{"id":432,"date":"2025-05-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/adam-duritz-its-my-world-and-i-love-it\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:00:00","slug":"adam-duritz-its-my-world-and-i-love-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/adam-duritz-its-my-world-and-i-love-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Duritz: \u2018It\u2019s My World and I Love It\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/2021-024_I_0071_R3_Credit-Mark-Seliger.jpg\" width=\"1290\" height=\"968\" alt=\"Adam Duritz (Credit: Mark Seliger)\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>\u201cConnection is a hell of a thing\u2026it\u2019s the life jacket we all need,\u201d <\/strong>says Adam Duritz, frontman of Counting Crows, a band that\u2019s built their 30-year career\u00a0 through heartfelt live performances, emotional lyrics, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2024\/01\/signature-counting-crows-songs-lyrical-themes\/\">recurring, world-building themes<\/a> in their songs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ironic, then, that growing up, Duritz says he didn\u2019t know how to make connections with other people. \u201cWhen I was younger, I was so stuck inside myself,\u201d he tells me from his New York City home. A bunch of movie posters plaster the wall behind him\u2014<em>Seven Samurai <\/em>and <em>Smokey and the Bandit<\/em> among them. He\u2019s wearing a black Raspberries T-shirt, and sports a full black beard and a head full of dark brown hair, albeit thinner and shorter than the dreadlocks he was known for back in the \u201990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/a-day-in-the-life-ofmaddox-batson\/\">A Day in the Life of\u2026Maddox Batson<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/the-who-announce-farewell-tour\/\">The Who Announce Farewell Tour \u2026 Again<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/bumbershoot-2025-lineup\/\">Weezer, Janelle Mon\u00e1e, Bright Eyes Bound For Bumbershoot<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cI had all this stuff I felt, and no way to express it or no way to connect with people because I didn\u2019t talk to people very well, and I didn\u2019t have any way to make connections. I felt so bound up inside myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until later in life that he discovered he was suffering from depersonalization disorder, a condition that makes him feel emotionally detached from his surroundings, and even himself, which can last from minutes to sometimes months. Imagine feeling like you are seeing yourself from outside of your own body, or that everything around you is not real, and you don\u2019t know how to stop it; that\u2019s how Duritz feels a lot of the time. It can be a lonely existence\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Duritz\u2019s father served in the military during the Vietnam War and later became a doctor, which meant the family moved around a lot, only adding to his sense of isolation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really separates you from the world in a lot of bad ways,\u201d Duritz says. \u201cI was always a new kid. I didn\u2019t know people. I really had a lot of questions when I was younger, and I knew something was wrong with me. How am I going to take care of myself? How am I going to live a life? I didn\u2019t really know how any of this was going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he was in college, Duritz discovered, rather spontaneously, that he could write songs and play them. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/M1H7QPKL2pA?si=Ve-JSsUgwzOj91q9\" target=\"_blank\">Good Morning, Little Sister<\/a>\u201d was the first song he ever wrote, about his younger sister who was going through a difficult time as a teenager. For the first time in his life, he says he had a sense of self, of who he was: He was a songwriter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a feeling there was all this stuff inside me that mattered, that was important, but it just was there, like a big ball of feeling,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I write songs, and suddenly it\u2019s this way that connects me to the whole world, and all the things inside me that were stuck because the mental illness had a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, in 1993, two years after forming the Counting Crows with producer-guitarist David Bryson, the band\u2014which by then consisted of Matt Malley on bass, drummer Steve Bowman, and on keyboards, Charlie Gillingham\u2014exploded onto the music scene with its multi-platinum breakout album, <em>August and Everything After<\/em>. Then, in 1996, the group\u2019s sophomore album, <em>Recovering the Satellites,<\/em> debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. <em>Billboard<\/em> 200 album chart, going double platinum.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"995\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-639023858.jpg\" alt=\"The Counting Crows in 1994. (Credit: Dave Tonge\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-463779\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-639023858.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-639023858-340x268.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-639023858-768x606.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-639023858-498x393.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Counting Crows in 1994. (Credit: Dave Tonge\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Counting Crows has released a number of live albums and compilations over the years, as well as five studio records, including its latest, <em>Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!<\/em>, the band\u2019s first in seven years.<\/p>\n<p>As Duritz describes it, the new record is \u201cso rock and roll.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not to be confused with the band\u2019s 2021 EP, <em>Butter Miracle: Suite One, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! <\/em>is a sequel of sorts to its predecessor. Duritz tells me he wrote <em>Suite One<\/em> as a challenge to himself, to see if he could write one long-playing, continuous piece of music. The result was, well, a suite of four songs: \u201cThe Tall Grass,\u201d \u201cElevator Boots,\u201d \u201cAngel of 14th Street,\u201d and \u201cBobby and the Rat-Kings.\u201d But it was also his answer to how people listen to music now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if anyone\u2019s listening to whole records,\u201d says Duritz. \u201cPeople are digesting music in different ways anyway, so to me, it felt like since I was moved to challenge myself to make this 20-minute piece of music where the songs all flow together, it was just <em>that<\/em>, you know? But I really loved how it turned out. I thought well, it does make sense to make another half to this, though.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CC_BMCS_TOUR_AdMat_ALLDATES_1080x1350_F.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-463863\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CC_BMCS_TOUR_AdMat_ALLDATES_1080x1350_F.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CC_BMCS_TOUR_AdMat_ALLDATES_1080x1350_F-340x425.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CC_BMCS_TOUR_AdMat_ALLDATES_1080x1350_F-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CC_BMCS_TOUR_AdMat_ALLDATES_1080x1350_F-498x623.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\"><\/figure>\n<p>The <em>Complete Sweets <\/em>includes remixed versions of the songs on <em>Suite One<\/em>, along with five new songs, including the band\u2019s latest singles, \u201cSpaceman in Tulsa\u201d and \u201cUnder the Aurora.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the road to get there wasn\u2019t so easy. Going back to his friend\u2019s farm in West England, where he wrote <em>Suite One<\/em>, Duritz composed the other half of the album and on his way home, he stopped in London to sing backing vocals on the Gang of Youths\u2019 album, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gangofyouths.com\/music\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Angel in Realtime<\/em><\/a>. When the band sent him the finished product, he thought it was one of the best records he had heard in a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was so blown away listening to it, and I had this realization that these songs on their record were significantly better than the stuff I\u2019d written,\u201d he says. \u201cThe stuff lacked a sort of passion that these songs had and they were missing something, and I needed to go back to the drawing board.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So, that\u2019s what he did. And through the process of reworking his new songs, Duritz pushed himself like he\u2019d never done before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d never really had this experience before of thinking I\u2019d finished something and then realizing it wasn\u2019t good enough,\u201d he tells me. \u201cThey were a little more ambitious musically, to the point where I couldn\u2019t play them myself. Usually, I can tell a song is good because I can just play it for myself. But these were really difficult for me to play. I had them in my head, but I couldn\u2019t recreate them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As much as he loved his new material, he lacked the confidence to share it with the rest of the band.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So he sat on it for two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then a breakthrough happened. He wrote \u201cWith Love, from A-Z.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/Credit-Mark-Seliger2021-024_M_0053_R1-2.jpg\" alt=\"(Credit: Mark Seliger)\" class=\"wp-image-462876\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/Credit-Mark-Seliger2021-024_M_0053_R1-2.jpg 1125w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/Credit-Mark-Seliger2021-024_M_0053_R1-2-340x453.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/Credit-Mark-Seliger2021-024_M_0053_R1-2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/04\/Credit-Mark-Seliger2021-024_M_0053_R1-2-498x664.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Mark Seliger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI knew that was great. I loved that song,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it felt like, in a way, an updating of \u2018Round Here.\u2019 Whereas that\u2019s a real statement of a person and where they are in life, just as a kid getting ready to go out into the world and make something. And to me, \u2018With Love, from A-Z\u2019 was a statement of where I am today. And I really felt it worked and it was very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a renewed sense of confidence, Duritz invited band members David Immergl\u00fcck (guitar), Jim Bogios (drums), and Millard Powers (bass) to his house to play his new songs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks later, along with the rest of the group, Duritz ripped through the tracks in the studio in 11 days. Then, together with Chad Blake, the Counting Crows mixed the new songs, combining them with the remixed <em>Suite One <\/em>tracks, making a complete, nine-track LP.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the<em> Suite [One]<\/em> sounds different now than it did originally because we remade it to match the first half,\u201d he says. \u201cThe two pieces fit together really well. It was a different experience\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the title of the album, <em>Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, <\/em>has a bit of a nonsensical tone to it, the themes that run through it are quite serious and incredibly relevant to what\u2019s going on in America now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoxcars,\u201d for instance, is about the deportation of immigrants. \u201cUnder the Aurora\u201d was inspired by the murder of George Floyd during the pandemic. Other songs cover the objectification of women and trans kids in sports.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the stuff on this record is about people in isolation and people on the outside looking in, finding ways to get through life. Sometimes it works out because we can pick up a guitar,\u201d says Duritz, referring to himself.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"784\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2149563491.jpg\" alt=\"The Counting Crows perform at the Greek Theatre in1997. (Credit: Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-463780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2149563491.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2149563491-340x222.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2149563491-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2149563491-498x325.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Counting Crows perform at the Greek Theatre in1997. (Credit: Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Duritz says that after more than 30 years together, he and the band are still fascinated with the process of making music, exploring new ways to perform older songs live, never replicating the same old playlists during their shows, and, as with the group\u2019s new album, finding new ways to write songs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe enjoy playing music,\u201d he says. \u201cI love being in a band. I don\u2019t want to be a solo artist. I like the jazz of being in a band. I think we matter to each other. I\u2019ve watched my friends fuck up great bands. I don\u2019t want to do that. There are a million ways to justify why things should fall apart. You just have to decide whether that\u2019s okay to let it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The musical landscape is a lot different than when <em>August and Everything After<\/em> debuted, when the only option to hear it was to buy the album at the record store or borrow (or copy) it from a friend. Exposure meant getting a single played on the radio or creating a music video for MTV. The rise of streaming music, of course, has changed all of that; it\u2019s all the music you want, anytime you want, making it more difficult for artists to stay relevant, to build a fanbase, to connect with an audience. The Counting Crows are still passionate about being in a rock \u2018n roll band.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m 30-some-odd years into a career here; a career that lasts five minutes for most people, if it even happens,\u201d Duritz says. \u201cAnd we\u2019re still a band and we\u2019re still going on tour. And it\u2019s still cool. There are bands that are bigger and, it\u2019s not effortless, but it\u2019s still happening. That thing that saved me when I was a kid is still saving me now. It\u2019s my world, and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cConnection is a hell of a thing\u2026it\u2019s the life jacket we all need,\u201d says Adam Duritz, frontman of Counting Crows, a band that\u2019s built their 30-year career\u00a0 through heartfelt live&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,83,31,24,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-duritz","category-counting-crows","category-features","category-pushly","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}