“I wrote this song in a van with one of my touring partners, Todd Lombardo, on a long drive from New York to Nashville. We would switch off driving and sitting shotgun playing the guitar. We had the bulk of it by the time we crossed into Virginia. The lyrics are a conversation between two people. It may not always be clear who’s talking, but that’s kind of the point.”
“The first record I remember playing was The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I was five and discovered it in my dad’s old vinyl collection. I would play it on my aqua-green plastic Playshool suitcase record player over and over. I was completely astonished by it. Everything about it—the songs, the sound of it—and slowly I would unearth other Beatles records and wear them out one by one. I convinced my friends across the street to start a Beatles lip-sync band and we gave basement concerts to our parents. I was beyond obsessed.
A few years later, I branched out of the Beatles and started walking to the local record store, Charlemagne Record Exchange (Birmingham, AL). The place became a sanctuary for me. I’d spend hours poring over their used collection, agonizing which one to buy, and then finally bringing one home in a brown paper bag with a big gold sticker on it.
The whole thing was so magical to me. I can’t explain it exactly, but something about those records being so tangible—the feel of them, the sound of them, the smell of them, the jackets, the liner notes—all had an effect on experiencing the music. Making it more of an experience. More indelible. More mysterious, more rebellious, and more of a refuge.
I went back into Charlemagne Records recently. It looks almost exactly the same, even smells the same. The place was buzzing and it felt good to be home.”
—Peter Bradley Adams
Peter Bradley Adams’ A Face Like Mine arrives on store shelves April 21, 2017.
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PHOTO: LAURA ARREDONDO
