:17Speaker 1: we don't need to have a side hustle and things
- 13:19Speaker 1: like that. So and then all of a sudden, we
- 13:23Speaker 1: could choose our own people for our music. And the pair,
- 13:27Speaker 1: which is the guitarist of Smashing the pieces, he started
- 13:29Speaker 1: to mix in the beginning of twenty twenty two. I
- 13:32Speaker 1: guess it was so we're doing like almost everything in house,
- 13:40Speaker 1: and then we try to add people that we want
- 13:42Speaker 1: to bring to the table. And I think at the
- 13:48Speaker 1: time now ever since as I said, Rise and Shine,
- 13:53Speaker 1: which was in twenty sixteen. Dino and Pere and Philip
- 13:59Speaker 1: and Julian has been like the right for people for us,
- 14:04Speaker 1: And now it's more like we try to bring for
- 14:09Speaker 1: this album more of an unity in the sound because
- 14:14Speaker 1: Smashing the Pieces is usually a band that is kind
- 14:17Speaker 1: of all over the place, because we don't when we
- 14:21Speaker 1: do songs, we don't force songs. We don't put guitars
- 14:24Speaker 1: on songs that don't need songs, you know, guitars. And
- 14:29Speaker 1: for example, a song called I don't know how much
- 14:34Speaker 1: of the music, I don't know how much you know
- 14:36Speaker 1: about the music itself, but sometimes it's just like ballads
- 14:41Speaker 1: with no guitars at all, like synthesizers and and sometimes
- 14:46Speaker 1: it's super heavy with screams, and so it's it's all
- 14:50Speaker 1: over the place, you know. So now it's like we're
- 14:53Speaker 1: trying to find more of a arrow. So the speech
- 14:58Speaker 1: that try to use, if that's the sound a little
- 15:02Speaker 1: bit more, it's it's it sounds really really weird, but
- 15:06Speaker 1: it's it's a creative thing that makes sense. Yeah, I
- 15:19Speaker 1: think I think, actually I need to think about that
- 15:22Speaker 1: question a little bit more. It was like I was
- 15:26Speaker 1: speaking to myself there that.
- 15:29Speaker 2: Yeah, did you want me to run you through another
- 15:31Speaker 2: couple of questions where you think about it and we
- 15:33Speaker 2: can come back to that one.
- 15:34Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, of course We've.
- 15:37Speaker 2: Got this will be a bit of a light aside
- 15:38Speaker 2: for you mates, and this will make it easier. We've
- 15:40Speaker 2: got a segment called photo bomb that I do so
- 15:42Speaker 2: basically before we've spoken, I've gone three social media and
- 15:45Speaker 2: I've come up with a few photos and I want
- 15:47Speaker 2: to know a little bit more about So the first
- 15:49Speaker 2: one I'll come up with is this money. This photo
- 15:55Speaker 2: is either taken at the perfect moment or I'll make
- 15:57Speaker 2: Copped himself a kick to the face, which when I was.
- 16:00Speaker 1: It, well, that's pair's favorite. It's his signature move. It
- 16:09Speaker 1: looks like, yeah, but you know it's it's funny because
- 16:15Speaker 1: he has always done that ever since he started playing
- 16:17Speaker 1: with us in two thousand and nine. And yeah, that's
- 16:22Speaker 1: just like signature move really, and it's it's been a
- 16:25Speaker 1: couple of times where he has almost kicked my mean face,
- 16:29Speaker 1: so I have to be honest with that. So it
- 16:33Speaker 1: looks like, but that's a really cool move, you know.
- 16:35Speaker 1: And he jumped so high, man, it's like it's like
- 16:37Speaker 1: a basketball player.
- 16:40Speaker 2: Just up the standing stick. It doesn't jump off off chair.
- 16:43Speaker 1: Or no, no, no, it's he always like it seems like
- 16:47Speaker 1: that that he's over the years has come up even
- 16:50Speaker 1: higher every time, Like every year he comes up even higher. Yeah,
- 16:57Speaker 1: I really need to watch him. You really need to
- 16:59Speaker 1: watch him.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Oh will when you come to Brisbane? Brother?
- 17:02Speaker 1: Yeah. The one I've got Bruce Bruce beerquists that that's
- 17:11Speaker 1: the pair's last name, Bruce Bequist.
- 17:16Speaker 2: Quiz. That's a serial killer, isn't it. That's what serial killer? Bequit.
- 17:27Speaker 2: So the other one I've got, I don't know me
- 17:28Speaker 2: do light harder ones, mate, but this one here took
- 17:31Speaker 2: me for some reason. That's yeah, that's beautiful. What's got
- 17:34Speaker 2: on there?
- 17:36Speaker 1: Yeah, we're I think it's still an ongoing project. But
- 17:41Speaker 1: last year we kinda we had a a collaboration with
- 17:52Speaker 1: Bond Council Pond and it's like cancer for Kids thing,
- 17:57Speaker 1: and we started going around Sweden to meet all the
- 18:00Speaker 1: sick kids on the clinics all over Sweden. And I
- 18:06Speaker 1: think that this particular photo was in Lean shopping or
- 18:11Speaker 1: something like that. It's so yeah, it was. It was
- 18:15Speaker 1: a really tough thing because we on the top of
- 18:20Speaker 1: our game, when we were with Heroes Are Calling in melody.
- 18:25Speaker 1: First of all, in last year we started going to
- 18:29Speaker 1: the kids and we played Heroes Are Calling and six
- 18:32Speaker 1: Feet Under for them and you see them, you know
- 18:38Speaker 1: shine when we were entering the room, and you know,
- 18:42Speaker 1: during because this is like hell on Earth at the
- 18:45Speaker 1: same time, it's also heaven on Earth because they the
- 18:49Speaker 1: people that work there are so amazing and they they
- 18:55Speaker 1: tried to take the situation and try to turn it
- 18:58Speaker 1: around and like be there for the kids, and it's
- 19:01Speaker 1: it's a really beautiful thing to watch, but it's still
- 19:04Speaker 1: hell on Earth. So it was really a genuine collaboration.
- 19:09Speaker 1: I think that that's one of the more genuine things
- 19:14Speaker 1: I've done in my life to go and see the
- 19:15Speaker 1: kids that are really bad and and some of them
- 19:18Speaker 1: have actually passed away now, which you know, we we
- 19:23Speaker 1: gain some personal contact with them and their families, and
- 19:26Speaker 1: it was it's it's still a hard thing, especially when
- 19:31Speaker 1: you have kids yourself, to see like because they're so innocent.
- 19:35Speaker 1: You know, kids are so innocent, and they are like
- 19:39Speaker 1: the last people on on this planet that you want
- 19:41Speaker 1: to to bring this kind of a disease to, you know,
- 19:46Speaker 1: it's uh, yeah, it's it's uh, it's yeah, I was.
- 19:53Speaker 1: It's a tough thing to go there and see them.
- 19:55Speaker 1: It's really tough.
- 19:57Speaker 2: It would be well to them, right means it will.
- 20:00Speaker 1: But I'm really happy to have been, to be to
- 20:05Speaker 1: be to have had this experience because, as I said, like,
- 20:09Speaker 1: I'm taking with me the smiles and the laughters and
- 20:14Speaker 1: that we had with in the in the how do
- 20:16Speaker 1: you say, like when we were interacting with these kids.
- 20:20Speaker 2: So that's that's really good.
- 20:23Speaker 1: I think this was also during Christmas time some somewhere.
- 20:29Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's Christmas time, during the Christmas holidays.
- 20:33Speaker 2: Which would have made it be sad too. No, they
- 20:39Speaker 2: were running out of time. So did you finish finish
- 20:42Speaker 2: thinking about the answer to that last question or did
- 20:44Speaker 2: you want to leave it where it was?
- 20:45Speaker 1: Can you can you ask me that question again? It's
- 20:48Speaker 1: really early here in Sweden. I maybe might tell people remember,
- 20:53Speaker 1: so give me the question again.
- 20:55Speaker 2: So was attempting to rehash the winning formula that made
- 20:59Speaker 2: post code sossful?
- 21:02Speaker 1: So your question is basically, are we doing the same.
- 21:05Speaker 2: And established that you haven't? But was it was it important?
- 21:09Speaker 2: Was it was it tempting for you to do that?
- 21:12Speaker 2: Because that album was successful at a global stage. So
- 21:15Speaker 2: was it tempting just to recycle that for the next
- 21:17Speaker 2: one because you knew it right, or was it more
- 21:20Speaker 2: important to move on musically and keep developing yourself.
- 21:22Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's I think it's always
- 21:25Speaker 1: important to move forward and try not to stuck in
- 21:31Speaker 1: How do you say, I don't think either, you do
- 21:35Speaker 1: like the total opposite as well. I think we have
- 21:37Speaker 1: to find some kind of a balance on where you're
- 21:40Speaker 1: going forward, but you have you definitely need to like change,
- 21:47Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And and in our world it comes
- 21:51Speaker 1: from maybe working with new producers or you know, try
- 21:56Speaker 1: to bring in some fresh blood into the projects that
- 21:59Speaker 1: sees things differently, and because usually when you're a band
- 22:04Speaker 1: or something like that, you get a little bit stuck
- 22:07Speaker 1: in the in the same patterns. But I think in general,
- 22:11Speaker 1: smashing the pieces is really good to find new ways
- 22:14Speaker 1: to do it because we're always going in this Arcada
- 22:19Speaker 1: direction and following the story, and usually there's a lot
- 22:23Speaker 1: of inspiration comes from that, you know. So that was
- 22:27Speaker 1: a shorter answer.
- 22:28Speaker 2: To your question. I'm going to keep them by really good.
- 22:33Speaker 1: Yeah, But I think I think also the first time
- 22:36Speaker 1: you asked me this question. I didn't really hear what
- 22:40Speaker 1: the kind of a question were, so it was I
- 22:42Speaker 1: was a little confused there, but.
- 22:45Speaker 2: Really good answers right, so well done. But thanks for
- 22:47Speaker 2: you to mate. I think I've taken up enough of
- 22:48Speaker 2: your time. But the chort starts August twenty second in Melbourne,
- 22:52Speaker 2: goes to Sydney on the twenty third. When she's in
- 22:54Speaker 2: Brisbane at twenty fourthnighte I'll be in the Brisbane front
- 22:56Speaker 2: of Senate.
- 22:57Speaker 1: So it's it's unreal man to go there finally, so
- 23:01Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it.