Life on the road has been good for Adema

New metal band is part of SnoCore Rock tour

ROSS RAIHALA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, March 15, 2002

In the music business, it never hurts to have a connection.

In the case of Adema, that connection was to none other than one of new metal's biggest acts, Korn.

Adema lead singer Mark Chavez just happens to be the half brother of Korn's kilt-loving leader Jonathan Davis.

And that probably had something to do with the subsequent bidding war to win the hand of Adema. When the five-piece signed with Arista Records, they had never performed live.

All of that changed with the August 2001 release of the band's self-titled album.

Thanks to relentless touring -- including a stop Tuesday in Seattle -- Adema recently topped the half-million mark in sales.

"Actually, we hit the road 4 1/2 months before the album came out," said bass player Dave DeRoo. "We're coming up on 11 months now on the road. I was home about 2 1/2 weeks that entire time."

The Korn connection earned Adema some early attention, but the band's sound fits in much more comfortably in the melodic, "my parents are mean" vein of Staind.

Rock radio also has picked up on Adema's first single, "Giving In," a tunefully depressing ode to addiction.

"If you would have told me radio would be playing us, I would have never believed it," said DeRoo. "I mean, we wrote an album we really liked and we worked hard on it, but we didn't think it would take off so quickly."

The constant touring has certainly helped, as Adema has played more than its share of metal package tours.

The current Seattle date is part of the SnoCore Rock series and Adema shares the stage with Alien Ant Farm, Glassjaw and Earshot.

"We've played with all these guys before," said DeRoo. "It's fun, it's not like we're on competing football teams. It's rock 'n' roll."

Prior to Adema, the five members played in various bands in and around Bakersfield, Calif., the city that gave the world Korn and Orgy.

Adema drummer Kris Kohls even briefly tasted the life of a major-label act when his former band Cradle of Thorns signed with Korn's own Elementree label. But after a name change to Videodrone, a drug-infested 1999 tour and a failed major- label debut album (that featured a guest vocal from Fred Durst), the group imploded.

Kohls ended up joining the four members of Adema, and the subsequent demo recordings the group made sparked the bidding war.

So far, it looks like Adema won't follow down the low road blazed by Cradle of Thorns/ Videodrone.

"I think we all kind of hit the wall at various points during the first three months of touring," said DeRoo. "But we've all acclimated ourselves to the fact that we're not going to be going home any time soon. There's a lot of work involved with this, but every day we get to be in this band is a blessing."

In addition to the gold album, Adema just landed a plum spot on this summer's upcoming OzzFest. They've also made plans to tour Europe.

"We're all kind of freaked out by what's happened," said DeRoo. "We haven't been presented with the (gold) plaques yet, so I'm not going to really believe it until I have mine up on my wall. And since I live on the tour bus right now, I guess I'll have to find a place to put it."

Ross Raihala covers entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or rraihala@olympia.gannett.com.

SnoCore Rock

- What: A package tour featuring Alien Ant Farm, Adema, Glassjaw and Earshot.

- When: 6:30 p.m. March 19.

- Where: The Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave., Seattle.

- Tickets: $19.50.

- For information: Call Ticketmaster Northwest at 206-628-0888.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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