The 88's Adam Merrin: Interview

Adam Merrin From Cult Indie Band The 88 Talks About The New Album

Mar 15, 2007

With widespread acclaim from both critics and fans alike, The 88 is one of the most popular unsigned bands today. We discuss the new album up with pianist Adam Merrin

America's Best-Kept Secret

In an age where major labels are scrambling over themselves to find the next big thing, it may come as a surprise to find that a band who could easily fill that void is still unsigned. Listen to the music of The 88, and that surprise grows into incredulation. With the classic pop vibes of The Beatles and the indie coolness of early Strokes, this hard-working L.A. band may not be familiar to you if you saw them walking down the street, but their music will be.

Whether it's on televison shows like Laguna Beach or The O.C. to movies such as You, Me And Dupree or the upcoming Lucky You, the songs of The 88 are the perfect accompaniment to any occasion. With their 2005 album Over and Over cementing their cult status and a new album on the way later this year, we caught up with Adam Merrin to talk about the new record and tour plans.

Adam Merrin Interview

Adam It's going really good. We've just finished recording, and we're in the mixing stages now. The recording itself was really enjoyable – we found this little retreat in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by trees and countryside, no noise or disruption. We took our own piano up, and it's been a really great experience.

Suite And you're using the same producer again as on Over and Over, right?

Adam Yeah, we're using Ethan Allen again. We were really happy with what he brought to our sound on the last record. I don't know; he just comes up with different things that we wouldn't normally even think of. It's a really good relationship, so when it came to the new album, we knew we wanted to work with Ethan again.

Suite That kind of trust must be important, especially for an unsigned band. Do you find that Ethan and yourselves have a lot more freedom because of this?

Adam Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, so far we’ve been able to do exactly what we want, and I doubt we would have got that on a major label. It's definitely worked in our favour and been a successful way of working for us.

Adam Yeah. I mean, we have a really good management team that believes in what we do, and they allow us to try the things we want to try, I think it could just keep getting even better than it already is.

Suite Is the new album a continuation of Over and Over? What can we expect to hear?

Adam It's similar, but it's a little different at the same time. There's a whole new rhythm section in the band now. Our old bassist has a new family now, and he decided that it wouldn't be fair to keep touring, so he decided to leave. Todd (O'Keefe) had just left an LA band I really liked (The Green and Yellow TV), so the timing was just right, and has brought something new to us. He's a really great songwriter with a great ear for a melody, and I think this comes through on the new record. With Anthony (Zimmitti) on drums now, it just feels like an exciting time for the band.

Suite Do you have a set writing process? On the last album, Keith wrote most of the songs - has that continued with the new record?

Adam It's really been a good mix this time. As I mentioned, Todd's brought a good bunch of ideas to the band, and we've definitely felt it rub off on us. What we usually do is get the melody first, and then the song will come after that. Melody is so important to us – we feel that without a strong melody, the song just doesn't work for us.

Adam Yeah, whilst we've been mixing we've actually been at one of my favourite clubs in LA as the resident house band (laughs)! So, every week for a month, we've been playing to the different type of crowd that's been coming in.

Adam Yeah, it's been fun. I mean, we're a band that loves to tour; we really enjoy that side of things. So, to keep us from getting itchy feet while we're in the studio mixing the album, it's been a great release for us.

Suite You're definitely known as a prolific touring band, and you've had some pretty different tour partners. You've toured with the Pogues, for instance – how different an experience was that?

Adam Definitely different (laughs)! It was great – I mean, no matter what band you are, the Pogues fans are only going to want to see the Pogues. But the crowds were really good, really receptive to us. It could have gone either way, but we definitely feel that after our set, we'd made some new fans. And the band themselves were really friendly and made us feel so welcome and wanted.

Suite With the album now finished and in the mixing stage, what are your live plans?

Adam Well, we have a tour planned with Sloan coming up, through April and May, which we're really looking forward to. Then after that, we're hoping to get to Europe and tour over there, so we have a lot of things that we're trying to arrange at the minute. And obviously we'll be putting together a North American tour, so there's a lot to look forward to.

Suite Will it include any more Playboy spreads? (vocalist Keith appeared in a feature in an issue of Playboy magazine)

Adam Um, probably not (laughs)! That was kind of bizarre. What actually happened was that they contacted us and asked Keith if he'd be interested in a feature, and we thought, 'why not'. Thankfully there was no actual nudity required (laughs)!

Suite Obviously, you're having some great exposure at the minute, with your TV performances and music being selected for various movie soundtracks and TV shows. How important is this for a band like you?

Adam Oh, it's very important. It's shows like Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel that help keep us in the public eye, and the TV shows and movie soundtracks allow us to afford to pay the bills and make our albums, keep us touring, so it's been good all round.

Suite You mentioned you have a good management team. What kind of support have they given you with your records?

Adam Well, we've been working with Josh (Mills, It's Alive Media) for four years now, and he's been great! He really puts out there for us, and goes way above what we could even hope for from any management and PR team. He's the one that's got us on the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and other shows, and the backing him and his team give us… we couldn't ask for any more.

Adam Yeah, I mean, we've obviously played it to our friends, Josh, people like that, and it seems to be something that everybody is excited about. We're really proud of it, we feel it's the natural progression for us as a band, and we just can't wait for it to come out. Plus our MySpace and website has some home-made videos from our recent live performances of the new songs, as well as YouTube, and they've been really well received by our fans.

Adam There's no title at the moment, we're still concentrating on just getting it ready. With the mixing, although we're almost finished it, we still have a lot of preparation to complete before the album is released. So we're hoping summer / early fall.

Adam I think they'll be really happy with what we've done. We really enjoyed making this record, and the new sounds that both Todd and Anthony have brought, and I think that if you enjoyed Over and Over, you're going to love the new record.

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