Inside the Mind of Action Adam

“They’re lost souls just like us,” Adam reflected to me. A majestic void of a black cat had strolled intro frame before our interview, greeting us with warmth and curiosity. Trash Bag was his name, a recent member of the Langlab family. He said stray cats would sometimes come and go, but I think to myself, "Are they still strays if they find a family?"

Action Adam knows all about family. Happily married and the proud father of three children, he is both a multi-faceted creative and a devout family man. He is a man of many hats; as a graphic artist, his work is unmistakable. As a promoter, his shows are uniquely curated. He is a man who bet on himself when unhappy with the hand he was dealt. You may have witnessed an Action Adam visual playing behind your favorite band in the 574, syncing perfectly with the energy of the set. Like a DJ of the mind, you're experiencing a Live Visual Mixtape.

"There's moments when I'm cutting the mixtape and I'm like, 'People are going to probably cry at this moment.' Because if it makes me tear up, I know it's gonna hit. I want people to feel something, that's what art is. I want to have a message that doesn't feel like I'm hitting you over the head with it, but I'm trying to give you my view and experience." - Action Adam

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SOURCE: How would you describe yourself as a creative?

Adam:  It's always been very difficult but I always say it's a live visual mixtape, and if you come to the show you'll know exactly what that is.

But what is a live visual mixtape you say? It's my years of graphic design, my experience with editing, my knowledge of film throughout the years in there too. My love of music, that's definitely a number one. And when I cut the visuals that's very much my main goal is that it matches their music. And it doesn't even matter if they do a different set than I cut it to, it's the simple fact that I listen to it while doing the visuals that is going to line up. That's kind of the magic of it, you know, and have it projected over them.

SOURCE: Tell me about your show on October, 24th, "Botany and Beats"

Adam: I usually have two albums that are my inspiration for this, and for this one in particular, that Avalanches album, Since I Left You, is probably the obvious one. Washed out very much, it helps me get into that aesthetic that I need to adhere to. Find my voice through that, if that makes sense. But for this one it's a totally new style. I have pop-ups coming out throughout the entire show telling a narrative where that would normally be more in the background. But now it's very much popping up and then I think that helps with the narrative aspect of it for sure, because there is a narrative and there's a message with every single show.

SOURCE: What is the message of this next show?

Adam: I would say that quote on the last reel I did with the David Attenborough one, about if you shift perspective to the plants point of view life comes spectacularly to life, to paraphrase it. But that's very much the vision of this, you can look at the bad in the world— and there's a lot, a lot to look at. I'm a big picture guy, so I try to look at it like humans are such a microcosm of this place. What have the plants seen throughout the entirety of the earth? Because they've bene here before us and they'll be here after us, right? So that's kind of my vision and execution for that. And it does have kind of a twist, but I don't want to give too much away.

SOURCE: What is your very first creative memory?

Adam: The first thing that comes to mind is I played A Link to the Past. I have formative moments that were like a breakthrough into my creativity, like "wow okay that made a mark on me." But playing through Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was very inspiring to me as a kid. I remember drawing the whole story and making a book out of it, with like the little spiral bindings kind of thing. I still have it, like it's at my parents'. I would like to include that, because I like to include things from my past. Like that South Bend Bullshit show, I had that viral photo of me that pops up all the time of me getting that Super Nintendo and it's just the most 90s fucking photo you've ever seen in there.

SOURCE: Nostalgia seems to play a big part in your work, that's your literal link to the past. What about the game struck a chord with you?

Adam: I don't know, it just felt epic to me. It triggered something in my brain that I wanted to do stuff like that. I wanted to create like that, make grand narratives like this. I'm sure every kid gets inspired like that, especially Lord of the Rings after seeing that shit. I'm sure that has had an impact on many kids. But I discovered that later, it was always Zelda for me. And in certain films, I mean that's separate from this, but certain films have left a big mark on my life and creatively for sure.

SOURCE: So out of all the hats you wear as a creative, which passion came first?

Adam: Music. Abso-fucking-lutely music. I live and breathe music, dude. If there's a world without it, I just don't know who I would be. Even as a little kid going to my parents' records, and they didn't have the best music taste ya know, but I'm sure there's photos of me with the headphones on just listening to that shit. That was probably the start of everything.

SOURCE: What was the earliest song you remember hearing on the radio?

Adam: Green Day, Dookie, "When I Come Around".  I had so many tapes of recording of that and getting it taken away from me too because I had a babysitter that ratted me out and told my mom and read the lyrics. That shit was so lame, there were years where I had to sneak buying parental advisory stuff.

So you can imagine getting The Chronic 2001 was a little difficult because it had a giant fucking pot leaf on the front. [laughs] And my parents are like, "No fucking way are you getting that album."

SOURCE: Did you go to college, and what was the experience like if so?

Adam: I did, for graphic design. Was not ready for it. I was very much party atmosphere and everybody loved me for that. I've always been the dude that's good at getting different people together like that. But it was very chaotic. I was really just kind of finding who I was. I knew I wanted to do graphic design for sure, but I didn't know exactly what form and avenue, and eventually it led to doing t-shirts and screen printing. And that's kind of where I started.

SOURCE: What was the transition like into the job market after college?

Adam: I think it was relatively easy back then, that was probably 2008. And I just went right into doing the shit myself. I was working at Graphics Unlimited in Bremen and they do a lot of huge RV graphics like screen printed. And I moved across the country, but I was always doing screen printing. But the shirt aspect was just so fun and the whole process is satisfying. 'Cause you literally get to see your art fucking come to life on that screen, and it's crazy washing it out. It's very satisfying. And then when your design ends up on the shirt that is sold— because I did a lot of shirts for bands over the years— and to see somebody

wearing one of your shirts you designed and loving it, like that's a great form of satisfaction.

SOURCE: What was that like leaving your full-time job and that security to pursue your passion? Was there fear?

Adam: Very terrifying. But there comes a point where you just, to put it in a blunt term, shit or get off the pot kind of thing. Because you know, you're not having a good time. You're just not having a good time. There's some people that just let that happen and they coast with that, but that's not me. I'm not the type of person to just lie to myself like shit's okay at work. It wasn't. And there just came a point where I was like, I can either lose myself mentally or get out of this situation. It's going to be messy, and it was, for sure. Financially, we got three kids, you know? That's shit I gotta think about.

But thankfully, my main thing was I was not willing to work at a place that was ruining my kids' future. And thankfully, I have found a place that supports the community and it's just great. The homies work there, it's perfect. So maybe wait. Don't just jump right in, is my advice for that. Kind of wait a little bit, and if you can afford it financially, find the right place for you.

SOURCE: What is it like balancing both being a creative and a family man at the same time?

Adam: They exist on separate planes for me. Like the dad I guess you would say is totally different than the creative because you're thinking about your kids getting their homework done and all that, getting them to make sure they brush their teeth, getting their bath, and taking care of making sure they get enough time with you. And the balancing act is a big thing. So I've gotten very good at structuring myself to where allow this much time for your family, and then some play time because you need that too, and then this is my creative time. And you have to be strict about it, and it's hard. I know.

You have to be efficient at your craft. For me I'm on ticking time, I'm still working on this next show, dude. That's every time, I'm constantly working on it up until the day of the event. A lot of the times I might hear a song on the radio and I'm like, "Fuck dude, that's the perfect opening for this show." And then I go and redo the entire thing, that happens sometimes.

"Because that's what the mixtape is, it's three months of my life and thoughts and views, but thrown into the visuals. I would say look at it like I'm trying to scream at you through the visuals. That's how I would best describe my art and work."

SOURCE: How do you marry your own expression with the artists' performing?

Adam: It was hard to sell that to people as you can imagine. But I think I've gotten to a point where people know my work. Sometimes they're even okay with me not even sending their visuals, just, "Hey whatever you do is fine." But I guess you just got to get out there and try and see what works because you know that first show was very different and it did not work. It was a disaster. But that was my moment where I could either give up, or I could realize that what I was doing was great, it just was not the right format for it. It was structured totally different.

SOURCE: What was the meaning behind the name of your show, "Be The Light"?

Adam: That was Rebel Noire all day, dude. I was just feeling very down, having an existential crisis almost after the election. In my mind, I was like, "This is gonna lead to consequential destructive paths." Just going through all the the worst scenarios in my head. And then she had that video that was saying, "You could sit there and sulk", and again I'm paraphrasing, "But I'm just going to be the light. And that's what you need to be in your community. And I'm gonna continue doing that." And just very straight-faced looked in the camera and said that, it just kind of shook me. Like how silly to think any different? These shows do so much for the music community in this area.

"It's not about me, it's about preserving what we have right now. "

SOURCE: Explain Building Bridges to me?

Adam: I'm still not at the point where I want that to be yet. I want big charity events. If like some artist-run business is struggling, we have maybe a big gala event with local artists selling stuff at auction. And that all goes to a struggling business, or creative, or whatever. So Building Bridges is very much just, "Hey I have all this experience in advertising and promotion and I'll do that at you and you and pay what you want— but only to artists. Because businesses that are well off and they need some design, they could afford to pay. But it's the struggling artist-run ones that I want. 'Cause that's another very important cultural thing for South Bend is typically our long-standing business are usually artist run, like the Frame Factory. So like stuff like that is important to preserve and honor.

SOURCE: What's your history with the Frame Shop? What does it mean to you?

Adam: To work there now is a pleasure. Just having I don't know how many big artists that have worked there in the past, or really have been helped out and propped up by that place. Designing and doing stuff with the shop before in its previous incarnation, I got to see a little window in there. Like now we're still trying to get back on our feet 'cause it was like a year of the owner not there, and there was a lot of bad taste in peoples' mouth.

So it's a hurdle to get over for now, but we'll get there. But again, very grateful. That place is still standing and a part of the culture because it is very important.

That's a core value of that place is to help prop up creatives and great local artists. Get your stuff framed there, don't go to frickin' Michael's. [laughs] Shout out to Michael's.

SOURCE: What editing software do you use?

Adam: I use Blackmagic. A lot of the time if I'm just throwing shit up on social it's through Microsoft's basic editing stuff. Because I already have all my work made in Blackmagic, and I just kind of throw it together. And a lot of the times if I'm throwing it together for the mixtape, I'll chop it up there. It's an easy to use software and it lets me do what I want to do. A lot of the gatekeeping motherfuckers they'll be like, " Oh you're using [blah blah blah]." It's like, no, I use shit that works for me. And that's what you should be doing. I don't care about the prestige of your shit, like that is not what I'm out to do.

SOURCE: How long have you been playing with the idea of these edits before taking it public with these shows?

Adam: I guess graphic design is very much like editing. You're just cleaning stuff up, making it look nice, you know, but obviously I got tired of it and I wanted to do weird shit.

SOURCE: Tell me about how your work is sort of a response to that sterile corporate design style you worked in, how do you make that point through your work?

Adam: So if you watch there's a lot of riffing on advertising in there, goof meme edits in there that I do and include. Originally it was very much structured like it was a lost MTV broadcast that you found at like 3 A.M. And you're like, "What in the fuck is this shit?" That's very much the vibe of the first one. But there was a whole narrative about me losing my creativity for years, and that's what the black hole in Volume I symbolizes. But I guess the idea for doing that live came from... I think I talked to Terrible Tony. And he's like, "You should do that shit live and then project that over them." That would be cool, but I don't have a projector. He's like, "Well we got one over at LangLab." Nobody had used it, dude. And when I first came here, it was a lot different.

It's more lively [now]. It was kind of depressing coming in here because they were struggling. It was post-COVID, the shows, barely any people were showing up to. "Hey, you want to take a chance on doing this weird-ass visual show that's kind of structured like MTV and Adult Swim?" And they're like, "Fuck yeah." They watched the DVD I had and loved it, Quinn did. And so that was the first show we did. Quinn kind of helped me set that up, and you know learning the ins and outs of load in times the hard way, and sound checks. And all that was very formative for me, I would say.

SOURCE: [grins] Let me hear your anti-AI rant, especially in your field of design.

Adam: An existential threat to not just art, but humanity, is where I'm at, dude. I think it's terrible. I think just for the creative process alone, how the fuck do you develop a style if you're pushing a button, having that do everything for you? And just think about what it's doing to your mental state. I'm just thinking about what are you going to do when all these people don't have jobs? It's just greed on a scale we've never seen, because they're literally not thinking about the consequences of what we're doing right here. This is destroying the earth even more and you got those fucking server farms everywhere. And they're just a nuisance, they rattled people's houses dude, they're awful.

That alone should be enough, but then the fact that people who have developed a style their entire fucking life and perfected that— it means nothing now because some other [person] is like like "I can just train my AI and copy that." I'm sure you can, but why? What are we doing? Nobody is taking a step back and be like, "What in the fuck are we doing?" They're just thinking about money, and their little brain candies they're getting.

SOURCE: How do you work in your love of video games, movies, and pop media references? Is it sort of a stream of consciousness?

Adam: I watch a lot of movies and I play a lot of games so I know the heavy hitters, in a way it's kind of cheating because I know there's going to be people in the audience that love that fucking game.

"When it hits, when the band's just ripping it, and you've got Doom Slayer just pulling up the sword— that's the moments that the crowd really cheers for. When it happens live it really does take it to another level."

SOURCE: What's your thoughts on social media's role in the current state of art?

Adam: Conflicted, because as a promoter, I need it. There's no way I could get people to my show without it. But everything else I see, for instance, not to shame any butt pics or whatever, but people posting that and then it gets millions of likes. And then the stuff that you've worked so hard for months on it's nowhere even near it. So that's the kind of content that the algorithm favors, obviously.

Actually the lower effort stuff, like the meme edits, that's the stuff that pops off. Like I've had things hit millions of views, but it's the stuff that I don't want to. Nobody wants to sit and take things in. Because with my art I do ask that of you, just sit and take it in.

SOURCE: What's your favorite show that you've done so far?

Adam: I'd say the Midsommar one. Just having those A24 edits while I had a hardcore band and kind of a post-rocky heavy band, Hav-Musuvs and Interference Patterns, and they share Tony as the drummer who is doing sound at the Botany Show. They're just going back and forth while like there's these epic battles and the world's burning down. They brought in this crazy bassist from Oregon to do a guest song and it was fucking insane. People were losing their minds, just moshing like crazy, dude. And then when I hit you with me playing with my kids, and showing this is all their future. Like you're basking in the glory of these epic fights and crazy hardcore music going on and then there's this moment. It's wild to see you stop and be like, "Shit dude, it's getting heavy right now." The audacity [laughs]

SOURCE: What's the meaning of "South Bend Bullshit"?

Adam: It can be whatever you want. It can be something bad, but everybody identifies with it just living here and seeing you know, South Bend bullshit. It could be something cool, it could be the fire event we do here, or it could be just Daikaiju ripping it up at McCormick's where they're playing on the fucking tables. That's a good South Bend bullshit moment. That's what that is, it's a meme that can be applied to so many different things.

SOURCE: What's one video game you can't live without?

Adam: Ocarina of Time, for sure. That was another formative one. And I know people say like, "ooo I like Majora's Mask better." But I grew up with it dude. It's always interesting when Gen Z talks about the games that I was there to physically buy, and they're like, "No, this one's better." I'm like, "But you don't have the context that I had", you know? That's important. Especially for Metal Gear, dude, playing the second one and having no fucking idea what was going on. That was a unique experience. Everybody hated it, it wasn't until later that people actually appreciated it.

SOURCE: What console do you think you've clocked the most hours on?

Adam: Definitely Super Nintendo, because it took me YEARS to beat A Link To The Past. That's just an experience, you had to talk to your homies on the bus. Because there was no internet [laughs], I remember when that was just not a thing and you had to talk to people in real life.

SOURCE: What is one album you can't live without?

Adam: There's several, but I'd say recently I've really taken to that Avalanche's album Since I Left You. You know those albums that you discover that have been around for a long time and it just hits you so hard? That's an album I think I could listen to the rest of my life for sure. That's my current one, but that could change next month. It's just every day I'm turning it on, just a fucking great album. Very beautiful found sounds kind of thing. The whole production of those is very interesting to me, beat-oriented music.

SOURCE: What is one movie you can't live without?

Adam:  That's easy, Donnie Darko for sure. Such a formative movie that changed my life. I hadn't discovered that I was an artist, I guess.

And then just watching dumbass teen comedies at that point and then discovering that movie. It was so creative and I got really obsessed with it. And then I started painting because of that. People don't know, but I have like a stockpile of paintings I've done that probably nobody will see.

SOURCE: So tell me about your second half, Kayla. Owner of Weeping Willow Photography, operator of the Lens Lounge; what is that creative and entrepreneurial marriage like?

Adam: When I first started, it was taking time out of my actual work. When you're married you have to think about the financial stuff and when your spouse, like me, have this crazy idea that he wants to do, honestly you're going to be a little standoffish at first. But she's my rock, everything to me. We exist in different demographics, I would say, but the Lens Lounge is kind of where we come together on that. I love you, Kayla.

SOURCE: What legacy do you want to leave behind for your family?

Adam: My main goal with this is to preserve this amazing artist environment we have right now. Preservation of that for my kids and their future, for them to still have that. And in any small way that I contribute to that is my mission for this whole thing. I saw the way the world was going, the way nobody was going to live shows anymore. And that was really sad because I love live music, I love meeting and talking to people. And if that went away I don't know what I'd do, especially in the town I live. That's kind of what World Wide Web TV is; to help artists and musicians and prop them up and have something fun to look forward to.

The shout outs

Adam:  Shout out to Jeff at the Rocki Button for giving me a shot. Quinn here at Lang Lab, that was another formative one. Lauren and Terrible Tony, those were the people I was meeting up with when I was getting back in here. Going over to Lauren's studio when I first met her and showing her volume one like, "Hey this is the visuals I'm doing for Rocki Button's Halloween show, do you think this is worth pursuing? She actually came up with the name Building Bridges for me. That's coined by Lauren. She helped me so much in saying like, "All right, great ideas, but you got to go out there and build it." And that's been the best advice I've ever gotten.

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