ADABOY! UNCAGED • An Inspirational Rock Anthem Dedicated to The Detroit Lions

As one of the most gifted and multi-talented musical groups populating the Great Lakes Bay region, over the last few years the 4-piece creative dynamo known as ADABOY! have managed to kiss the shoreline of national attention by crafting a catchy, powerful, and uniquely engaging sound embracing stylistic elements of Rock, Country, Reggae, and Folk music that make them difficult to pigeonhole or categorize.

Consisting of Mike Richards (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Joe Balbaugh (bass, vocals, keyboards), Vincent Modern (lead guitar, vocals) and Steve Nyquist (drums), each member colors their original compositions with a wide palate of musical knowledge and their own personal stories of challenge and perseverance that fuel both their authenticity and ambition.

Apart from being the first band in the 38-year history of the REVIEW Music Awards to win ‘Best Rock Band’, ‘Best Alternative Band’, ‘Best Variety Band’, and ‘Best Original Band, their first single Time (Voices Run) and their follow-up single Man I Am also nailed Best New Single honors, while also engaging broader national critical acclaim. Upon first hearing the band perform in Nashville, Country  music star Pam Tillis commented,” Ya’all sing like Alabama and look like ZZ Top. In my book that’s a winning combination!” 

Back in September just two days before the Detroit Lions kicked off the new NFL season with a game at Green Bay, ADABOY! released their newest single titled Uncaged, which is not only the heaviest song they have released to date, but is also a powerful and inspiring tribute to the Detroit Lions written with one goal in mind: to become the team’s new theme song.

While the Lions have been plagued with a reputation as one of the NFL’s most bedeviled franchises,  under head coach Dan Campbell the team has found new life, and ADABOY! believes this new song aligns perfectly with their moment of resurgence.

According to bassist Joe Balbaugh, the song came together quickly. “This song developed like a Tsunami in the sense there’s a big belief system within the heart of this band to succeed and both Mike and I have talked about football since being in the band together. Our music has always focused on overcoming struggles, and Uncaged was born on the fly and is a song about overcoming whatever obstacles are holding you back.”

“Each member in the band has been through things that could have destroyed us, but we’ve overcome our past struggles and are still here making music. That’s why this song lines up with the Lions. They’re overcoming their past just like we’ve overcome our own.”

Produced at Pearl Sound Studios in Canton, Michigan with engineer Chuck Alkazian, the song is a stadium-ready rock anthem designed to ignite both players and fans. “We wanted to record this song in Michigan so pulled the trigger and went down to Chuck’s studio and actually wrote it in one day and over the next couple days we refined it as we were recording it,” explains Mike Richards. “Chuck also co-wrote it with us, engineered, and produced it. He’s a Grammy award winner and has worked with very diverse artists such as Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, and The Romantics, plus he has co-written material with Pop Evil and has songwriting credits with Christina Aguilera as well.”

“I think we’re taking approaches with our songwriting that as our music catalog evolves will incorporate a bunch of different musical styles, which has been ADABOY’S approach all along,” notes Vince. “We’re not afraid to attack any style of music and it’s all about creating what we feel in that moment.”

Since its release in September, Richards says Uncaged has clocked 530,000 views and 12,000 likes and logged over 1000 interactions as far as comments. “People are recognizing that this song should become an official Lions theme song, commenting it would be great to hear during the kickoff or as they come out of the tunnel to start the game. One person commented we should be doing the halftime show, so fans have been really great and supportive.”

While the band has yet to secure official approval of the song from the Lions’ organization, they have managed to draw attention from the Lion’s publicity department as well as Campbell’s family. “Dan Campbell’s wife shared our teaser,” Balbaugh notes.   “That was huge for us. We’re getting it into the right hands, and the dream is to hear it echo through Ford Field on game day.”

In addition to doing showcase performances in Nashville and festivals throughout the state of Michigan, ADABOY! have released three original singles prior to Uncaged, each capturing their zeitgeist for passionate musical diversity.  This year’s release of their third single, New Strings and now Uncaged adds further depth and dimension to their body of work ahead of their forthcoming album.

“We’re still in the singles game,” explains Mike, “so probably won’t be releasing the new album until the end of next year. We have about seven or eight songs in the tank for the album, but our management team at Red 39 Records suggested we focus on promoting Uncaged during the football season as we move into the playoffs.  We also just shot a music video for our follow-up single to Uncaged.”

Getting picked up by Red 39 Records was a huge boost for ADABOY!, seeing as the head of this label is Chip Latham who’s worked with Rod Stewart, Prince, and The Rolling Stones back in the day and also helped break Hootie & the Blowfish.

“The idea in the beginning was to release each of our original songs in a particular order, but Uncaged kind of threw a twist into things because Chip said he’s never had an artist receive so many organic views on a song, so he suggested we use a test audience to determine what would be the next song to follow-up with after Uncaged, so we’re anticipating what song that might be and just filmed a new music video for it with filmmaker  Luka Dziubyna, “adds Vince.

With the addition of their new drummer Steve Nyquist into the line-up, everybody in the group feels that all cylinders are firing strong on this dynamic musical engine. “The personalities and chemistry in the band is all in the right place now,” reflects Mike. “We’re all tightly aligned and very grateful for having Steve join forces with us.”

ADABOY! will be performing live locally over the holidays at The Stables in Bay City on December 12^th and J.J’s Roadhouse in Shields on December 19^th. For more information, music, merchandise, along with tour dates, visit their website at www.adaboymusic.com.