by Benjamin Joe
Adam Putzer in Mohawk Place. (photograph by Benjamin Joe)
Adam Putzer, a Western New York transplant by way of Staten Island, said that the biggest thing for him when it comes to music is that he doesn’t have a lot to say.
But let’s say that one shouldn’t start complaining.
The former guitarist for the popular three-piece, The Tins, followed his musical aspirations to Buffalo, making it his home and base of operations. For years the band continued its work in music, but eventually went on hiatus — a Christmas present from the COVID 19-pandemic —and Putzer found himself landing in a world of new signposts with new priorities.
“I feel like back in the day I had to struggle for subject matter. I always want my songs to mean something, but it’s also I fully admit (that) I didn’t have a tough childhood. I didn’t have a super tough life unless it was of my own creation. So, it’s not like I had any trauma to sing about. It was always about what was angering me that day,” he said.
But that was soon to change. Putzer’s son was born amidst the pandemic, a harrowing time for anyone, but especially for young parents. Also, because of Covid, no one was touring, though that may as well have been a blessing, because Putzer wasn’t keen on leaving for a month at a time in any case.
“You hear all these horror stories about musicians going on tour and being negligent parents,” Putzer said. “I don’t want to be a negligent parent. I want to be a good dad. I want to be able to see my kid everyday.”
Then, as though things weren’t “heavy” enough, a landmine of news exploded just a few months later.
“It was back in June of 2020. I had just had my kid in February, so we were in lockdown,” Putzer explained.
Putzer said he decided to take a bike ride, get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors. He was a little sore — he doesn’t exercise, he joked, — but that night there was blood in his urine.
“I was like, ‘that’s not normal.’ The rest of my night my kidney felt like something was pushing on it. It was very uncomfortable, I couldn’t sleep.
“The next day I went to the emergency room.”
Putzer said the doctors wanted to do a biopsy of his kidney to see what was going on. The results came in quickly. A test on a piece of his kidney tested positive for cancer. Responsibly, Putzer got a second opinion, then went under the knife.
Now he had two choices. Just wait a year or two to see what happens or do chemotherapy to reduce the risk of it returning. He went with the chemotherapy.
“It was heavy. I lost all my hair. I was on steroids, so my head grew three times the size it is! It was strange. I looked like a dolphin,” he laughed. “But ever since, after I stopped in January (2023), I’ve been good.”
For a long time, Putzer said he regulated his songwriting to “snapshots” or instants in his life. How different things made him feel. For the rest of it, he ran a pretty short shift when it came to perfecting the performance of songs, without getting too much into the lyrics.
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Now, all of that’s changed.
“2020 just threw me for a loop,” he said and laughed. “I now have such a ton of things to sing about.”
Putzer said “Slipping’” was a direct result of his experiences in 2020. In the lyric, “I’m losing my grip, and I’ve got no one to blame but myself,” it’s straightforward in its vulnerability.
“That was in the aftermath of a lot of things,” Putzer said. “My son was born, the band broke up. I was just in a very rough place for a couple of months.”
“Slippin’” and “Blue Shadow” can both be found on streaming under Putzer’s stage name: asalone.
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