The band scored a top 10 hit on rock radio with the “Getaway” single “Bad Reputation,” an almost-unheard-of feat for a band in Adelitas Way’s position. That’s the risk.”Īnd yet, the risk is paying off. You scrape by to pay your mortgage, but you’re paying 18 grand in radio bills. “You’re talking 30, 40, 50, 60 thousand dollars. “Every dollar that comes in from every record we sell I’m taking away from family and I’m investing it into what I know is the future,” he says. DeJesus has wrangled with this firsthand.
The capital required to keep a band like this going is substantial and has, in the past, demanded major label backing or something close to it. It’s a radio-friendly band that works with expensive, big-name producers and strives for hits, with the costs of taking songs to the airwaves being enormous. Now, plenty of DIY acts pay for and release their own albums, but Adelitas Way is operating on an entirely different scale with entirely different goals. Adelitas Way successfully crowdfunded its last album, 2015’s “Getaway,” and has self-financed its new record, “Notorious,” due out later this year. His plan: not to sign with another label, but keep everything in-house. “I was like, ‘I’m going to go for something crazy right now.’ ” “They were considering picking up the fourth record on us I just didn’t want them to,” says DeJesus, an intensely high-energy presence with the athletic build of the major league baseball prospect he once was. 1 hits on active rock radio.īut when it came time for Virgin to pick up the option or pass on the band’s next record, DeJesus urged the label to do the latter. Adelitas Way had a solid three-album run with Virgin, with the group’s most successful album, 2011’s “Home School Valedictorian,” selling close to 150,000 copies and spawning a pair of No. If DeJesus needs to be in fighting shape these days, it’s not just to steel himself from the rigors of the road, his band’s latest trek beginning Thursday at Brooklyn Bowl.Īfter Adelitas Way split from Virgin Records in 2015, DeJesus has become bandleader, manager, label head and more. “I’m on a diet, dude,” the 33-year-old says. The Adelitas Way frontman is taking in the weather in front of a south-side eatery on a Tuesday afternoon, though he’s skipping lunch.
Maybe the only thing harder than landing said deal is prospering on your own after it ends. Ninety-five percent of the acts that sign to a major fail to recoup costs and eventually get dropped. Scoring a major label record contract is a bite of the golden apple that often results in little more than a mouthful of worm chunks. It’s time to renegotiate everything in this business,” says Adelitas Way frontman Rick DeJesus, whose band self-financed their upcoming new record after splitting from Virgin Records. Stafford, K.“There should be a lot more ownership in this game right now than there is. "I Wanna Be (featuring Tyler Connolly)" (R.DeJesus, Tyler Connolly) "Somebody Wishes They Were You" (R.DeJesus, Dave Bassett) "Cage the Beast" (R.DeJesus, T.Stafford, Keith Wallen) 6 on the Active Rock chart in early 2013.Īll tracks are written by Rick DeJesus, Dave Bassett and Trevor "Tre" Stafford, except for where noted. The fourth single, "Alive", was featured and performed live by the band on ABC's Bachelor Pad, and climbed multiple radio charts. 1 on the Active Rock chart, giving the band two No.
"Criticize" was the third single, and reached No. The band's follow-up single, "The Collapse", was released on August 22 to rock radio and reached No. On April 15, a sample was put on the Adelitas Way YouTube channel of the upcoming album. 1 on the Active Rock chart, becoming the band's first No. The first single off the album, "Sick", was released to radio on April 5, and was released as single on iTunes and Amazon on March 15. It was then announced the band's new album, Home School Valedictorian, would be pushed back to June 7. On February 4, they premiered their first single from the Home School Valedictorian album on KOMP 92.3 titled " Sick". On January 31, the band announced that their new album Home School Valedictorian would be released on May 17. ( March 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.