Adam Jaffe (Pistols At Dawn)

Adam Jaffe is the drummer for Pistols At Dawn, an exciting up and coming band.  The band recently booked an opening slot on the Alter Bridge & Mammoth WVH tour.   They just wrapped up an acoustic radio tour for their single "The Truth."  We discuss all this plus how Adam grew the band, working with producer Sylvia Massy, a crazy stage incident & more! 

00:00 - Intro
00:42 - Recent Radio Tour & Playing Acoustically
05:34 - Old Singer & New Singer
08:00 - New Guitarist & Bassist
09:40 - Growing the Band & Success
15:05 - Making the Tough Decisions & Going All In
17:50 - Tour with Mammoth & Alter Bridge
21:30 - Adam's Take Over The World Attitude
23:35 - Adam's Backstory
26:20 - Working with Producer Sylvia Massy
28:58 - Recording with Jesse James Dupree
30:23 - Guns 'N Roses & Stage Accidents
36:00 - Charity Show & World Central Kitchen
37:22 - Website, Social Media & Band Name
39:28 - Outro

Pistols At Dawn website:
https://www.pistolsatdawnband.com/

World Central Kitchen website:
https://wck.org/

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com/

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:00

Okay, today on the show with Adam Jaffe, he's the drummer for pistols at dawn. This is an exciting up and coming band that recently landed a spot on a tour with Alter Bridge and mammoth. Their music is blowing up on the radio and YouTube. And after chatting with Adam, I think this is only the beginning. There are more tour offers in the works that he just can't announce yet, but we will discuss the history of the band lineup changes, growing the band, working with legendary producer, Sylvia Massey, and much much more coming right up. Welcome, Adam, how's it going?

Adam Jaffe: 0:44

Hey, brother, thank you so much for having us today. I'm doing great, man. We just got off tour. Just slept for two weeks and feeling so much better.

Chuck Shute: 0:52

Which tour Did you this the one with Mammoth and ultra Bridger. That hasn't started yet, right?

Adam Jaffe: 0:57

No, no. So no, that starts in March. So we went out. And right now our songs charting very well in radio, Billboard, all the different charts and whatnot. And so we went out to for two and a half weeks to various radio stations from the southeast through the Midwest, and played acoustically for them. So we did an acoustic radio tour, and then a bunch of them put on special shows for us with their listeners and winners and this that the other and so we played for just a ton of people. For about two and a half weeks until we got to the top of Wisconsin, we're freezing our asses off and decided to come to hell home. Okay, yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:37

I think I heard some of those because there's one or two of them. That's they put it on Spotify as like a podcast, I was able to listen. And yeah, the songs sound cool, acoustic to like truth. That's a great song.

Adam Jaffe: 1:48

Thank you, thank you. It was funny as hell we we are radio people. And our management told us we had to go out and do a radio tour. And when you do a radio tour, you got to play acoustic. And we're a very serious electric live band. We don't use tracks, we plug in we play we're very natural, organic. And when they told us we had to play acoustic, we were just like, No, we're just like, we're not gonna do that. And they're like, Yes, you are. They're like, Yes, you are. And you have to

Chuck Shute: 2:19

because you don't have room for like, you just set up a full drum set and stuff, right?

Adam Jaffe: 2:23

That's the thing, man. I mean, you have to be able to do it. And so are my guys. Actually. My guys actually sat down to play the truth. And a couple of our, a couple of our singles off of our new album. And on acoustic in and my lady and I just looked at each other like holy shit. Like, it was pretty good. We actually enjoy the acoustic tour. We enjoy playing acoustic.

Chuck Shute: 2:45

I'm trying to remember. Did you play drums on the acoustic or did you Okay, yeah. Because that's sometimes it's hard to tell if there's drums or not because there's so it's so subtle, but yeah, I've seen bands do that. And it's kind of cool. They have like, I don't know what the thing is called, but one of the guys has, what is that thing called? Where you hit it? It's just like a one man drill like a one thing drum? Like, what does that call?

Adam Jaffe: 3:08

Yeah, yes. So those are African drums. Okay, and whether it be Jim bay or Doom blur, there's some weird names for these drums. But the reality was, I thought it would be super cool if I could incorporate a bunch of those African drums and rather than lug them around. I just got a super cool drum machine, and which has all the African drums on it. So I play them. Very nice and subtly. You know, while we're playing in it and gives it it gives it a nice kind of tribal, tribal feel when you hear us live.

Chuck Shute: 3:38

Okay, yeah. Cool. Like, are you familiar with the black moods?

Unknown: 3:41

At all? Of course. Yeah. Okay. So they're the same publicist. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Kelly. Yeah. Kelly? Yeah, yeah.

Chuck Shute: 3:49

So they're from Arizona, and then Arizona. And like when I first started my podcast, I think it was like 30 episodes, and they came over to my house and they played for on my show, and they played acoustically. And it was it was it's really cool to watch that with the drums especially, it's kind of interesting to see him do it because you can't be too loud acoustically or you're going to overpower the singing and guitars.

Adam Jaffe: 4:08

It's it's the nuances that make acoustics so cool. But I wanted I wanted our whole band to do it. You know, a lot of bands will go out just see the guitarist and you'll see the vocalist do it. Yeah, you'll see two guitarists we've got five guys we did a five guy acoustic tour and traveled all over the you know the whole thing and it gives it's just a much more band type feeling when the whole band is playing.

Chuck Shute: 4:32

Yeah, and I think it's cool to hear the song stripped down because sometimes when you hear him played electric and stuff, you don't really appreciate the songwriting that goes into it when you hear things stripped down like when you hear truth stripped down acoustic you're like oh, wow, this you could tell like, how was that how the song was written? Because it just sounds so much different. I mean, I like both versions but the stripped down you can really appreciate the songwriting more, I think

Adam Jaffe: 5:00

I agree with you. It's fascinating because you get to hear the beauty of the song versus kind of the energy of the stuff. Yes. And when you get to hear the beauty of it, you know, because we have, we have screaming and little, a few of our songs, just powerful, intense kind of passionate moments and some of the electric songs and to hear our vocalists. Do them just kind of in a very pretty way, during the acoustic sessions, it just, everybody's just like there are our minds are blown, to be honest with you. Yeah, so

Chuck Shute: 5:30

tell me about your vocalist. He was in the rock star supernova of show he was a finalist or something.

Adam Jaffe: 5:39

Yeah, so so when we my, my lead guitarist, Devin and I started the band back in 2015. We had another guitarist who unfortunately passed away. And theory that we use for the first couple years to sing on our tracks and play a few play some of our shows live. His name was Chris Pearson. And Chris was on that rock star supernova show that Tommy Lee had back in the day on BH one. And Chris was a finalist and he's super talented. Ultimately, after we created the new album ascension, we realized we needed to kind of move on from Mr. Pearson And we moved on. We did we did a search nationally, we basically looked for one of the most one of the best frontman on the planet. And Chris Hodges is our frontman now and he has been for about the past year. And

Chuck Shute: 6:34

he different singer then okay, it is

Adam Jaffe: 6:37

in Chris. Chris has been Chris. He does sessions for some of the top people in the world. And he's just, he he has been in one of the top Linkin Park tribute bands in the world. He's just got the gods touched him when he was a baby. And the guy can sing and put on a show like no other. And so we upgraded a bit. And that's who our singer is now.

Chuck Shute: 7:01

So how did you find him? You said was it from the Linkin Park thing or

Adam Jaffe: 7:05

so so we just my social media person creative director and I just did a massive search and looked through every single we could possibly find in the United States. And we just came upon his information on one of the sessions sites, their session sites for different sessions singers. And we just listened to every single one of them and that he it was just instantaneous. And then we saw that he was in this massive Linkin Park tribute band that that covers the world. And we just watched a bunch of his shows. And he's just he's that good. He's just one of those people who has the gift and and we were fortunate. He listened to our music and he was like I'm in and that was it.

Chuck Shute: 7:45

Wow, does he still do the Linkin Park thing on the side down or he does

Adam Jaffe: 7:49

periodically, when we're not when we're not when we're not on tour? He does. He's just he's just a consummate Pro. And we're just fortunate to have him we're his priority. But you know, we did a search for three members. Actually, my guitarist and I, we decided to upgrade a good bit. And we just we went out and we found one of the top shredders in the universe. He's 22 years old. His name is Wil James. He's our lead shredder guitarist. And if you ever wanted to see what Eddie Van Halen was like when he was 22, we've got he's bad. He's He's that good, man. Is that cool? And he's that nice. And he's awesome. And then we went out to Vegas, and we pulled in one of the top bases in the country and who had been with some of the top really heavy metal bands and, and did the Fremont Street Experience stuff like that. We grabbed him and he actually moved to Atlanta, not too long ago, and now we're just planning tours and hopefully will take over the world.

Chuck Shute: 8:47

Dude, I love I love the energy. Like how passionate you are. You're like this is the best singer. We got the best guitarists like you're not shy about saying, Oh, we got this guy's pretty good. You're like, No, this is the best. I love it.

Adam Jaffe: 8:59

You know, it's funny, you know, when you create these things. If you had asked me back in 2020, when we were putting this together, I would say we were very good band, we write really good music and I think we have really good potential. After we went out after we created what we have now and then went out and upgraded to the artists that we have now. I would say we are a badass band. And not because I'm cocky or confident or egotistical but because I sit back and I watch these guys on a daily basis, and I just marvel at their talent. And I'm just saying it as an objective observer. How about that?

Chuck Shute: 9:37

Well So then how do you convince them to join your band? Like how I mean if this guy is in one of the best Linkin Park tribute why should he join your band? How'd you convince him of that? Cuz you haven't done much to begin with, right? I mean, this was kind of restarting it.

Adam Jaffe: 9:52

Well, we were blowing up when we went and got Chris so so we put out our first singles and we were very successful with this then we and we can kind of built our team along the way. And then we went to radio and stuff. And then we kind of built, we did our EP, and we had great success with that as well. And then, you know, you build your followers, you build your streams, you build your team management, label this out the other helplessness all that mess. And then eventually, you do your big first out. And when we did ascension, our full our team just came into place, we got signed with, with Megaforce records, we, we got, you know, they did our distribution worldwide, we we signed with TKO for For bookings this out the other, and I guess it was the type of thing where, like Chris Hodges he'll, he would tell you that he listened to our album ascension, and he saw everything that we had built. And it was a no brainer, it was a no brainer for him. You know what I mean? Meaning meaning, it was fortunately, Devin and I and the guys that were previously in the band, we wrote some really great music. And Devin, I write, you know, we initially would write the songs together, he, he does the rhythm guitar, and I do the drums. And so we kind of put the songs together, and then the other guys would do their parts. And fortunately, we wrote some kickass, you know, music. And we built an incredible team. And I spent a gazillion hours building this team and kind of getting us on the radar everywhere. And, you know, it was a no brainer for these guys, they want to tour the world, they want to be in one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. And I think they saw that we had the potential to do everything they had, we have the shot at the brass ring that they were always looking for.

Unknown: 11:31

So you Yeah, you so you kind of

Chuck Shute: 11:33

already built it up at that point. So it was a good thing for them to Joe wasn't like they were joining a no name band at that point. That's,

Adam Jaffe: 11:39

that's the whole thing. We I built it to where to full, a full, full operation. And so they came in, and two seconds later, they're doing a video, you know, that just came out. And now it's being blasted all over the world. And now it's on the radio, and now it's charting on Billboard, and now it's charging on the secondary charts. And oh, by the way, we're going on tour with Alter Bridge and oh, by the way, we're going on tour with this band and not being and we're doing radio to earner. You know, we just got octane last night and, and so these guys are just like sitting back. It's kind of like it's kind of like, you know, it's coming in after all the hard work is done. I mean, there's still hard work to do. This is the fun stuff, though. The grill grind was getting to this point. So now these guys saw that, hey, I get to just get to come in and play tours. Sounds good to me.

Chuck Shute: 12:30

Yeah, no, that's really fascinating because I talk to a lot of musicians and have different levels. And I think I think you're right, I think that is the The grind is getting to that point, getting all the publicists and the labels and the radio play and the tours and all that stuff. And you've already lined all that stuff up.

Adam Jaffe: 12:47

Is that it was one of the hardest challenges of my existence. How did you do that? Straight A book, man, suicide, just put my head put my head down. I'm married and my wife, she put her head down. She does. She's our creative director does all of our social media, websites, stuff like that. And we just put our heads down, and just figure it out every step of the way. And I just didn't take no for an answer. I knew I had great music. I knew we wrote great music. And I knew I knew the people like the producers we worked with were top shelf, and I made sure of that. And I knew if I came to the table with that, and could show that we could build the brand that people would want to work with us. And I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, you know, and Kelly, Kelly, fortunately, was a Kelly, our publicist at SRL, she did a very good job of introducing us to all the power players that we needed. I did a good job after that of basically showing them this passion that I've got and showing them the great music that we have and basically saying, you know, we're not, you know, we're not we're nice guys. We're not egotistical. We are badass musicians. And, you know, we're here to take over the world and you know, people bought into it.

Chuck Shute: 14:04

So there was some rejection, you just have to keep pushing.

Adam Jaffe: 14:09

Yeah, I would say at every single, every single level, there's always rejection, especially at the beginning, because they don't know you. They have to get to know you. You know, we went to our first publicist, who referred us to the second pelvis, his sewer, first, the third publicist. And finally, the fourth fourth publicist was like, hell yeah, Sign me up. You know, and it's the same thing with labels, talk to this label, talk to that label, talk to this label. And finally, boom, the next label was like, sign me, you know, let's go. And, and it was the same thing with our booking agent at TKO. Our manager went to him five different times, and said, You need to sign these guys they're gonna they're gonna take over and he was just like, okay, get back to me when they've done more get back to you and they've done more finally, we've done so much that he was like, Okay, I want to hear this track right now. He heard it. He was like, yep, get into Nashville. Boom, how to deal? Wow, you just have to be persistent. You got to be talented. And to be honest with you, you got to make the upgrade, you got to make the hard decisions. And you got to be willing to upgrade to top shelf talent. Because if you don't have top shelf talent across the board, forget it.

Chuck Shute: 15:17

So you had to let some of the musicians go, you had to change. That's why you changed it because you felt like they weren't at the same level.

Adam Jaffe: 15:26

We had good musicians, talented musicians, but we needed into the world musicians who who were pro full time and dedicated to pistols at dawn, with no questions.

Chuck Shute: 15:39

Okay, so that's another piece of it. I feel like yeah, there's a lot of people that they play music, but it's kind of more of like a hobby kind of thing, or it's they're not

Unknown: 15:48

all in, you got to be all in right.

Adam Jaffe: 15:52

Your top priority said the most important. You didn't know you said the most all in is the way to put it. We had done the amateur thing for many years here in Atlanta. Okay, way back in the day, when we were little boys. And growing up, we were all in bands we played, you know, we played with the same guys in the same bands and the same places and not the other end back in 2019. It was the beginning of 20, just before the pandemic, Devin and I put our heads down when we said with our form of bases Billy and we said we're going to we're doing it, we're going all the way, no matter what we don't stop. And I knew for me, I run the business side of the band. I knew what that then I had to put it all together. And I was just like, I'm all in, oh, no matter what it takes, what it costs, what I have to do, how much how many hours it takes, and my wife was the same way she she committed to helping me with this. And you know, you have to have, you have to be all in or forget about it's too hard. There's too many hard steps in every step that we would get higher and higher and higher. We would just get punched in the face with just a harder step. You know what I mean? Like, like getting a video on iTunes? It seems like oh, yeah, let me just go to a website and punch in some information and upload doesn't work like that. It's really very difficult to get a video on iTunes. Yes, very difficult. You I mean, I want to get into all the steps. But what I'm saying is, is that prior to you having a label, you've got to figure these things out and do them professionally. And you've got to have a little money behind you to pay for all these high level things like like publicists. So we're just very fortunate. We're grateful for where we are. We've upgraded we've done the work, and now we're seeing kind of the spoils that come with it with tours. And now we're you know, we're doing our work on the road. And we're starting to get off we're having offers come in and and think it's gonna be really eventful. 23. And we'll definitely you're secure in Arizona. Yeah. You're coming here coming?

Unknown: 17:55

Yeah, it's a it's kind of interesting, like, WhatsApp.

Adam Jaffe: 18:02

Love for you to see it.

Chuck Shute: 18:03

Oh, yeah. No, I definitely want to be there. Unless I don't know, I don't think I have anything else going on and put it in my calendar. But the interesting thing about that tour is like, and this is not a shot at all to bridge at all. I think they're great, but I almost think mammoth should headline. I mean, have you seen those guys play? I mean, they opened for Guns and Roses. And I think they I mean they almost sounded better than roses like it was they were sounded so good. I and I was skeptical because I was like, oh, okay, this is just like Van Halen, this kid just living off the name or whatever. But, dude, he's super talented. It's amazing.

Adam Jaffe: 18:39

You know, he's, he's one of the most gifted guitarists on the planet. And he's one of the most humble guy from what I can see. He's one of the most humble guys on Earth. And it's, it's fascinating, because I agree with you. He easily could be doing his own headlining tours. Big ones, probably. They just got the Metallica tour. They're going to be opening for Metallica, Metallica, oh, yeah, wide. I think the lead opener on Metallica is next big tour, which is monstrous. And it's worldwide. And they're, you know, they're in Europe right now without a bridge. So I can't speak for them. All I can do is agree with you that Mammoth is amazing. And so when we heard of that bill, it was it was Ultra bridge with mammoth. It was like, you know, like, there's no, there's no crappy X here. These are just top shelf everything. And we get to go and be with them. And then we're just like, you know, it's a dream come true.

Unknown: 19:35

Yeah, you haven't had any

Chuck Shute: 19:36

show. So you have yet any interactions with mammoth or ultra Bridger that he reached out or sending an email or anything or

Adam Jaffe: 19:43

just their management. So when we when we, when we got the gig, their manager offered it to us and we're blessed to this day that he did. And we've got to we use some of the same radio people to promote radio and whatnot. And fortunately, they made the cut action instead, it would just be a killer show to have pistols open and the guys, here's the greatest compliment I think we've ever gotten so far. When we got the show, the tour mentioned us, it was made very clear that the guys in Alter Bridge had to listen to our album and vote, basically make a decision as to whether we can be added to the tour or they had to approve us. It wasn't just their management. And when they got back to us and said, Yep, the band, the band would love to have you on the tour. We were just like, shit, man that like that was a nice compliment, you know, had to

Chuck Shute: 20:34

be stressful, though. Like there had to been a period where you weren't sure what if they said no, that would have been that would have hurt I think a little.

Adam Jaffe: 20:41

You know, I mean, easily could have come back like that. Yeah. You know, that's why when they came back, and they're like, yeah, the band approved. We're like, Hell yeah, man. Like, we got something here. This is cool.

Chuck Shute: 20:51

Yeah. Although I don't think he would have given up if they didn't. I mean, I don't think you would have given the dream of the band or whatever. If they didn't have you just go okay, I'll go to the next tour or whatever.

Adam Jaffe: 21:00

No, no, we'd be talking about a different tour right now. And, and the fortunate thing for us is that you know, everything that you build with kind of leads to the next thing. And so the altar bridge tour, has already led to other tours has already led to other tour offers, you know, and

Chuck Shute: 21:16

anything you can share, is that still secret?

Adam Jaffe: 21:20

Still Still in negotiations? But I would say I would say that, we're going to be announcing many more additional tours coming soon. In 23. Awesome,

Chuck Shute: 21:29

very cool. So where did you get this attitude of like, I'm taking over the world, I'm not gonna stop like, is this like, what are you doing? Do you have a sales job and in your day job, or what you did before or hunted? Like, where does this come from? Just your personality.

Adam Jaffe: 21:42

I appreciate appreciate the compliment. Just, it's just how I was raised man, you know, my parents are all six, we're all successful entrepreneurs. And just, I was raised by these super high, like, highly intense, and passionate, over the top over amps, like, like, when we set our minds to something, get the hell out of the way we're doing it. And you know, when it comes to music, that's the coolest thing about this job is that, that when you really are in the music, and you're really into playing music, and you can really play good music, and people are into your, excuse me into your music, and you get to do this as your job. It's like, it's just, you know, it's an easy thing to be really amped about. And so that's just my personality when I taught, and it's been like this since day one, when we were building the band, you know, at the beginning, right before the pandemic, I put my, I got with my, my guitars, and I was just like, listen, there's this thing, it's called a pandemic. It's about to happen, apparently, and I don't give a shit. I'm like, I'm gonna engage with millions of people, we're going to entertain them, I'm gonna find a video company in Atlanta. That will, that will make videos for us during the pandemic, I'm going to find a producer in Atlanta, who's top shelf, and who will do our EP, during the worst part of the pandemic, we put out eight videos in an EP and engage with 2 million people during the pandemic, during the worst part of the pandemic. I'm talking about when we were all locked in. Yeah. And that's how we built our base, my friend. I mean, it was it was this type of enthusiasm during the shittiest point of a world on you know, life on Earth. And people were just like, Damn,

Chuck Shute: 23:28

you took a chance and it paid off. There you go. Yeah. Awesome. So is it true? Like we talked about music like you've been? You've been playing drums since like, age?

Unknown: 23:37

Six. Is that right?

Adam Jaffe: 23:39

I was six years old. And my dad's first girlfriend after my parents got divorced, wanted to piss my mother off. Yeah, so that story is true. Okay, she bought me a drum set

Chuck Shute: 23:52

to piss off your mom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you had a different effect because you became a drummer. So I actually invaded them on your mom too. But

Adam Jaffe: 24:07

yeah, German, German. Interesting. Interesting how it kind of all evolved. Okay, I didn't really get serious until I had this cousin. I, I wanted me wanting to wanted to learn how to play and get serious about it. I wasn't one of like a band school band kid. I was a rock kid. I was going to 1000 concerts when I was little. At nine years old. I went to see Prince, you know, with my babysitter, like, I was like, really into music. And anyway, anyway. I just remember I had a cousin who passed away and one of his dying wishes was to have a drum set. So they bought him a drum set. I just remember he died. And we called them after he passed away and they I bought the drum set and had my cousin's drum set who passed away and, you know, I learned on that and just played took lessons for two and a half years and, and kind of just joined by And band after band after band after band and, uh, you know, just grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. And here we are.

Chuck Shute: 25:05

So and you said that you use sometimes electronic like when you guys are doing the acoustic stuff? Do you do that in the studio to to use drum machines and stuff? Or is it all?

Adam Jaffe: 25:14

No, it's all organic. It's all acoustic. It's all it's all real acoustic drums in the studio, one of our one of our defining characteristics for our band for myself for my guitars, etc. We grew up loving bands like Guns and Roses and Metallica and a bunch of the other. Like just true plugging play bands, no tracks, no tracks, and Devon and I, when we started the band, we just made a pass, we're never going to attract ever we've had we've had former band members want to use them, you know, pump in like, harmonies in the south the other and that's kind of what led us to our current singers that if you can't pull off the vocals live, we can't use you. And so we needed a singer and we needed a backup singer who's our bassist? Who's incredible as well, who will spend 1000 hours making sure the harmonies are perfect instead of pumping in vocals. Like most bands do these days, and no no, I'm not taking away from from people who use tracks. That's that's a part of music, the music industry these days. We just pride ourselves on not doing it. And so that's kind of how I learned

Chuck Shute: 26:18

now that's super cool. So tell me about you mentioned the producers, you know, getting top notch producers tell me about working with Sylvia Massey because she's worked with the tool System of a Down Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash, like, did she have some? She must have had some stories of these, like, Can you share any of those stories or you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Adam Jaffe: 26:41

You know that it wasn't a nondisclosure. And she was as human as your eye. You are I am now it's fascinating when when we were deciding on who to use, you know, tool is one of our influences, and one of our favorite bands of all time and Johnny Cash and to hear you know, the roster of who she who she'd worked with, we were just like, you know, we knew we had to go to that level of producer. And when you do that, they're not just gonna work with you unless you're a big name. So we contacted their manager or manager, and they were like, Okay, send us some tracks. You know, they heard our old stuff, but EP stuff and they loved it. Our singles, they loved it, they knew we had the goods. But they also wanted to hear what we were thinking of for this album. So we sent them some basic tracks that we had recorded. Fortunately, she dug it. And then, in working with her, it was just mystifying. Because we sent her everything. It was during the pandemic, she's in Oregon, we sent her out, we did all of our tracking in Atlanta that she needed, and sent it to her to mix. And ultimately, you know, she would get on the phone with us and just be as kind of as human as you could ever ask for. And just to ask us our opinions on things and, and really tell us what she dug and didn't, you know, wasn't into and, and she loved it. And we were just another one of these like, touch, you know, pinch myself moments. Sylvia Massey, who's, who's done some of the biggest albums in history was just like to the south rocks and we're just like, holy shit, like we've got something here and to hear her say it and just be human with us. And we laughed and just had a great time. We really didn't get you know, we didn't want to be that that's kind of Starstruck band. That was just kind of like, you know, fangirl that FANBOYS. We didn't want to bother with that stuff. We just wanted to be us. And we wanted her working with us. So we really didn't get into all the previous stuff. But it was such an honor to hear her talk about our music and work on the music. And ultimately, you heard it. I mean, fortunately it came out pretty damn good. No,

Chuck Shute: 28:35

that's awesome. So do you didn't actually record at her studio?

Adam Jaffe: 28:39

No. It was during the pandemic.

Chuck Shute: 28:43

Okay, so you send tracks and stuff.

Adam Jaffe: 28:45

We send our tracks and she makes the she makes the album and then we had a great mastering engineer that had previously worked with her. And they mastered the album and fortunately we got it right.

Chuck Shute: 28:56

Where you did I hear something about you recording with the guy from the guy from jackals studio. Does he have a studio or something?

Adam Jaffe: 29:03

Yeah, so the lead singer of Jack jackal Jesse James to pre owns a studio with a producer, a very well known producer named Jeff Tomi, and we were it's called cock of the walk cock of the walk studios. And if you're not in Georgia, yeah, it's in Cobb County, Georgia. And if you've ever met Jesse James decree or you watch Jacqueline Chang sauce, the studio's very much in tune with that he has a big property with his house in his rehearsal studio, and then he's got a studio. And he's partnered with Jeff Tomi, Jeff tau May was the engineer on Siamese dream for smashing pumpkins. He's worked with John Davis. He's worked with Matchbox 20. So I'm one of their biggest albums. And we were fortunate to work with him because we were from Atlanta. We had really good music and we could get in, get in his face. And and we had worked with Jeff on our Ep in our initial singles. And Jeff, fortunately did a great job on those. And we had great success with those. And working with him was special because you know, he had worked with such great artists as well. And it was really cool because I'd be tracking drums and then there'd be like, Jesse James decrees like chainsaws, you know, just sitting sitting throughout the property. It was pretty interesting.

Chuck Shute: 30:20

That's awesome. That's really cool. So you said you're a Guns and Roses fan?

Adam Jaffe: 30:26

100% Yeah, my entire band we grew up on like, like 80s Hard Rock and early 90s, early 90s grunge you know, we love grunge. We love real hard rock. And so we're all influenced. We're all influenced by Guns and Roses. Metallica, Pantera. Living Color mean, you name it Jane's Addiction. You name it. Yeah, that's cool. Nirvana. Nirvana. Alison changed. Go through the 90s No problem. Yeah, I

Chuck Shute: 30:54

grew up in Seattle in the 90s. It was Allison chains, like dirt. That album was literally in every kid's car. I mean, I heard those songs so many times. It was crazy. But I was gonna ask you if you had heard about axles latest thing that hit a person, a fan with a microphone. And I just wonder if you guys ever had I mean, assuming it was an accident. But he was like, I think it was swinging his microphone. And he he had some girl in the face. And she's got like black eyes. Yeah, it's like top news right now. But uh, I just wondered if you ever had an incident like that, where you accidentally hit somebody or like, any sort of mishaps on stage like that.

Adam Jaffe: 31:33

Um, you know, we've all had, Okay, number one, I hadn't heard about this. With him hitting somebody. You know? Fortunately, it seems like he's, he's been pretty normal these days. Ya know, I'm

Chuck Shute: 31:45

assuming it was an accident. Yeah.

Adam Jaffe: 31:47

Right. I mean, back in the day, I think he was out of his mind. You know, who jumps off stages, you know, into crowds and stuff beats people up. I mean, in closes, closes shows down after you know, one or two songs That's stupid. And causes riots, but

Chuck Shute: 32:06

the energy, the craziness that made his music Soviet I think

Adam Jaffe: 32:10

I agree with you.

Chuck Shute: 32:12

He was a very normal, boring person, the music would suck. Like, he's got he's you. He channeled that energy into the music. I think it's brilliant.

Adam Jaffe: 32:23

I don't disagree with you at all. I think I agree with you. 100%. And so I'm sad for whatever happened to Lady but unfortunately, these types of these types of things happen. I mean, we've all we've we've had, you know, I've had drum heads break in the middle of a song. My singers, mics go out, you name it. We've had it. I think one of the funniest things that ever happened to us on the stage, though, was I was in a band back in the day, and we used to have to excuse me, I'm getting over a tour, upper respiratory thing. And so we had a band back in the day, and we used to cover the Oompa Loompa song. We turned it into like this heavy. Really? Yeah, this heavy 90s rapper had this great rapping gospel type singer. And he'd rap on it. And he'd scream on and it was amazing. And people would come to our shows. And that's kind of what we're known for. In Atlanta. They say Oompa Loompa. They scream, Uber, Uber, Uber, Uber, Uber, Uber. And so that would be like our big, big moment in our sets, right? So anyway, I'm playing this old venue in Atlanta called The Masquerade. And I'm up on stage, and I'm killing it. And we're doing the Oompa Loompa song. And next thing you know, while I'm playing, it's the strangest thing while I'm playing as hard as I can I hear this noise, give me a stick, give me a stick. And I'm just playing as hard as I can. But I'm hearing a noise in the back of my head. And literally, it's like, give me a stick. Give me a sec. And I'm like, What in the fuck is going on and I turn around, and there was a little person there. While we were playing the Oompa Loompa song, a little person was standing behind me screaming at me to give him a stick. And he grabs my stick, jumps on top of the jumps with me and just starts beating the drums as hard as he can throughout the rest of the song in the crowd. Hey, and I'm just I don't know what the hell's happened. It's one of those moments in life. You just don't You don't know what's happened, but it's the coolest thing you've ever seen or been a part of. And it turned out there was little person wrestling there at that venue the next day and they were at the venue the night before. And he just jumped up on stage and wanted to throw down with us during that particular song. And it was just one of those special crazy ass moments that you have as a musician.

Chuck Shute: 34:49

That's fucking badass. I just saw I seen that a little person wrestling. We saw it in Vegas. It was awesome. So cool. It's funny because I remember I'll never forget that because it It was in Vegas. My buddy wanted to see Bill Cosby. And I was like, I don't want to see Bill Cosby. Let's see the midget wrestling.

Unknown: 35:06

I think we made the right decision. So, yes, yeah. Yeah, very cool.

Adam Jaffe: 35:12

Yeah, I think we've all had those crazy technical issues. But no, no, no ridiculous glitches. I mean, I think the worst thing that could ever happen, though, aside from your gear, just not working, is when the when the air conditioning is off in summer, and you'll play you'll play certain venues and their conditioning is like broken. And that my friend is like, painful. That's,

Chuck Shute: 35:33

I don't think you could do that. And Phoenix, like, you might die like It's scary. It's like dangerous here. Right?

Adam Jaffe: 35:38

Right. It's like Atlanta during the summers, like how Phoenix is all year. So it's not good.

Chuck Shute: 35:43

Yeah, that's not good. Well, I look forward to seeing the show here in March. And everybody else can check the the website for tour dates and sounds like you'll have some other shows too, like some headlining maybe, and then maybe some other ones that you can't tell us about. Yeah, but

Adam Jaffe: 35:57

just we're gonna do a charity show. We're going to do a charity Should we do a charity show annually here in Atlanta, and we're going to do a charity show January, I think, 14th on Saturday, just us. We're just going to give a good headlining set. And, you know, we'd like to make a difference. You know, we have a lot of good fortune being where we are being able to do what we are doing. And we like to get back to

Chuck Shute: 36:21

Okay, yeah, that's perfect. Oh, is that each episode promoting a charity? Is there a charity that people can donate to? That you recommend?

Adam Jaffe: 36:29

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that was one of the things that drew us to your show. Honestly, I heard Kelly told me about the fact that you highlighted charity in a conclusion of the show, and I thought that was super cool. We give to the world central kitchen. And it's it's Joseon dress, a famous Spanish chef, he goes around the world, and he has a team. Anytime there's like, massive earthquake, or, you know, one of those massive floods are massive, like right now in Ukraine. There, they go there. And they set up kitchens, and they give out food, you know, to 1000s and 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of hungry people in war zones. And you know, danger zones, and it's not the other and so we give to them. And, you know, we're very proud of that when anybody who else who wants to give just a little money per month, world central kitchen. It's a good one.

Chuck Shute: 37:21

Awesome. Okay, I'll put that in the show notes along with your website. And people can follow me on social media, too. I don't think you have a social media, but the band does. So

Adam Jaffe: 37:28

yeah, I try to focus everything on the band. You know, it's what it's what I do non stop. So I just I just stick with that. But it's at pistols at dawn band on Facebook. And at pistols at dawn official on Instagram.

Chuck Shute: 37:43

Yeah, is that now how does that work? Because on Spotify, I think there's like three pistols at dawn. And I think they all have a checkmark. So it's like really confusing.

Adam Jaffe: 37:52

Yeah, so. So way back and way back when there were, I only know well, there's one or two of them. Way back before we ever existed. There were some English fans that tried to use the name pistols at dawn. They never really did much. And so back in 2015, when I named the band This was before I even knew they existed. Back in 2015, when I named the band I trademarked the name here in England and Canada, etc. And obviously, we built it into a brand right now it's you know, growing worldwide and on Spotify, all you have to do is just look for us look for the biggest imprint there, and you'll find us with our new album ascension. And we hope people will take a listen to eight tracks. Sylvia Massey produced it which is badass. And honestly, it's 32 minutes. It's not one of these long albums where you get long fluff. Each song has a purpose on there. If you have a good workout or a good drive, 32 minutes, hit play, and just turn crank it the hell up and you're gonna have a great ride.

Chuck Shute: 38:55

Perfect. Yeah, and I've heard the acoustic and that sounds cool. And I can't wait to hear you guys live at the marquee. That's gonna be fun to hear it electric.

Adam Jaffe: 39:02

Yes, yes, we're, we've got a good set come in. And we're playing with some of the like you said, Wolfgang, holy shit. Can't wait to bridge. Those guys are sick at what they do. And we're just honored to be a

Chuck Shute: 39:15

part of it. Cool. Thanks, man. All right. Well, I'll see you later. We'll get the sounds done.

Adam Jaffe: 39:19

Have us back anytime. Man. We're so grateful for you having us today. And we just appreciate you.

Chuck Shute: 39:24

All right, I appreciate you too. Thanks for doing this. My thanks again to Adam Jaffe and his PR team for setting up this interview. Once again, make sure to check out pistols At dawn the website is in the show notes for current tour dates or follow them on social media. And as always, your likes, shares and comments on social media and YouTube will help the band and myself if you want to help support us. I definitely want to see that tour with Mammoth and ultra bridge sounds amazing. So thank you so much for listening. I appreciate your support. Have a great day and shoot for the moon.