The Hotseat: Adam Turla of Murder By Death
on January 29th, 2012They’ve just completed recording their next album and now there’s just a few weeks to go now until Murder By Death begin their four date tour alongside Eleventh He Reaches London. While in the country they’ll play shows in Geelong, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane together. We recently grabbed singer / guitarist Adam Turla to take on our Hotseat Questions. Expand this post to take a read of his answers and re-cap the tour dates. Tickets are on sale now.
THE BASICS
Name : Adam Turla
Band : Murder By Death
Job In Band : Singer/guitarist
Website Address : www.murderbydeath.com
HOME
Hometown : Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Hometown is best known for : The movie Breaking Away takes place here. John Mellencamp lives here. Indiana University is here.
Best venue in your hometown : The Bishop Bar. Small fun bar. Good beers. 200 capacity.
Favourite show you’ve seen in your hometown : Budos Band with Charles Bradley was a great show I went to earlier this year.
Favourite show you’ve played in your hometown : Album release for our last record. Very lively show with a burlesque show to warm it up.
THE BAND
How did the band first come to exist? Met at a house party I threw when we were 18/19.
How long has the band been going? 11 years
Any particular story behind the name? Named after the murder mystery spoof movie
What’s your most recent release? Tell us a little about it… Good Morning, Magpie (March 2010). Its got some of our more upbeat material than past records. Currently in the studio with producer John Congleton recording our new album. It’s going swimmingly.
Got a personal stand out achievement of your band to date? Opening up for The Pogues for several shows in 2006 when they played the USA for the first time in 15 years.
OFF THE STAGE
What was your first introduction to music that made you think seriously about playing it? I never thought I would be doing it seriously. This just kinda happened to us.
Any particular band / album or song that you personally credit as a major influence? Love the bizzarre vision of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”. I thought it was so crazy the first 100 times I heard it. I couldn’t believe how confidently he wrote about strange things.
Your first band name, and what style did you play? Frank Tanana. Named after a baseball player. We just wrote silly songs about paternity and bears who drink beer.
Most prized music related item you own? Hmm- I don’t own it, but Sarah’s 1887 German wooden cello.
When you’re not doing band related stuff, what are you usually found doing? Rock climbing, outdoors stuff, reading and watching movies, travelling.
The thing you most look forward to just before a tour is… Trying new foods! Especially when we go to new countries.
The thing you least look forward to before a tour is… Not having a day off at home for months at a time.
ON THE STAGE
When on offer, what’s your one must have item on the rider? Whiskey
Favourite place you’ve toured… and why? Hmm. Greece was great. I loved Alaska. The US Virgin Islands were great
Most memorable show you’ve played? and why? Hard to say. There’s been over 1300. They have many different merits. Off hand, we played a show in Zurich Switzerland on my birthday- it was outdoors surrounded by the only redwood trees in Europe, and next to a lake. It was a great show, with the audience nestled in under the trees. boats were pulling up and docking to watch the show. Then we stayed up til 5am drinking weird Swiss liquors with the promoter. Great times.
Got a favourite song to play live? I love playing Comin’ Home. Its such a riot to sing… really low vocals then shouty new ones.
Any embarrassing on stage moments come to mind? We were playing at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and I got a terrible bout of stage fright and just froze up and forgot the words to one of our songs. i was mortified. The audience was so kind though- they just sang all the words for me. I apologized profusely but luckmy for me they just thought it was fun.
Any pre-show rituals? Whiskey! but not too much.
What do you find is the hardest aspect of touring in a band today? There’s a lot of competition. Too many bands, and too many bands that are not doing their own thing- just making popular music. It’s depressing to watch those bands rise and fall and be replaced.
RIGHT NOW
Last song you listened to? Working on our new record for the last few weeks so can’t get these songs out of my head!
Last album you acquired? Serge Gainsbourg
Which band or album is currently on high rotation? the O’Death’s album “Outside”
Tell us an up and coming band or artist you think we should go and listen to right now? O’Death is a friends band that put out what I think was the best record of 2011. It’s called “Outside”. It is such a well arranged, beautiful and creepy record. I love it. Our friends J Roddy Walston also put out an amazing record called “J Roddy Walston. It is really fun rock ‘n roll, with a weird Queen meets Thin Lizzy meets Jerry Lee Lewis vibe.
What’s on the cards for the next few months for the band? New record out in May or June!
IF ONLY…
You can pick any one album for your band to cover in full, what would it be and why? hmm. “Ziggy Stardust” by Bowie? “disintengration” by The Cure? Not sure.
You can pick any one band / artist to cover one of your albums in full, what would it be, and why? The Pixies doing “Red of Tooth and Claw” could be really cool. Our drummer Dagan would want to hear Built to Spill do an album. I’d love to hear a soul cover of one of our songs.
One band you wish you were able to see live but never had the chance? Rolling Stones in a tiny club? Billy Holliday in tiny jazz club?
One venue you have yet to play that you would love to? Sydney Opera House for one. I love to play boats too. Send any boat shows my way.
The chance comes up to fill in for a member of a band for one tour, which band would it be, and why? I like to sing more than play guitar. It would be fun to do backups for someone great, or do duets with an older country singer like Wanda Jackson or something.
A headline tour overseas comes up, tell us two bands you’d take along to support your band. We’ve talked about taking some of our friends bands next time we go to Europe- O’Death, The Builders and the Butchers, maybe William Elliott Whitmore.
PLUG TIME
Any last words? Excited for our first Australian tour (Feb 22-26) and this new record! Check in at murderbydeath.com for more on a release date!
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