If you are a fan of the melodic rock genre, then you are a fan of Adam Holland. Adam first hit the scene with his band Valentine and their classic 1990 debut release. He has written for countless artists and spent the last 15 years touring with former Journey and Tall Stories frontman Steve Augeri. He recently released his first solo record called Rapture and took some time to talk about all of it.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Adam Holland interview –
On if he always wanted to record a solo record or if it just happened – Well, a little bit of both. I always sort of envy those guitar players who had those instrumental records. It’s like a guy like Andy Woods, Andy Timmons, Joel Hoekstra. They constantly put out these solo records amongst the other projects they do. However, I never really have, I’ve always been a pop songwriter in a band. So I’ve always had a vehicle for writing songs. I never quite had enough drive to want to really do that.
Then this thing called COVID happened and we had a lot of time and I started doing these little pieces for Instagram, which was sort of the way we all performed during that time. At the time, Instagram had a one-minute limit. So I’m not sure what it does now. I would make these tracks and then perform live to those tracks. Then a couple of those little diddy’s became (songs), I was like, “Maybe I should develop these into some songs.” Then I started working with Gerard (Zappa) and then we put together a full record and decided to produce it for real and mix it and really focus. So, the answer was yes, yes and no answer. I still made a record that the songs aren’t long. They’re not really as long as most instrumental guitar-type songs, like seven, or six minutes. These are still three-minute songs. That’s all I know how to do really. So I don’t know if I answered the question. It was a yes and no.
On if he set out to keep his approach to the three-minute pop song – I did. For a second, like I said before, somehow, for better or for worse, I am stuck in that world of a pop song where there has to be a verse, a chorus, a bridge. So I still took that approach and I think, the answer is I took that approach and did that on purpose. I want to make a song. Whether the melody is a guitar or a vocal, I definitely went for the guitar, obviously. A little bit of shredding. I didn’t go crazy, but I wanted to show my chops a little bit. But the song was the first thing and then the guitar playing was, if I could fit some cool guitar playing in there, I did. Joe Satriani is the most famous, maybe Eric Johnson. There’s only a few guitar players who have crossed over into pop, the pop world with musical songs, I think Gary Hoey did it. There’s only like a few. So I tried for that. I tried to emulate more of a Satriani song base than just like a whole, listen, this is not, this is a compliment, John Petrucci’s solo album is Intricate seven-minute, wandering, holy shit, I couldn’t even, I wouldn’t even know how to do that. So, it’s a compliment to him. I’m a guy who writes three-minute songs for better or for worse. There you go. But thank you. I appreciate it. It’s a compliment.
On the different types of music on Rapture playing like a resume of his work – First of all, you have great ears and you’ve given me these wonderful compliments. So thank you. But yeah, so another reason I wanted to put out a solo record and a collection of diverse songs and you’re absolutely, you nailed it a hundred percent. It is sort of a resume of “What can Adam Holland do?” I’ve done a few things for some commercials and some work-for-hire stuff and Valentine licensed the song for it’s going to come out in a show somewhere. So all of a sudden there’s a new world of streaming and content, content, content that are looking for music. Looking for music for all kinds of things, original, creative, whatever it is. So there’s a part of this album that is a business card of what’s the diverse spectrum of Adam Holland. You go from the heavy stuff to the real atmospheric. I am a country guy. I still have that in me, I love that music. So there’s a bunch of this, and then again, uptempo three-minute rock pop songs. There’s a couple of those. So I tried to do what you just said, and I thank you for saying that, because that is something I did consciously try to do, make a sort of a spectrum of “This is Adam Holland”. So thank you.
On if it’s freeing to be able to write for so many people and license music – Absolutely. The answer is yes. A lot of people, even mega-famous guys through their career, put out these solo records just to get out. So if they’re in a band, they have to sound like this and they may have songs that don’t sound like that. So they put them out on some kind of solo thing and they don’t even care about the commercial appeal. They just really want the outlet. But for me, this was definitely a way to just put everything out there and all. As I said, there’s all different kinds of things out on this, all different sounds. But I do write with different people and I’ve done some commercial things, some things for hire. A lot of what I do, people haven’t heard the songs that are maybe a lot lighter than what they maybe know me for as a guitar player in a rock band.
On putting together Valentine and their debut record – We’re definitely proud of the record and we had a good time writing it. Craig (Pullman)’s a great writer. Hugo’s a great writer. Everyone contributed to that record. In the beginning, when we first met in the days of the Long Island club circuit, we all sort of were playing in different places and got together one at a time, adding each piece. When we finally got together as Valentine with Hugo and Craig and myself, That initial burst of songwriting. We wrote a lot of our first album, just like it was boom. “Naughty Girl” was written really early. “Someday”, I think “Once in a Lifetime”, some of the first songs we wrote were little four-track demos.
So I think the chemistry. We knew we had something, I can’t explain it. We knew, okay, wow, this is like his voice, which is like, once we found Hugo, of course, it was like, holy shit. “What, where has this guy been hiding all this?” So once we heard it, it all came together and we all recorded it, even our little crappy demos. It was like, “Wow. This is something”. As musicians, you just hope to find the people that you can connect with and, and. Even if you don’t always get along, which we did, though, don’t get me wrong. You just want the musical chemistry. Sometimes a rub could cause great music. You don’t always want peace and harmony. You want some friction.
On the impact of the 90s on 80s bands – For the bands of the eighties, the nineties was like, what the hell? But, having said that the 90s was still great. Everybody bashes the 90s. The only, the only thing bad about the 90s was that it put an end to the 80s. It’s a style of music. Having said that, the 90s music was great. It just was a whole different animal. So for guys like myself who played in an 80s band, it was like, what the hell? Everybody ran into a wall all of a sudden. The wall wasn’t there five minutes ago, and now you’re like running full speed and slamming into a wall. It’s hard to readjust, it’s hard to say, “Okay, everything you did, just, you can’t do it”. None of us were thinking, “Well, we’re in, we’re in the eighties. We have to do this”. It was just like, that was the time you had the hair was just part of the vibe. I don’t know. It was just part of the genre. It wasn’t, the look was, was not more important, but it just was, they call it “hair metal,” we did have hair, all of us like crazy long hair.
On if it’s a different kind of satisfaction to write for another artist – Yes, it’s, it’s pretty wild. I just did something recently with a guy a great singer named Jeff Coffee played in Chicago for a while. So I’ve just given the most recent one. He did a vocal and a song that I wrote with him and Steve Augeri, and another guy. So the answer is when you hear another voice sing your song, it is pretty wild. Yes. It’s definitely satisfying. Even when you have a demo of a song and you hire a female or a country singer to do a song. Sometimes I sing my own demos, but when I hear a song with another vocalist brings it to life, it’s great. I really do. Yes. It’s enjoyable. It’s very satisfying.
On how he joined Steve Augeri’s band – It’s one of those long and twisted roads. Looking back, you’re like, “Wow. We didn’t realize we were all intertwined”. It goes back to our tour with Mr. Big and Tall Stories. W shared this tour. I don’t know why, I don’t even know how, I can’t, I don’t know the exact details, but we did a couple months, they did some time, we were all back and forth on it for a couple year period. We both toured with Mr. Big. Not at the same time though. So we got to know of Tall Stories, and we loved that record, and they were also like on Epic, either way, and they were kind of, slightly popular, “Wild on the Run”. They were a great band and they were like not an 80s band. They were like, I don’t know what they were like early 90s really. So, I didn’t know who Steve Augeri was, but I knew Tall Stories. Then I’m like, “Holy shit. That’s the, that’s the guy who got in Journey”. It was fantastic.
If you’re a Steve Perry lover, people didn’t ( love it) maybe, but I thought he was a great choice for someone else had to take the place. I love those, Arrival, and all the records he did and, and Generations. And especially that cool song from “Armageddon”. So we knew of this guy and then everyone knew he got the gig in Journey. It was like, “holy shit”. Then later on down the road, after all this stuff ended, it was Hugo who always got shit for being (a Steve Perry sound-alike), he was blessed and cursed, I guess, blessed that he got this incredible voice
I want to go back to that. You asked a question about us surviving. It wasn’t just my songwriting. It was Hugo’s voice that really always got us to the next (level). People believe in that guy’s voice and that’s how, because it was that good. So I have to give credit. Yes, I did contribute, but he really, his voice, people were like, “I think we can do something with that”.
So then Hugo was one of the first guys to put together a tribute band. He’s like, “I look like Steve Perry, let’s just play”. So he started this band and then he invited me into the band. I was sort of reluctant, but I, it’s my brother, I’m like, “Let’s do it. We’ll have a good time”. Gerard managed the band and I don’t know, we were off, it was a great, successful thing. Then we, all of a sudden, then we’re playing together. We got invited to do a couple of those Fyre Fests. So all of a sudden, Valentine was back. We’re like, “Holy shit, we’re playing”, and we met Steve and Tall Stories.
He was playing it at a couple of those things. So here we are all hanging out again. It was just great to meet him because we’d known him from that tour in the 90s. He was post-Journey. We’re like, “Man, what was it like? What was it like behind that curtain?” We had a Staten Island connection too, we hit it off. And then that Journey cover band, we did a bunch of things for the Broadway show, “Rock of Ages”. Then first we did the opening night, which was fantastic. Then we did these like monthly cast parties. I don’t know how to explain it. They were these little smaller gigs, but if you had a ticket to the show, you come next to the China Club and we play a Journey set. Then we play some other eighties type of stuff with either the cast or something. A lot of the cast would come that way. I guess they were required. I don’t know.
So we always had a guest. So we had our friend, Terry Brock came, all these different, anybody we could invite, but somehow I don’t even know how Steve Augeri ended up as a guest. So he jams some Journey with us. It’s been a while. We’ve got to know each other. He finally said, “I want to put together a band”. He was little bit hesitant and what to do. Didn’t know what, he didn’t want to tribute band, obviously. So that’s what we were intrigued. I’m like, “wow, I’d love to play with Steve”. Not that I didn’t love playing with Hugo. Please don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t like any negative thing there. So, when he offered that sort of had the spark. Gerard wanted to play, and so did Craig, and sort of Valentine, pieces of Valentine became the Steve Augeir Band. So that, that was sort of the flow of it. And it’s been a while, so, and it’s, it’s grown.
On if he has tour plans for Rapture – People have asked. I don’t know. The good thing is we’re super busy. I have good problems. So, but I’d like to, I mean, it’d be a lot of work, but I think the answer I’d like to. So I’ve thought about it and I’m thinking about it. I had nothing on the table yet, but I would like to. Yes.
On if he plans of more solo music – I’m already working on another on. I’m already going to work on another one. I’ve already sort of started. I’m always writing. So the nice thing about the age we live in, like back in my Nashville days and my songwriter days, you’d write even the most famous songwriters, you’d make these demos. It could be mind-blowing songs, but no one would hear them unless they got recorded by somebody because they would sit in this sort of hard drive. Your friends and family would hear them and you’d drive them crazy. But now if you want to, as a creative person, you could record something, produce it properly, and put it out into the world. If people want to hear it, they can. If they don’t, they don’t. But having the option to just make a record, also with the technology, you can record it in your house professionally. You can do it so much more economically than you could back in the 80s and 90s.
So, as a creative person, it’s like, “Let’s take advantage of that”. So the answer is I’m looking forward to putting another one out. Gerard has a thousand ideas and he keeps throwing at me. So it’s great. Cause he has a different kind of writing approach. It is more cinematic, more TV. It’s more music. It’s more instrumental.For a while, I didn’t know what to do with a lot of those ideas. Now I’m like, “Holy shit, keep them coming”. So he does. It’s great. He, not everyone is the best, but you know, I’ll grab it, head onto the ones and we work on them.
