Adam Siegel


Adam Siegel is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and graphic designer from Venice, California, United States. KISS, Black Sabbath, Sweet, Jimmy Page and The Sex Pistols are the musicians he cites as main influences.
He is a founding member of the crossover thrash band Excel, and subsequently was the lead guitarist for the Suicidal Tendencies side project, Infectious Grooves and the group Eagle, who became The Blondes after receiving a cease and desist letter from Don Henley's legal counsel. He founded the power trio My Head with Excel former drummer Greg Saenz and played the bass in the indie rock band Eels.
Between 2005 and 2007, he lived and worked as engineer and producer in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Currently, he is the Music Go Music guitarist and sporadically works as producer. He appeared in the movies Encino Man and Zelimo.

Career

Siegel was born and raised in Venice, California. At the age of 13 years he bought a guitar, and went to live with his cousin for a few months. There he met Dan Clements, who was living with his cousin. Dan recorded a tape to give to Adam and started talking about forming a band. The group was called "Chaotic Noise" with Evan Warech on drums and some temporary bassists during 1984, they played a lot of shows around L.A. with different bands of the same scene like No Mercy, Suicidal Tendencies, Beowülf and Cryptic Slaughter. They became very good friends of all those musicians and adopted each other as early influences. A few months later, Rickey Pallamino took over the four strings and Chaotic Noise recorded their first Demo. They also became close friends of a graffiti crew, Kings Stop at Nothing, specially with a boy called Shaun Ross, Adam and Dan learned to paint with him and included the graffiti in the style of the band. When Pallamino left Chaotic Noise, there was no one better than Shaun to replace him, then they changed their name to Excel, name that was created by Shaun Ross when he was in Kings Stop at Nothing.
A few weeks later a new drummer joined the group: Greg Saenz. They recorded 3 more demos between 1985 and 1986, editing their first studio album, Split Image in 1987, the second one, The Joke's on You in 1989, and a tour in Netherlands the same year with that line-up. In 1990 Siegel left Excel to join the Suicidal Tendencies side project, Infectious Grooves to record their first studio album: The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move...It's the Infectious Grooves. In 1992 he came back to Excel to record their fifth and final demo: Third album demos. The May 22 he appeared in the movie Encino Man with the Infectious Grooves. Then he definitely left Excel to form his own power trio with Greg Saenz on drums, the former Bad Radio member Dave Silva on bass and himself on guitar and lead vocals. However, this project was interrupted for Adam's participation in the second studio release by Infectious Grooves, Sarsippius' Ark, released on February, 1993, and again in 1994 for their following album, Groove Family Cyco. On January 16, 1996 Siegel recorded various tracks for the first Mike Muir solo album: Lost My Brain! . Then My Head signed a record contract with Capitol Records and released their first and only album Endless Bummer, the song "Humbucker" became their only single and music video. The sound of this album left the heavy metal music that Siegel had been playing earlier in Excel and Infectious Grooves to approach to styles more similar to alternative rock and grunge. The band broke up the January 1, 1998. Later that year, Siegel became the Eels bassist. The song "Souljacker part I", performed with Siegel was included in the album Souljacker in 2001 and a live version in the live album Electro-Shock Blues Show, released in 2002. A few months later he created the band Eagle with Bill Dusha on guitar and vocals, Jimmy James on bass, Autumn de Wilde on keyboards and back vocals, Byron Maiden on drums and himself on lead guitar and vocals. They did some shows around L.A. and suffered several line-up changes. In 2000 he returned for fourth and last time to Infectious Grooves to record their fourth studio album: Mas Borracho released the August 29.
After four years The Blondes finally released their homonym first studio work with their original formation. In less than a half year later they released their second official record, titled Swedish Heat. In 2004 they edited their third and final studio material, called Summer Strut, breaking up shortly after its tour. He retired as a musician in 2005 and became a producer and engineer in Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles until 2008. Then he co-founded Music Go Music, the dance-rock and power pop side-project to Meredith/Gala Bell and David/Kamer Metcalf's band Bodies of Water, in which Siegel had participated in their second studio album "A Certain Feeling". In addition to these three members, the group is accompanied in concerts by various musicians who play several instruments. They came as long ago talking about writing something together, in May, 2008 Siegel joined them to the studio to record their first single, "Light of Love" and a second one, titled "Warm in the Shadows " the January 20, 2009. In August, 2008 they released an EP which included three tracks called Reach Out and he began using the nickname "Torg". The October 6, 2009 they edited their debut studio album: Expressions, as the two previous singles and the EP it was released by Secretly Canadian.

Discography

See also: List of Excel demos
YearAlbumBandTypeCreditsLabel
1985Welcome to VeniceExcelSplit albumGuitar on "Enforcer" and "Conclusion"Suicidal
1987ExcelSplit albumGuitar on "Insecurity"High Speed
1987Split ImageExcelStudio albumGuitarSuicidal/Caroline
1989The Joke's on YouExcelStudio albumGuitarCaroline
1989Live at the Nighttown, RotterdamExcelLive albumGuitarSelf-produced
1990Live in Philadelphia-PAExcelLive albumGuitarSelf-produced
1991The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move...It's the Infectious GroovesInfectious GroovesStudio albumGuitar, artworkEpic
1993Sarsippius' ArkInfectious GroovesStudio albumGuitarEpic
1994Groove Family CycoInfectious GroovesStudio albumGuitar, artworkEpic
1996Lost My Brain! Cyco MikoStudio albumGuitar, except tracks 1, 9 and 12, cover photographyEpic
1996Endless BummerMy HeadStudio albumGuitar, vocals, artworkCapitol
2000Mas BorrachoInfectious GroovesStudio albumGuitar, keyboards, cover artSuicidal
2001Friends & Family, Vol. 2Suicidal TendenciesCompilation albumGuitar and vocals on "Chain of Hate" and "Ultra Drown", artworkSuicidal
2001SouljackerEelsStudio albumBass guitar on Souljacker part IDreamWorks
2002Electro-Shock Blues ShowEelsLive albumBass guitar and backing vocalsE Works
2002The BlondesThe BlondesStudio albumGuitar, vocalsMiddle Class Pig Records
2002Summer StrutThe BlondesStudio albumProducer, vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, percussionMiddle Class Pig Records
2004Swedish HeatThe BlondesStudio albumBass, engineer, guitar, producer, synthesizer, vocalsTeenacide
2008A Certain FeelingBodies of WaterStudio albumGuitar, mixingSecretly Canadian
2008Reach OutMusic Go MusicEPGuitar, bass, producerSecretly Canadian
2009ExpressionsMusic Go MusicStudio albumGuitar, bass, producerSecretly Canadian

Other works (not as a musician)

Filmography