Otherwise singer Adrian Patrick talks fatherhood, Peace At All Costs, touring, more

A resurgence in rock is slowly happening over the last few years and one band responsible is Otherwise. Hailing from Las Vegas, they\’re one of the heaviest touring bands in all of music- not just rock. Their 2012 debut- True Love Never Dies was a huge success for them and spawned three singles and charted in the top 50. They followed it up with last year\’s Peace At All Costs, which charted even higher- the top 10. Already their most successful release, the band has been on the road virtually ever since the album release, taking just a few months off around Christmas time.

Singer Adrian Patrick took some time to talk to us about the band\’s success, the exit of longtime bassist Vassilios Metropoulos and new bassist Tony Carboney, the messages behind some of the songs as well as how becoming a father has affected his career.

FRR: You guys are one of the heaviest touring bands around. You’ve proven to be road warriors- on the road with 10 Years in March and a couple of dates with Nonpoint. After that you hit the road this summer with Shinedown, Three Days Grace and more. How has this year been for you so far?

Adrian Patrick: This year’s been amazing. 2015 kicked off with some killer shows and two really awesome tours with two awesome bands. We started the first of the year with the NAMM convention in LA and then we did the Radio Contraband Conference and then we got to do the Shiprocked cruise out in the Bahamas- those were our first three shows, big, big shows.

As soon as we came back we went out on tour with 10 Years for almost 2 months and that was a really good time, we made some good friends, those guys are super cool, one of my favorite bands. From there we jumped on with Nonpoint and these shows have been awesome little club shows, it’s been packed, high energy. We’re doing a couple of one-offs with Seether. We did a show with Seether in Columbus, Ohio last week, we’ve got one with them this Friday and then on Sunday we head down back to Columbus Rock on the Range and then Rock on the Range. We’ve had a really, really good schedule.

FRR: You guys were a late addition to ROTR.

Adrian Patrick: Yea, I know! We snuck in there man.

FRR: ROTR is like your bread and butter. I think there’s only been one year since 2011 or 2012 that you haven’t been there. I feel like ROTR is the perfect place for Otherwise to rock the world with the new record. How pumped are you to be playing the festival? What stage are you on, Ernie Ball?

Adrian Patrick: Yea, the Ernie Ball stage at 3 p.m.. We’re stoked. We have the most fun and enjoy our job the most on the big stages like that at the big shows. This band, we hold ourselves to that standard. We want to play in front of huge crowds every night. We want to play stadiums and be able to do festivals like Rock on the Range and Rockfest in Kansas City. We’re gonna be doing the first ever Loudwire festival in Grand Junction Colorado. That’s where we feel most comfortable, man, on the big stages.

FRR: How was Shiprocked? Starting the year on a cruise playing a concert had to be awesome.

Adrian Patrick: It was amazing. It was a once in a lifetime kind of experience, hopefully we’ll get to do it again. It went really well for us despite being scheduled in direct competition with some of the biggest bands on the boat, we still had packed, packed rooms. People couldn’t even get in to one of our shows. It was really cool, man. It reinvigorated the band and also really helped with my personal relationship. I got to take my girlfriend on a cruise, I got to spend some time away from the little guy. It was amazing and we can’t wait to do it again.

FRR: The last time we talked it had just been a couple of months since you had the baby. My daughter is 3 years old now and I wish I could go back to when she was 7, 8 months old because now she’s running, talking back, etc.

Adrian Patrick: That’s what I have to look forward to!

FRR: How has being a father affected touring?

Adrian Patrick: It definitely makes things more difficult. I never thought I could miss a person as much as I miss that little boy but then when I get to see him again, every time I get to see him it’s just so powerful and overwhelming. He and his mom, my girl, they’re constantly in my thoughts now. I’ve got a new fire, a new drive. I want to save the world even more now for him. He’s such a beautiful little soul. I’m blessed to have him- he’s perfect.

FRR: Yea, it’s such a life-changing experience. People who don’t have kids could never understand that.

Adrian Patrick: Yea, I never really understood it until he was here.

FRR: The last time we talked was like 2-3 days after V had announced he was leaving the band and at that point it was up in the air about how you’d find a new bassist. What was the process like of bringing Tony in?

Adrian Patrick: Dude, he’s been a godsend. We had a headlining show at the House of Blues back in December, December 27 and he had about 10 days to learn 2 hours-worth of music and he’s a working musician himself so he also had other gigs- he gigged out every night. He’s a massively talented dude and he picked up the songs no problem. He played the show with us and we had probably 1000 people at the House of Blues to watch us rock our own town and for our hometown crowd to be like “wow that was the best show we’ve ever seen you guys play” I heard that consistently. He fits right in. He’s amazing, he’s got a great attitude, and he’s a real musician, he’s a real music man. He knows many different instruments, he knows theory, he knows how to songwrite. We’re really fortunate to have him join the ranks because he helped us up our own gig, so he’s a perfect fit.

FRR: I feel like this has been one of the strongest album cycles you’ve ever had. Obviously with True Love Never Dies you toured two and a half years nonstop for that record. Playing the new stuff with Tony, how have the fans taken to Tony those first couple of shows and up to now?

Adrian Patrick: He’s been completely accepted. He’s well received, he does really well with the fans, he’s just a really nice guy and he enjoys the job. He actually wants to be here and it shows. It shows on stage, it shows after the show with the fans when we’re doing our meet and greets. He’s a lot of fun and the people can see that and they’ve really taken to him. Hopefully he can survive and stick around!

FRR: Hopefully because I’m seeing you in July at Piere’s with Three Days Grace and I’m looking forward to seeing Tony.

Adrian Patrick: Oh yea, he can sing his ass off, you won’t be disappointed.

FRR: It’s been nine months since Peace At All Costs released and I feel like you guys have always had one of the most positive messages in all of rock and I feel like you’ve been carrying the flag for making a difference in the world. It’s not just rock, it’s rock with a positive message. Peace At All Costs is one of the most symbolic and heavy messages you can find. How has this album cycle compared to True Love Never Dies because I feel they’re very different records.

Adrian Patrick: Yea, absolutely. True Love Never Dies was a bit weird and a very hard and dark time for us. Literally within two months within [a very close death in the family] we were in the studio recording the album and we took off on the road from the studio and we were gone for two years. But this time around, now it’s the polar opposite because we started this album cycle for Peace At All Costs with the birth of my son.

This band has always been about light and darkness and love and hate and the yin and yang of the universe. That’s what drives this band and those are the fundamental elements that makes us human, so it was only fitting that this album cycle for Peace At All Costs was a beautiful thing and it’s still going. Both our first singles “Darker Side of the Moon” and “Coming For The Throne” broke in to the top 20, we’ve got 2 Top 20’s on this album already. It’s a very strong body of work and we’re very, very proud of it.

FRR: Yea, you talked about “Coming for the Throne” and the video for it is really cool, it’s all live footage of the fans. It basically shows what an Otherwise show is all about. Where did the idea for that come about and what was it about the song that captured the essence

Adrian Patrick: Yea, we wanted to give people a glimpse, people who don’t necessarily understand us or maybe don’t really like the band, but regardless of your opinion once you come to one of our shows you’ll see that we leave it all on stage and we put our all in to every show and we pride ourselves on that and the message of “Coming For the Throne” being another battle cry to the world, to the powers that be and let them know what we’re coming to take it back or die trying and the video represents us as people, as performers, as artists, as human beings. This is what we do, this is who we are and we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

FRR: The first time I saw you guys was in 2013 on the Stone Sour tour at Piere’s and I remember listening to the set and you guys left the stage and it was the first time I ever looked at someone and thought “How’s Corey Taylor going to follow that?”

Adrian Patrick: Thank you! That’s a compliment!

FRR: I remember him giving you props from the stage during their set. Things have just been picking up. Have you guys thought about what the next record will look like? Next year will be 2 years from Peace At All Costs to the next record.

Adrian Patrick: Yea we’re hoping to get another year and a half out of this album cycle but again, we’ve got so much material. I’m not really sure what we’re going to do. That’s the beauty of rock and roll, it’s spontaneous. Definitely whatever we do you can be sure it’ll be from the heart and it’ll be genuine. Of course we’ll have a little something different in there. You’ve got to grow, you have to evolve as artists. We always write, so there’s always stuff that gets thrown around so I’m sure once you get to that point it’ll be interesting.

FRR: Any thoughts of another acoustic EP? I know you did the acoustic EP maybe a year and a half ago, any thoughts of doing another? It was so good and showed another side of you guys.

Adrian Patrick: Yea that was the point. Me and Joey do stuff like that, a little left of center and not exactly what you’d expect from a hard rock band but that’s who we are, we are Otherwise. That’s the definition of the word otherwise and that’s what we stand for. Don’t be surprised if we do another little acoustic or some experimental EP.

FRR: Nice. Thanks for talking to me again. I’m looking forward to seeing you in July.

Adrian Patrick: Absolutely. Thanks, and you take care of that little girl!