FOURTH ESTATE: UW-GB STUDENT NEWSPAPER
12-11-03
"Objects are closer than they appear—--here comes Rearview Mirror"    
an interview with adam ptacek 
 by Amber Smits 
   
 As the weather gets colder, and you’re looking for some hot entertainment, mark 
Dec. 11 on your calendar. That’s when Good Times Programming is going to present 
Adam Ptacek and his band, Rearview Mirror, in the Phoenix rooms at 8 p.m.

Ptacek, the 20-year-old lead singer from the band out of northeast Iowa, agreed to 
share a few moments of his time to answer a couple of questions for the Fourth Estate.

4E: Who are the other members of your band?

Ptacek: My brother, Jason Ptacek, is the bass player, Andy Blessing is the drummer 
and Matt Olson is the guitar player.

4E: How long have you been with your band?

Ptacek: I’d say a total of five or six years, but the band has changed so much that 
it’s almost like a new band, so I’d say more like a year with this (current) band. 
It was kind of a screwy situation.

4E: How is it that your band has changed?

Ptacek: Basically the type of music (has changed), and we got a different drummer. 
It just kind of changed the whole direction of everything and the way we were heading. 
But it’s been really positive. It got us out of a pretty deep rut. We just look at 
it totally as a whole new thing.

4E: How would you describe your band now?

Ptacek: I’d say it’s pretty straight rock music, with some influences of earlier 
classic rock.

4E: What type of venues do you perform at most often?

Ptacek: We play a lot of smaller clubs and bars. We used to do college runs all 
the time, but we’ve been off recording so it’s taken a while to get back to a lot of 
the colleges. It’s happening slowly but surely.

4E: How did you come up with your name?

Ptacek: We needed a name for a show, and we were running out of time to think of a name 
so we just came up with Rearview Mirror. It was a favorite Pearl Jam song of ours. We just 
decided to name it that, and we kind of stuck with it.

4E: What’s your favorite thing about being in a band?

Ptacek: I’d say it’s basically just writing music and hanging out and jamming late 
at night.

4E: Does the band come up with all of its own material?

Ptacek: I come up with the lyrics and the vocal melodies myself, and some of the stuff 
like guitar riffs – but usually it’s just everybody working collectively, coming up with 
his own part and then coming together. Everybody’s part is important to help with the main 
sound of every song. We all contribute pretty equally.

4E: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Ptacek: We’re looking forward to being there and looking forward to checking out the 
college in Green Bay. We’re going to put on a good show.

If you like what you hear from the band, you can purchase their new album off of the Web 
site, www.rvmonline.com. Also available on the Web site are downloadable songs, 
a news archive page, a message forum for fans and a link to find the lyrics to the 
band’s songs.