The Audio Perv

At Exit/In. Courtesy of riffsyphon1024

Adelitas Way has their debut album out now and when you go to buy it in stores or on iTunes, you might wanna know a little bit about the band. Lead singer Rick DeJesus started out in a rough Philly neighborhood where he witnessed family members on drugs and going to jail and a friend shot in the head and killed by drug dealers. Rick’s future seemed like it was heading the same way – “my friends were carrying guns, selling drugs, doing drugs, leading reckless lives. I knew I was going to pay the consequences.” Desperate to escape, Rick found himself going out to Los Angeles to audition for the VH1 show “Strip Search.” After being on the show, Rick wound up in Vegas living in his car and working the “American Storm” show at the Rivera, a rough time that Rick would describe as “a rock moment. I was young, poor and crazy… and it beat robbing people.” Rick’s tough journey would help him focus on the anthemic, potent hard modern rock that would become the calling card of Adelitas Way.

The first shaping of the band would take place in Las Vegas where Rick would meet Chris Iorio and Trevor Stafford. Chris was a classic rock enthusiast thanks to his parents who bought him a guitar at age 7 and turned him onto Kiss, Ted Nugent and Van Halen. Trevor, a grunge enthusiast and fan of System Of A Down who moved to Vegas from his hometown of Huntington Beach, CA, was already an accomplished tour and and studio drummer even having played on Ozzfest with his band Shuvel. The rest of the band would join in from the east after recording. Derek Johnston (bass) from New York and Keith Wallen (guitar) from West Virginia would join Adelitas Way after recording was complete.

As difficult it is to get shows a young band, it’s even harder to play with already established acts. Trevor credits Rick for getting Adelitas Way shows with major label artists like Chris Cornell, Hinder and Tantric. It was the performances at these shows that generated the huge industry buzz that ended with the band signing to Virgin. “I played with a lot of people,” says Trevor, “but never anyone like Rick; his work ethic is out-of-control amazing.”

Now the band is fully set on where it’s going. “Every second of my life was focused on music. I bought nothing for the first year doing music in Vegas. I wore the same shirt every day. I handed a demo to every person I saw, and that’s how the mystique began. If I was in Walmart, Dunkin’ Donuts… I probably handed out 6,000 demos. So our first show we drew 900 kids at the Rainbow Bar.”

In one of the earlier incarnations of Adelitas Way, Rick and his bandmembers sold 10,000 self-titled records all on their own! Their song “Move On” was the #1 song in 2006 on Vegas rock station KOMP and the band was building a huge reputation regionally as a live show not to be missed. It was the passion of the songs about Rick’s past that would emerge when the band was playing live that brought out such a great performance. The song “Invincible”, the theme song of WWE Superstars on WGN, is a band favorite. Rick explains, “I was going for that ‘Incredible Hulk’ feeling; a song that pumps you up, a crowd-pleaser. It’s about our attitude: I’m not going to let anyone stand in the way of my dreams.”

And now we get to what everyone wants to know, how did the band come up with the name. Well here’s Rick’s story: During a band road trip to LA, they took a detour to San Diego, and when Rick woke up from a nap in the back of the band truck, they were getting arrested in Mexico. Corrupt cops robbed the band, but Rick secreted away a little cash in his socks. Freaked out, the band went to the first bar they saw in Tijuana to have a beer and calm their nerves. It was the Adelita Bar. “There were a bunch of young, really pretty girls and I realized it was basically a brothel,” explains Rick. “I chatted with one girl, questioning why she was living this life? And I wrote a song about it. The band name emerged from the sad stories behind the ‘Way’ they lived at the Adelita—Adelitas Way. As a songwriter,” Rick continues, “I’m very emotional, I put myself in people’s shoes a lot and live vicariously. My songs are about true situations.” That’s reflected in their well rounded and timeless album. For instance, “All Fall Down” is about Rick’s headspace before he left the mean streets of Philly. “Before I moved, everything was gloomy and depressing. But as a kid, your only concern was what you were going to be for Halloween, or get for Christmas. So the song is about how you should have savored those moments. I took things for granted.”

It’s been an interesting rise but these guys are in no way complacent and boasting of fame yet. As teenage guitarist Chris observes, “we made it this far by hard work and nickel-and-dimeing it, vans breaking down in the middle of the desert, the whole bit. It took a while to find this ideal lineup, where we all want the same thing. And everything finally feels right.”

Listen to Adelitas Way’s self-titled album at AOL and learn more about the band at AdelitasWay.net and Myspace.com/AdelitasWay.

Adelitas Way tracklisting
1. Invincible
2. Scream
3. Dirty Little Thing
4. Last Stand
5. Hate Love
6. So What If You Go
7. Closer To You
8. Just A Little Bit
9. All Falls Down
10. My Derailment
11. Brother