Page 61 - ION Indie Magazine SeptOct 2020

Adam Lufkin’s love for making beats and rhymes started well before
fourth grade. In an interview with ION Indie Magazine, Lufkin said, “My
assistant principal in fourth grade helped me. I was always moving
around, drumming on the desk. One day, he came down to my
classroom and told me to go with him to the auditorium.” Lufkin followed
the assistant principal, worried he was in trouble, “When I got to the
auditorium, there was a drum kit set up. He asked me if I wanted to
learn to play!” Adam excitedly got behind the drum kit, learning the
basics of drumming, the boom chick, that day.

By the time Adam was in middle school, he had picked up his older
brother’s guitar. “I learned how to play Big Gun by AC/DC in one night,”
Lufkin said with a smile. Lufkin stuck with guitar as his main instrument
throughout high school, forming his first band called Cardosa. Adam
described Cardosa as a jam band similar in musical style to Dave
Matthews. By this time, Lufkin had taught himself to play piano, using
the music theory he knew from guitar.

Adam attended the University of Colorado majoring in Music
Performance. “One of my professors was the Mr. Miyagi of music. He
would be looking at the window, not even watching me play and say,
‘Wrong finger.’ I’d say, ‘How can you even know that?’ He helped me a
lot.” Lufkin said laughing.

Around the same time, Lufkin formed a band named Kinetix. A
combination of jam, funk, and party rock, Kinetix found great success
touring the country playing large festivals. Eventually, the drummer of
the band left to join the Navy. The band fizzled out shortly after and
Adam began playing solo gigs in and around Denver, Colorado.