8 Questions with Adam Shearer

contributor: Justin Parris

Adam Shearer and his band Weinland are on the up and up here in Portland. Three records, tours and media publicity keep driving this band into the brink of big time.

1. Let’s lay the foundation for this living room fort that we’re going to build, let’s get the pillows and chairs in order. What’s the twitter version of the band’s story and who are the characters that have been involved?

I’m assuming by the “twitter version” you mean the brief version.. the brevity, if you will: WEINLAND is a five piece sometimes six piece and sometimes eight piece (and yes, we invented being from Portland and bragging about how big your band can get sometimes) band from Portland, OR. We play emotionally explosive music.. sometimes its a tiny explosion in your heart and sometimes its a mega face melting explosion in your chest area.

adam shearer: songwriter
rantz: multi-instrumentalist
lyles: percusion
rory: bass
thunder: piano
alia: vocals
selzer: co-producer/shredder
dylan: record label/a&r

2. Weinland has three albums under their musical belts, Demersville, La Lamentor and the most recent Breaks in the Sun. The first of which was released in 2006 and Breaks in the Sun dropped earlier this year. So, from first album to third album how has the writing/recording process evolved? What’s changed with elements such as budget, time, production, collaborators, etc?

In every way. The first record was written when the band was one solitary member and recorded only a month after we added our fourth member. We recorded the whole thing in six days and every day of it was the most exciting day of my life. The most recent record, Breaks In The Sun, was recorded in three times as many days with a “budget” – ish and a label and we wrote 99% of the record while in the studio. Its officially collaborative now.. we’re are rich now (not really)… and we approach recording more like another step in the process. When we first started the songs were done before the studio and we went to the studio to record the songs. Now we go to the studio and we think of it as the final step in the writing process. Frequently we’ll be working on new material and someone will say “ah, well we’ll just figure that out in the studio.. for now, lets do this..” so we leave room for that part of the process now.

3. One goal of This Heart Will Burn Right Out is to offer musicians in Portland a resource to go for information about how other artists and acts in town do what they do. In the time it would take you to leisurely eat a bowl of vanilla pudding maybe walk us through the path that brought your musical life to it’s current location.

Pudding? Mind if I eat Cheerios instead? I have spent the last 15 years trying to figure out how to get paid for making up songs. I could make more money doing something else.. but then I couldn’t spend all of my time making music. The band has been together for nearly four years. We rehearse two nights a week and have only missed a handful of rehearsals in the last four years. We pay attention to what others are doing, we set reasonable goals, and we take feedback like champs. We are not focused on money or being sexy.. the fact that we are hot and rich is complete coincidence… instead we’re focused on being better than we are right now.. every day is about that for us. The fact that we can sell some CDs and some concert tickets is a result of respecting ourselves and our colleagues… in our experience you don’t get anywhere by asking someone else to take you there.. you have to take yourself.. and we attempt to accomplish this by working hard, working regularly, and not expecting much in return.

4. Portland is notorious for musicians that have a main project but are also involved with numerous other things; it’s one of the building blocks of a strong and invested musical community. On that note do you or any of the people working with Weinland lend their talents elsewhere or is everyone exclusive?

I have been trying to get more involved in other projects.. this year I recorded a lot of Mbilly’s new record (which is amazing by the way) and sang on it as well. I also sang on Norfolk and Western’s new record.. and Musee Mecanique’s recent record. I also started a side project called The Alialujah Chior with Alia Farah and Adam Selzer (Norfolk and Western, M.Ward).

Ian Lyles (drums) has performed with Horse Feathers, Leonard Mynx, and others this year.. he’s also recorded with Mbilly
Rantz (multi) has played on a bunch of records (cause he can play a lot of instruments) and performed with a bunch of folks.. including Horse Feathers and Mbilly
Thunder (piano) recorded with Mbilly this year and is known to play piano around town in shops and markets
Alia (buttery harmonies) is all over records.. cause she’s really good.
Rory (bass) has performed with Leonard Mynx and is kind of a “tough guy”

5. Some would say in the oversaturated state that the modern music world finds itself in that attempting to make a living, and possibly even a nice living, with music is akin to trying to hit the moon with a Red Delicious apple. What mentality and personal faculties do you think one needs if they’re going to pack up and start ambling down such an uncertain path? How do have you done it and how are you doing it?

um.. well.. I think you can be of four basic schools on this one.. you know that, that make it possible to keep going:
1) you never have to think about it because you put out a debut record that goes the distance and you’re set.. no major financial sacrifice needed.
2) you need to play music and you’ll continue to try and make it work no matter how unreasonable it is.. there is no choice but to make it work.. big sacrifices lay ahead.
3) you are completely unrealistic and you believe you are due a nice living playing music.. this is annoying to me.
4) you are a completely well balanced person who is dabbling in many walks of life and music is one of them.. you are able to be lightly committed because you don’t yet have real financial and responsibility burdens in your life.. so you just go with the flow, give it a shot, crash on a couch, write some great songs, write some bad songs, and you’ll stop when you’re ready.

i think as individual band members we’re somewhere between 2 and 4.. but not 3. Our realistic goal is to have music pay for itself. It took two years to get it there, but now it does. All of the money that comes in goes directly back into the band. We pay for our travels and lodging and fun stuff and whatnot with band money. So its the best fully funded hobby ever. If we were the type to split up the money, we would have been sunk a long time ago… even sweet guarantees are small when split 5 or more ways.. no sweet tour van, no hotel rooms.. some personal gain.. but keeping the band on the road would have required everyone to throw money down for every event.. which would be more psychologically taxing than just never drawing on the funds. we all pay our bills doing other things. if we don’t have to have other income someday, that will be amazing.. but expecting that won’t make it happen any sooner.

6. Okay, so you’re on Hypothetical Dream Street and you see three fliers. One flier is advertising, in messy back lettering on neon pink paper, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The second flier is promoting going to watch Bruce Springsteen take his driving exam at the age of sixteen. The third, which is just a 3×6 green index card with letters written in Whiteout, is trying to get you come watch whoever it was that created the zipper create the zipper. Which event do you attend and why?

huh? those all sound whack.. am i not busy ? i am in a promising local band, i must have something else to do… a show to get to perhaps? alright fine, i’m drawn into one of the events.. its not the crucifixion because I saw Mel Gibson put up the pink flier a minute ago and I’ve already seen that movie and it sucks… and Mel is a Douche Bag. It isn’t the zipper thing because I’m more a velcro man. So I go see the Boss.. I say “Listen Boss, that song ‘Fire’ kinda makes me hot.” He says, “You know WEINLAND, I had that same feeling when I heard ‘Piles of Clothes’.” He passes his exam and we go rent License to Drive from Videorama (Boss drives my car) and we watch it twice… once for each Corey.

7. An amazing quality of a city like Portland is the amount of artists that seem to just pop up or are out there right at the cusp of the pop up. So, what local acts/artists, if any, are you into, excited about, or think more people need to pay attention to?

My favorites are Mbilly and Justin Power. There are lots I like and a few more I love.. but these are the two that I think are above the line and under the radar. They’re fantastic.. Norfolk and Western just recorded one of Mbilly’s songs for their new record.. its sounds awesome and Justin just put out a record with The Portland Cello Project.

8. Finally, it is always sad to say goodbye (sounds like a country lyric), but now is your chance to let us know what Weinland is setting up at the dinner table next, recording, touring, summersault contests, etc.?

Well, as you can tell I’m a little punchy.. its been a long day of WEINLAND stuff.. Our big things right now are:
- Our September 9th video premier at the Doug Fir. We’re going to be showing our new video which was filmed at the Crystal Ballroom and features animated Buffalo trying to attack us. Its seriously amazing and we hope everyone in Portland comes! seriously. to the max.
- We just had a Paste feature that was very exciting.. and an iTunes feature. Both of those are milestones for us.
- We’re writing new material for demos… looking to put out another record in 2010.
- And we’re currently booking a fall tour..its kind of last minute so its a lot of extra work, but it will be worth it!