Steve Adams (musician)
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Steven Rue Adams (born January 16, 1975) is a California-based
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...
and co-founder of
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
rock/pop/jam band
Animal Liberation Orchestra Animal Liberation Orchestra (also known casually as ALO) is a California rock band currently signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label. They have released four full-length albums for Brushfire, as well as a number of prior independent ...
(ALO) and current bassist for
Nicki Bluhm Nicki Bluhm (born September 22, 1979) is a singer-songwriter from Lafayette, California who formed The Gramblers in 2008. Since leaving the band she has released one studio album ''To Rise You Gotta Fall''. Her other solo albums ''Toby's Song'', ...
& The Gramblers. In addition to his work with ALO, Steve has toured and recorded with many other musicians. Recording credits include Jack Johnson, Tim Bluhm,
Nicki Bluhm Nicki Bluhm (born September 22, 1979) is a singer-songwriter from Lafayette, California who formed The Gramblers in 2008. Since leaving the band she has released one studio album ''To Rise You Gotta Fall''. Her other solo albums ''Toby's Song'', ...
,
Zach Gill Zach Gill (born May 18, 1975) is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. He performs regularly as a solo artist in addition to being a member of Animal Liberation Orchestra and Jack Johnson's band. Gill has performed at festivals and on te ...
, Forest Sun, John Craigie and
Big Light Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * '' Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...
. Touring credits include
Brett Dennen Brett Michael Dennen (born October 28, 1979) is an American folk/pop singer-songwriter from Central California. His seventh studio album, ''See the World'' was released in July 2021. Early life Dennen grew up in Central Valley, California in a s ...
,
Sara Bareilles Sara Beth Bareilles (, ; born December 7, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. She has earned various awards and nominations including nin ...
,
Tea Leaf Green Tea Leaf Green is an American four-piece jam band from the San Francisco Bay Area, composed of Josh Clark (guitar and vocals), Trevor Garrod ( keyboards, vocals, guitar, and harmonica), Scott Rager ( drums), and Eric DiBerardino (bass). Histo ...
,
Laurie Lewis Laurie Lewis is an innovative American singer, musician, and songwriter in the genre of bluegrass music. History Laurie Lewis was born in Long Beach, California on September 28, 1950. Her family moved regularly from place to place until she w ...
and
Matt Costa Matthew Albert Costa (born June 16, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter from Huntington Beach, California, United States. He has 13 independent releases: 7 self-recorded EPs, 6 complete LPs, 4 of which are released via Brushfire Records. H ...
.


Biography


Early years

Steve was born in San Jose, and has been in
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
most of his life. He lived in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
for a couple years where his little brother was born. By age 5, his family had settled in Saratoga,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Steve and his two brothers and one sister all studied music growing up. His older sister studied
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
and his older brother, the baritone horn. Steve took piano lessons off and on from age 5 and up. He also joined the school string orchestra in 5th grade playing
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, and played
alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...
in the school concert band in 6th and 7th grades. By the end of 7th grade, Steve had met up with future ALO bandmates Zach Gill and Dan Lebowitz to form their first rock band, One Percent Away. Steve bought a short-scale electric
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
and started lessons at the local guitar store, Torres Guitars, as well as taking notes from Gill's dad. The band changed their name to Django in high school and recorded their first album during their senior year, entitled ''Contact''.


College years

Steve and his bandmates left for Santa Barbara,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
after graduating high school to pursue degrees in music. After wavering between different studies within the
UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
Music Department, Steve took his last couple years of college to focus on a degree in
ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
, writing his final thesis on the origin and evolution of
Mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music that dates back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, t ...
music from Mexico. Steve was also very active in the Jazz and Middle Eastern Music Ensembles. In the middle of college, Django picked up drummer Dave Brogan during the Summer of 1996, just before folding the project altogether. Following Django, Steve and bandmates Gill and Lebowitz continued creating new bands, including Magnum Family, I.V. Dogs, The LAG Acoustic Buffet and eventually, in their last year at UCSB, The Animal Liberation Orchestra & The Free Range Horns. After graduating from UCSB, Steve went on tour with Gill, Lebowitz and high school friend Rob Binkley, driving around the U.S. playing coffee shops, bars, small clubs and street corners, under the name The BLAG Buffet. On this trip, Steve was gifted his grandfather's Vega Artist
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
upon a pitstop/visit in
Billings, MT Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...
. Upon his return to CA, Steve resettled back in his hometown of Saratoga for a few months, just before moving to
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, which would be his home for the next 6 years.


San Francisco years

In San Francisco, Steve worked restaurant jobs and eventually picked up a full-time job at a design firm where he learned print and web design skills that would later apply to a number of years as a freelance designer. Steve continued playing with ALO while in SF, with the addition of Shree Shyam Das on drums, who became a close friend and musical collaborator. Steve also picked up many gigs within the local scene, playing local clubs as well as private events for the booming dot-com businesses in the Bay Area. Through an outreach from Gill's keyboard repair technician, Steve ended up joining a bluegrass outfit called Philboyd Studge, playing
string bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
and singing occasional lead vocals. He also filled in occasionally with college friends who had also relocated to SF, The Court & Spark, as well as lending string bass to several of their studio recordings. During a break with ALO, Steve and Lebowitz did some Winter touring with the group Global Funk Council, a spin-off of Karl Denson's Tiny Universe. ALO reunited in the Spring of 2002 with college bandmate Dave Brogan on drums, and has been touring the globe and recording steadily ever since. Through their college friendship with surfer/singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, Steve has also become part of the
Brushfire Records Brushfire Records is a record label owned by singer-songwriter Jack Johnson (musician), Jack Johnson. Formerly known as ''The Moonshine Conspiracy Records'', the label was founded to release soundtracks for Woodshed Films, a company owned by Johns ...
family with ALO signing a record contract with the label in 2005. Steve has not only recorded three full-length records with ALO for Brushfire, but also appeared on several label compilations such as ''A Brokedown Melody'' and ''Thank You... Goodnight''. With occasional breaks and an ongoing interest to promote side-projects from within the band, Steve has additionally toured with Brett Dennen, whom he met at the
High Sierra Music Festival High Sierra Music Festival is a multi-day music festival held in Quincy, California, United States, a mountainous area about 80 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. History The first High Sierra Music Festival was in 1991, and was the genesis of ...
. While on tour with Dennen, Steve also met support act Sara Bareilles which later resulted in some Winter touring in her band as well. Through the Bay Area jamband scene connection and from a long-time friendship with keyboardist Trevor Garrod who also graduated from Saratoga High, Steve has also done substantial touring with San Francisco rockers, Tea Leaf Green, filling in for their permanent bassist, Reed Mathis. Steve joined San Francisco country/soul/rock band
Nicki Bluhm Nicki Bluhm (born September 22, 1979) is a singer-songwriter from Lafayette, California who formed The Gramblers in 2008. Since leaving the band she has released one studio album ''To Rise You Gotta Fall''. Her other solo albums ''Toby's Song'', ...
& The Gramblers in 2009 and has been their main touring and recording bass player since.


Present

Currently, Steve resides in
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
where he has been since 2006, and tours with both ALO and Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers.


Discography

;With
Animal Liberation Orchestra Animal Liberation Orchestra (also known casually as ALO) is a California rock band currently signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label. They have released four full-length albums for Brushfire, as well as a number of prior independent ...
;With Other ArtistsFull Discography
Retrieved 20 Aug, 2010.


References


External links


Official website

Interview with ''Music In Schools Today''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Steve 1975 births Living people 21st-century American bass guitarists 21st-century American double-bassists 20th-century American bass guitarists 20th-century American double-bassists American rock bass guitarists American rock double-bassists 20th-century American keyboardists 21st-century American keyboardists American rock keyboardists