DOPESICK - Seeing Stars
Written by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Monday 22nd August 2022
Photos by: Anabel DFlux
Adam Albright on Burying the Hatchet
Change is important. If you’d told me five years ago I’d be on the wagon and back interviewing musicians I would’ve laughed in your face. If you told Adam Albright that he’d not only be off the booze, but he’d be working with SKINLAB singer Steev Esquivel again, you probably would’ve got a similar reaction. But it’s happening, and it’s amazing. With the release of new single I’m So High I See Stars – a prime slab of early 2000s nu metal with an earworm chorus and a riff to match – Adam took some time out from practicing with drummer Rich to speak to SENSE from Los Angeles.
What was it like working with Steev Esquivel again?
It was good, dude. It was really cool. We hadn’t been friendly … I hadn’t worked with Steev for a long time, dude. We were both in the Bay Area when he was doing SKINLAB and I was doing DOPESICK, and we were kind of enemies. I’d see him a lot, and we never got physical, but we weren’t friends for a long time, man. It was just stupid shit. Just stupid, macho, tough guy shit, you know what I mean? I participate in a suicide awareness show every year in San Francisco, and this last year, it was all through the computer, so I didn’t know who I was working with – who was playing the other parts and shit. I played the piano to MOTHER LOVE BONE’s Chloe, and I didn’t know who was going to do vocals, and Steev did the vocals. That’s how we got hooked back up. I was like, “Holy shit!” And that just started the nice vibe again. It’s been so long since I was in SKINLAB, he’s had kids now, he’s grown up, I’ve grown up, and we’re just more mature people now and it’s a lot better. It was cool. It was nice.
The new track, I’m So High I See Stars, is fucking awesome. I’ve had it stuck in my head for the last two days. The riff is sick … What were the influences? What have you guys been listening to lately that has put you in that vibe?
I’ve been listening to KING 810 a lot. I love KING 810, I think it’s really cool. I think it’s the newest heavy, violent kind of shit for me. And I listen to a lot of reggae and a lot of other shit, but the most heavy shit that I’ve been listening to is KING 810, so maybe that’s where some of it came from, hopefully.
The big news for you over the last year is sobriety. I recently celebrated four years sober myself, so I was really happy to hear that you’re doing well, man.
I smoke pot, so I’ve heard that people call that “California sober”, but I don’t give a fuck what people call it. It’s for me. It’s not for anybody else. It’s for me and my family and my health and for my life. I smoke pot every day, but I don’t drink anymore. See, Rich is normal. Rich can still drink and not fucking go crazy and do stupid shit. We were talking about it last night. I’m bored right now, so I want to drink, but that’s not good. It’s just that I’m bored and I need to figure out my shit. But if I drink it’s not going to make it better, it’s going to make it worse, so I just need to stay strong right now. But I’m bored as fuck, I want a drink [laughs], but I’ve got to get over this little hurdle right here and I’ll be okay! But that’s the truth!
I 100% get it mate. Reconnect with your hobbies – that’s what I did. I got back into music journalism, and now here I am talking to you! [Laughs]
Dude, it’s weird. When we were kids, I never thought I’d be sober. I just thought, that doesn’t go with what I do, you know? We’re not allowed to. But it’s better right now. On the tours, I’m not drinking, I’m driving, I can do business, I can take care of shit. We were talking about that last night too. If I drink, I don’t know if I’ll be able to fucking drive. Just all kinds of shit. So I’m struggling with it, but I’m doing good. Right now, I’m winning. Today, I’m winning.
You guys did a full-length a few years ago. Is this single maybe a sign of things to come? Are you going to be putting together an album soon?
We were supposed to be on tour right now. We were supposed to be on tour for the month of August, and that got fucked up by the economy and the way shit’s going over here. So that song came out … I want to put that song, the song I did with H.R. from BAD BRAINS, Summertime, the INXS cover that I did, and Day Eraser – I think I’m going to put them on an EP and put that out at Christmas time. Me and Rich are starting to write right now, work on the new music. I just worked with Chris Kontos a little bit, which was very cool. Me and him did two songs, so I’m fucking with those two, but me and Rich are going to start writing a big batch of new shit, and by springtime, that’s our plan … The EP, those songs are out now already except for the new one, but I want it to be on something tangible – something that people can have in their hand. I’m old-school dude, so I like that shit. So I’ll probably print 100, 500 CDs, sell them myself, and then we’ll work on new music, hopefully go on tour in the springtime, and just kind of get ready for that spring.
As someone who is in Australia, you can never really tell what’s going on in America, because the news outlets have a very clear bias where things are either totally fine and everything’s wonderful, or completely fucked and the world’s going to end. You were saying that you had to cancel a tour because of the economy. What’s it like for you on the ground over there?
Well, I mean, the news is bullshit, always, but our gas was crazy for a while. It was like six or seven dollars. That’s starting to come down right now, but a lot of clubs in the Midwest where we play, they weren’t wanting to open Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night. Friday and Saturday, our shows were cool, but the weekday shows would start dropping off because people didn’t want to open. We’re a smaller band, so I can understand a club owner having to open, having to pay his staff, having to pay all the shit, having to pay the band, and then maybe not having a good show on a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night. I understand. But for us, if we don’t play Tuesday, Wednesday night, we can’t play Friday, Saturday night. We’ve got to play every night. So that’s what the thing was. I’ve seen some other smaller bands having the same kind of deal – shows getting cancelled, so they’ve got to stop their tours. What sucks is big bands, or bands that are known, those shows are going killer, because everybody wants to see shows right now because of the pandemic. We’ve been locked down so long, everybody’s happy at shows right now. When you go to a show, people are happy. There’s no fucking fights. You bump into someone, they’re like, “Oh, sorry bro! Excuse me!” Everybody’s happy to be out. So it sucks, because it's like, “Fuck, I want to be out playing!” When we played, the shows that we did, we had a good time. People had fun. We met a lot of people, sold merch, made friends. So I want to be out there playing, man. People want to see shows, but it’s hard right now because of the economy for us.
I’m So High I See Stars is out now.