Popular Underground Magazine: On the band's web journal there was some discussion of you guys hanging out at the Boogie Nights club. That's not really your scene, so how do you guys like to party?
Adam: We all have our own thing. I love the little dive bar [with] a good jukebox. Stubhy's kind of more into the clubbing thing. He likes to get out and do that sort of [stuff]. Basically, anywhere there's beer and good people, we'll show up.

PUM: If you weren't doing the band thing, what do you think you'd be doing?
Adam: Honestly, I'm not sure. I can't really imagine what else I'd be doing. Something with music. If not that then sociology because it's such a trip to go from city to city and town to town and meet all these different people and [see] what's similar about them and what's different and the different reasons. It's really amazing.

PUM: What are some of your favorite things about being in a band?
Adam: You get to travel, writing music; it's my passion. You get to go in the studio and produce it, structure it and mold it, it's a lot of fun.

PUM: What are some of your biggest musical influences?
Adam: I've always liked the Clash a lot, they're really eclectic and they're not just really one thing. I mean they started off being punk rock and they added elements of reggae, dub, rockabilly and soul. That's kind of what we really like to do; not just stick to one style and [we] try to have a couple of different influences show in our music.

PUM: What's in your CD player right now?
Adam: I'm listening to Wax Wing, a band from Seattle and a couple of the guys [from Wax Wing] are in the Blood Brothers. Waxwing's great. And WhiskeyTown, Flashlight Brown, they're poppy, kind of punk rock. Basically, we get a lot of demos from bands, we try to listen to everything we get.

PUM: I was reading through the message boards on the band's website and there were people talking about how they were going to drive three or more hours to come to this show tonight. How does that make you feel?
Adam: We've had people from Japan that came over to follow us around for a week, which is insane. It's great, I'm glad that people are enjoying the music enough to want to travel around the country to see us.

PUM: What's your favorite city to play in other than Chicago?
Adam: That's rough. There's a lot of great places all over. There's a lot of shitty places too. Boston is incredible. Anywhere in Florida is great, Denver, Phoenix, Milwaukee is good, close to to home, Omaha. I can't start so I'll never end.

PUM: What were some of the shitty places?
Adam: I don't know, once in a while you get in these little in-between towns. It kind of rubs you the wrong way. Like down south, Alabama, we're not to big around there although Mobile is pretty cool.

Adam Krier stood in the corner smoking cigarettes, near the front entrance of the dimly lit Rave / Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As Krier answered questions, he was reserved, quick to answer and stared at the ground as he inhaled his smoke. Krier (guitars, vocals and co-songwriter) is just one part of Lucky Boys Confusion, the Chicago-based five piece rock and roll band. LBC is rounded out by Kaustubh "Stubhy" Pandav (vocals, songwriter), Joe Sell (guitar), Jason Schultejann (Bass) and Ryan Fergus (drums). Krier discussed the band's new album Commitment, some of his favorite bands and why music is so important to the band.

PUM: On the band's web journal there was some discussion of you guys hanging out at the Boogie Nights club. That's not really your scene, so how do you guys like to party?
Adam: We all have our own thing. I love the little dive bar [with] a good jukebox. Stubhy's kind of more into the clubbing thing. He likes to get out and do that sort of [stuff]. Basically, anywhere there's beer and good people, we'll show up.

PUM: If you weren't doing the band thing, what do you think you'd be doing?
Adam: Honestly, I'm not sure. I can't really imagine what else I'd be doing. Something with music. If not that then sociology because it's such a trip to go from city to city and town to town and meet all these different people and [see] what's similar about them and what's different and the different reasons. It's really amazing.

PUM: What are some of your favorite things about being in a band?
Adam: You get to travel, writing music; it's my passion. You get to go in the studio and produce it, structure it and mold it, it's a lot of fun.

PUM: What are some of your biggest musical influences?
Adam: I've always liked the Clash a lot, they're really eclectic and they're not just really one thing. I mean they started off being punk rock and they added elements of reggae, dub, rockabilly and soul. That's kind of what we really like to do; not just stick to one style and [we] try to have a couple of different influences show in our music.

PUM: What's in your CD player right now?
Adam: I'm listening to Wax Wing, a band from Seattle and a couple of the guys [from Wax Wing] are in the Blood Brothers. Waxwing's great. And WhiskeyTown, Flashlight Brown, they're poppy, kind of punk rock. Basically, we get a lot of demos from bands, we try to listen to everything we get.

PUM: I was reading through the message boards on the band's website and there were people talking about how they were going to drive three or more hours to come to this show tonight. How does that make you feel?
Adam: We've had people from Japan that came over to follow us around for a week, which is insane. It's great, I'm glad that people are enjoying the music enough to want to travel around the country to see us.

PUM: What's your favorite city to play in other than Chicago?
Adam: That's rough. There's a lot of great places all over. There's a lot of shitty places too. Boston is incredible. Anywhere in Florida is great, Denver, Phoenix, Milwaukee is good, close to to home, Omaha. I can't start so I'll never end.

PUM: What were some of the shitty places?
Adam: I don't know, once in a while you get in these little in-between towns. It kind of rubs you the wrong way. Like down south, Alabama, we're not to big around there although Mobile is pretty cool.

PUM: When you set out to write Commitment, what were some of your goals?
Adam: We wanted to remain semi-eclectic, but we didn't want to be so all over the place. We wanted it to be more focused. We wanted it to be less jumpy from genre to genre. We also wanted the songwriting to be more serious and not just singing about smoking pot all the time. We wanted to actually have a message to some of the songs. We're all older now so it's a natural progression.

PUM: What were some of the challenges that you faced when you sat down record Commitment?
Adam: It was kind of nerve racking because our label didn't show up. We were out in Los Angeles and Long Beach for about three or four months just hanging out some of the time and recording most of the time and heard from the label now and then, but they never stopped by once [during] the whole process. A lot of the time they'll be breathing down our necks. The whole time we were thinking, "This record's never going to see the light of day." Actually, when we finished it and sent it to them, they were really excited. It turned out to be all right.

PUM: What was your reasoning for bringing in Michael "Miguel" Happoldt (formerly of Sublime) to produce Commitment?
Adam: We sent our CD to a few producers that are our favorites. Miguel was the guy who responded with the most enthusiasm. He was really into "Mr. Wilmington" and "Blame," some of the earlier stuff we did at home. He was really excited about it. It's one thing to work with someone that's just doing it for the money, but if the guy is actually excited about it, you know it's an interesting collaboration.

PUM: How has the response been from the fans in regard to Commitment in comparison to previous albums?
Adam: When we put out Throwing the Game, everybody said they liked the older stuff first. Actually, when we put out our second CD everyone said they liked the first one better, when we put out our third CD everyone said they liked the second one better and the third one sucks. When we put out the fourth one everyone said the third one was great and the fourth one sucks. So you never know at first until you get a chance to listen to it. A lot of people are paranoid at first because they think if it's too commercial the band's going to blow up and it's not going to be their little band anymore. That's only a small percentage of the fans, like some of the diehards. Overall, the reaction has been really positive and I'm psyched because, for us, we were completely satisfied when we turned the record in. In the past, a lot of times, we sit back and say, "Yeah, we could have done that better." This time it was like, "Fuck Yeah, we're really happy with this."

PUM: The song Mr. Wilmington is a pretty serious song. Is that about a specific event or is it a generality?
Adam: It's sort of both. Stubhy sort of put himself in a character and wrote a song as if he made different decisions in his life, what the outcome would have been and kind of made a story out of it.

PUM: I think a lot of time people and reviewers try to categorize music and a lot of times it's pretty inaccurate. How would you describe your music?
Adam: Rock and Roll. I don't know. It's kind of like punk rock, but it's kind of poppy and there's some reggae. Now and then it gets sort of mellow. For me, Jawbreaker is a punk band that is a little bit on the grunge tip. When you actually talk about your own music, it's hard.

PUM: In your press release it noted that two years ago Lucky Boys Confusion were going through some hard times. What was going on?
Adam: We put out Throwing the Game and "Fred Astaire" came out and did pretty good on the radio in most cities and we toured for awhile and we got a pretty good fan base. We did a couple hundred shows that year and came home in December at the holidays. After that we started writing and we didn't tour that much. We were turning in demos that we were really proud of and the label was sort of like "We need to move, keep writing, keep writing," it was sort of a slow time for us. Halfway through the year we kind of said, "Fuck this, we're dying here, we're not that inspired." So of all places we picked Madison, Wisconsin and went out there for a week and wrote 15 songs and demoed them all with Sean O' Keefe (Fall Out Boy, Split Habit, Motion City Soundtrack) at Smart Sound in Madison. We came back refreshed and ready to go. A lot of the songs on Commitment we wrote that week.

PUM: What's the most annoying question that you're often asked by fans or journalists?
Adam: Everybody always asks where the band name came from. We've been answering that question for six years. Whenever we're at a radio station and someone asks that we all point at each other to answer it.

PUM: What are some of your favorite bands to tour with or bands that you learned a lot from while on tour?
Adam: I guess we've learned a lot from the Phunk Junkees and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and a band called Grasshopper Takeover, just because those were the first bands we ever toured with in the very beginning. They taught us a lot about how it's done and how to do things right. Later on we've made friends with basically everyone we've been on the road with. You're with these guys for four or eight weeks and kind of get to know them really well.

PUM: What's your favorite thing to drink when you go out to the bar?
Adam: Beer. We usually drink beer that tastes like water, like Coors Light or Bud Light, whatever they have that's cheap.

PUM: What was the last good book you read?
Adam: We just got a cassette version of On the Road by Jack Kerouac for the van rides. It's like 14 cassettes so we pop it in sometimes when we're driving and it's really good. If that counts, I didn't really read that book, I listened to it.

PUM: If someone came up to you and gave you $20 in cash, what would you spend it on? And you can't give it back to them.
Adam: Dinner and then I'd buy a pack or Parliament Lights and then I'd go to the bar and have some drinks. I get $20 a day, that's usually where it goes.

PUM: In regard to the song "Hey Driver," if you could pack up and go anywhere, where would you go?
Adam:: I don't have the attention span to stay in one place too long so I'd have to have multiple destinations.

Written By: Adam K. Zakroczymski III - Senior Editor / Founder