Meet Adam Easterling | Vocalist of a metal band from Nashville, TN

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adam Easterling and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Starting out with Orthodox (circa 2012) – all we wanted to do was play shows with our favorite bands when they came through town. We wrote songs that we thought would draw an exciting reaction out of our friends at the gigs, and we were really excited to play a set; sometimes as often as every two weeks! The moment that all of that really changed and we realized we had potential to make something real out of this didn’t come until a few years down the road. We’d done multiple tours, seen all four corners of the country a few times – and then our debut LP came out in 2017, and everyone started to take us a little more seriously. At that point, we were approaching a mindset of ‘If this one doesn’t bring something to fruition, that’s a wrap.’ At that point we’d accomplished more than we set out to do at the genesis of the band, so if this was the end we were more than at peace with it. Fast forward five years from that, and we’re signed to a major label and have grown to a size that we never anticipated, with our ‘ceiling’ only rising and rising with every tour. So to answer the question – I think the reason I really pursued this was because I never really thought of the consequence of failure. The mere reality of doing this and making any money at all was already a success – so the moment that real doors started to open and opportunities began to be presented… You’d have had to kill me to keep me from taking advantage of it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Orthodox has gone through countless changes in our ten years of being around. Most of those changes were simply members, but the big change would be stylistically speaking. When we got around to writing our first LP in 2015 and 2016, we started leaning away from the heavy hardcore side of things, and really started leaning into our roots – drawing more and more from the first bands in the metal world that we fell in love with… i.e. nerdy nu-metal.

I think that’s what set us apart initially once that album, ‘Sounds of Loss’, dropped in 2017. Since then we’ve continued to draw from similar influences, but leaning into the side of those influences that a lot of people are either scared to touch, or don’t think to. The true contributing factor though, in my opinion as well as a lot of other’s, is our live show.
I can honestly say, with little to do with myself, my BAND – the instrumentalists behind me – are tighter than the majority of groups out there. We have the confidence to absolute crush every show, and the energy we bring to the stage is hard to match. You really gotta see it live.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Nashville is known for music and food – so the list is pretty expansive. However my personal tour would take us to a few good coffee shops i.e. Humphrey’s St., Sump, Crema, and many more.
From there, the food is impossible to tackle all in one trip – but the must’s for the first timers are Martin’s BBQ, Bolton’s Hot Chicken, and Arnold’s Meat-n-3.
If it’s the right time of year, I’d take them to a Predators hockey game so they can watch the greatest sport on earth. And if they’re lucky we might pop over to Flamingo to see the local jam on Wednesday nights, or head over to wherever my brother Daniel Jones is DJ’ing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The obvious shoutouts are for my support groups in my family, my fiancee´ Annie Rose, and the countless friends who’ve pushed me to continue when times were hard; however I’d like to go a little deeper here. In 2012, Orthodox was a brand new band that wasn’t getting a ton of love in our local scene in comparison to the more seasoned bands. Nashville’s music scene, in every genre, is filled to the brim with talent that you don’t usually find in ‘local’ acts – so the pressure was a little higher than normal to bring more to the table.
In December of 2012 – two bands from surround states played in Nashville. Deathbed from Atlanta, and Another Mistake from Louisville. Tyler Short, the vocalist of Another Mistake and now Inclination/Constraint, was always one of my favorite performers to see live. A lot of fun movement and a lot of intensity.
Orthodox was given the chance to open this show, and it was the first hardcore show with legitimate touring acts that we’d been given the opportunity to play with in the 9 months we’d been a band. We played the best set we’d had up until that point in our short career, and it seemed that some people took notice; in particular Tyler Short. During their set he said some things along the lines of ‘Orthodox you need to buy a van and go on tour. Please!’
That essentially planted the bug in my head that we were capable of pulling that off.
A little under a year later we were on our first tour, and a few years later we were actually on the road with Another Mistake, and another Kentucky band named Knocked Loose. It’s a small moment in the stretch of our timeline, but Tyler’s comments gave me a confidence I hadn’t had – and I don’t know where or when we would’ve started moving towards touring had we not been that little nudge.

Website: orthodoxtn.com

Instagram: @steal.this.adam / @orthodoxtn

Twitter: @orthodoxtn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orthodoxtn

Youtube: https://youtu.be/UrLVVhN7ew4

Image Credits
Photo credits: Nick Chance & Gabe Becerra Album art by Ridge Rhine