Interview: Shufflepuck
Adam Orth & Justin Fisher Discuss The Official Release Of Their '90s ‘Album’
Shufflepuck’s long-lost ‘90s album is finally getting an official release almost 30 years later.
That’s no small feat considering that guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Adam Orth trashed the masters years ago—another interesting wrinkle in the sensational saga of a band that took Hollywood by storm, signed to Interscope Records, got dropped, and broke up in frustration before their self-titled debut had its moment in the spotlight.
“I had the 2-inch master tapes for the record in a closet for about 10 years and finally disposed of them because I had moved a couple times and I was so sick of carrying them around. I often think back to the day when I threw them out in a dumpster in downtown Los Angeles and regret that choice every time,” Orth told me for the interview below.
“I’m kind of glad I don’t have the original master tapes now, because I would absolutely, 100% remix it and fix some things. Maybe that’s a bad idea, but I’d do it.”
Inferior digital album files have been floating around online for decades, but this new release is the definitive version.
The band announced the renamed Album with an updated version of “Where The Hell Is She,” followed by the second single, “Small.” Shufflepuck’s classic line up from the ‘90s—featuring Orth, Justin Fisher (lead guitar), Ed Alexander (bass), and Keith Fallis (drums)—is playing a record release show at The Viper Room on August 24.
“‘Small’ is one of those tunes that Adam brought to the band fully formed. I love how it builds from nothing to a crashing fast-tempo rocker. Shufflepuck shows were always a lightning sprint from start to finish and this tune was a great way to get the band and the club crowd going,” Fisher said.
I caught up with Orth and Fisher by email in the lead up to the album’s release to discuss a few favorite tracks, the process of updating the digital files, the possibility of new music, and what’s next for a reunited Shufflepuck.
Interview: Adam Orth & Justin Fisher
Congrats on the official release of Shufflepuck’s Album. How does it feel to finally get this collection of songs out into the world?
Adam Orth: It’s a good feeling. These songs have been ‘out’ in the world for years at this point, but they are basically inferior, damaged digital files that have been shared and uploaded on Youtube, Reddit, etc. by tons of people. I’m partially to blame for the bad files being out there because I’ve had them in a public Dropbox for so many years and have given them out freely to whoever wants them.
When the machinery to get this record out properly started moving (thanks to you and Generation Blue), we wanted to do the best possible version, so it became a project. The main goal was to get perfect, clean digital copies of each song out into the world. I have all the session DAT’s which are unreliable now and an unreliable CD-R straight from the mastering session. I spent some time trying to track down a copy at our former label Interscope Records—and Precision Audio where it was mastered (RIP)— with no luck. With no choice left, I took my CD-R back to 4th Street Recording here in Santa Monica which is essentially Shufflepuck HQ and where we recorded all the guitars and vocals for the record. Thankfully, we were able to extract perfect digital versions from the mastering CD-R and now have the perfect album as it was originally intended.
Justin Fisher: How does it feel? So AWESOME! Finally!!! I’ve always felt that it was a crime that this album wasn’t easily accessible for people to discover. From start to finish the album is packed with crushing guitars, monster drums, and one-listen earworm, sing-along songs. For years I’ve been telling anyone that would listen about Shufflepuck’s rocket-like trajectory from forming the group to joining a vibrant local rock club scene to getting signed by the biggest label in town only then to vanish from sight right when it looked like we were reaching for the stars. Since then I’ve always told people that if you dig really hard in the backwaters of internet obscurity you might find copies of these tunes somewhere, but now we’re finally getting to release the whole album exactly like we envisioned so many years ago.
A lot of music has been released in the intervening 30 years. For anybody who hasn't heard Shufflepuck before, who are a few bands (from any year) you would throw out as reference points?
Adam Orth: The main north stars for the band were KISS, Nirvana, Metallica, The Police, The Beatles, Pixies, Cheap Trick and great guitar-driven pop/rock songs from the ‘80s. Obviously there’s a Weezer influence that’s been exhaustively documented. As the band began to expand we were certainly influenced by popular bands of the time like Green Day, Urge Overkill, Sugar, Rocket From The Crypt, Toadies etc.
Personally, I was (and remain) heavily influenced by Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, James Hetfield, Elvis Costello, Police-era Sting, Billy Joel and The Cars.
Justin Fisher: When Adam and I were first coming up with the idea of forming this band we made one of those grueling cross-the-country-in-three-days road trips. Right as we finally made it back into LA the premiere of a Nirvana song—I think it was ‘Heart Shaped Box’—came on the radio. It sounded so amazing! I think you can’t overstate the impact that band had on us as musicians and ‘90s music as a whole.
Shufflepuck also had the amazing luck to be part of a super exciting rock club scene… you really did a great job of shining a light on that period in LA with your Generation Blue oral history and compilation album. What a cool time in music. Just a few of the local groups that were a huge influence for me would include Weezer, Ridel High, Campfire Girls, Gwen Mars, Lifter, Wax, and Black Market Flowers. I think it would be great to see more people discover how awesome those bands were.
You announced the album release with the single "Where The Hell Is She?" which was also released as a single for Generation Blue. What's the difference between those two versions?
Adam Orth: As mentioned above, it’s just a perfect version now. [Editor’s note: The “Where The Hell Is She” video above is the original digital version used for Generation Blue; the Spotify link above is the updated Album version.] We actually made new, standalone versions of each song with perfect starts and stops at each end because the versions that are out there now are part of the original album sequence so there’s (intentional) bleed in from tracks running together a little bit and if you listen to the versions of this song before the new single version we released, you can hear the cymbal fade from the end of ‘Small,’ the song before it on the original album sequence. So, having these new, clean versions really makes the album ‘new’ again, for me anyway. Our bass player Ed Alexander has been basically shouldering most of the burden of getting all these songs organized and ready to be sent to the right platforms in the right way…honestly there’s no way this song or record could come out without his effort and attention to detail.
Finally, I’m glad we got to this place because this song was the first real Shufflepuck song I wrote and I’m ready to say goodbye to the recorded version(s) of this song and preserve it digitally online forever. I love that people love it, but it’s hard for me to listen to now. I need some time away from it again!
The second single is "Small," which I always remember as a highlight from your live shows in the '90s. Can you share a little background on writing and recording that track?
Adam Orth: ‘Small’ began with me thinking, ‘We need a really uptempo rock song for shows.’ This song was heavily influenced by Bob Mould, Sugar and ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ by Nirvana. We had a really energetic vibe onstage and I wanted a big, fast guitar song that hammered on the drums that we could play live. Lyrically, I don’t like talking about subject matter, but the thing I love about this one is the storytelling perspective. It’s a little different from what I was doing at the time and this is a good example of where you can hear Billy Joel’s storytelling influence in my lyrics (although nowhere near as good IMO). There are actually three people involved in this story with me observing. I like that a lot.
The song was easy to record. We played it live a lot before the record. We recorded it first and when I listen to the record I can hear my singing style is a little different. I wish we would have gone back at the end and recut the vocals on it after I found the rhythm of making the record and how the rest of my singing turned out stylistically.
It became one of our signature songs. People love to sing along to the ‘Yeah, Hey’ chorus, which sounds simple and throwaway, but if you dig into the story, there’s a reason. We’ll always play ‘Small.’ A great song to open a show with. It’s our ‘Detroit Rock City.’
I also remember loving "Living A Lie." Can we expect to hear that one at the record release show at the Viper Room on August 24th?
Adam Orth: For me, ‘Living A Lie’ is the quintessential Shufflepuck song and also my favorite from a songwriting perspective. It’s got great feel, really personally meaningful lyrics, the best guitar parts and a killer guitar solo. I really worked hard writing that song, but the idea of it and the arrangement came instantly. I vividly remember scrambling to record the demo in the infamous garage at Amherst House because I was afraid I would forget it, which would have been impossible LOL. I think that song fully and completely represents me as a songwriter, singer and guitar player.
Another signature song for us. We’ll always play it and I always look forward to that song in the set, even though it’s harder to sing now. It’s also our third single ahead of the album, coming out next week.
Justin Fisher: I’ve always loved this song too. It’s got that triplet feel that you just can’t help but rock back and forth to, and very cool lyrics. Adam and I have known each other for like forever so I can totally relate to all the things he sings about. This song has everything…sparkling clean to giant distorted guitars, rocking drums, soaring solos and great sing along melodies.
This 2024 release features new "plain wrap" artwork. Can you tell me a little about the album artwork concept?
Adam Orth: Hot current topic! From the beginning of ‘let’s put this album out for real’ I’ve been against using the original artwork for a variety of reasons. Mainly, I don’t like the original artwork at all. It served a purpose back then, but that time has passed for me and I have a really hard time looking at it. It’s frozen in time in a way that the music it represents is not, in my opinion.
Another reason is that no digital or hi-resolution assets exist for that. It was made by a staff artist at A&M Records as a side gig and any of the original materials would have been given to Interscope Records and they just don’t exist anymore. I also didn’t have any interest in recreating it or representing it. This is a divisive topic in the band at the moment!
Finally (and the main reason for me) is that this is about these songs and the music we created. I wanted that mission and statement to be the reason to do this and as this is a technically ‘new’ version of the record—including not being self-titled anymore—I wanted to do something simple, iconic and statement-free…although I think that backfired on me because the statement seems evident. I tried a hundred different ideas that were not right and out of frustration I mocked up the cover you see now in under two minutes and texted it to Karl Koch who immediately replied: ‘Yes! You know that’s not usually done, which tells me it's cool and I recommend it.’ I then showed it to Ed who approved as well. I think after overthinking it for so long, the simplicity of the cover, title and focus just works really nicely and it’s recognizable in a really simple way. I think it worked out perfectly and I’m very happy with it. It’s a bridge from old to new.
Justin Fisher: Finally getting this album released has been a surprisingly herculean task…and every new hurdle we’ve encountered has seemed likely to derail the project once again. I think the original artwork for the album was great and lives in my memory as iconic for the ‘90s version of this band—but like the original recordings for the album, that artwork has been lost to the ravages of time so we’re moving forward with something shiny and new.
What's next for Shufflepuck—Videos? More shows? Touring?
Adam Orth: Good question. We don’t really know what’s next other than after a very long time, you were able to bring us back together and it’s been so fun. We have a band text thread! Being in an active band in 2024 with four people who have full, abundant adult lives is incredibly challenging, but our rule is, ‘If it’s not fun, we aren’t doing it.’ It’s so much work getting this record together and planning shows…it’s hard, but it’s worth it.
Touring would be hard, but thankfully that option hasn’t been presented to us yet. Our drummer Keith doesn’t live in California so that basically means we can only play shows on Friday or Saturday nights (best show nights anyway) due to his travel restriction, and we can only rehearse as a full band the day before a show, so I’ve been spending a lot of time streamlining what it means to be a live band and making it easier for us to show up to a club with the least amount of professional gear to play and sound great. That part of being in a band in 2024 is a blessing because the technology around music equipment is so awesome now. We have a few Neural DSP Quad Cortex amp modelers for Justin and myself and it’s made things really pro and really easy to produce our sound. I think we have a pretty good system, so fingers crossed, I’m shooting for a show every other or every 3 months for now. We’re looking at something cool in November and we are plugged into the LA scene with a great promoter.
I have what I think are a couple of great new songs that are representative of me as a songwriter, classic to this band and a modern evolution of what we would have become. The sound is intact and I’m excited to spend some time in October recording new material. I’m also in the process of signing a new songwriting publishing deal with a major publisher so maybe we’ll hear some old and new songs in some movies and TV sooner than later.
Right now we are laser-focused on the album release, getting the fourth single ‘Mistreated’ out in front of as many people as possible and the Viper Room show. We’ve sold a lot of tickets already. I’m excited to play there again. That was our home stage in LA and I can’t wait to see all of our friends and play a killer rock show.
Justin Fisher: Playing the Generation Blue release party was our first time back together in however many years and it was a blast. The upcoming Shufflepuck album release and show at the Viper Room look to be just as epic for us. What’s next? I hope more of the same!
The Kindle edition of Generation Blue: An Oral History of The Hollywood Geek Rock Scene in the 1990s & 2000s is available for a special pre-order price of $6.67 (neighbor of the beast…). This book was previously only available in print and sold with a vinyl compilation—but a lot of digital media fans asked for an ebook version. Read all the personal stories and stream the comp on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, etc.
Never heard of these guys and love their sound (and the artwork). "Small" is such a compelling story and song. So great you're getting the word out on the new release. They seem like really nice guys too.
Shufflepuck!!!