The Expendables reflect on reggae journey from jamming in parent’s garage to opening a new Santa Cruz studio

Photo courtesy of The Expendables. Photo credit: Carly SnappinNecks

Dailyreggae.com interviewed Adam from The Expendables about the band’s journey from his parent’s Santa Cruz, California garage to self-producing music in the band’s new Coral Street Studios. 

The Expendables have been busy this year! You put out the Live From Hollywood album, the You’re Right Here single, Light Up Them Trees (It’s Christmas) single, and more. Tell us about the new music!

We luckily, before COVID happened, have been slowly building our studio in Santa Cruz. we We can record in-house, so we don’t have to go to another studio to record. It’s a big deal for us and hard to do. You can do vocals and guitar pretty easily anywhere, but drums are a pain. We’ve been building our studio and we got lucky when we did it because when our tour got canceled, we were like what do we do now? We thought, let’s start recording like crazy and we’ve just been writing songs and being able to record them immediately. We’re slowly putting music out. I had this Christmas song about three years ago and I said you know what, why not and just do it, and did it in like a week. Because it’s a Christmas song, it’s kind of funny. I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time on it. We put a good effort into it, but it’s one of those things where We’re now able to do things like that. We’ve gotten good at recording ourselves, which if there is any good part of COVID I guess that’s one of the best parts. We learned to record ourselves pretty well. I think the songs are coming out pretty good compared to our other stuff and there is no loss in quality, I hope. 

Tell us about your production work with your band, The Expendables, and other artists.

Yeah, I’ve been dabbling into recording for a while now, but we always had someone else do ours. Financially and with the ease of having someone in the band do it, I just started mixing our songs. In the last couple of albums, I’ve recorded the instruments and vocals, but usually sent it off to be mixed by somebody. And I said let me just try it, I’ve got nothing but time right now, so I mixed Surfman Cometh, and the guys liked it. I don’t know if I’ll do it forever, but it’s just something for now. I’m trying to get better at it. I’ve been recording local bands for a few years. Just never ourselves. I was too scared to mix my own band (laughs). 

We’ve been impressed with the sound you’ve been able to get with the mixing. Have you found that producing and mixing your songs has changed up the songwriting process going from start to finish, or is it more laid back now? 

I think the biggest difference impacts the guitar players and the vocals. I don’t know if you know much about recording, but it goes drums, then bass, then guitars, and then vocals. That’s usually how it goes, and you sprinkle in keys and percussion if you need them. Recently, I was able to redo my drums after everything else was done on the song, and there’s more freedom with that. If you’re in the studio and drums are done, they are torn down, and with a band that doesn’t have a huge budget, there is no way I’m going to re-record a part just because I didn’t like it too much. But now I can do that. 

I have a studio kit that I got from Pearl that’s just for the studio, and nothing really moves, so I can just fire it up and fix something if I don’t like it. And also, the cool thing we discovered about me mixing our songs is our guitar player will do something they like and then it’s mixed and as the mix comes in, it just changes. Maybe there is too much reverb or something, and usually, they’d just have to live with it. Now they can go back and re-record it at their home studio. Everyone in the band has a little home studio too now. I think for the guitar player, especially for our guitar player, Raul, that’s huge for him. We all had anxiety about recording because it’s so final and permanent, but now it’s a little less final and permanent until you send it off. And we control all of that. We can be happier with the stuff we’ve been doing. It’s cool. 

It also changes the way we write. Not so much writing, but sometimes some can evolve a little bit more since we aren’t under the gun of being in the studio and paying a bunch of money per hour. The mikes are paid for, so we can take as much time as we need. I feel like that opens us up to be a little more creative and more relaxed. I feel like we’re putting out some of our best stuff in my mind. 

Surfman was the first one of this whole experiment pretty much, where I’m mixing it. I feel like it’s going to get better and better as we do it ourselves. Surfman was my first mix. I was crazy nervous putting it out. I spent way too much time on it (laughs), but I needed to do that to get better. 

What is the name of your studio? 

It’s called Coral Street Studios. It’s on Coral Street in Santa Cruz, California. We called it The Jungle for a minute because it’s got this weird green wall inside, but that never stuck. 

If someone wants to record at Coral Street Studios or have you mix a song how should they hit you up?

@patterskin on Instagram is a good one to hit me up. 

Tell us about The Expendables’ latest single, You’re Right Here. 

You’re Right Here was actually written quite a while ago, and we’ve been messing around with it for around two years. I didn’t write the song, but it’s not about COVID, it’s from before that, but as we were playing it, it took on this new meaning. The lyrics to me are related to what everyone in this world is going through right now, where you’re wishing you could be with people. Even if it’s just your Mom and Dad in town, but they can’t come to see you. Especially in the beginning when we were socially distancing big time over a fence and through windows.

To me, it took on this new meaning and it’s kind of crazy how it fit with what was going on in the world today. 

We had this idea to bring a little of that to the video a little bit and involve our fans, and our family and friends that we couldn’t be with. That’s how that whole thing came about. Wishing they could be with us, but they cannot, but we can still be together in the video. 

What’s the process like in recording a live album? You also released the album, Live From Hollywood, this year. 

We recorded that 3 years ago in Hollywood at the Roxy. We knew we were going to video the show and we were maybe going to take a mix off the board. I had my computer and my setup and I decided to multitrack it, meaning we can record every microphone that was on stage. We recorded it and then put it aside. We didn’t know exactly what to do with it. That ended up being the first thing I ever mixed for the band. I was willing to try that because it’s live and not a studio album. It’s more raw. 

We put it out because we are a very live band. We’re not really a studio band in my mind, so it was just kind of overdue. That was a really fun concert. That was one of our more memorable concerts, so I’m glad we captured that. 

At some point, I read that you taught yourself how to play drums. Tell me about how you developed as a drummer? 

When I was 14 years old, I was playing bass and my parents let us jam in the garage and I think I just wanted a drum kit to have around in case someone wanted to play drums and then I was the only one that could kind of play, so I started playing drums. Someone else played bass and then someone else played bass and then we started a band, so I became the drummer. I taught myself and I kind of regret it. I kind of wish I took lessons, because it took me a long time to get even ok, and I learned a lot of bad habits. It makes me a really weird drummer (laughs).

It’s just who I am now. I cannot go back in time, so it is what it is. In some ways it’s cool and in other ways, I wish I took lessons. 

I’ve known our guitar player, Raul, since first grade. Geoff our singer, I knew in little league in like third grade. We had a different bass player in high school and then when we graduated, he went off to college, and we kind of knew this guy from a different school and he joined the band shortly after high school. We’ve known each other for a long time. 

You guys have been a close group of friends playing for a while now. You’ve been staples in the ska, punk, and American reggae scenes for a while now. How have you seen these scenes evolve and progress over the years? 

Yeah, I think it’s changed more towards traditional reggae versus when we started, it was more punk. When we started, Brad Nowell from Sublime passed away, but we were already playing that style of music. Slightly Stoopid at the time was the next band that carried the torch and in the old days, it seemed to me, they were a punk band that played some reggae and some ska. And they evolved into what they are today. There was a lot of punk and metal going on. We found our little niche. 

Eventually, it kind of got more toward traditional reggae with bands like Rebelution and Stick Figure. They are more on the traditional side, a lot less of the punk for sure; definitely, rock-influenced still. It’s just different. Ballyhoo! is still definitely doing the punk thing. Passafire is doing the crazy math-rock thing or whatever you want to call it. It’s just not as punk anymore.

The reggae scene today is rad. It’s huge. For as big as it is, it’s not super recognized yet still somehow. There are a lot of people that are into this music and it’s not like super mainstream, which probably is a good thing (laughs). 

Even in the Midwest, where back in the day, there’d be ten people at the shows, they are into this Cali reggae thing that has spread all over the country. It’s really cool. It’s just strange that there hasn’t been a band that I can think of to have a mainstream hit from it yet though.

I don’t understand how Rebelution or Stick Figure hasn’t yet. It’s weird to me, but again, there might be a reason. That might be why it’s lasted this long and it’s so strong. I think it’s stronger than ever. It might be because it didn’t have that crazy, huge blow up like that weird rap/rock from the mid ‘90s and early 2000s had and then fizzled to nothing. It has been a steady climb.

I think reggae is in a good spot, I think it’s evolved, and I think it will continue to evolve. It’s a cool genre to be in. It’s really close. All these bands are friends. When we play Cali Roots or One Love, it’s like a reunion. It’s so fun. 

Do you think the reggae community is so close because of the fans, or does it have a lot to do with the music itself that brings the musicians so close together? 

I think a little bit of both. I know country music and the Nashville scene, it’s like that too. Everybody is kind of friends. In other genres, I don’t know if that’s very true. I don’t know many bands in this genre that I don’t at least sort of know and am cool with. We are tight-knit, and everyone is doing collaborations. The music is positive and fun. The fans are amazing. They are so positive. It’s such a party. I’ll go walk around the crowd, and people watch and they are loving every second of the show it and I think that’s so cool. 

Has becoming a husband and father given you a new outlook on life and has it impacted the music you write and play? 

Yeah, I’m older now. I have a kid and wife and things aren’t like they were when I was 22. It was a big party back then. Today there’s still a party but it’s a little different party. We are not writing as goofy or party kind of music as much. Something like You’re Right Here or even Surfman Cometh. Back then it’s more poppy, little love songs because you’re in and out of love pretty quick when you’re younger. Now things are different and more solid and less of a crazy party time. We’re a little more mature in the writing, and that has probably changed. I hadn’t thought of it until you just said that though. It has got to affect how we write music. I don’t know, I have to analyze that. 

I love your live shows. My favorite part of your live shows is at one moment it feels like I’m at a chill reggae show and then the next moment, I’m at a NOFX and Less Than Jake ska-punk show going crazy in the pit. This type of live energy and performance, I know you had your influences, but did this kind of live show happen organically, or is it something you envisioned and wanted to have? 

I think when we started, we had no idea what we wanted. There was no goal. We didn’t know what we wanted to be. We weren’t trying to be anyone. We knew we wanted to kind of be like Slightly Stoopid and Sublime (laughs). We wanted to be in that genre. I don’t think we envisioned the shows must be this way. The shows are all different. Sometimes we’ll be like, we didn’t play as much punk during that show, or sometimes we’ll be like we played way too much punk at this one. We still don’t really have a vision of the show. Some people really like metal stuff, and some people don’t, so we try to add a metal component, but not too much. We all grew up loving punk music and metal like Pantera and NOFX. All these bands super influenced us and still do today. We also really love the roots reggae stuff. Maybe we just got bored playing only one genre, but we always like all kinds of music. We don’t really care. I don’t think we have a vision now (laughs). I think we just do whatever feels right. 

You’ve had a strong relationship with Slightly Stoopid for decades now. Tell us about that.

Slightly Stoopid’s record label and a lot of independent record labels aren’t the big labels of now or even the old days. Basically, it was them helping us out, where other labels wouldn’t because they didn’t believe in our music or whatever reason. Slightly Stoopid was really cool to us from the get-go. We bugged them a bunch and they let us play a couple of shows and then they let us play a couple more shows. Then they brought us on tour for what seemed like years. A part of the reason for our band’s success is because of them. A big part. They took us everywhere in the country a few times. And then they put out our first real album. They started a label and asked if we wanted to do it. They put up the money, we recorded the album and that’s kind of what it is. They aren’t a huge label and usually, those are a “one album at a time” thing.

I think we did two back-to-back with them and then we did our own album on our own label. It’s not like we’re on their label forever and we haven’t put something out with them for a while, but not to say we wouldn’t in the future. That’s kind of how that works. They were being really cool to us and helping out a band that was starting. 

Today, Ineffable is putting our music out. Ineffable is really cool about the digital side. Getting us on really cool playlists on Spotify like Beach Vibes and things like that. They are really good at what they do, especially in the digital world. They are awesome and are doing really cool, really innovative things. 

What was the process like recording an acoustic album with your most recent Gone Raw in 2019? 

Yeah, we did Gone Soft in 2012. It was our first time recording in our studio, and that started this whole crazy adventure we’ve been on recording ourselves, but that was the first thing we did. It came out and I think it’s one of my favorite things we’ve done. 

Gone Raw was kind of an extension of that with a little bit more skill and know-how on how to record. We’ve always liked playing acoustically and it was just something to do in-between stuff. We’ll probably continue to release acoustic albums in the future. 

Where is a good place for fans to support your music? 

Theexpendables.net is a great spot to find all of our stuff. However, you listen to music. If you listen to us on Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, Apple, whatever you do, that always helps. And going to live shows. You can’t beat that once live music comes back.