Shawn Adams

**Shawn Adams** is an American musician and the lead vocalist for the American rock band, American Dream Machine.

## Early Life

Shawn Adams grew up playing music and sports in Northern Virginia alongside his younger brother, Jamie. His father Thomas “Big Al” Adams passed away on August 4th, 2005. Adams has stated in multiple interviews that his fathers passing was a major source of growth and inspiration, both musically and in his personal life.

## Career

**Madison Apart (2005-2007)**

In the summer of 2005, Adams joined the band *Madison Apart* at the age of 15, playing Bass. The band was beloved in the Northern Virginia scene, and had a cult-like following. Adams left the band in 2007.

**Satellites On Parade (2009-2015)**

In 2009, life long friends Jon Yi, Nick Carlucci, Brandon Yi, Eli Fiorillo, and Shawn Adams started writing and recording music for what would eventually become *Satellites On Parade.* This is the first band featuring Adams on lead vocals. Their self-produced EP entitled ‘*Lady, you shot me’,* was released in 2009 and quickly caught attention in the post-hardcore scene. In 2011, bassist Eli Fiorillo left the band and was replaced by Jimi York. Their second EP entitled ‘*Miles*’ (2013) was produced by Grammy Winning producer Sean Small (Lizzo, Kieth Urban). After a short hiatus, the band came back together in 2015, releasing three more songs with sister-band *Kodiak* on a self-titled split EP, also produced by Sean Small.

**Bet On Black - (2012-2014)**

Bet on Black was founded in 2006 by singer/guitarist Andrew Goldstein and screamer Bobby Faithful. The band quickly gained notoriety in the D.C. area but would eventually take a back seat to Goldstein’s pop-punk/emo band *The Friday Night Boys* (Fueled By Ramen). Goldstein would eventually go on to produce and write for major artists such as *All Time Low*, *Blackbear*, and *Travis Barker*. In 2012 the band reformed, writing a self titled full length record produced by both Sean Small and Andrew Goldstein. Adams was recruited by screamer Bobby Faithful to play guitar and sing back-up vocals, but would eventually split the job of lead vocalist with singer/guitarist Kevin Famoso after Goldstein took a step back to pursue his writing/producing career.

**Lakeshore (2016-2018)**

In 2016, Adams joined brothers Ben and Joe Lionetti (Emmure), Mitch LoBuglio, and Chris Segovia as lead vocalist of their latest musical endeavor *Lakeshore.* The bands debut EP ‘*41*’, produced by Ken Susi (Unearth), garnered national attention and climbed to #3 on *Billboard.* In 2017 they were invited on to the Vans Warped Tour, playing the upper north east leg. Following the success of ‘*41*’, the band took their newly written songs to producer/songwriter Kile Odell (Motionless in White, Nita Strauss), for their second EP ‘*Secret Weapons*’. This process, however, would be plagued by infighting, creative differences, and drug abuse, leading to Adams’s departure in 2018 to pursue his own sound and band. This would lead to the formation of American Dream Machine.

### **Throwing Back Sunday (2018- present)**

Starting around 2018, Adams began performing with an emo cover band entitled *Throwing Back Sunday,* a play on the name *Taking Back Sunday,* the notable rock band formed in Long Island.

### **American Dream Machine (2020 - present)**

With a backlog of songs Adams had been writing since high-school, he found a job as a waiter and saved enough money to record an album on his own. On March 19th, 2020, Adams announced on his official Instagram page that his newest musical project would be a new band called **American Dream Machine**, joined by former band mates Evan Milowic and Mitch LoBuglio, and long-time friend Scotty Murphy. Like the rest of the word, their momentum was soon halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting a delay in releasing their debut full-length album ‘*Deadhearts*’, produced and co-written by Kile Odell and Josh Landry. ‘*Deadhearts*’ was released in Dec 2020, while the band was in Nashville hard at work on their second record ‘*I Hate it Here*’. Not even a week into recording, the entire band contracted Covid and spent the next 10 days in quarantine. However, Adams and Odell would continue writing by sending videos of ideas and guitar parts back and forth. Adams would make three more trips to Nashville over the next two years, and the album was finally completed in July of 2022 with a total of 17 songs. ‘*I Hate It Here*’ is set to release later this year

## Hobbies

Aside from music, Adams enjoys playing street hockey, cooking, reading, and is an avid gamer.

## Personal Life

Shawn is in a relationship with a woman named Victoria Dinan.[1][2]

## Quotes

* *“Practice, practice, practice, Find what you love, and never let it go.”*