Five Questions with The Two Tens

The Two Tens are Adam Bones and Rikki Styxx, two garage rockers who hail from Los Angeles. They are currently on their Hashtag Volume Tour, and are in the midst of conquering America one gig at a time.

Bright and sassy, they are one part lip-smackin' bubble gum and two parts jaw breaker. While their smiles may be conspicuous, they aren't out to woo you with deep thought provoking lyrics and over saturated chord progressions. Just straight forward in your face smash rock. This is the band that your big sister never told you about, because she didn't want you stealing her records.

They roll into Des Moines tonight to play Vaudeville Mews. Show starts at 9:30 with Nowns and The Holy Rattlesnakes opening.








What is the untold backstory of The Two Tens?


Adam: All parts of the backstory have been told and have been truthful. Nothing has been untold. Rikki was the drummer in the last lineup of my solo project. I started to get burnt on that and decided to strip things down and write more punk style songs and not censor myself in the song writing process. I approached Rikki about the duo idea because not only is she a great drummer, but she's just fun to hang out with. She was into it and the rest is history.

Rikki: The truth is, Adam is my musical soul brother and bleeds rock n roll. He's also one of my best friends so it makes playing music fun. It just works.

You guys put more music into a 2 minute song than most bands put into music that's much longer. What is the secret to cutting a good GARAGE tune?


Adam: I like a song, garage or otherwise, to has to have a good hook. Something that grabs me and that I can sing along to. I like to make sure that there's an element of "grabbing you" in the songs... in more ways than one, hehehe.

Rikki: I like a song that's high energy, in-yo-face and makes you feel something.

Adam Bones and Rikki Styxx: Two Tens

Finish this sentence: This tour will be a complete success if:

Adam: We truly have a great time, meet cool people and not end up wanting to kill one another. I don't think we'll have an issue accomplishing any of these things.
Rikki: We make some new fans and some lifetime memories.

Have you been in Des Moines before? Do you have any impressions of Des Moines? Have you heard of Des Moines?


Adam: Ha, I have heard of Des Moines. I have played Des Moines once years ago with an old band I was in. I can't remember the name of the venue. We didn't really get to explore the city or do a whole lot, being on tour and all. But I can remember everyone being nice and the highlight was making friends with local band, North of Grand. I really like their albums.

Rikki: Well I don't even know how to pronounce the name right so......Adam keeps having to correct me. Ha!

Tell me about the worst gig you ever had.


Rikki: Any show that is at an upstairs venue with no elevators. And no roadie. No seriously, can't really remember a bad one.

Adam: I try to make the best of all gigs. So I can't really think off the top of my head of a completely hellacious show. However, my previous band played a festival-type arts and music event. The pitch of the event made it seem like it was going to be packed and a blast. It was quite the opposite. We played a big room in the LA Convention Center to about 10 people. And on top of that, our lead guitar player got in a car crash on his way to the gig and never made it. We went on and still made the best of it, but it was a weird day. Silver lining... we got to see TJ Miller do an improved stand-up routine. Improved because he too did not have an audience. I thought he was hilarious.

What would you do if you learned that Donald Trump was using your music during campaign stops?


Adam: Politics schmolitics... boring...

Rikki: Freedom of speech, but I probably would make a personal statement that (I) don't support him.

What else does the world need to know about The Two Tens?


Adam: They need to know that we love what we do and we want them to love what we do as well. Come see us at our shows and say hi, we'd love to meet you.

Rikki: I like to give sweaty hugs out after the show! Boom!

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The Two Tens Official