« Adventures in Gonzo-Vision:It’s been far too long. I’m Andrew Cole. Welcome back, chump. | Main | The Man just keeps everyone down »
September 20, 2005
Hardcore drummer marches to his own beat
Perhaps more recognized locally for his roles in a couple of strong acts in the Twin Cities thriving hard-core scene, local musician Adam Welle has something else going on for him these days. The current drummer of post-hardcore act Icollide, now has a solo release to add to his collection.
“The whole thing started when I was a freshman in high school,” Welle said of his solo aspirations. His high school band broke up after a couple of years together, leaving Welle with a lot of musical ambition and no outlet. “I was upset because I had all of these songs that I thought were great that never got recorded.”
To remedy this Welle saved up and invested in a 4-track recorder and enough instruments to fill out his
desired sound. He gave this solo project the name Latest Disgrace, drawn from a Fugazi song, and recorded a demo tape that he marketed to other kids in his high school. It was this tape that got his name out, though not as a solo artist.
“After I finished that tape, I began getting offers to play drums for other bands. It was weird because I was a guitar player and at first, that’s all I wanted to do. Eventually I grew into the idea of being a drummer because it was fun and it meant I could almost always find a band, since drummers are a little harder to come by.”
After a short stint with a band called Officer Annie, Welle helped form Endahl in 1999, but even with the relative success of his new band, Welle still was not completely satisfied with his direction.
“Endahl played some pretty chaotic hard-core punk rock that I absolutely loved, but I was still playing a lot of guitar and writing things that wouldn’t fit in with what we were doing. So I upgraded all of my recording gear and started recording these other songs as a way for me to exercise those non-hardcore demons.”
After last year’s breakup of Endahl Welle was invited to become the drummer for Icollide. With this new position he has still kept his solo project going. Recently he released his first solo CD entitled Succeeding at Failure which is available at all Icollide shows.
“This is something I plan on doing for a very long time,” Welle said about his solo project. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world when I get to hear that finished product for the first time.”
The sound of his solo project varies substantially from the hard-core sound of his other bands. “I like to describe it as the remnants of a fight between Hot Water Music, Lifetime, Small Brown Bike, and Lagwagon.”
Though he plans no solo performances, his role with Icollide has kept him very busy and in the coming months the group is heading out on their second national tour in support of their latest album Distractions.
Though they have many CDs and have played numerous show, Icollide is not currently signed to any label and the band still does its own booking. “It’s hard work and costs a lot of money, but it’s what we live for.”
The next chance to see Icollide is on Sunday, Sept. 18 at the 7th Street Entry. For more information you can check them out at www.icollided.com.
Posted by msveum at September 20, 2005 12:54 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)