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Adam was kind enough to answer a few questions over Skype to help enlighten us on how his first caricature song CD came to be and share his thoughts on caricature and what his musical plans are for the future.
'''Debbo:''' I know you are in a band called Ookla the Mok, and I know you also do caricatures. So which came first, caricatures or music?'''
'''Adam:''' I started doing caricatures in 1987. I was 17 years old, and I started working for Kaman’s out at Darien Lake theme park. At that time they did not have a caricature concession, so I was their first artist. I had actually started training for portraits, which was what they had out there at the time. I met Rich Kaman on my second or third day of training. He asked how I liked it. I had just had my caricature done on a family vacation the year before, and I thought it was cool, so I said what I really wanted to do was caricatures. He had just opened not that long before, with Dino Casterline and Fred Harper, the caricature concessions at Cedar Point and Geauga Lake (theme Parks) in Ohio for Kaman’s. They wanted to open more caricature concessions. They didn’t have anyone to train me, so my mother bought me “How to Draw Caricatures” by Lenn Redman. Although that is a great book, I would not recommend it as the way to learn to draw caricatures. It took me a few years to actually get competent at it. So that is how I started drawing caricatures.
'''Debbo:''' Which one of them takes up more of your time, or are they evenly split half and half?
'''Adam:''' Caricatures is what puts bread on my table. So for sure that is more of my time. Music has always been my HOBBY, and that’s not to say I haven’t made a little money at it. My claims to fame, musically speaking, include in 2002, we sold a song to Disney. It was the theme song for a Saturday morning cartoon called (Disney’s) Fillmore! That was an amazing, awesome, really cool cartoon that was on ABC from 2002 to 2004. That was an amazing experience. We got a call one day from Scott M. Gimple, and at the time he was the producer of a very hip Disney show that was in development. The interesting thing about Scott Gimple is he is now the show runner for The Walking Dead, so he did really well for himself. But at that time, we knew who he was because my songwriting partner Rand has an eidetic memory. He is a librarianand remembers everything he has ever heard in his entire life. At that time, wewere still at a point where when someoneordered one of our CDs online, wewould put it in a box and write their nameon a label. Rand had recognized Scott’sname because he was the editor of TheSimpsons Episode Guides. That is the kindof memory he has. So one day we got anorder for all of our CDs from this guy, andwe sent them to him and we noticed hewas in “the industry,” as we say. The nextthing you know, we get a call from himand one of the executive producers overat Disney, and they were interested inbuying the song. It was a long process, butthat is what happened, and we got to goto LA and schmooze with the Illuminati,and it was just a super cool experience Iwill never forget. '''Debbo: So in “Sketched Out,” thereare (quite a few ) songs that are verypassionate about customers and therigmarole that all caricature artists gothrough. So I know you were probablyinfluenced by your job, but were someof these written on the spot or did youcome home one day and were like “I justlike I had to get this out. I have to gethis on paper”?''' '''Adam:''' The two songs, there really areonly two in the ilk of which you are talking,“Ocean of Idiots” and “The Day I KilledAll the Customers.” Those songs werewritten back to back one year for the Kaman’sArt Shoppes Managers conference.I specifically remember the moment thatthe idea for “Ocean of Idiots” occurred tome. It was a sweltering hot August Saturdayat the theme park that I was workingat. I was at my main fountain plaza stand,and this would have been at the end ofthe season that every caricature managerknows, that part of the season when allof the college students have headed backto school and you have no staff, so youare probably working a 70-hour weeklyschedule by yourself. I was standing outthere one day and people were walkingby and it was such a dense crowd and I was just looking out over the tops of thecrowd at these people kind of drifting by,all shuffling by in the heat. If you take alook at the cover that Steve Brodner drewfor the Sketched Out album, the peoplethat are walking by at the bottom of thiskind of horizon line of stupid people downat the bottom of the page and that wasinformed by my telling him about thatday, and I just remember that peoplewere walking by and saying things like“Hey, how many people can you draw ina double?! Can you draw my self-portrait,please?!” And all the things that thepeople were saying, and I just stood there and just had a moment of despair and Ithought “I am adrift in an ocean of idiots,”and the song was pretty much writtenby the end of the day, and “The day Ikilled all the Customers” was just a logicalextension of that. You know I just hadthe idea that rather than actually doing it,perhaps writing a song about it would bea more constructive use of that energy. But I will say, my favorite thing about thejob we all do is the five-minute love affairI spend every day with as many peopleas happen by my stand that I get to sit inmy chair and get to chat with for a coupleof minutes. And I love, love, love the jobthat I spend my days doing. I’ve alwaysfelt like those songs, they were kind ofone idea that I had for a song to writeabout drawing caricatures, but people just— WOW — they really caught on to those.They really latched on to the idea of those.And that is something we have all felt attimes, but I hope that we all also enjoythe way that we have chosen to spend ourdays or what we are all doing out here. '''Debbo: So it’s been, what, 11 yearssince “Sketched Out” first was released?Is that true?''' '''Adam:''' I believe that is so. It was 2005, sothat sounds right. '''Debbo: And so a lot of people probablydon’t know about all the songs, andthere are some people who probablywant to know where they can getthe CD. Is it available for download orpurchase?''' '''Adam:''' Now, that’s an interesting story.The reason that CD got made is becauseI had been asked to play, after playing forseveral years at the Kaman’s Managersconference, I had been asked to play atthe — well back then — NCN convention.So I went up and did the songs that I hadwritten so far, and I have still — in howevermany years I have been performing — Istill have never experienced a room likethat. Like finishing the song, and the never forget it. I had never gotten thatmuch attention for a song I had writtenbefore. Everybody came up to me andthey’re like, “You’ve gotta record thesesongs. Where can I buy this music? I willgive you the money right now!” Thatexcitement sent me into the studio. Atthat point, we still were using a differentproducer outside of the band to produceour music, but I couldn’t afford him forthat record, so I produced the recordmyself and it was my first time producing,and the recording of that album when Ilook back at it is very much a mixed bag.amount of appreciation in that room I will
