Speaker 1: Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2: Pizzier, one of my heroes. I had a change to
Speaker 2: medium that we're passing by. Someone introduced me. He shook
Speaker 2: my hand. He did not spare a second for small
Speaker 2: talk or pleasantries.
Speaker 1: He took my hand in the first thing he said.
Speaker 2: He said, look here, this is a folk conference and
Speaker 2: you're one of the few people that are here that
Speaker 2: are belowd the age of sixty. This music is suffering
Speaker 2: right now. Use your voice in your lifetime to keep
Speaker 2: this music and this message a lot.
Speaker 3: I'm Lyn Hoffman, and welcome to the Music Save Me Podcast,
Speaker 3: the show where we explore the power of music to heal,
Speaker 3: to help others, and to create good. Now, if you
Speaker 3: love this podcast, please share it with your friends and family,
Speaker 3: and please follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode,
Speaker 3: and thank you in advance. Today we have an amazing
Speaker 3: artist who lives and breeds the qualities that we love
Speaker 3: here on the Music Save Me Podcast. Adam As is
Speaker 3: an underground Americana songwriter who leads Adam as a group
Speaker 3: and he takes This is the Coolest Thing a month
Speaker 3: out of each year to visit the living room of
Speaker 3: his fans around the country. Literally, his band and nonprofit
Speaker 3: organization Rally Sound hosts a free festival every summer, raised
Speaker 3: almost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for homeless vets
Speaker 3: just last year. Adam Ezra, Welcome to music saved me.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Lenn, Thank you so much for wanting
Speaker 1: to chat with me today.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited. First, I don't even know where to start,
Speaker 3: So let's start here. When you started your career a
Speaker 3: few decades ago, can you tell us about the journey
Speaker 3: when you started in how you discovered then how important
Speaker 3: music is in creating good in the world.
Speaker 2: Now I would be I would be happy to I have,
Speaker 2: by no means, had a fairy tale journey. When I
Speaker 2: started music, I was in I was in Boston and
Speaker 2: just I was writing songs all the time, trying to
Speaker 2: figure out how to perform them in front of people,
Speaker 2: wanting to be a part of the band, wanting to
Speaker 2: be a part of something bigger than myself. And I
Speaker 2: came up against the challenge that so many starting artists
Speaker 2: have that don't have a leg up in the music
Speaker 2: world right, that don't have money or connections of resources.
Speaker 2: I needed to get hired to play in the good
Speaker 2: music clubs in order to get fans. But the good
Speaker 2: music clubs won't going to hire me until I had fans. Right,
Speaker 2: It's like this catch twenty two that all starting artists,
Speaker 2: or many starting artists, most starting artists face. And you know,
Speaker 2: I ended up going to kind of the least successful, nastiest, darkest,
Speaker 2: dankest bars that I could find in Boston now and
Speaker 2: ask the owners if I could set up in the corner.
Speaker 2: For many years, we were not getting hired to play concerts.
Speaker 2: We were hired to keep people drinking in a close time,
Speaker 2: play five hours and nine every night that we could
Speaker 2: in any bar that was wanting to hire us anywhere
Speaker 2: in the Northeast. And at one by one, people in
Speaker 2: those bars kind of turned away from the socks game
Speaker 2: plan over the bar and decided to pay attention to
Speaker 2: music and decided that they liked it, decided that they
Speaker 2: wanted to listen, and shared it with their friends and
Speaker 2: people that they cared about. And that's how our music
Speaker 2: community has grown very very slowly over the years. Now
Speaker 2: we get to play in such cool, inspiring venues and festivals,
Speaker 2: and we get the tour around the country.
Speaker 1: It is and I.
Speaker 2: Think because it took so long, and because it was
Speaker 2: not a fairy tale. It is something that I am
Speaker 2: always amazed by and appreciate so deeply.
Speaker 3: Have you personally discovered the healing forces of music in
Speaker 3: your life during this time?
Speaker 2: Oh man, Man, I think that music and art, any
Speaker 2: kind of expression of art in general, right, I find
Speaker 2: it ironic and inspiring all the time. That is not
Speaker 2: when an artist really digs deep, digs out something unique
Speaker 2: in them. It speaks to a human experience that is universal,
Speaker 2: and when great art is happening, it connects us. It
Speaker 2: reminds us that there's more about us that is saying
Speaker 2: than is different, and that that I have always felt
Speaker 2: so strongly through music and adds a huge reason that
Speaker 2: I write songs and a huge reason that I'm out
Speaker 2: there for man music.
Speaker 3: And I said something earlier about you being an underground
Speaker 3: americanis singer songwriter. Yeah, it's amazing to the power of that,
Speaker 3: that underground movement.
Speaker 1: It is coupled with your hard.
Speaker 3: Work, many years of hard work. I wonder who are
Speaker 3: some of the musicians that have lifted you up during
Speaker 3: perhaps challenging times in your life. You're pretty open about
Speaker 3: those challenges.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there have been so many interactions and
Speaker 2: moments and songs that have helped inspire me along the way.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you I'll give you because there
Speaker 2: are too many stories or examples racing through my head.
Speaker 1: I'll give you one that happened when I.
Speaker 2: Was in my twenty eights hours trying out, banging my
Speaker 2: head against the wall, trying to figure out how to
Speaker 2: play music. And during that time I ended up at
Speaker 2: a music conference, very grassroots, in a camp somewhere in
Speaker 2: the Northeast I can't even remember, and it was mostly
Speaker 2: folk musician and Pete Seer, one of my heroes, not
Speaker 2: only for his songwriting, not only because I grew up
Speaker 2: listening to his music, but also because of his mission
Speaker 2: through music to shape the world around him and inspire others.
Speaker 2: I had to change the medium that weekend. It was
Speaker 2: we were passing by. Someone introduced me to and he
Speaker 2: shook my hand. He did not spare a second for
Speaker 2: small talk or pleasantries. He took my hand in the
Speaker 2: first thing he said, he said, look around, right, this
Speaker 2: is a folk conference, and you're one of the few
Speaker 2: people that are here that are below the age of sixty.
Speaker 2: This music is suffering, right, now and use your voice
Speaker 2: in your lifetime to keep this keep this music and
Speaker 2: this message a lot. You know, the power of hearing
Speaker 2: those words spoken from a hero of mine and just
Speaker 2: the briefest of interactions. I think back about those those
Speaker 2: words in that moment often in my life.
Speaker 3: I bet that was would you say that was a
Speaker 3: crossroads for you where you just sort of got put
Speaker 3: on that right path.
Speaker 1: It was certainly one.
Speaker 2: It was certainly one of many crossroads, but it was
Speaker 2: more spark that continue to fan the flame of of
Speaker 2: what I was feeling inside.
Speaker 3: You didn't mean to get out letting you know you
Speaker 3: were you were on the right path. Sure, that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 3: I mean that I can't even imagine. I've had those
Speaker 3: moments in my life, and you know, it's hard to
Speaker 3: pinpoint one, but that's that's a pretty big one.
Speaker 1: That was a good one for me.
Speaker 3: Something else that's really big is rally Sound, which I
Speaker 3: understand it was. It was created based on the premise
Speaker 3: of just helping others. Can you explain this is your
Speaker 3: nonprofit organization, what rally sound is, what it does, How
Speaker 3: it came about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it came about way back in the
Speaker 2: day where I was playing the bars on Sundays as
Speaker 2: Boston Gal. You appreciate a place called the Pine Street
Speaker 2: in almost Shelter in Boston.
Speaker 1: Sunday more.
Speaker 2: I would go down and kind of play for the
Speaker 2: folks down there when I could. People would come up
Speaker 2: to me at shows and they would say, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm doing this event at this bar down the road.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to raise money for the American Drub Association. Hey,
Speaker 2: we're doing this event in our backyard. We're trying to
Speaker 2: raise some money for handicap accessible ramp for our neighbors,
Speaker 2: right like me, And I would always say yes because
Speaker 2: doing good feels good, but also because I was just excited.
Speaker 1: People wanted me to play music right.
Speaker 2: But I would find I would find early on that
Speaker 2: when a concert was about more than just a concert,
Speaker 2: the music sounded better, the experience connected a little bit deeper,
Speaker 2: and those shows inspired. Of course, the more I ended
Speaker 2: up doing, the more people would ask me. It became
Speaker 2: a part of my mission as an artist. Eventually, as
Speaker 2: we began to grow a little bit, put together aboard
Speaker 2: and started this nonprofit organization called rally Sound, and rally
Speaker 2: Sound's mission is to empower community through music. Most of
Speaker 2: what rally Sound does help people that are trying to
Speaker 2: put together events oftentimes and they want music, but they
Speaker 2: don't really know how to do that right. It's as
Speaker 2: you can appreciate, right, complicated thing.
Speaker 1: To set up.
Speaker 2: An event that has music to it, you have to
Speaker 2: think about sound. You have to think about the band
Speaker 2: and how you're going to get them in, and how
Speaker 2: the day is going to work, and how you're going
Speaker 2: to figure everything and anyways. It can be common and
Speaker 2: we wanted to empower people to be able to do
Speaker 2: those things. Over the years, rally Sound has taken on
Speaker 2: a life of its own. The community within rally Sound
Speaker 2: has really mobilized in an incredible, incredible way, and most
Speaker 2: of our atam Mesure Group shows very often will see
Speaker 2: an element of rally Sound at them. Now, there will
Speaker 2: be folks fans in the area, you know, ninety percent
Speaker 2: of the time will will will reach out and they
Speaker 2: will they will do some kind of awareness campaign or
Speaker 2: a fundraiser, or they'll have people bring non perishable items
Speaker 2: for local food pantry. But those things are happening. Once
Speaker 2: a year, rally Sound puts on our own festival, which
Speaker 2: you also mentioned in your introduction called the Ramble. It's
Speaker 2: our one, it's our one big event that it's awesome.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 3: It's awesome.
Speaker 1: It is awesome.
Speaker 2: It is and for those of you listening, uh, it
Speaker 2: is a festival unlike any cestival I've ever experienced one.
Speaker 2: Anyone can come to the Ramble. They can comfort for me,
Speaker 2: they can donate what they can. All of the musicians
Speaker 2: that come to the Ramble donate their time and their talent.
Speaker 2: It is run entirely by an army of volunteers to
Speaker 2: regular folks. I give me coming together. Not one of
Speaker 2: us actually knows how to run a festival, but somehow.
Speaker 2: I mean, this year we had two hundred volunteers working
Speaker 2: all summer to put this festival together. It was unbelievable
Speaker 2: and it's the most inspiring day we have. The Rainbell
Speaker 2: has a mission which is to put an end of
Speaker 2: veteran homelessness. And we actually this is an exciting week
Speaker 2: talking to you in because we just found out our
Speaker 2: results from this year's Ramble, which happened just a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks ago, and we are going to be presenting
Speaker 2: a check to the New England Center and Home for
Speaker 2: Veterans for one hundred and fifty one thousand dollars, which
Speaker 2: is more than I could ever I ever imagined we'd
Speaker 2: be able to raise together.
Speaker 3: So congratulations, that's huge, it is It is really exciting.
Speaker 1: It's a good week for me to be talking about
Speaker 1: the power community and music.
Speaker 3: For sure, certainly, and the power of music is so strong.
Speaker 3: I would I'm just curious. I don't know, a little
Speaker 3: more of a personal note, I did hear some interviews
Speaker 3: with you recently that you discussed how you started during
Speaker 3: COVID talking to person you know, to people online and
Speaker 3: then you know, promising you'd be back if they came back,
Speaker 3: and how that just sort of grew when you when
Speaker 3: you play music, or when you play music and talk
Speaker 3: to people, which is probably all a part of your shows.
Speaker 3: How does it feel when you connect with your fans
Speaker 3: and you see them taking you know, inspired by your
Speaker 3: music to take action in their own lives. So how
Speaker 3: does that make you feel?
Speaker 1: Hm, Well, that.
Speaker 2: There's two things that your there's two things that you're
Speaker 2: there your needs. You can touch upon that question, both
Speaker 2: of which I think about a lot. Right. One is
Speaker 2: the connection itself, making that connection, and there are men,
Speaker 2: there are artists that are out there that are incredible,
Speaker 2: beautiful singers, incredible beautiful players, like so beyond right. When
Speaker 2: I go to see them, I feel like I'm getting
Speaker 2: to experience that they are embodying human potential, right. And
Speaker 2: for me as an artist, I mean, it's just it
Speaker 2: ain't my art form. It's a different art form. And
Speaker 2: that's the coolest thing about music. Within this big category
Speaker 2: of music, there are so many different ways to express
Speaker 2: and share art, and so for me, the musical experience
Speaker 2: is about that connection.
Speaker 1: It's about That's what a show is for.
Speaker 2: It's about trying to connect with folks and trying to
Speaker 2: connect folks with each other. I am so so fortunate
Speaker 2: in because of my because my journey has been so
Speaker 2: grassroots and undergrad, because it has been so one, one
Speaker 2: person at a time, and so very personal for me
Speaker 2: and for the folks that have connected to us over time.
Speaker 2: The feeling of connection at our shows these days is
Speaker 2: just one of the most inspiring things I get to experience,
Speaker 2: apart from being a daddy to two little girls. It
Speaker 2: is the most inspiring thing that I get to experience
Speaker 2: these days. And the fact that rally sound and community
Speaker 2: activism and empowerment is so closely meant to our mission
Speaker 2: as a band.
Speaker 1: Getting to watch that.
Speaker 2: Community engage and mobilize and impact each other in different ways.
Speaker 1: It's, uh, it is.
Speaker 2: Just so so rewarding for me, you know, I get.
Speaker 2: I It's it's like I got to be a little
Speaker 2: a little, a little firestarter. I got to be a
Speaker 2: little spark, that is it. And when I get to
Speaker 2: play shows get I get to fan those slams a
Speaker 2: little bit more every single night. And that's often kind
Speaker 2: of how it feels to me to be a musician.
Speaker 3: What do you think it is about music specifically, Because
Speaker 3: you said music has a it's a big tent, all
Speaker 3: different kinds of talents, levels, messages, songs.
Speaker 1: What do you think it is.
Speaker 3: Specifically about music that heals people or helps people?
Speaker 2: You know, I think the way that I think words
Speaker 2: are limited. I think the way that we communicate through
Speaker 2: words it's limited. I often struggle to find them write
Speaker 2: words to really say what's inside of me right. Music
Speaker 2: adds a whole other dimension down vibrates a person and
Speaker 2: can speak to emotions that oftentimes I don't let myself
Speaker 2: feel on a day and day baby, or I am
Speaker 2: not even aware of on a.
Speaker 1: Day to day basis.
Speaker 2: Sometimes when I listen to a singer singing about something
Speaker 2: that's really really real, right, if they had just said
Speaker 2: those words, it wouldn't hit me as deeply as music does.
Speaker 2: And ultimately, I think when we are together and we
Speaker 2: are listening to music, if it's if it's good music,
Speaker 2: if it's art that's made honestly, no matter what genre
Speaker 2: it is, we all get to experience that thing that
Speaker 2: is universal and all of us, and that's that's that's inspiring.
Speaker 3: Sure is well, Adam Ezra from Adam Ezra Group, you
Speaker 3: are inspiring clearly inspiring a lot of people, not just
Speaker 3: myself and my listeners, but but I just I'm so
Speaker 3: happy to be the one to hear the news today
Speaker 3: about the money you've been able to raise. Me's pretty cool, veterans,
Speaker 3: that's so exciting, and there's there's nothing better than doing
Speaker 3: and what you love and you found a way to
Speaker 3: make a living at it. But it's true giving back.
Speaker 3: So it's like you get stuff from the people who listen,
Speaker 3: you give back, and you're able to find a way
Speaker 3: to get volunteers to do all of this incredible work
Speaker 3: without sort of the traditional trappings of a music career,
Speaker 3: and I think that's probably dare I say a wish
Speaker 3: of a lot of artists who didn't follow that path.
Speaker 3: But congratulations on all of that good stuff, and please
Speaker 3: come back and see us again, and thanks for doing
Speaker 3: what you do. And I'm even more a little impartial
Speaker 3: because you're from my hometown and see us again.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your words, man, and thank you for
Speaker 1: this podcast. Thanks for doing what you do.
Speaker 2: I think telling stories about the way that music has
Speaker 2: the power to impact us all. I think those are
Speaker 2: important stories to be told, and I'm glad you're out
Speaker 2: there doing it.