The Lust Killers

Adam Becvare moved to Chicago from Brisbane Australia around the age of three. He got into rock ‘n’ roll at an early age and soon started learning to play guitar. Initially he was drawn to heavy yet melodic metal, but soon discovered the joys of punk rock. After years of playing in bands of various genres, the first incarnation of his signature band The Lust Killers was born in 1992 with Adam providing vocals and guitars as well as his own songs.

After LK1 petered out, Adam moved to San Francisco and joined forces with American Heartbreak. After a few years in the trenches with Heartbreak, however, Adam longed to be writing and performing songs of his own creation again. He hooked up with Heartbreak guitar tech Chuck Worthy, a Bay Area native and former Swingin’ Utters bassist and in the summer of 2001 the “Revised Standard Version” of The LustKillers was (re)born. The current line-up was solidified with the addition of Joe Selby, another Bay Area native on guitar. A la Spinal Tap, the band has had a revolving line-up of drummers, the most current of which has yet to be named.

Adam also played a major role in the resurrection of Lords of the New Church, one of his all-time favorite bands as well as one of his major influences. He plays and sings on the LNC album Hang On, which is largely unavailable as it was only sold on the band’s 2003 European tour.

Recently Adam joined the Black Halos as a guitarist. Their new album, cheekily titled Chinese Democracy (you snooze you lose Mr. Rose!), will be released this spring, after which the band will resume extensive touring. In between Halos duties, Adam promises The Lust Killers will be back to rock your world.

After hearing about the band for some time, I finally saw The Lust Killers perform for the first time at Force of Habit record store last June. The pristinely black clad lads rocked the house with a spectacular nearly two-hour set of trashy, pop-tinged, rock ‘n’ roll originals and covers of a similar nature, all the while cracking wise and consuming an inordinate amount of beer and gum. The next time they came around for a concentrated burst of LK action (the band plays more in a week than most bands play in a year), we cornered them in Adam’s tiny, yet quaint, Nob Hill hotel room (he has since moved back to Chicago) for this interview.

TEENAGE KICKS: When did you first start getting into rock ‘n’ roll?

ADAM: My mother’s younger brother was a complete degenerate spoiled brat. I mean, he even got sent to military school. Well, he used to just throw rock at me all the time. You name it and I heard it when I was growing up. I loved The Stones. I didn’t care for Zeppelin a whole lot. The Beatles were fantastic songwriters, but I wasn’t really into them because they weren’t a live rock ‘n’ roll band. I mean, they weren’t really known for their live performances.

CHUCK: Except for that whole Ed Sullivan fiasco!

TEENAGE KICKS : What was the first record you bought yourself?

ADAM: Probably Kiss Destroyer or Ted Nugent Free For All.

JOE: My older sister flung all of her cast-off records at me too. I got the Monkees and all the Led Zeppelin records that nobody liked. Then she went fundamentalist Christian and got rid of all her devil records. So I got a lot of Black Sabbath records too.

CHUCK: I freaked out over the Kiss Alive record when I was a kid. Just this big explosion with them on the cover. Purple Rain was probably the first thing I bought with my own money though. I listen to it to this day. And when I do, I pull out my white frilly pirate shirt and I ride my motorcycle until I run out of gas. Then I lay there naked in the street, until I’m picked up by the police - not Sting and the rest of the guys - but actual cops.

TEENAGE KICKS: What was your first band?

ADAM: I think we were called The Juicy Fiancées.

TEENAGE KICKS: When was this?

ADAM: I know the first songs we learned were “Clash City Rockers” and “Sonic Reducer.”

TEENAGE KICKS: So it was a punk band?

ADAM: Well, the only bands you could get into at that time were metal bands, so I had to learn these metal albums. The only guys who could teach me how to play were older though and they were all punks. I’d go over there and have to learn this Iron Maiden or Judas Priest song. They’d go, “OK, I’m going to teach you to play that, but I want you to go home and listen to this.” They gave me everything from The Damned and The Clash to Dead Boys and Dolls. That kind of got me going.

TEENAGE KICKS: I know you had a death rock or Goth band called The Wake.

ADAM: I did that after I came back from L.A. Everyone out there that played guitar was a shred god. I had no interest in shredding at all. It didn’t make any sense to me. So I moved back to Chicago.

There was a real cool Goth scene in Chicago at that time. The Wake was very Sisters of Mercy with a drum machine and everything. I liked the agitated as - Teenage Kicks

San Francisco’s Lustkillers are crusaders. They are committed to bringing true rock n’ roll back and they aren’t fuckin’ around. Adam Becvare explains the band’s mission in this thought provoking chit-chat.

The LustKillers came onto the Bay Area scene, made a big splash, then kinda disappeared. Now you guys are back. What happened?

Ninjas... LustKillers has always been a band of rogue minded mercenaries. That's the magick of it. The SF Chapter was an excuse for good friends to snatch gigs on a last minutes notice. Unfortunately, we were too good at it and the demands impeded on our other projects. In turn, I left American Heartbreak, our guitarist Billy Rowe returned to American Heartbreak and Swingin’ Utters took my drummer Greg McEntee back and recruited my bassist Chuck Worthy on guitar. We all saw it comin’. Perhaps that's why LK played as many shows as we could. We really didn't want it to end. By Spring 2003, I ended up in the UK recording and then touring Europe with Brian James (Damned) and Dave Tregunna(Sham69) as the Lords of the New Church, meanwhile Swingin’ Utters were hittin the States.

Exactly who is in the current line up of the band?

When four brothers go off to war not all of them come back but once a LustKiller, always a LustKiller. It's really just a matter of who's heart's available. Chuck Worthy is still on bass, Mark Bradin (the Flipsides) is on kit, Joe Selby (Three Years Down) is back on guitar. Then there's me, your lustful narrator Adam Becvare.

I read the LustKillers formed in Chicago as a response to the drab days of grunge. When the LustKillers reformed in San Francisco what were you hoping for?

Comradery. I've always enjoyed playing with members from other bands. This was a good way to get the party started. I thrive on improv and LustKillers music allows that to happen. Honestly we just came out of the gates swingin’, lookin to stir up some dark fun. It was so easy until it wasn't anymore.

Do you consider yourselves as a “revivalist” band? There are a lot of bands claiming to bring back rock n’ roll... What's funny to me is some of these LK songs were penned 10 years ago.

Difference is, back then crowds had no clue what we were doing and now it fits right in with the "revivalists." I guess my answer is I've always been playing rock n’ roll. I'm really jazzed to finally hear some good old bashing guitar tones out there again, but there are still too many bands hiding behind Loud and Fast. Only Motorhead and Ramones did that right. As for "the revivalists," LustKillers was here before them and I fear we'll be here after them ‘cuz I'll always write what I want to hear.

Tell us about the Lords of the New church reformation. How can there be a Lords without Stiv Bators?

There can't. The Lords were hijacked and I was essentially brought in so Brian and Dave could play their old songs again and honour the memory of what so many fans miss(ed). The Lords always meant a lot to me growing up but it wasn't just Stiv. Brian and Dave's playing influenced me a great deal. Dave's the tasty bass framework and Brian's the frantic guitar slasher. Stiv was Stiv. The Lords were his vision and we just got to rock the songs. Amen. Recently, Brian asked me to front the Brian James Gang in which we will play Damned, Sham 69, Lords and some solo material.

How will the new LustKillers material differ from Black Sugar Sessions?
Because the next CD will be longer, we can give ya more variety. Beauty is, it all still sound like the LustKillers.

The bands I loved all had that same quality. Clash, Pretenders, Deadboys, etc etc. no matter what style the song, you knew it was them. I think the next LK CD (tentatively titled From Russia with Lust) will just be more of what LustKillers already are because I can finally sing it now.

What’s important to the Lustkillers when you guys hit the stage?

That it ain't on our face... honestly? Gum, white lights and reverb on the mikes. The rest is all telepathy and improv. We like to keep it dark, moody and cheeky.

What’s something that you’d like people to know about the LustKillers?

We're strong enough for a man but made for a woman. We love gum, Guinness, and Black Label scotch. After a year of bootlegs, our Black Sugar Sessions CD is finally legitimately available.

Anything else you wanna throw out there?

We return to the Slim's Stage in SF Thursday, July 29th at 7:30, July 30th TBD and playing Northbeach July 31st. If you ever need a band that rocks like us just remember, we rock like us. - Zero Magazine

Right down the Street from the mag is a very Los Angeles-looking rock club called The Pound. Back in the day. The Pound was some sort of good eats place which featured an amateur stripper or lingerie show or somethin' at lunch time. Seems that lots of folks from the general area would head on over at the sound of the air raid siren (SF's noon wake-up call and daily reminder that we're sitting on top of some of the most radioactive real estate in the free world) for a quick bite and a sneak peak. Now I don't recall much talk of rock at the old Pound-before-the-Pound, but if there were a sound system, The Lust Killers would have been the house band. So I'm not too big on this whole glamy/trashy revival thing, but when you get some cats together who can channel the Blank Generation through a noise that's so much bigger and faster than what came before, I'm all about it. The Killers rise from the ashes of SF's now-defunct American Heartbreak, with the addition of Greg McEntee from the Swingin' Utters on the skins and Chuck Worthy of Belligerents fame (if you were a girlie who frequented the NorCal foothills in the mid-'90s, you remember) on bass. Think Iggy and Lemmy and some blazing harmonical guitar solos for good measure, brother. I'll tell you to check 'em out, which you will because you're all into this rock thing. And leather vests. And pins and aviator glasses.

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- Thrasher Magazine