Pleased To Meet Me: Acapulco Lips
Seattle’s Acapulco Lips return with Now, a full-length burst of fuzz, flair, and sun-scorched swagger, via Killroom Records. For over a decade, the band has been a staple of the Pacific Northwest underground, blending '60s girl group charm with blown-out guitar licks and reverb-drenched abandon. Now doesn’t mellow with age. It snarls with intent, while reaching into deeper emotional terrain than ever before.
Produced by Killroom co-founders Ben Jenkins and Troy Nelson, Now was recorded at their Georgetown studio, then mastered by Pacific Northwest punk legend Kurt Bloch. That analog warmth oozes from every corner of the album, especially on standouts like “Welcome to the Other Side,” a psychedelic handshake into the band’s glittering world, or “Pas d’échappatoire,” a swaggering, surreal detour into French-laced cool. The band’s devotion to the garage-psych lineage is palpable, but never derivative. This is music made for today, by lifers who know their history and know how to rip it up.
Introduce yourself… (Where are you from, what band do you play in etc..)
JTA: My name is Jordan T Adams. I'm from Richland, a strange town in Southeastern Washington. I've been playing in bands since I was 13 - always the drums.
CG: Hello! I’m Christopher Garland. Born and raised in Seattle and play guitar in Acapulco Lips.
MH: I am Maria-Elena Herrell originally from Austin, TX and currently in Seattle, WA and I play in Acapulco Lips from Seattle, WA. I sing & play bass.
Why do you play music?
JTA: I started playing to join a band of friends, and like magic, once we started playing, we were ushered into a community of beautiful people, making art in all forms. Playing the drums has led to lifelong friendships, and now it's so deeply intertwined in my sense of self, and the joy that surrounds my days, I can't imagine a life without it. It's a bonus that playing the drums, in itself, makes me happier than most anything else.
CG: Music is a passion of mine, whether I’m listening to it, collecting it, or playing it. I play music because it’s a great way to be creative and is a great release from the day-to-day grind.
MH: I play music because it’s such a cool thing to be able to participate in the thing I love the most in life…Music!
JTA: What was a major influence on you as an Artist/Band?
My dad played 80s rock growing up, and the big fills, big drum, classic rock 70s sound was omnipresent on every radio I grew up around. We followed the alt trends, and I started with grunge, which is fun to play, but I didn't connect strongly with the "vibe" of it all. I was 13, and having a shitload of fun with life! I spent high school playing straight punk, and learning how to play all those songs I'd hear on the radio and remembered from my dad's collection. Bands like Queen, GnR, Meat Loaf, Roxette, Toto, Rush, Styx, The Who, The Beatles, a big Pink Floyd phase for a minute, Janis Joplin...The punk came from Lookout Records, Recess Records, FAT Wreck Chords, and some "MTV mainstream stuff". Dookie and The Blue Album came out a couple of years before I started playing, Say it Ain't So was my first drum beat. I was 16 when three of us started Dookie, a Green Day cover band that only plays Dookie, cover to cover. I've spent my 20s and 30s broadening my taste in music, now I can appreciate pretty much anything with a beat, and find a lot of joy in taking things across genres. Lifting kick patterns from pop and building a psych groove around them, finding place for mongo fills, minimal transitions, sneaky nods to drummers like Keith Moon and Ringo, Greg Saunier from Deerhoof, Nick Mason, I love Janelle Monae and the bests she works with. Same with Amy Winehouse. I wrote a beat that I want to try and bring to the band yesterday that has a piece of Tha Carter 3 in there. My shit's all over the place, and I want to hear it all.
CG: I’m obsessed with music from the 60’s. Garage/Psych/Beat/Yé-yé all are huge influences on the way I play guitar and what I try to create when writing.
MH: I am very influenced by all things 60’s. I love the girl group, soul & R&B, garage, psych, instrumentals & pop sounds from that time. The warmth, melodies and urgency of it all are what draw me in.
What’s a favourite book or film?
JTA: The Rabbit (Rabbit, Run, etc.) series by John Updike, and Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe. I really like Where the Sidewalk Ends.
CG: “Blow-Up” Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
MH: Favorite book …Helter Skelter, favorite film… La Bamba.
Do you prefer the recording process or performing live?
JTA: I love them both; they're so symbiotic and integral to improving musicianship, composition, and our work together as a band. I love process and evaluation. Every time I see a live clip of us, or listen to a song recorded during rehearsal, my brain picks them to bits, and I almost always hear a way to make my contribution to the work a little more intentional.
CG: Recording process. I like the feeling that we are creating something that may be discovered 30, 40, 50+, years from now. Also being able to experiment and try new things in the studio that can sometimes only be captured in the moment.
MH: I love both but if I had to choose, it would be recording. It’s so exciting to see a song come together in the studio and to have a way to share it once it’s done.
Describe a favourite album.
JTA: Miles Davis - Live Evil - Give it a listen and you'll add it to your list too.
CG: The Music Machine “Turn On The Music Machine” from 1966. Groovy, fuzzy, cool, and way ahead of its time.
MH: Lee Hazlewood Woodchucks - Cruisin’ for Surf Bunnies, It’s all instrumental and has so many cool sounds going on. I feel like it meets me where I’m at every time regardless of where I’m at mentally and emotionally.
What's your favourite local haunt?
JTA: Ballard Elk's Lodge, Tractor Tavern, Museum of Flight (I have a 2 year-old)
CG: Screwdriver Bar or Revolver. Best two places to grab a cocktail and listen to some tunes while being surrounded by groovy vibes.
MH: Screwdriver in Belltown here in Seattle. The best ambiance, soundtrack and company always!
What's your strangest experience while performing live?
JTA: I used to front a band called SPURM, it was a pretty intense live performance, where I'd start manic, and try to run the full gamut of human emotion. Every live experience was strange and peppered with violence, lust, sadness, furious joy...all of it.
CG: One of our earliest gigs was playing the Rock n’ Roll Marathon here in Seattle where you had to play for about an hour and a half while marathon runners pass by you. We only had about 6 or 7 songs written at the time and all of them were less than 3 mins long, so we had to play them over and over again, while on an outdoor stage facing the sun. My fingers started blistering after an hour. We also had to get there at 5am and just wait around till it was our turn to go on…it was strange and brutal, but definitely toughen us up!
MH: There’s probably stranger ones that I don’t remember BUT we played a show a long while back where the bill was very mixed and very chill and we were like, how are we going to go over with this crowd? We ended up saying every song was about weed and it went over very well and that’s how we ended up with our song, “An Instrumental About Weed”.
If I were pursuing anything other than music it would be…
JTA: I own Events Creative, an events company here in Seattle. I like to try to inspire people through experiences, and we mostly work on large non-profit, community, and civic celebrations. I'm a transportation, parks, science education and public space freak, so I'd probably keep partying with those focuses. I'm proud of the projects we've managed, and most of the people I get to work with are doing very cool things for Seattle, the region, and future generations. You can check out the company and work we do at events-creative.com.
CG: I think starting a cat café where people can grab some coffee, play with cats, and adopt. I would probably make it a record store also…gotta incorporate music somehow!
MH: If I weren’t playing in a band, I don’t know. Trying to do something else creative so I don’t just work for someone else’s thing ‘til I die? I’d like to design sunglasses with an end goal of wearing Pucci caftans by the pool of my mid-century home that has palm trees in the yard.
What are some of your favourite aspects of being a musician in Seattle?
JTA: The community, opportunities to play with others, and the diversity of the scene.
CG: The community and the people you meet. Finding people with similar music tastes and building friendships through that. It’s a great feeling.
MH: The music community is excellent in Seattle and there are a lot of people down to support live music and bands supporting each other. There are great venues, neighborhoods and so many creative people.
If you weren’t playing music in Seattle where would you be?
JTA: I really like the middle of goddamn nowhere, and would be in a place you'd describe as such.
CG: On the coast of France or Thailand spinning 45’s at your local bar.
MH: If I weren’t playing music in Seattle I would probably be in Spain or Portugal also playing music.
Any sage advice for young musicians?
JTA: Take a lesson! I started playing out of rebellion, and lessons weren't "cool". THEY ARE VERY COOL. I'm self-taught, and it shows when I'm practicing basic, foundational skills. I don't have regrets in life, but when asked about my shoulda coulda wouldas, a drum lesson at 13 usually comes up.
CG: Do it for the love of the music and what you are creating. It should never feel like work. Always put your ideas out there...you never know what it might turn into.
MH: Don’t let fear keep you from doing what you feel like you should be doing. Your time is yours and it’s not without end so do what you feel like you should, while you can!
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You can pick up the vinyl for Acapulco Lips latest release NOW via Killroom Records!