Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler, who has already had several business ventures outside of his band has formed a new management company. Kintsugi Management is a partnership and artist management brand with music industry executive Jason Lekberg. The firm’s first client is legendary UK death metal group Dyscarnate. Adler commented on the company on his recent appearance on the Unstoppable Recording Machine podcast.
Adler commented about Kintsugi:
“I’m not very good at sitting around and doing nothing, so if [LAMB OF GOD] is not on tour, if we’re not writing, we’re not recording, I’m still playing a lot of drums, going to the gym a lot, but I kind of find a lot of downtime, and I don’t wanna allow myself that and get in trouble or something. So I’ve been thinking about it for a while and just kind of waiting for the right band to come around.
“Our product manager and digital sales guy at Epic Records is a guy named Jason Lekberg,” he continued. “And we’d keep in touch once a month, or whatever, and we’d send each a list of bands, like, ‘Oh, have you heard this?’ kind of thing, and then we’ll kind of debate back and forth. And I guess it was about a month ago, I was having one of those calls with him, and we both, at the same time, said, ‘I don’t really have a list this time; I just have one band.’ And he’s, like, ‘It’s crazy. Me too.’ Well, the band that I was referring to was this band called Dyscarnate from the U.K.”
Adler said that he was blown away by Dyscarnate’s latest album, 2017’s “With All Their Might”. “I have not had goosebumps like when I listen to their newest record since I heard ‘Symbolic’ [from DEATH], and every time I listen to it, it’s still just goosebumps over and over,” he said. “So [Jason] and I are talking about this, we both independently go out to see the band, who totally crush it live as well, and get to know the guys — they’re super cool, they’re super fun. But just talking to ’em about the things Jason and I know about — and they’re still a fairly young band — and realizing they really don’t have a team of any kind working with them. The drummer is doing much of the work. They are signed to a small label in Florida, but there’s really not anybody kind of behind them. So Jason and I decided to start a management company just for this band. It’s called Kintsugi Management, and we’re heading down to Florida to talk to the label people. We’ve had meetings with everybody else in the U.K., where they are, and the people they have over here in the U.S. And we’re starting it up, taking ’em on. We’ve done a deal with them and [are] really looking forward to working with these guys over the next couple of years.”
Adler and Lekberg have adopted modest and realistic goals for their company with an eye on keeping Dyscarnate playing and recording for the long-term future.
“We both know most of the potholes around the world, both in business and touring, and I really wanna help these guys because they are incredible and they’re still friends,” Adler explained. “And I see ’em playing to 12 people for a bag of chips, and it’s, like, man, that shit will burn you out so fast, and there’s so much talent in this band that I wanna kind of help ensure that they have the ability to have somebody else doing the fighting while they continue to be friends as long as possible and keep writing stuff.”
Adler was forced to sit out some of Lamb of God’s shows this summer due to undergoing physical and occupational therapy for injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident late last year. Art Cruz (Prong, Winds of Plague) subbed in for him on leg two of Slayer’s farewell tour. In addition, Adler has been a restaurateur and has played drums with a number of metal artists, including Megadeth, Nitro, Blotted Science and Protest The Hero.