Scattered Hamlet Interview with Adam Joad AKA the Appalachian Apostle.

By Josh Drespling

Alcohol fueled, boot stomping, southern style, hard rock drenched in blues and distorted guitar riffs performed by a crew of the most likable and guys you ever could meet. Empire Extreme chatted with Adam Joad (vocals, harmonica & guitar) about all thing Shatter Hamlet and this is how it went.

Josh: Scattered Hamlet recently released the video for Swamp Rebel Machine. That was kind of the story of the band. Can you elaborate on that being your story?
Adam: Yeah. It’s kinda all [of] our stories. You know, we all came from small towns across the U.S. and we travel around – 100 shows a year – and tour. We refer to ourselves sort of as the Swamp Rebel Machine, you know? A lot of the lyrics are autobiographical reference things we have done, places we have been and that kind of stuff, you know. (Laughs).

Josh: Cool, cool. The album is coming out this fall… sort of, kind of… is that time frame?
Adam: That’s the plan, buy always subject to change.
Josh: (Laughs). It’s been about three years since the previous one. Why so long? What’s the delay? Come on, guys!
Adam: You know, well, it was just one of those things. We had the tunes out for a while; the album’s been recorded for probably a year. We are trying to make good business decisions. So, yeah, we’ve been pouring a lot into it and we didn’t want to put the album out there and get hurt. We wanted to make sure it got to the most people as possible. If that meant waiting a little bit that’s what we were gonna do.

Josh: Awesome. That’s what you gotta do man, right?
Adam: Yeah, yeah. It’s weird.  The industry is weird right now. We got to work with a lot of really good folks and do something we’re extremely proud of and we didn’t want to go ‘Here it is.’ We wanted to make sure we got it out their properly. That’s all.

Josh: You were mentioning the people you worked with. I know you worked with Jay on this one and who else was involved?
Adam: Yeah, Jason Donaghy and Jake Delling Le Bas. They were the two main producers. Jay and our drummer, Jacob, go way back. They both actually grew up in Ireland and they have been friends for a long time. Jay and Jake they’re kind of a like a production team. They work out of a studio called Corporate Sound. It’s up in the Hollywood Hills. They wanted to help us capture what we do live, ‘cuz we felt we really had to capture that live experience and so they basically made sure we had everything at our disposal to do it right.  We got to record the main tracks of the album live at a place called NRT Studios, which is where they did the last Motorhead, the last Lamb of God. So, yeah, you know, we had everything we possibly needed. If the album is bad, it’s 100% our fault.(laughs) We had everything at our disposal to make a great record. 

Josh: So, how does the new, yet to be released, album differ from Skeleton Dixie?
Adam: It’s a natural progression for us? We’ve all been playing together for a long time now. There’s synergy between the band members, the songs are tighter, the musicianship is better – like it’s a lot better. You know, that’s how I see it.
Josh: (Laughs).
Adam: But it’s a logical progression, too. It’s not like someone’s gonna hear it and go ‘it’s a total different – it’s different than the last one.’ I mean, we do what we do, we’re just getting better at it.

Josh: It sounds good so far from the one song I heard. It’s tighter sounding – it’s just – I hate to say, it’s more mature. Now that’s the typical journalist kinda thing, but it’s just a fuller sound. You know what I mean?
Adam: Yeah, it’s more accurate. We turned it down a bit. We learned a lot of stuff. We always knew how to be a live band, we just didn’t know how to be a studio band. We turned down the distortion and worked more on the sound. I actually recorded the vocals at my house in Houston, PA.  They flew out there, I stayed at the casino. (Laughs). Worked with me at the little bunker there. It was cool – much more comfortable for me.

Josh: You mentioned playing live. You just did some shows with Blackfoot and even one with Quiet Riot. How was that?
Alex: Well, Quiet Riot canceled. That was –
Josh: Oh, really?
Alex: You know, that wasn’t very awesome.
Josh: (Laughs).
Adam: You know, when that happens, that’s where you lose all the money. (Laughs).
Josh: Yeah. Was it the day of that they canceled? Or at least you had some notice?
Adam: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The day before, it was really the night before. That was pretty awesome. I don’t know if it was twenty-four hours. It sucked. That was a very… you know… yeah. Bigger bands have a luxury of doing that. For us younger bands that are on a smaller level cancellations really sting.  And being a big fan of them, too, it was going to be a pretty cool experience. But Blackfoot, we got to play a few dates with them and that was pretty cool. Really nice guys. All their stage hands are all Skynyrd roadies and techs, so that’s pretty amazing.
Josh: I’m sure they had stories to tell, too.
Adam: Oh, yeah… yeah. It was good. They fed us really well and that was just a good experience all around.

Josh: Well, that is awesome. Could you tell me about the Hell Riders?
Adam: Yeah, that’s just something the fans started making. We as the band doesn’t have anything to do with that. People are calling like ‘I want to start a Hell Riders chapter.’ And I was like ‘cool – we’re not a biker club.’ We appreciate the support – that’s pretty cool. It’s flattering, it’s humbling, and it’s a cool thing, but they operate it completely independent from us.

Josh: It’s cool to have that built in network of fans across the country already.
Adam: Oh, yeah. It really is. Start out being like we have and not being packaging with too many bigger bands. We’ve been doing a lot by ourselves. We really built from the ground up there and it’s been pretty amazing so far. I think we sort of have a niche appeal that goes along with that.

Josh: Is there a back story to your band name? Where did that come from?
Adam: Yeah, it’s actually – I was reading a civil war book.
Josh: Ohhh.
Adam: It’s the title of a chapter. They’re small communities – mountain communities – little places called hamlets. So I named the band that. It fits the band, but at the same time, most people don’t get it. So, in hindsight, I probably should have done something more obvious. (Laughs). People are like ‘Is that a Shakespeare reference?’ No, not at all. It is what it is.  There are better band names and there are worse ones.

Josh: Ok you gotta level with me. Who in your band is the biggest drinker?
Adam: (laughing) Definitely not me. Jake our drummer, he will never pass out, even long after he should have. It’s fascinating. He becomes a completely different person that we named Bean Dip. So whenever Bean Dip comes out it’s pretty amazing. We even have fans come out and hold up Bean Dip 3:16 signs.
Josh: That’s too funny. I gotta know about all the nick names you have. Give me the stories behind them.
Adam: Oh. I’m just bad with names, so I make stuff up and they end up sticking for better or worse. I’m a outdoorsman kind of person, maybe like a mini Ted Nugent. People were always like “You’re the Appalachian Apostle”. I said “I’m taking that one!”

We also have The Old Kentucky Bastard, which is obviously a take on The Old Dirty Bastard from Wu Tang Clan. Jake is from Ireland, so we named him The Irish Thunder. Adam is from Ottawa Illinois so he got the name Chicago Bootlegger. Yeah, so I change them, it’s funny.

Josh: I saw a picture of you. It looked like you were backstage a KISS show. Looked like you were trying to steal some guitars.
Adam: Oh yeah! I got to wear Gene’s bass and play it. I got to check out all the guitars and stand back on the drum riser. For me, I was losin’ my shit. I was standing there and there was Paul Stanley. I know he was probably looking at me like “Who the fuck is this guy?” It was pretty awesome. You know people hate on Kiss but they are the blue print for the area rock and how it’s done. Kiss is what got me. They were the first thing I saw and I was like “I like everything about this.” I take a lot from Kiss, so I was pretty honored to go back there and hang out.
Josh: How did that come about?
Adam: On the first album, Skeleton Dixie we had three guitar players. You know, Skynyrd style. Our one guitar players stopped touring with us and now he is Gene Simon’s bass tech. We had a day off and were able to catch up with him and got to go back and see all the Kiss stuff. It was pretty rad.

Josh: You mentioned Kiss being an influence on you, but can you give those who have not heard the band a kind of description of what you sound like.
Adam: I say if your mixed Motorhead and Skynyrd. We’ve got that punk rock and aggression, but we like our guitar harmonies ala Southern rock. We call it Honkey Tonk Metal.
Josh: The one description I read was “Honkey Tonk metal like you took a handful of cheap trucker speed and headed out on the warpath.”
Adam: (Laughing) Yeah. That’s pretty much it. Again, that is one of our stories too. I started out on a conventional career path. At one point I just sort of lost it. I said fuck it; I’m not doing this anymore. This was back when you could get ephedrine over the counter. I took a handful of that and drove as long as I could until I gave out and ended up somewhere in the mid-west.
Josh: That’s awesome.
Adam: (Laughing) I wouldn’t say it was awesome.
Josh: Ok, interesting then.
Adam: Yeah definitely, that is fair enough.
Josh: Do you guys have any more project going on? Tour plans, videos coming out?
Adam: Yeah, when the album comes out we have a song with a video ready to go for it. It’s called “White Trash”. It’s just funny and a way to laugh at yourself. As you know were are not very P.C.. We thought about releasing that first, but everybody is uptight and there is a lot of tension right now. So we didn’t think that it was necessarily the tune to go with.
Josh: Its kind of funny that you mention that. One of my questions that I kind of skipped over was “Have you been following the election and what are your thoughts on all of that?”
Adam: Yeah man… ya know what. This is what I think right here. With all the people in the United States and those are the two people that we came up with. That is just fascinating to me. That just blows my mind.
I don’t really talk much about politics, but the country is so divided and I hate that.  We don’t see it as much on the road and I feel people are way more connected through music and similar things than the media would want you to believe. The media jumps on these stories and make it seem like everybody is fighting in the streets and that there is complete chaos. I have been to probably 25 states in the last three weeks and that’s not at all what’s going on.  But that’s what sells stories and makes people click.  We talk to people from all different demographic and they have way more in common than this separation.  Its just a cluster-fuck for lack of a better term.

Josh: Back to the original question about the video and tour plans etc.
Adam: Yeah. We are at the point that we don’t know if we are going to sign to a label. We all grew up as punk-rockers so the whole Discord model is appealing to us. Then on the other hand we could go the conventional route and sign with a label.  All good problems to have, but we are just trying to make good decisions. Sometimes I don’t know what a good decision is, but I just want to get the music out there.

About Author

Josh Drespling

Josh is the Publisher and creator of Empire Extreme and it’s sister publication Kingdom Extreme Magazine. He is an accomplished writer, photographer and graphic designer. He is always conjuring up new ideas and has a amazing passion for the music industry and all the things that surround it.

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