Soil

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....................... ...........Jan / 2002

Official Music Publication on The Web Representing The Bay Area

Best Seen with "Explorer"

Interview with Adam Zadel of .Soil !

...SOiL's success story is the quintessential rock dream come true. The band's song "Halo" from thier hot Rocking CD SCARS was noticed by radio programmer Pat Lynch of Orlando, FL. Lynch propelled it to hit proportions on his active rock station WJRR. This fired off a shot heard throughout the industry, sparking a label battle that was ultimately won by J Records. Jumping right in to help the buzz grow, J Records blasted "Halo" to a new level on Orlando radio while pressing up free SOiL samplers for hungry Orlando SOiL fans. In less than 10 days, over 2000 fans poured into local retail stores to get a free sampler. Word has now reached other major rock radio stations in Tampa, Sacramento, Madison, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Miami, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Kansas City and more.

Q: So besides the Halo video I heard you did a new one recently? A: Actually, we're hopefully at the clip of it. We just finished it about 2 weeks ago. We did it with Mark Webb. We did it in downtown L.A., like an old alley. Sort of all decrepit looking with a bunch of dirty kids everywhere. Pretty cool. I can't wait to see it. We're supposed to see a video of it today or tomorrow.
Q: That's great!
A: Yeah. You see the pieces - the editing in a couple of weeks. You only shoot it like a day or two days.
Q: Which song was it for?
A: The one we're doing this for the song called Unreal That's the new single that just started working the radio now. Hopefully it will be on MTV stuff too.
Q: That gives you incredible recognition. Just like the OzzFest how was that?
A: Everybody on that tour was so fun to hang out with. Everybody was so nice. There was no attitudes, no bullshit. Everybody was just super cool. They did their job. It was just a fun time, a really fun time. An incredible first big tour experience really.
Q: Sounds awesome and still jamming away
A: Yeah. We've been kicking since about August. Like right after we recorded the record, it went right to mixing, and then as soon as we were done mixing, we went right on the road. We were on a rush schedule to get this record out in 2001.
Q: How long have you been with J Records?
A: We signed with J Records last March. One month, we'll have our one year anniversary. They're kicking ass doing it. They're fully behind us and doing a good job.
Q: That's really great. You've got the tour buses and you're on these great tours already.
A: Absolutely. That was what was so cool about the opportunity when we were doing our shopping. We were already getting some radio play on a major station in Florida called WJRR. So, it was like the labels were all starting to get in line, because once you're already on the radio, we don't have to work it as hard, so they made it pretty cool. When we were signing our deal, we already had ample material for a record - more songs than we could put on a record. We knew we were ready to do a record. We already knew we were ready to record with Johnny K too, who is the guy that did Disturbed, Machine Head because he did our demos actually that got us signed. The tracks from that demo really ended up being on the record because he did such a cool job with it, we ended up keeping that. So, when we signed the deal we were ready to go. We just jumped right into the studio. We want to capitalize on it while it's hot and they accommodated us and made it happen; as opposed to lot of other people wanted to put it out this year. I mean we would be coming out right now and it's just like man, we had so much fun in the past six months, I'd hate to think what it would have been like if we were sitting on our asses waiting for this record to come up. We'd have been flipping off.
Q: That's excellent. Now, you're from Chicago.
A: Yeah. Well we did sort of build up a name in Chicago. We did that Three Something with Johnny K and we actually made a bunch of demos and just handed them out to people for free when they were leaving the club. We've been playing there for awhile. Did that scene for like 3 or 4 years before that.
Q: Were you always called Soil?
A: Yeah, same name and band members.
Q: It was amazing how when I interview some bands, they tell me well, we used to have this name, and then this name.
A: Yeah. That's a pain in the ass. It's so much easier to keep the one name. You put all this time and effort into one name and then what are you going to do, pass out flyers - now this name used to be this.
Q: That could actually be to your detriment.
A: Absolutely. So hard to promote a band when you don't have labels and all these people behind you. And then to go and change your name - it's like the only thing you have going for you - all the stuff you built up and you change your name, it kind of sucks, but it has to be done sometimes. We didn't have to do that in our gig.
Q: What did you have going before the CD Scars? A: We had an independent record out. Basically we did an EP, filtered that out for a while. Then we did a full-length record. Then a month or two months after the record came out; the label went out of business. So it sort of took a lot of steam out of what we were doing at the time. That was like '99 when that happened, so we were sitting around - we worked all this time, but it turned out being a blessing in disguise because we did hook up with Johnny K. We love doing music and I can't picture myself getting a job and doing all this stuff and the work that went into it, we're going for it again. This really could be a blessing in disguise. You know Disturbed just got signed to Giant at that point in time, so we were like, damn, maybe we can get a little of this action too. So, we demo'd again and sure enough, some people took notice.
Q: Is Johnny K set up through the record company?
A: No. He's just about Chicago. Just a talented producer that's out of Chicago. So it was a cool thing. One of them sort of lined up for us...
Q: When you're in full production making your album, does that help to have someone like him to fine-tune the album?
A: Oh absolutely. When you write - everybody writes together. You live with these songs and you know the songs and you know how to build them and make them better; but you never have that luxury of hearing it for the first time. You never get that back. So, it's good to have someone that's got a good opinion about song writing, tones and what's going on, to be able to come in and give you perspective. It really does help.
Q: Have you got word that you will be on the OzzFest this year.
A: Oh yes. That's what they're telling us.
Q: That's great recognition.
A: I hear so many things about how fun it is and stuff.
Q: It's like a whole army of people moving from one place to another. You get to collaborate sometimes.
A: Yeah. I would dig that. We haven't had the chance to do that. I personally would love it.
Q: It's really fascinating when I watch somebody like even your band. You start off on second stage. They do rotate that - you're on main stage. Then next year you get almost headliners. It's really great seeing bands excel like you probably will too.
A: We hope so.
Q: When you pick the songs to put on these albums, is that kind of difficult sometimes because you have so many?
A; It can be, because everybody has personal attachments to the music or the lyrics or whatever the reason is you like these songs. So, we try to predetermine the songs before we really record them. It's like if you're going to record 12 songs on a record say and that's what you want at the end of the day, you'll noodle through like if you have 20 songs. You're record them real fast. Go through them and okay, let's see what can you do with this to make this better. How can you make this better. Then you sort of try to fish through and try to get 14 that you're going really record for real. And then from those, it's sort of like a gradual picking process. At least, that's how we do things. A lot of people do things differently. Some people just come in with 20 hours of riffs and music and then they put it all together in the studio. Some people just write in their song and say this is record, deal with it. Everybody's got a different way of doing it. That's sort of our method.
Q: Your music, has it always been pretty much the same tempo, or did you start out with any kind of influences from anybody else?
A: Actually, if anything, we've gotten a little heavier over the years I would have to say. So, the tempo and stuff and our songs links have all been pretty similar. We don't write like really long songs. Q: I've seen a lot of bands like yours mature though. They could start out with one CD, and the next one's better. It's incredible how that works sometimes.
A: That's one of the cool things that I like about our CD's. They sort of do always sound like there's some sort of difference between them. It doesn't sound like the same record, at least so far, because we've recorded quite a few times, including demo's, independent records - now we have a major label record. There's definitely differences between them all.
Q: What kind of equipment do you use?
A: I used to use Mesa Boogie heads and cam. Guitar is Les Paul Gibson with BMG pickups. I have my friends coming from Mesa Boogie and EMG tonight.
Q: What clubs are popular in Chicago?
A: The Metro is basically where we went. They're still big in helping all the local bands out. Great theater, not too big, not too small. Perfectly located in the city, and all ages, all the time, so no drinking issues.
Q: Have you had an opportunity to tour Europe?
A: Just this last Saturday, we got back from London. We did a show that introduced ourselves to the European market; the UK DMG office asked us to come over. It was a great time and lot of press. Press over there was super cool. Everybody was really nice.
Hey its been a pleasure interviewing you keep on Rocking? .

By Randy Cohen

........This is the Official Rock Publication Web Site All photos and written material courtesy of Rock Publication

E-mail at Rockpub@aol.com

...........Members of Soil:

Ryan McCombs : Vocals Shaun Glass : Guitar
Tim King : Bass
Tom Schofield : Drums Adam Zadel : Guitar, Vocals