Adam Duritz
Gabi Hollander
[email protected]
countingcrows.com
Lead singer and head songwriter for the Grammy-winning band Counting Crows, Adam Duritz has also founded two indie record labels, scores music for films and hosts a podcast. He is also co-founder and curator of the Underwater Sunshine Festival (underwatersunshinefest.com), which is a totally free two-day event that occurs in NYC in early April, and is dedicated to supporting indie bands worthy of wider recognition.
Musical Influences
Growing up in Oakland and Berkeley, California there was a lot of funk music and hip-hop. When I was young my first record and concert was the Jackson 5, but I don’t think that’s what I sound like. I think a lot of people mistake influences in a lot of ways. I think we listen to a lot of stuff and absorb it, but not always in the way people think about.
I grew up listening to KSAN in the Bay Area and they were very free-form. You would hear George Jones, followed by the Sex Pistols, followed by the Stones, followed by Miles Davis. And that’s what really influenced me, because I realized music is just music. You don’t have to be part of some clique. That had a huge effect on me.
Keeping Your Voice in Shape on Tour
Now I’m kind of a monk on tour. I don’t go out a whole lot like I used to. I was younger then, too. But I think I fucked my voice up more when I was younger. After the gigs I’m just back in my hotel room. I’m really careful about any place where I have to talk with any volume. And I warm up like crazy too; probably 45 minutes of exercises in the afternoon before sound check and about half that before the show. I don’t sing that well at all without the warm-ups.
Technology & Vocal Craft
The iPhone, with the ability to record whenever you want, is great. All the demos on our album Somewhere Under Wonderland were really done sitting around in a circle in our living room on my phone. It’s also great for note taking and recording vocal ideas.
Bandcamp and any kind of uploadable music technology have also made the means of distributing music so much easier. The potential to make music by spending less money is so much better too. •
