Punk Globe: You have a decade worth of music on this cassette. How do you feel about the older material as you listen to it today compared to the newer material?

Adam - Well, I think listening to old recordings is a bit like looking at old naked baby photos of yerself, y’know? For better, or worse, there you are for all the world to see, all the little flaws and scars just laying there on the tape. The oldest tracks here were recorded when I was like 16 or 17, sitting at my parents piano, pounding out brooding two-chord workouts.

But y’know, I’ve been releasing home-made cassettes and CD-R’s since around that time anyways, since like 2000, so I guess I’ve already felt like I was completely out there , even if not all my material is available or ever released. It’s certainly easier to listen to the newer material, from say the past 5 years or so, than it is to listen to the oldest stuff.

Punk Globe: What influence has your home of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada had on your music?

Adam - I used Saint John, its landmarks and quirks, basically as a vocabulary from which to draw lyrical content for my songs. I think there’s a weird thing that happens when you first begin writing songs where you say to yerself, “O.K, What the fuck am I going to sing about here?”, which many people don't get past.To use that old Woody Guthrie cliché, all you can write is what you see, so that's what I did. I don't think I have much in common with the music that's come from Saint John in the past, but I certainly draw from local haunts for my subject- matter.

Punk Globe: What are your three favorite albums or artists of all time that have shaped your songwriting and performing?

Adam - Well, I’m an album dude, so...

1. Alexander “Skip” Spence – Oar – Got this when I was about 16 and it blew my mind! Lo-fi in 1969, Skippy playing all the instruments and recording everything all by himself in this tiny Columbia studio. The performances are so bare and honest, with these killer simple songs. I know lotsa people have gushed over this record, so I’ll spare you all the detail, but when I first heard OAR it changed the way I heard a lot of records.

2. Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes – 28 songs in like 42 minutes, man! Using lo-fi aesthetic to produce these catchy little bedroom earworms. Robert Pollard once said that lo-fi is the perfect extension to punk, and he's right!

3. Violent Femmes – S/T - I can't imagine what I would sound like if it wasn't for this record, I love it. The Femmes' frenetic energy made me reconsider what a live performance is, and to think of it more as a play. If you go to a play, no matter how goo the acting is, at the back of yer mind yer always slightly nervous that the lead will forget all his lines and blow the performance. And to me live performance of music should be the same way, like watching a man spinning plates or something, always fearing the moment is nearing when they all come crashing to the ground! Real excitement. Somehow, this Violent Femmes record represents that to me.

Punk Globe: How can Punk Globe readers reading this discover the other music you made and order it?

Adam - Right now you can check out my music at itsadammowery.bandcamp.com and order some physical copies of my music from Hamburger Tapes which has released my last two cassettes, FERNHILL and Four Track Mind. Hamburger are at http://hamburgertapes.tumblr.com/ Thanks Adam for your time and the music!

In Freedom,
Jeff Liberty
Music Columnist
506-658-8639
jeff@punkglobe.com
www.punkglobe.com