ADEMA Is Hoping To Release New Studio Album Later This Year

In a recent interview with Headbangers México, ADEMA guitarist/vocalist Tim Fluckey was asked if he and his bandmates are working on new music at the moment. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Last year, we signed a record deal with Cleopatra Records, which is a label up here in the U.S. And so all the music is written and done, all the pre-production's done. So now we are getting ready to go into the studio and record the album here soon. We have a tour coming up, so we're gonna try to get a lot of it done before the tour, but then probably finish it after the tour — it's a six-week tour coming up. And so it should be all ready to be out middle of the year, maybe late summertime, we're hoping. But all the music's there."

Regarding the musical direction of the new ADEMA material, Tim said: "We have approached the last few years with that vibe of kind of, like, 'Okay, what's the best things that we've done in the last 20 years?' and just try to make sure that we're doing that. 'Cause we have a lot of hardcore fans and we wanna make sure that we're taking care of them.

"It's always fun to experiment in music, and we always do that, and we've done a couple of records where they were kind of not quite like the first records, but now we're just really concentrating on just bringing out the ADEMA sound and making sure, like I said, all those things are [there], when it comes to the groove of the songs, to the lyrics of the songs, to all that stuff," he added. "So we're excited about having a new album out."

On the topic of what has kept ADEMA going for 25 years, Tim said: "Now the four [core members], we've had a lot of changes at vocals. And Marky [Chavez], our original singer, came back and left and came back, and he essentially kind of retired. But for the four of us, this is what we were always going to do.

"I think that in a lot of bands, there's always two or three guys that, when adversity comes or when it's not as quote-unquote amazing as it was in the beginning or whatever, they kind of just give up," he explained. "The four of us, none of us have ever been that way. Ironically, it's kind of why you get to a certain point in the first place — you kind of don't give up; you keep on trying to evolve, write music. And that goes with anything. You're going to suck at the start of anything. When you start playing guitar or writing music, it's not gonna be good. But if you just keep working at it and you keep on being honest with yourself and saying, 'Okay, I need to do this. I need to change this. This needs to happen,' you're gonna have so much success, you're gonna reap the benefits of doing all that stuff. And like I said, we know how music goes. There's only a few bands — two or three bands — out of every genre that keep going and really are always successful. So we knew at some point there was gonna be something like that, but we also knew that we were gonna have fans no matter what, and that it didn't really matter what level you're at or whatever. We don't really keep track of that anyway. None of that really mattered to us. We just knew that we wanted to play music, and if people kept coming and people were still into our band, we were not gonna stop. And maybe if people weren't into our band, we probably wouldn't stop."

Last June, Fluckey spoke to Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", about the departure of the band's previous singer, Ryan Shuck, who joined the group in 2019. Asked what happened to cause the "divorce", Tim said: "I don't know if I would characterize it as a divorce. And Ryan — I'll start by saying we wish Ryan and Amir [Derakh, Ryan's bandmate in JULIEN-K] the best, for sure. It's nothing like that. And there's maybe a kind of a divergence of —and he can say what he wants to say — just kind of things like… We knew from the beginning, let's say, that he was in another band and that he was helping us out, and that we needed somebody in the band, including Amir, to be around. And for people don't know Amir was in ORGY with Ryan and they've been partners for years. And they don't just do music together; it's kind of definitely a package thing. But it just came to a point where, and even in his own words, he knew that it was somehow temporary. We just didn't know how temporary. And so it just came down to our band was heading in one direction as far as how we wanted to do what we're gonna do — like massive amounts of touring, get these new songs out and take advantage of what our band's about. And then his band was doing his thing. And it really was one of those things, we just [went], 'Do we do this now or do we do it six months from now? Do we do it two years from now? And so it was just pretty much, 'We're doing it now.'"

Regarding the progress of the songwriting sessions for ADEMA's long-awaited new album, Tim said: "We've been writing music for years now, and so we have a bunch of music. But also it was logistics of kind of putting it out. As soon as we parted ways with Ryan, we signed a record deal. And so we're on a timeline to do a record and get it done, and like any other record deal, get it out there. And so we've been sitting on a lot of music. And so we kind of focused on the timing of the Ryan thing and we were focused on the tour that we just did. And then now that we're back, we're doing some one-off shows. But most of what we're doing is concentrating on just getting this record done and making sure it's the best thing we can do."

Last May, Tim told the 97.7 QLZ radio station about the musical direction of the new ADEMA material: "I don't know if everybody knows, but everybody in the band is original members. So we really want it to be just an all-in ADEMA record where everybody goes, 'That's ADEMA.' We've strayed a little bit over the years, 'cause we had different members, but I think now that we're back together, it's gonna be back to those days of the real ADEMA sound."

Asked if he will be handling lead vocals on the upcoming ADEMA album, Fluckey said: "On the new one, I will be, yeah. We're done picking singers. We're terrible at it."

In February 2024, ADEMA "abruptly" parted ways with Shuck. A short time later, the remaining members of ADEMA — Fluckey, Dave DeRoo (bass),Kris Kohls (drums) and Mike Ransom (rhythm guitar) — posted a message on social media in which they said: "ADEMA has made the decision to move forward without Ryan Shuck. Our plan is to continue on indefinitely as a four-piece, and we sincerely wish Ryan all the best in the future."

In June 2022, ADEMA released a new song, "Violent Principles". It was the follow-up to ADEMA's first single in nearly a decade, "Ready To Die", which came out in August 2021. Both tracks were planned for inclusion on ADEMA's upcoming album, which was tentatively titled "360 Degrees Of Separation".

Original ADEMA frontman Marky Chavez first
left ADEMA in 2004 due to "creative differences" after two successful albums, "Adema" and "Unstable". The singer — who is the half brother of KORN frontman Jonathan Davis — quit ADEMA again in January 2011 in order to pursue his "solo project." He rejoined the group again six years later and played his first comeback show with ADEMA in May 2017 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California.

After Chavez's original exit from ADEMA, the other members of the band found their way with new lead singers Luke Caraccioli and later Bobby Reeves, while Mark founded MIDNIGHT PANIC with his cousin Peter Shubert. He also produced fellow artists.

ADEMA's last official release was 2013's "Topple The Giants" EP. The group's first CD since 2007's "Kill The Headlights" contained brand new tracks plus re-worked versions of ADEMA's chart-topping hits "Giving In" and "Unstable". A three-song EP, "The Cerberus", was sold exclusively on ADEMA's 2023 "Nu Metal Madness 2" tour.

Photo courtesy of ADEMA