Bakersfield, CA has pumped out some amazing musicians, including the nu metal/rock band ADEMA and their new singer, Ryan Shuck. We had the pleasure of chatting with Shuck who happens to be not only incredibly nice, but also exceptionally smart about the music business.
Ryan Shuck is best known from the bands Orgy, Dead by Sunrise, and Julien-K. He brings the deep, heavy and melodic vocals that former front-man Mark Chavez featured, but with his own sound. Shuck says, “No matter what, you’re always competing with the previous singer. I had to stand in a fire. There’s a lot of ADEMA superfans and some of them were like, ‘Fuck this guy, he doesn’t sing growly enough,’ or anything they can say to hate on you. You can’t be someone else. All you can do is be yourself. I am confident enough that our new single, ‘Ready to Die’ can stand with the group’s work from the last twenty years.”
We asked Shuck what inspired “Ready to Die,” and he told us, “We decided to make some music… We encouraged the band and myself to think about how we grew up in Bakersfield, where we came from, who our real influences were back in the early ‘90s when we created all this music in the first place, remember nu metal, remember what it was, remember what we created, why people liked us in the first place and we started getting songs like, ‘Ready to Die.’”
Shuck told us that he came out of rehab 17 months ago, but before he got sober, he was in a really bad place. “’Ready to Die’ is a song that’s about a time in my life where I was absolutely ready to die and these lyrics are really like me yelling at myself in the mirror.” He goes on, “It’s really a song about when you can’t go on the way that you’ve been going on. When your system for life is broken and you’d do anything to make things better. You’re just on that razor’s edge. That’s what the song is about and it’s shaping what the album is about.”
ADEMA has received over 51k YouTube video streams and 40k streams on Spotify alone for “Ready to Die” and it’s on over 200 playlists since its August 20th release.
Shuck is excited about their upcoming album titled, “360 Degrees of Separation,” he told us, “In the modern age, people don’t buy albums, the market is set up for singles, so to get any milage out of 10 or so songs, we will probably be releasing singles over the coming months and make each one of them special. There will be a few songs that will be ‘album only.’ It will be a little different, but this is the way we are making it exciting for the fans.”
Unfortunately, there is no definitive date that we can mark on our calendars to expect this album, but Shuck told us that a date will be released “when the album takes shape, but we can say that fans won’t be waiting years for our singles.” This means Adema will be focusing on bringing us the very best from these bright, artistic minds, and working hard while they are on tour next month.
ADEMA | PHOTO by DALE MAREK
ADEMA’s US tour starts September 1st and they hit the country hard playing almost every single day in the month, then taking it back to their roots with a finale in Bakersfield on October 2nd. A Long Beach date will be announced soon, so be sure to keep your eyeballs peeled to their social media.
The band has made an excellent choice in adding Shuck to their family and we are so excited to see them live. The band’s sonic vision and electrifying stage show will have you coming back for more. ADEMA today features Ryan Shuck (Vocals), Tim Fluckey ( Guitar), Mike Ransom (Guitar), Dave DeRoo (Bass), and Kris Kohls (Drums). They are definite must see in 2021!
