We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adult Book Club a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Adult Book Club, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
We just finished recording our “Chapter II” EP, which we’re super proud of and plan to release later this Fall. It’s “hookier and bookier” than our first release– we were able to test these songs live a lot more than we did with our first EP, which I think has made for a really tight and cohesive set of songs, even while each song has a different vibe to it.
[Luke] “Catcher In The Rye” is the lead single from the EP. It was my first opportunity to write drums and contribute creatively in the band. Everyone’s parts on the song stand out and make it a ton of fun to play live. It’s also a reminder of how grateful I am for the musical chemistry I share with Greg and Charles.
[Charles] It’s hard to pick a favorite, since I think we took such a wide variety of sounds and combined them into a set of songs that feels both more diverse but more coherent than our existing songs on our Chapter I EP. “Lost” stands out to me a little more in this sense though. We really leaned into our post-hardcore influences to create something kind of frantic but melodic, while still feeling like an Adult Book Club song. “Lost” is definitely my favorite to play live, too, because I get to move around a ton during the intro and verses while Greg sings. If we’re playing on the floor I’ll try to push the audience around a little, too.
[Greg] I’m super excited to release the album closer, “Goodbye.” The song is about friends moving away and moving on, and coming to grips with knowing things won’t be as they were anymore. We wrote the song at an uncertain time, we thought we might have to break up as a band with band members moving away, and this would be our last song. Obviously, that didn’t happen and we are still very much a band, but it still is the most emotional song on the EP. My favorite part of the song is the outro. Charles has this elegant riff that plays under a guitar solo for the last two minutes of the song. It’s cathartic and beautiful, and a fitting way to close out this EP.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Adult Book Club is a rock trio from Wisconsin writing pop punk and metal songs about your favorite books. Formed in 2022 over a shared love of pop punk bands like Green Day and Fall Out Boy, alongside classic bands like Van Halen and Metallica, Adult Book Club has slowly been building a following around Madison with a growing library of songs inspired by classic novels like Brave New World, Dune, and Catcher in the Rye. Adult Book Club’s first EP, “Chapter I,” was released in November 2023, and a follow-up “Chapter II” EP will be released later this Fall.
The most important thing to us as a band is our songwriting: we focus on writing songs with catchy hooks, intricate guitar riffs and meaningful lyrics. We share a lot of the same DNA as a lot of bands in the midwest emo/punk scene, even if we don’t always sound similar musically. All three of us are avid music fans, and we pull inspiration from all sorts of rock bands across decades and genres. Lyrically, we use books as a starting point to explore deeper themes. Some of our favorite novels are open to many different interpretations, and we try to capture that in our lyrics, too.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
[Charles] Support small and local bands, artists, and venues! We are really blessed to live in a city with so many talented bands and so many venues willing to let local bands play. Whether you’re a fan or an artist yourself, it’s always a good feeling to hear or tell someone “Hey, great set,” and get to know the person behind the instrument. Another way to help is buying a shirt or CD. Making music isn’t exactly the most profitable business unless you’re huge, so even established bands sometimes rely more on merch sales than a cut of the door. Speaking as a fan, it’s always great to chat with friends in bands or make new ones, and as an artist it’s really humbling to know someone wants to support us.
[Greg] Yeah, will second everything Charles said. Make a point to know the local venues that host up-and-coming artists. We have a really good local music scene in Madison, and post-pandemic it’s been buzzing with really cool bands doing interesting and unique things. There’s a DIY scene that’s particularly exciting: the energy at some of these shows is intimate and electric. So go to local shows! And it’s cliche, but be sure to follow local bands and venues on social media–lots of DIY bands (us included) use apps like Instagram and X/Twitter to promote shows and other artists, so it becomes a great way to hear about awesome stuff happening you may have otherwise never heard about.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
[Greg] I took a course in college with the late, great Alan Krueger on the economics of the music industry; a lot of his work was published posthumously in his book, “Rockonomics.” I took a lot of econ classes in college and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about how the industry works from an economics point of view. For example, it’s opened my eyes to how much luck plays a factor in success. For every massively successful band is dozens of equally (if not more) talented bands that have all the chops but for whatever reason weren’t at the right place at the right time. This revelation has made me appreciate underground artists especially, and especially post pandemic is why I’ve wanted to go out and support the local artists that are doing something unique and interesting. It also highlights being persistent– you have to take a lot of chances if you want to get even a modest level of success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://adultbookclubwi.wixsite.com/adult-book-club
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adultbookclub/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090554901066
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ABCband608?t=-UQ-MICafIwQr4W4EYhzGg&s=09
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@adultbookclub?si=2bF594maQ6qaMOsE
- Other: https://linktr.ee/adultbookclub
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5zckbOOzNm4wNtxctJcgwo?si=vjeQI6NhQI-3lwt6O0GM3A
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/adult-book-club/1701023767
