An Interview with Adam Agee: On Stellar Kart, Twenty Years of “We Can’t Stand Sitting Down,” and Faith in Hard Seasons.

It is hard to believe that Stellar Kart’s hit album We Can’t Stand Sitting Down was released twenty years ago. That album featured chart toppers like “Me and Jesus” and “Activate.” It won multiple Dove Awards and launched Stellar Kart into the top echelon of Christian punk. Recently, we got the opportunity to talk to lead singer Adam Agee about the legacy of that album, along with what life has been like post-Stellar Kart, and could fans expect to see a Stellar Kart comeback? 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Thanks for sitting down with us. Over the years, you’ve been the front man for Stellar Kart, Newsboys, and Audio Adrenaline. What are you up to these days?

Adam: Oh man! Since I got off the road last year, I’ve been doing a bunch of songwriting, while helping to mentor and manage Grace Graber. She’s a young artist that’s got a similar taste in music to me, with the punk rock stuff, then also helping to book shows at an agency called Platform Artists, getting to book my friends like TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, Third Day and all those guys. They’re just an amazing team. So I’ve been doing some more behind-the-scenes stuff than out on stage. Then getting to lead worship in my local church. Just kind of doing a bunch of stuff and staying busy not touring.

Solid Rock Unplugged: This year celebrates twenty years of We Can’t Stand Sitting Down. I’m trying to fathom that it’s been twenty years since it was released! How does that feel for you as an artist?

Adam: Well first of all, I don’t feel like I’m that old. It seems impossible! But then also, my daughter turns twenty this year too, so it’s just crazy how time flies. We were all kids doing that. Maybe we were no longer teenagers when that came out, but a lot of the guys were fresh out of high school when we started the band. We were just young kids getting to live the dream for a minute and tour the world. I’m forever grateful for those guys and the memories we got to make together. We had a killer team around us with our label, our booking agency, and our management, so many other bands that took us out on tour with them. Yeah, we had a fun little run for a punk rock band. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: We got to see you guys perform several times over the years and it was always fun and energetic. From We Can’t Stand Sitting Down, do you have a favorite song? What was your favorite to play live?

Adam: Probably the favorite because of what it did would be “Me And Jesus.” I think it was a special song that so many people connected with and there’s so many stories that came out of that song. It was actually the second time that we wrote with our producer, Ian Eskalin. The first song we wrote with him was “Activate,” which is another one of my favorites from that record. The second we went in to write, we wrote “Me And Jesus.” 

I remember it was super special to me because it was kind of the first song that we realized how big of an impact that music could have on people and how it can even be life or death. We had a girl come up to us after a show and say that the song helped her get through an evening where she was considering ending her life. That kind of stuff was really special. Knowing that we could play a small part through our music in helping people, just stick around and try to work through it, and then hopefully help them on their journey. I think it was a really special one for that.

Live, there were so many great moments. I still get a lot of people talking about the first track, “Procrastinating,” which is literally a song I started writing at 3 A.M. It’s in the lyrics. I remember recording it in the studio vividly just because we were just crazy in the studio. It’s so high energy and we were trying to pack every ounce of energy we could into the track. I think it actually transferred onto the track. You can kind of feel how sleep deprived and crazy and everything we were. It was a great time!

Solid Rock Unplugged: The other day I was showing my son the music video for “Innocent” and he was cracking up at the breakdancing scene. I enjoy having him listen to the stuff I grew up listening to.

Adam: Some of it holds up! There’s some really fun tracks. Our music videos were always one of my favorite things about getting to be in the band. We had a friend, his name is Otis. He’s a killer director, and lives in New York City. He, for whatever reason, just took a liking to us and called in all of his favors and brought in his buddies who were big time producers and videographers and everything. We had a dream team on some of those music videos. They look like they’re just the most expensive, most amazing movies. He did them for next to nothing. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: I like watching “Activate.” It’s so fun watching you guys go from this clean cut image, then transition to your different personalities coming out. 

Adam: Yeah, that’s definitely one of my favorites. It was inspired by one of our favorite movies as a band that we would watch. Back in the day, you just had a few movies that were in the van or on the bus that you could watch. We had DVD’s. We didn’t have a whole streaming system. One of the movies we had was called “That Thing You Do.” They were all these 1960s rockers. They were all buttoned up and looking good. We tried to capture a little bit of that. Then we got transformed into more modern day punk rockers. I guess modern day is now 20 years ago, so that’s cool.

Solid Rock Unplugged: For you personally, what were some of your musical influences during your time with Stellar Kart, Audio A, and some of the other projects you’ve been a part of?

Adam: Musically, one of the biggest albums that inspired us with Stellar Kart would probably be some of the Blink-182 stuff, some of the Green Day stuff like American Idiot, and then any of those pop punk bands, All-American Rejects, Sum 41, all that kind of stuff. That was definitely our inspiration for a lot of those punk rock tracks. Back in the day, I always listened to Def Leppard and Motley Crue and some of the old 80s metal ballads and everything. I loved all that stuff.

But then in the Christian world, I listened to Audio Adrenaline and DC Talk and Newsboys, just some of those great bands from back in the 90s. I was just massively inspired by Audio Adrenaline. Even when Mark asked me to front the band, I’m like “I’m just going to use all your moves because I stole them anyway for Stellar Kart, so it’s going to be a natural thing.” It was cool to get to do that and to just be a part of some of the bands that I loved growing up.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Did you find yourself under a lot of pressure, either self-induced or outside, being the front man for Audio A? 

Adam: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I just wanted to do it justice. I wanted to do it as well as I could, to try to serve the band and the sound and the fans that were fans of the songs. I wanted to make sure they could come and hear the songs the way that they wanted to hear the songs, because that’s how I would want to do it as a fan. So yeah, just the pressure to do it right. But then ultimately, once you put in the work and you work your hardest to make it as good as you can, going out there and doing it was just very enjoyable. I had a great time and making new memories with old memories was really fun.

Solid Rock Unplugged: When thinking about the 20th anniversary of You Can’t Stand Sitting Down, the biggest question on everybody’s mind is: “Is there any chance of a Stellar Kart reunion?”

Adam: Oh man, I don’t know. I’ll never say never on stuff. Jordan and I have talked a little bit about maybe doing something. You never know what might happen. We’ve talked on and off over the years, so I don’t know. I’ll say there’s nothing officially in the works right now, but you never know.  I certainly don’t know what the future holds and what God has in store. If that’s something that He feels like it’s something that should happen, then He’ll make it happen. You never know!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Well, if it ever comes to be and you’re in need of a venue, we’d love to host you in Central PA!

Adam: I’ll tell you what, Central PA was so good to us. We probably played a hundred shows in Central PA over the years because you guys were so great. We always had the best shows and the best promoters and the best fans. We really, really enjoyed playing that area of the country.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Looking at where you’re at now, what ways do you see God working in your life right now?

Adam: I think He’s always worked on me with patience and trusting Him, especially in this last season. Life’s hard. Life’s difficult. It’s not really linear ever. It’s always kind of up and down. When it’s up, it’s great. When it’s down, it’s like, “Man, where do I go? Where do I go? Who am I leaning on? What am I doing to get through this?” Each time, it’s kind of been in a low season, especially this last year. For whatever reason, I’ve felt like God’s just drawn me closer to Him to deal with it. I know it’s a choice, but it’s also one of those things where even if I try to be like “You know what, I’m over this or I’m not feeling it right now,” He has a way of bringing me back. And there’s nothing else that makes it okay. There’s nothing else that gives me that peace and that calm and that it’s going to be okay. There’s no way to explain it other than it’s got to be the Spirit. 

So that's what He’s taught me. Just rely completely on Him and He’s going to direct the path and we’ll see where it goes. You never know what He’s got in store. Sometimes it’s fun and it’s a great, rewarding season and you’re doing stuff that you love. Then there’s other times where it’s hard and it doesn’t make sense and the answers aren’t there. Those are the hard times.  But through all of those times, He’s never left. He’s always shown up. He’s always there. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Within the last five years, are there any newer Christian rock or punk rock bands that really stand out to you?

Adam: It’s been fun getting to speak into Grace Graber’s music a little, with her trying to forge her way and everything. I think she definitely gets the pop punk stuff as much as anybody does. There are a couple of other bands that are doing some cool rock stuff. I know there’s a band called Hopeful. that’s cool. I love those guys. They’re awesome. There’s a couple of good ones out there, but honestly I’ve not been listening to as much of the new Christian music, so I’m a bad person to ask about that. I’m just old school. You know how a lot of times you listen to the same music that you did when you were in high school and college? I’m guilty of that, man. I always go back to that stuff. I’m a little old school on that.

Solid Rock Unplugged: Nothing wrong with a little bit of old school! Do you happen to have any good tour stories, either Stellar Kart or any of your other bands?

Adam: Bro, I need to write a book on tour stories. There are so many that are all the way from insane, “How did we survive that?” to just incredible moments. It’s hard to pick one, but I’ll give you one from the Stellar Kart era that kind of describes us a little bit. I don’t want to say exactly where we are because they might still be looking for us, but we were playing this youth event at a hotel on the beach. I think it was South Carolina. We played the event in the ballroom, it was great. We go upstairs to our hotel rooms. We had two hotel rooms in this tall high rise. We’re on the 10th floor or whatever. 

All of the sudden, we’re basically in bed and I hear this bunch of ruckus outside. Guys are running down the hall and they start knocking on the door next to us, when our drummer and bass player, Jordan and Brian, are in the other room. Cody and I are in our room. It’s like a SWAT team is beating on their door, literally. They’ve got full riot gear on. I’m like, “What’s happening?” I text Jordan and he’s like, “Our room is flooded!” I said, “What do you mean, your room is flooded?” He’s like, “I don’t know!”

It turns out that Brian had used the restroom, gone to bed and I guess the toilet just kept running and running and running. They called his room, and when he got up, he stepped in a flood of water in his room. He was like, “Oh no!” Apparently it had leaked down through the walls and the light fixtures, all the way down to the sixth floor. They were getting complaints everywhere. They got us out of our room. We got all of our stuff, we went and put our stuff in the van, and we just took off and left. I don’t know what happened, because I’m like, “I can’t afford to pay for all of this stuff!” I don’t know what was going on. That was a mess in South Carolina. It’s still unresolved, but it gives you a little glimpse into what it was like touring with Stellar Kart. You never knew what was going to happen!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Is there anything from touring that you miss?

Adam: There’s nothing like the community of the road. The best feeling in the world is finishing a show, you just rocked out to 20 people or 20,000 people. You finish up the show, you tear down, and you’re sitting in your van or bus, hanging out with your bros. You’re talking about the show and just hanging out. I don’t know, there’s nothing like it!. We don’t get that kind of daily community with friends, really, because we’ve all got families. Everybody’s got busy lives and stuff like that. You might get together once a week or whatever with your friends, maybe once a month, but we get to do it multiple nights a week. 

There’s nothing like the friendships on the road and getting to hang. That’s probably what I miss the most is hanging out with all my friends night after night. Doing shows and obviously hanging with the fans, getting to travel around and see friends all over the country and internationally. It’s really, really a perk of the job. Getting to see people I wouldn’t otherwise get to see very often, getting to see them once or twice a year on the road. That was good too. 

Solid Rock Unplugged: Do you still talk to the guys in Stellar Kart?

Adam: Yeah, a couple of them. Just try to stay in touch and hang whenever we can, when we’re in the same city!

Solid Rock Unplugged: Is there anything else you’d like to say to the fans?

Adam: I’m grateful that anybody listened to our music and enjoyed our music. Hopefully it was a good memory for them with Stellar Kart. I know we had a great time. We had a great time because of the fans! The fans came to shows and back then bought our music. Now they stream it. I’m grateful to anybody who was ever a Stellar Kart fan or may still be!

Check out our throwback review of We Can’t Stand Sitting Down! Go follow Adam on Facebook and Instagram to see what he’s up these days.