Welcome to Style Weekly’s musical spotlight on emerging artists poised to make waves in and around Richmond. This time out, we spoke with Dhemo guitarist and songwriter Jake Adams, whose latest collection of jazz-soaked alternative rock, “Chasing Smiles,” arrives on Thursday, April 3. A release show at The Camel will follow on Saturday, April 5.
Adams’ music has a liquid feel to it, with vocals that slink and stretch to form melodies. The guitar work offers chordal complexity and fluidity in equal measure. These qualities shimmer brightly on “Chasing Smiles,” which was recorded when Adams and their bandmates—bassist Ryan Gary, dummer Alec Gary and multi-instrumentalist Nathanael Clark—were fresh off their first tour as Dhemo.
Style Weekly: How did you get your start as a musician?
Jake Adams: I started playing music in middle school. I love music. I used to listen to soundtracks, and I was obsessed. I loved listening to the radio all the time. I would have the radio on next to my bed. My parents got me an acoustic guitar, but back then I was into metal [laughs], so I would learn, like, System of a Down songs on the acoustic guitar… Then I had my little singer-songwriter phase, and I was into stuff like Coldplay and Iron and Wine. So I started doing singer-songwriter type of stuff in high school. Then around the end of high school, I got obsessed with jazz. Like, ‘I only want to listen to jazz.’ I was super-obsessed with it and started practicing the shit out of it…
I ended up going to [VCU] for jazz, and that’s where I met everybody that I ended up doing music with—the whole music scene in Richmond. I grew up in the Richmond area, but I wasn’t really in tune with the musicians in the scene. I knew about Butcher Brown, No BS! Brass, a bunch of other local bands. but I wasn’t in the scene until I went to music school. That’s where I met a lot of people, started performing and met people like McKinley [Dixon], met the people in Dhemo.
Who helped shape the direction your sound has taken so far?
There’s a reason why my band has been the same band since it started, for the most part… Alec [Gary], Ryan [Gary] and Nate [Clark] are huge. I couldn’t have done it without them. At this point, the chemistry is so deep and it’s such a beautiful thing. I can have an idea and present it to them, and [in an] instant we’re locked in. Playing music with them feels like I could just lean back, and we can ride the wave of the feelings. It’s just so easy with them. They’ve really made the sound be able to come to life, and it wouldn’t be possible without all three of them.
Are there any past shows that have felt especially significant for you?
A big turning point was actually last year. We did our first tour as Dhemo. I had toured with McKinley, and I’ve done some traveling with Benét, and I love traveling for music. I love it. I’ve always dreamed of doing it with my own band. So that was really special, even though it was just a couple days. It was a four-day little sprint where we did North and South Carolina and Richmond. It was a big personal milestone, because I did it all myself. It took a lot of work… Then right after the tour, we recorded this album. I feel like that tour made it so locked and tight, and then directly after that, we were in [Go West Recording] studio for two or three days.
That’s such a great way to head into the studio—fresh off the road.
The past two albums were totally opposite. This is my first time ever doing it in an actual studio, because previously it was just at home. We would record it as we were writing it, before we had even played the songs a lot… The fact that we were able to really flesh out the songs and play them live and jam out on them and then record, it felt so much more natural and so much more fluid as a project.
What are you especially looking forward to about this show?
It’s my dream lineup. I love Night Idea. I love Cassidy Snider. I’m gonna be geeking out the whole night watching them play. I’m also excited because for our set, we’re going to do the whole album front to back live. I’ve never done that for any other projects before. I’m really excited to see how that feels—doing that in front of an audience … And it’s gonna be the full band. We’re gonna have backup vocalists, Nate’s gonna be on the keys and the synth, so I’m really excited about all those things.
What else is on the horizon that we should keep an eye out for?
I’ve [got] some more really cool shows booked. I really would like to book more in different cities. That’s the dream, but it’s just so hard to do that nowadays. I just need to get more locked in with that.
I started working on the next album. I’m pretty deep in that one. So I’m excited about that, but that’s definitely not 2025… It’s been exciting to be really into the thing that’s about to come out but be super-excited about the future, too. I’m trying to go in a new direction.
The “Chasing Smiles” release show will take place at The Camel on Saturday, April 5. Dhemo, Cassidy Snider & the Wranglers and Night Idea will perform. Doors open at 8 p.m. and starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance ($12 at the door) and can be purchased at thecamel.org. To hear and purchase “Chasing Smiles,” visit dhemo.bandcamp.com.
