Adelitas Way have just released their new EP ‘Deserve This.’ To celebrate frontman Rick DeJesus chatted with Loudwire Nights host Full Metal Jackie. In the interview the singer talks about the band’s new EP, their PledgeMusic Campaign, touring with other bands, his golf game and a lot more. Check out the interview below: 

Rick, you know, it hasn’t even been a year since ‘Stuck’ was released and there is an album already planned for later this year. So, what made it important to get an EP out between albums?

I don’t think that it was anything important. I think for the first time in our career we had the option to do whatever we wanted and one of the regrets I have always had in my ten years of music, you know eight with the band, is that it shouldn’t take three years to put music out to your fans especially now when technology is so advanced and people are hearing music everywhere and have access to millions and millions of songs. It is like, why make your fans wait three years or two years to hear your work when your work is ready.

You know we wrote these songs, we were ready, we obviously are musicians, we like to record, we like to play live, it is what we do for our jobs so it’s like we aren’t going to go through this process of not releasing music when we have music available to release to our fans when we know they want it. We want to put music out as we are completing our creations. We don’t want to just sit on them and admire them from afar. We want put out what is coming out of us and what is inspiring us. We want to put it out to the fan base we have and even create new fans with it.

Rick, creatively how do you approach the condensed format of an EP differently than a full album? 

I don’t. I just write the songs that are coming to me. We just write the songs that are coming out of us. I always believed that songs happen for a reason, whether it is the lyrics coming out of my mouth, or the riff comes, or any way that they are created I just go with the flow or I go with however the life or the Earth or whatever.

I get oddly inspired out of nowhere sometimes. Sometimes a lyric will come to me, or a melody, or just any way it happens and I try to just follow my life guide and if there is riff that keeps popping up over and over again I like we should work on that. With the EP there were five [songs] that were coming out of us and we were like we should work on these and we did. When they were done, we were like we should put them out and let people hear what we just did. What is the need to hold them in our own, we are the only ones that can hear this. We did the work, we are happy with the time we put into them and we worked hard on them. We were inspired and we want people to hear it.

You launched a PledgeMusic campaign to give you greater control over distribution. Ideally where would you personally like to see Adelitas Way music be released that it isn’t already?

I think we were on one of the biggest major labels in the world and our albums were only getting released in the United States and I really think that it has really hindered our growth and our ability to go overseas. People overseas love us, we have a fan base over there and now I am hoping that they love us even more now that they can get the music and they can really get to listen to our work. It is a big deal for us. There is a whole world out there, there is not just one. There is not just the United States, there is an entire planet of people out there that love music and we just want to be heard by them and we want the option to see if they like us or not. We don’t want to be forced to not be heard by the entire world.

Lots of touring musicians are golfers. How do you match up to other bands that golf and what is your favorite course to play when you are out on tour?

I am only really good at driving. I am a little good at chipping but my putt game is weak, so I am not the best golfer. I can drive a ball further than most people. My game was more of the physical sports, baseball, football and basketball. I think that I might be a couple of years away from really being able to throw back beers on the golf course. I think that by the time that I am 40 you’ll be seeing me out on the course a lot more than I am right now.

Adelitas Way are based in Las Vegas. Over the last few years more and more musicians are making Las Vegas their home. Why is Sin City an ideal home base for bands? 

I don’t think it is ideal. I think it was a tough scene coming in but now you have talent poking through and there are some great bands making great music and the city is very inspiring. Las Vegas is an inspiring place that inspires great songs, great music and lyrics and it gives you a certain energy. It feeds you. It is one of my favorite things about the city is how inspiring it can be. I mean, the city itself has inspired some of my favorite songs that I have written. Those memories are based in Las Vegas and by the things I did in Las Vegas or things I have seen in Las Vegas.

I think that talent is everywhere and it just so happens that right now that there is a lot of talent coming out of Vegas. It is a very competitive market and it is very tough to compete with so much going on there. We are very blessed, we sell Las Vegas out almost every time that we play it and it really means a lot of us. We try to do a lot of special things for our hometown city and to show them that we appreciate the love and that we feel the warmth when we are there.

Adelitas Way has played a number of package tours over the years. What builds camaraderie on tours with several high profile bands?

I think that the camaraderie is something that is being lost in music. I feel like right now that times are a little tough so everybody’s busy out there trying to choke each other out and blow each other down and pass each other. I think that we have had some camaraderie with some great bands on the road.

The guys in Theory of a Deadman are great friends of ours and I think when you get the black cloud over music off of your own head and you stop being down about everything all of the time you can just focus on the great things that rock 'n' roll come back when people just focus on enjoying themselves and having fun again. We have had some great camaraderie with bands and we have also had some tours that we thought were miserable that I will never take again.

I think after all of the years of us supporting so many fantastic bands from Guns n' Roses to Godsmack to Shinedown to Three Days Grace. We got to play in front of so many great fans and we have got to learn from bands who have the right way to do things and the point where we are in our career now we have opened up for a couple of bands that we have felt that maybe we shouldn’t have opened up for. The experience wasn’t worth everything we had gone through. So now we are really focused on opening up for people that we love and that we have camaraderie with. We are focused on our headline show. We want to headline and be the headliner. We are really tired of opening up for people that we don’t feel like opening up for.

Thanks to Rick DeJesus for the interview. Adelitas Way’s ‘Deserve This’ EP is out now. You can download it at iTunes. Fans interested in contributing to the band’s PledgeMusic campaign for their fourth album can click here. Tune in to Loudwire Nights With Full Metal Jackie and Tony LaBrie Monday through Friday at 7PM through midnight online or on the radio. To see which stations and websites air Loudwire Nights, click here.

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