Lucky Boys Confusions
Time to get Lucky
by Randy J. Klodz
Adam Krier plays guitar for suburban Chicago-native band Lucky Boys Confusion, and chicks almost always dig a dude that plays guitar. The brand of music played by LBC, as they are often called, is a clever mix of Pop/Reggae/Rock/Punk. The band first caught local attention playing small bars and clubs. Now, with Throwing the Game, the band’s May 2001 major label debut, and plenty of support since the release from Q101 and 94.7 The Zone, LBC has become a national act.
How can a group of guys—Krier, Kaustubh “Stubhy” Pandav on vocals, Joe Sell on guitar, Jason Schultejann on bass and Ryan Fergus on drums—that first hit it big with Dumb Pop Song, a song with a “I’m gonna steal your girlfriend” chorus, have healthy relationships while touring the long, hard road that is rock touring?
SOAK caught up with Krier following a July 31 performance in Grand Rapids, Michigan. With nothing but cell phone static in his way, the 24-year-old opened up to SOAK on the prospects of a new album titled Commitment, set for a scheduled October release, as well as topics ranging from whiskey, women and…Harry Potter.
SOAK: How’s the new record turning out?
Adam Krier: The new record’s done. We did it out in Long Beach, Calif. with [Michael] Miguel [Happoldt] from Skunk Records, and the Sublime posse and all that.
SOAK: What was it like working with Miguel?
AK: Miguel was great. He let us do what we wanted and he actually encouraged us to try things. He was one of those producers who wasn’t so much into the accuracy of the playing, but more towards the feeling behind it. If something was a little out of tune it didn’t bug him as long as it was played from the heart.
SOAK: How did you come up with the ‘Commitment’ title for the new record?
AK: We did our thing around Chicago for a while. We built it up. We were selling out the House of Blues and the Metro a couple times in one night, and we got love from Q101, and at that point we had a lot of attention—the spotlight was on us. A lot of people came out of the woodwork and were just kind of behind the band. When that was going on, we were getting hype—everybody was giving us love. But when the record didn’t perform to what a major label’s supposed to do, which is go gold or something like that, everybody just kind of disappeared. So we’ve just dedicated this to the people that have kind of stuck through it.
SOAK: What drove you to do the Clash cover ‘Tommy Gun’ at your ‘Songs From a Scene’ shows at Metro in late December?
AK: That was one of my favorite moments on stage ever. We are all huge Clash fans and when [Joe] Strummer died, I really wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what. But I thought that maybe if I could turn two sold-out crowds of kids, that probably weren’t into the Clash before, into Clash fans, that was doing something. We picked Tommy Gun because I thought that was one of our favorites. It was an incredible experience for me to do that. Take the center stage and sing that song, it’s all good.
SOAK: So what’s it like being be a young dude in a touring band?
AK: It’s great. Every night is a different cast of characters. You’re in a different city a lot, in a different time zone, there’s always something going on. We may be doing the same set every night, but it’s a different crowd. We get different reactions everywhere.
SOAK: Don’t the chicks always seem to dig the guy that plays guitar?
AK: I don’t know. Some of them do. Our bass player [Schultejann] seems to have quite a following. Depends on where you go; the girls in Chicago that come to shows are usually pretty young. We’ll have to wait a few years on them. But, definitely, it’s easy to meet girls when you have a guitar strapped around you.
SOAK: Who seems to get the most attention from the ladies?
AK: It depends on who’s single at the time. When we hook-up with girls at home for serious relationships, they usually last a while. Everybody is loyal; nobody goofs up. And we keep each other out of trouble too. Like right now, I’m single and our drummer’s kind of single, I think, who knows? But the other guys that aren’t kind of keep each other out of trouble.
SOAK: How would you keep someone in a band out “out of trouble?”
AK: If we get rooms at hotels, we put the guys with girlfriends in the same room and there’s no party in there, there’s no random women showing up, so there’s not even temptation. I’ve seen a lot of bands that do that and I have a lot of respect for them. And I’ve also seen bands that totally couldn’t give a fuck about their girl back home and I was just so annoyed. I guess that’s fun, but that doesn’t really make for a good long-term relationship to come home to.
SOAK: What’s your favorite place to hang out in the city?
AK: We used to go to Fuel all the time, it was one of our favorites. It was right next door to Metro. Great food, great DJ. He’d play punk rock and good rock n’ roll music all night long. It was a good place to get drunk and have some waffles and fries. But now that place has turned into a sports pub. Once we get back in town, we’re going to have to scout out a new hang out and see what we can find.
SOAK: Do you guys put any interesting requests on your tour rider?
AK: We’re keeping it simple now. We used to put some funny things on there back in the day. We’ve asked for “Sex toys (be creative)” and “Adult reading material” and a few other random things. Now it’s mostly just beer, water, and the essentials. We’re thinking about putting together a new one, a couple pages long, just full of a items like a football helmet full of cottage cheese and naked pictures of Bea Arthur.
SOAK: Do you guys have any weird hobbies?
AK: I don’t really have any weird hobbies. I wake up, I eat food, smoke cigarettes, and play guitar, and get in the van and go somewhere else. Joe [Sell] is going through this Harry Potter stage right now. He’s our big bad guitar player who likes whiskey, women and Harry Potter. He’s got a girlfriend now, though.
SOAK: You used to have the “Ask CockBoy” advice column on your Web site www.luckyboys.com. What’s the status on that?
AK: CockBoy’s been busy lately. He hasn’t really had time to do his column. I think he’s going to start that up again once he gets some time. The ladies love CockBoy.
SOAK: With a name like CockBoy, did he ever get any interesting questions?
AK: People started writing in lame, typical questions like, “What should I get my boyfriend for Christmas?” and he would kind of answer them obnoxiously. We started to get some pretty funny ones. Basically, if it was a girl that wrote in, it always resulted in giving the girl advice and then telling her to show up at the next Lucky Boys Confusion show wearing fishnet stockings, and CockBoy would meet her at the bar. That was the standard formula for answering all female letters to CockBoy.
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