Hi Adam how are you? I’m still breathless after the Black Halos amazing gig in Bassano.
You are one of the new entries in Black Halos, but you have been also in so many bands we like. Could you please introduce yourself to the most neglectful among our readers?
I've been releasing music since 1988.
my more popular endeavors include playing guitar/touring/writing/recording with The Heartdrops (NYC), American Heartbreak (SF) and The Black Halos (Canada).

I been fronting my own band of rock mercenaries, The LustKillers, since the 90's and that led to me fronting The Lords of the New Church 2003 Reformation.
Currently, I reside in Chicago penning the next Black Halos album and working on LustKillers as always.

As many of us, you dig tons of cool bands from the past. Would you like to tell us something about your main influences?
I never had a strong singing voice, so as a kid musically I found myself influenced by Jim Carroll, Wendy O Williams, Stiv Bators and even Ace Frehley. I learned early on that heart went a lot further than talent but my options to play in bands back then required talent, so i worked pretty hard on playing guitar.
By 1988 there were just too much Guitarists shredding everywhere.
I gave up playing guitar . I took it back up in 92 when i felt grunge was destroying rock n roll.
As for bands Generation X, The Lords, Pretenders, The Godfathers, The Devil Dogs, Hanoi Rocks are still pretty important to me.
I love listening to old dark wave..(love n rockets, jesus and mary chain, old Mission, My LIfe with the Thrill Kill Kult).

Bands from today that you enjoy?
I was very impressed with The Exploding Hearts.( R.I.P.) last tour I found myself really enjoying Lars Frederiksen's Viking album.
The Supersuckers still make me want to play rock n roll when i watch them. my friends The Figgs have been around forever and their songwriting always makes me jealous.
The Transplants are like the new Big Audio Dynamite to me....i find em entertaining. I seem to really enjoy anything Tim does...even if it is for PINK. Tim is this generation's Jim Carroll to me.
I listen to Manic Street Preachers last 3 albums, New Model Army, Fluke, Hybrid, and other electronica you'd never expect.
I enjoy listening to a lot of things that don't have much to do with what I play or write.

Let’s talk a little about you and Black Halos, how did your paths come to cross each other?
My sister saw a Chicago show in 1999 and said they reminded her of "band of Adams." 1 week later, American Heartbreak played a SF show with them and it was pretty apparent we were long lost brothers.

Everybody is already in love with "Alive without control". Would you like to tell us a little more about its birth?
Because we got on like brothers, I was asked to join the band 3 times since Rich Jones left. It was an obvious choice but difficult to actually make happen because of distance and my obligations(Heartbreak, Lords, LK)
When I was finally able to commit, everything happened quick and seamless.

Fall of 2004, We toured across Canada and back thru the states with Zeke . I wrote 8 songs for the band that tour. On the Last day we signed our deal with Liquor and Poker/Century Media. We were in the studio with Jack Endino recording the Alive Without Control Album Feb 2005.

Jack is the 6th Halo. It is incredible to believe he can hear what is in our heads and make it reality with so little effort. Everything was so easy, so we just went for it. We were all so excited when we finished it that we didn't care if anyone else liked it.
It was The Black Halos "living in the now" and being ourselves, playing what we wanted to hear and it comes off very honest instead trying to be what we aren't.

Why did you choose to cover Tom Petty "I need to know"?
I wanted to cover "I need to know" when I was with American Heartbreak.
Hopeless mentioned a Tom Petty song.... Jay said sure, Robbie said no, Denyss said...why not?? I like to remake cover songs as if I wrote them myself. So many times I love a song but am disappointed with the way the band approached it. I suggested to Robbie we play it like we wrote it and Jack LOVED it.

Have you ever met Rich Jones? Do you like his work with Black Halos?
Of course. I was as tight with Rich as any of the band even when they split up.
Rich and I still email a couple times every month. He wrote my favourite Halos tunes... "Jane Doe and Shooting Stars." Those 2 songs are very close to the way I write for LustKillers. I haven't seen Rich forever now. It's always cool to compare notes and stories of the band.

Are you happy with the way "People like you" promotes the record?
People Like You have been very kind to us. They were the ones who finally made it all possible for Black Halos to tour Europe. The Black Halos work ethic is unrivaled. We played 45 shows in 48 days and rocked em ALL.
We can be a very dangerous band in the right hands and People Like You hope to exploit that.

Did you enjoy Europe? In your opinion is Europe still receptive for Rock and roll?
This was my fourth tour of Europe and the easiest and most impressive yet.
With Lords I knew what to expect. Fans would show up to tell me I wasn't Stiv but they all paid to see it. At the end of every night they were my best friends drinking with me and thanking me for performing the songs so well and being myself.
The surprising thing on this Halos tour was Sunday, Monday , Tuesday shows. This was HALOS first tour and so many people came to see us every night of the week no matter which city.

American Heartbreak is another tasty slice of your career what can you tell us about those years?
Heartbreak was playing the scene when I moved to San Francisco in 98.
Their guitarist Curtis left the band and it felt like the entire city naturally expected me to join because our influences were so similar. I did join but I was never really able to contribute what they needed for songs. I toured Europe with them twice.

What has that experience left you?
I'm most happy when I'm kept busy playing and Europe provided that for AH.
6 years later I still have friends across Europe that I met with AH.

Are you still in touch with the band? Back in the days could you figure out that your work would be so appreciated?
I email Billy and Butler every week or so. Just sharing rock notes or links of interest. Butler is one of the most talented people I know and Billy is a sweetheart. It's a shame I couldn't have contributed more. It got frustrating so I reformed LustKillers. I even did it Billy Rowe and our Heartbreak Tech, Chuck Worthy before finally leaving AH.
I didn't realize so many people enjoyed me in AH until I was voted best guitarist of the year by Gruta 77 in Madrid, Spain.

I know you´re also the brain, back and cock of LustKillers. You gave me a wonderful 3 tracks advanced promo. I know the band is rolling for quite sometime and there´s a whole cd only waiting to come out, tell us about it Adam...
The advance CD you have is from Vacancy Records in NYC.
There are 5 more songs from that known as The Black Sugar Sessions.
These were the demos submitted to The Lords in 2002 when LustKillers were hoping to play support on their tour. When Brian James and Dave Tregunna finally heard them, they decided to have me sing instead.

Vacancy Records hopes to release BLACK SUGAR SESSIONS as a promo for the next 20 songs being recorded...but ...That which does not kill us....

Lords of The New Church time! You joined the reunion back in 2003. Could you try to explain us what your feelings were? How does it feel to be part of a band that means so much to you?
I never agreed that The Lords should reform without Stiv.
After talking and meeting with Dave n Bri, I could understand how badly they missed playing their songs again. They had even done a few shows with Dave n Brian singing the lead vocals.
Things went very badly for The reformed Lords in 2002 when their webmaster bought the band's logos and trademarks. He then insisted on singing for their reformation but I was approached when it was learned he could not sing any of the old material.
As a great fan of Bri, Dave and the Lords, it was my duty to do justice to the songs live night after night.
I totally sang my heart out and received great praise and reviews.
I've loved the Lords since I was 12. I can't explain how good it felt to sing those songs for Stiv. My favourite part of the tour though was our soundchecks. We would jam and play so many rare songs, sucking guinness and blowing hash. I miss that more than anything.

At Brian's suggestion, perhaps we'll continue as "The Brian James Gang."

"Where are you now?" I deeply love this song . What about you ;) ?
I LOVE IT and can't believe Brian insisted I play the solo for it.
He was always a major inspiration as a guitarist to me (and Dave is likely my favourite rock bassist.)
Because "Where Are You Now" was never officially released, I'd love to record another version of it with The LustKillers.
In this day and age the world needs Stiv Bators.... Where are you now, stiv??

Recently Black Halos shared the stage with New York Dolls what was it like?
We met Sylvain in Houston SxSW Music Conference Spring 05 and caught both their shows there. I then found myself backstage in chicago with them later and by Sept they had asked us to open in Vancouver. It was Billy Hopeless big return from being hospitalized 2 months for a spinal infection. Billy was totally incredible that night... All Over the Stage.
The crowd was in awe, The NY Dolls were great of course but I had a pretty bad night and never personally enjoyed a minute of it. That's how it goes sometimes....
Last May, my sister Rachel and I were invited to join NY Dolls for a private concert of 200 filmed here in a chicago studio.
It's called "soundstage" and of course they stuck us front row, dead center. Now our damn faces are gonna be all over that show.

Being on tour it´s always weird and crazy, I`m sure you collect so many juicy stories... Would you share some with us?
Playing every night for 2 months it's really hard to let ourselves go crazy offstage. If anything goes wrong or gets broken or arrested and sick, it fucks up too many shows.
this band cares too much about playing to be stupid and wreck that.

We didn't get stupid until the last week of europe this time.
Highlights included.....
stealing a sheep for the van,
fistfights with Belgium rednecks for saying Lynyrd Skynyrd SUCK,
chasing Denyss for 2 blocks as he jumped roof to roof on parked cars,
throwing patio furniture into the hotel pool while disguised in bed sheets and pillowcases like the kkk.

Plans for the next future?
1) Write the next Black Halos Album, Tour Japan and Europe again before November.
2) Record the next 30 LustKillers songs after releasing "Black Sugar sessions" cd
3) Daydream about rocking with my friends Bri n Dave again.

Thank you so much Adam, as always it´s been a great pleasure. Say whatever you like...
The pleasure is mine, Lester.
So cool to finally meet you and confirm what a good soul you are.
Thank you for always loving rock n roll and spreading the word.
here are some helpful links
www.blackhalos.net www.myspace.com/blackhalos
www.lustkillers.com www.myspace.com/lustkillers