IPOD
RADIO
She Wants Revenge
By Auren Suicide
Feb 9, 2006
She Wants Revenge: is clearly the type of dancy, sexy music that modern rock was hungry for. DJ Adam 12, the jack-of-all-trades who plays bass, keys, does the programming and co-founded the band, spoke with me about his impending stardom and love of SG. Who knew?
Their self-titled debut album, out now on Geffen, is available everywhere.
Watch the rad video for
SWR:
site: Shewantsrevenge.com
(L)Auren Suicide: Hello?
A12:
Helloooo.
AS:
Hi. What are you doing?
A12:
Sitting at Starbucks.
AS:
Nice.
A12:
Yeah, our studio is right up the street but the phone reception is terrible. So I thought we’d come here and get some caffeine.
AS:
What are you doing in the studio?
A12:
A couple remixes, working on new music.
AS:
You're going on a long tour, right?
A12:
Yeah. I think it goes from February ‘till forever.
AS:
Are you excited?
A12:
Yeah?
AS:
Are you sure? [laughing]
A12:
There are certain things I’m more excited about than others.
AS:
So you might be excited.
A12:
Yeah, I think so.
AS:
Have you done a lot of touring before?
A12:
We’ve done some touring, not a ton. It hasn’t even been a year that we’ve been doing shows, but in that time we’ve done some long road trips.
AS:
And you’re from the [San Fernando] valley?
A12:
Born and raised!
AS:
Oh, funny. And you and [SWR's frontman] Justin [Warfield] met how?
A12:
We met when we were kids, in the valley. I was DJing at a party in my friend's backyard, actually one of the very first parties I ever DJ'd. There were all these skater kids hanging out back there. Justin was there, and I played a record and he came up and asked me what it was. From then on we just kept bumping into each other for years.
AS:
Hey, did you have a birthday party at [LA bar] Joseph’s?
A12:
Kinda, sorta! It was the night before my birthday. [The promoters] are good friends of mine, so they asked if I wanted to have some people there. And you know, they gave me a little booth and a bottle of tequila so I came.
AS:
I got some email that was like ‘come to this party with Adam 12.’
A12:
Did you come?
AS:
Yeah, I totally went.
A12:
Really?
AS:
Yeah.
A12:
I didn’t see you!
AS:
You don’t know what I look like!
A12:
Well that’s why I didn’t see you!
AS:
[cracks up]
A12:
Are you a SuicideGirl?
AS:
No. I’m not on the site. Well, I mean I am on the site, I have a profile, but I’m not a girl. I mean, wait. I am a girl. Just not a SuicideGirl.
A12:
The interesting thing about SuicideGirls and She Wants Revenge is that we were on SuicideGirls a long time ago. And I can't speak for Justin, but indirectly SuicideGirls had a lot to do with what would influence me musically, on the [She Wants Revenge] record. I met a guy on SuicideGirls who kind of introduced me to this girl who was on the site.
AS:
She was a SuicideGirl?
A12:
No, she was a member. He showed me her journal and I became obsessed with her and became friends with her. I had always made prettier music – kind of like Bjork-y, and it was really because of her that I got to explore the darker side of music and it all came from meeting that guy on SuicideGirls.
AS:
What was the darker music that she exposed you to?
A12:
It wasn’t music. It was…it’s hard to really explain. She’s an artist, and through her photography and writing and painting and just conversations that we had, it wasn’t like she was the darkest girl in the world, but part of it was about making music that she would like. I was, like, completely obsessed with this girl.
AS:
Did you guys end up dating?
A12:
Ummm, we had an interesting relationship.
AS:
Always is. And all because of SG!
A12:
All because of SG.
AS:
Unbielevable, that is a good story.
A12:
Yeah you know, thanks to SG which lead to Friendster which lead to Myspace…
AS:
Thank you for that shout-out, by the way. So both you and Justin were members?
A12:
Yeah, we both had profiles and we were on it everyday with journals and pictures and stuff and we ended up meeting really, really cool people.
AS:
How did you first hear about SuicideGirls?
A12:
We just kept hearing the name around town. We hadn’t really been internet guys before that. It was cool to be able to meet people that lived all over the county and all over the world and write journals and have other people be exposed to what we were doing.
AS:
Are you still on the site?
A12:
I don’t know!
AS:
Let’s get you back on it! Tell me about the girl thing on your website.
A12:
Which girl thing is that?
AS:
You know, the list on your website. All the girls' names. It's just, I don’t know, I like it...
A12:
All of the names on the website are all real names of girls that, in one way or another, Justin and I had some sort of relationship with, whether it was a girlfriend or a crush, or you know, maybe like a scam. [laughs]
AS:
And what was the process like of going back and jotting down all those names?
A12:
There were ups and downs in that process. A few of the names brought up rather bad memories. I think we spent 3 or 4 days trying to remember as many names as we could, and some go way back.
AS:
What was behind your decision to release the album on iTunes first?
A12:
The reason we released it on iTunes first is because our record kept getting pushed back. It was originally supposed to come out in October. We were on the road. We had an EP out on a limited run; there just wasn’t that much stuff for kids to go out and listen to. And we just felt like it hadn’t really been done that many times before. We didn’t want everyone to have to wait 'till January. And it also helps to have something to support while you're on the road!
AS:
Are you excited now that the album's finally come out?
A12:
It's so weird [laughs]. It's very surreal. Last night I went out...
AS:
Where?
A12:
Teddy's at the Roosevelt [Hotel, in Hollywood].
AS:
Yeah.
A12:
As I was walking in, the song [Tear You Apart] was playing. I had to walk out. [laughs]
AS:
[laughs]
A12:
The whole experience is so overwhelming. We grew up listening to KROQ. And now we're on it.
AS:
Congratulations. That's insane. Anything else?
A12:
She Wants Revenge: is clearly the type of dancy, sexy music that modern rock was hungry for. DJ Adam 12, the jack-of-all-trades who plays bass, keys, does the programming and co-founded the band, spoke with me about his impending stardom and love of SG. Who knew?
Their self-titled debut album, out now on Geffen, is available everywhere.
Watch the rad video for
Their self-titled debut album, out now on Geffen, is available everywhere.
Watch the rad video for
SWR:
site: Shewantsrevenge.com
(L)Auren Suicide: Hello?
A12:
Helloooo.
AS:
Hi. What are you doing?
A12:
Sitting at Starbucks.
AS:
Nice.
A12:
Yeah, our studio is right up the street but the phone reception is terrible. So I thought we’d come here and get some caffeine.
AS:
What are you doing in the studio?
A12:
A couple remixes, working on new music.
AS:
You're going on a long tour, right?
A12:
Yeah. I think it goes from February ‘till forever.
AS:
Are you excited?
A12:
Yeah?
AS:
Are you sure? [laughing]
A12:
There are certain things I’m more excited about than others.
AS:
So you might be excited.
A12:
Yeah, I think so.
AS:
Have you done a lot of touring before?
A12:
We’ve done some touring, not a ton. It hasn’t even been a year that we’ve been doing shows, but in that time we’ve done some long road trips.
AS:
And you’re from the [San Fernando] valley?
A12:
Born and raised!
AS:
Oh, funny. And you and [SWR's frontman] Justin [Warfield] met how?
A12:
We met when we were kids, in the valley. I was DJing at a party in my friend's backyard, actually one of the very first parties I ever DJ'd. There were all these skater kids hanging out back there. Justin was there, and I played a record and he came up and asked me what it was. From then on we just kept bumping into each other for years.
AS:
Hey, did you have a birthday party at [LA bar] Joseph’s?
A12:
Kinda, sorta! It was the night before my birthday. [The promoters] are good friends of mine, so they asked if I wanted to have some people there. And you know, they gave me a little booth and a bottle of tequila so I came.
AS:
I got some email that was like ‘come to this party with Adam 12.’
A12:
Did you come?
AS:
Yeah, I totally went.
A12:
Really?
AS:
Yeah.
A12:
I didn’t see you!
AS:
You don’t know what I look like!
A12:
Well that’s why I didn’t see you!
AS:
[cracks up]
A12:
Are you a SuicideGirl?
AS:
No. I’m not on the site. Well, I mean I am on the site, I have a profile, but I’m not a girl. I mean, wait. I am a girl. Just not a SuicideGirl.
A12:
The interesting thing about SuicideGirls and She Wants Revenge is that we were on SuicideGirls a long time ago. And I can't speak for Justin, but indirectly SuicideGirls had a lot to do with what would influence me musically, on the [She Wants Revenge] record. I met a guy on SuicideGirls who kind of introduced me to this girl who was on the site.
AS:
She was a SuicideGirl?
A12:
No, she was a member. He showed me her journal and I became obsessed with her and became friends with her. I had always made prettier music – kind of like Bjork-y, and it was really because of her that I got to explore the darker side of music and it all came from meeting that guy on SuicideGirls.
AS:
What was the darker music that she exposed you to?
A12:
It wasn’t music. It was…it’s hard to really explain. She’s an artist, and through her photography and writing and painting and just conversations that we had, it wasn’t like she was the darkest girl in the world, but part of it was about making music that she would like. I was, like, completely obsessed with this girl.
AS:
Did you guys end up dating?
A12:
Ummm, we had an interesting relationship.
AS:
Always is. And all because of SG!
A12:
All because of SG.
AS:
Unbielevable, that is a good story.
A12:
Yeah you know, thanks to SG which lead to Friendster which lead to Myspace…
AS:
Thank you for that shout-out, by the way. So both you and Justin were members?
A12:
Yeah, we both had profiles and we were on it everyday with journals and pictures and stuff and we ended up meeting really, really cool people.
AS:
How did you first hear about SuicideGirls?
A12:
We just kept hearing the name around town. We hadn’t really been internet guys before that. It was cool to be able to meet people that lived all over the county and all over the world and write journals and have other people be exposed to what we were doing.
AS:
Are you still on the site?
A12:
I don’t know!
AS:
Let’s get you back on it! Tell me about the girl thing on your website.
A12:
Which girl thing is that?
AS:
You know, the list on your website. All the girls' names. It's just, I don’t know, I like it...
A12:
All of the names on the website are all real names of girls that, in one way or another, Justin and I had some sort of relationship with, whether it was a girlfriend or a crush, or you know, maybe like a scam. [laughs]
AS:
And what was the process like of going back and jotting down all those names?
A12:
There were ups and downs in that process. A few of the names brought up rather bad memories. I think we spent 3 or 4 days trying to remember as many names as we could, and some go way back.
AS:
What was behind your decision to release the album on iTunes first?
A12:
The reason we released it on iTunes first is because our record kept getting pushed back. It was originally supposed to come out in October. We were on the road. We had an EP out on a limited run; there just wasn’t that much stuff for kids to go out and listen to. And we just felt like it hadn’t really been done that many times before. We didn’t want everyone to have to wait 'till January. And it also helps to have something to support while you're on the road!
AS:
Are you excited now that the album's finally come out?
A12:
It's so weird [laughs]. It's very surreal. Last night I went out...
AS:
Where?
A12:
Teddy's at the Roosevelt [Hotel, in Hollywood].
AS:
Yeah.
A12:
As I was walking in, the song [Tear You Apart] was playing. I had to walk out. [laughs]
AS:
[laughs]
A12:
The whole experience is so overwhelming. We grew up listening to KROQ. And now we're on it.
AS:
Congratulations. That's insane. Anything else?
A12:
