I’m about bringing the show back to rock,” says Mark “Marky”
Chavez, lead singer and frontman extraordinaire of Bakersfield
band Adema. “I remember when I was really young, a little
teenager, I wanted to connect with the singer up there. I wanted
some action and movement. When I’m onstage, I’m everywhere.
I want to get those kids that are way, way in the back, because
they remember that shit.” Coming together in the same Central
Valley breeding ground that spawned bands like Korn and
Videodrone, Adema is the most buzzed-about heavy rock
sensation of the year. After months of major label bidding
warfare that reached massive proportions, Adema signed with
Arista Records and began not only a series of high-profile gigs,
but recording one of the most anticipated debut albums of 2001.

“We go on the Internet and people are digging it
(already,)” says
Chavez, who watched demand for a digital version of the band’s
song “Everyone” nearly shut down the servers of promotional
website Streetwise.com. “People either really love it or they don’t,
and that’s when you know you have a successful band, because if
people just go, ‘eh, it’s okay,’ you know they’re not even gonna
buy the record.”

Chavez’s confidence may come from his proximity to one of the
most vital music scenes of the last decade. Growing up in
Bakersfield - where he worked as a day care supervisor and
flirted with becoming a teacher - the then-teenaged vocalist was
well acquainted with many of the popular local acts, like Juice and
SexArt, out of which came the musicians who would form Adema,
Mike Ransom being the first. DeRoo and Fluckey were in Juice,
the band that grew out of the ashes of SexArt, which included Davis
and guitarist Ryan Shuck of Orgy. But Chavez had another
connection as well: his older half-brother was Jonathan Davis, lead
singer for Bakersfield’s most successful export, Korn.

“His biggest influence on me, and absolutely the best thing he could
have done for me, was telling me when I wasn’t good enough,”
confides Chavez about his brother. “I’m the type - and this is
something that’s instilled in our family - that when I want something,
I go for it; there’s no way you’re gonna deny me or tell me I can’t
have it. But as far as being there and being supportive and stuff, he
was awesome.”

And just what is this music that sent two dozen record labels into a
literal feeding frenzy on the basis of demos alone? Nothing less than
a powerful, hard-driving, yet richly emotional fusion of heavy rock
foundations, street sensibilities, and melodic modern rock flourishes
that create one of the most original sounds on the already saturated
“nu metal” scene. “When they called, I was just thinking, ‘okay, I’ll
just do the demo and check it out,’” recalls Kohls, who was still in
Videodrone at the time. “But they came to my house, they played me
two songs, and they just blew me away.”

The band had been rehearsing and demoing material for a year before
Kohls joined, but the demos they did with him earned the attention
of the record industry before Adema had set foot on a single stage.
After clinching the deal with Arista, the band members retreated to a
cabin in northern California for the intensive writing sessions that
yielded the material for their debut album. “That’s where the
honeymoon ended!” laughs Kohls.

“We had a few little scuffles, some cabin fever happening there,”
admits Chavez. “We got real down and dirty and wrote this record,
but it was perfect. The first night, all our gear is hooked up, Mike
strums his guitar, and boom, it just starts hammering down snow.
We wrote that song “Giving In,” and that just set the tone right there.”

“‘Giving In’ is a song about personal addictions,” continues the singer.
“I was really screwed up with liquor for a while, and I expressed a lot
of bad feelings through alcohol. It gives you the feeling that you don’t
have any connection with anyone, and the title means you’re just giving
in to all those feelings, giving in to the bad side of life to numb yourself
to responsibility.”

Other songs on the album, such as “Everyone” and “Freaking Out,”
reflect darker sides of human nature. “‘Everyone’ is about people who
always want to point the finger at other people, instead of looking at
themselves. But the song itself is sort of laughing at those kind of people.
‘Freaking Out’ is about growing up in a town where you’re either a
football player or you’re nothing. There’s nothing wrong with sports, but
I wasn’t respected for being a musician. It’s also about paranoia, always
tripping out about what people are saying about you.” Despite the heavy
subject matter, Chavez says that “I’m into making people feel good about
living. A lot of these rockers out there are always going, ‘boo-hoo, my
parents, boo-hoo, life’s so bad,’ But you know what? Life ain’t that bad.”
A perfect example is“The Way You Like It,” which boasts an almost
hip-hop braggadocio. “That’s my arrogant side. It’s about doing things the
way I wanted to do them, and people telling me I was stupid for doing that,
but I did it anyway and it worked for me.”

Adema got together in L.A. with producers Bill Appleberry
(7th House)
and Tobias Miller
(guitarist with the Wallflowers) to record their
long-awaited, self-titled debut. “We worked our asses off,” says Chavez,
“but we fully believe in this record.” Next this five-man powerhouse will
take their act on the road and prove that no matter who anyone is related
to, it still comes down to the music and the musicians who play it.

“After the end of Videodrone, I was like, ‘Am I ever gonna be able to fit
in a real band again?’” says Kohls. “But when I started playing with these
guys, I couldn’t believe it. We were all one hundred percent confident with
each other and felt like we were in the band together for ten years the first
day we played. I’ve joined the band of my dreams.”