Submitted by Unknown on 2002-04-30
Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Source: Zap2It.com

In the universe of UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Adam Busch plays Warren Meers, a techno-wiz (introduced last season as the builder of the BuffyBot) who is attempting to take over the small world of Sunnydale, Calif....

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In real life, Busch is a member of a self-described funk-folk band called Common Rotation, whose motto is "Different folk to rule the world."

While attempting global domination on both the TV and music fronts might seem daunting, Busch doesn't see a problem. "I've always done both," he says. "As long as I've been doing one, I've been doing the other. I don't see why I should choose. If everything keeps going in the direction that it's going, and I keep living the same kind of life that I am, then I should never have to."

The native Long Islander currently juggles recurring appearances on "Buffy" with recording and touring with the band. While Busch readily acknowledges that the band's actual leader is singer-guitarist Eric Kufs, he also admits that it's his "Buffy" fame that brings a lot of bodies through the door.

"A lot of the kids who come to see the band hear about it through some 'Buffy' Website or something like that. They come down, and they really like the music, and they stay, they keep coming back. If 'Buffy' is going to bring them there, then I'm all for it."

"But if you want to keep them, and have it be about something other than your relationship to a television show, that's where the quality of the product has to really step in."

Whether on its own or opening for such acts as They Might Be Giants, Common Rotation tours on both coasts and has released its own CDs. A recent gig at music club 14 Below in Santa Monica, Calif., sold out in under 12 hours -- but it's hard to say whether that was fans of "Common Ro," as the band is affectionately known, or fans of the other act on the bill, "Buffy" regular James Marsters.

Either way, Busch feels that once people see the band live, they're likely to be hooked. "Playing live with the guys is just ... I don't know anything that's better than that, that I've experienced. It's theater, and it's song, and it's rock and roll. It just feels like an experiment is happening. It feels like something really important is going on, and I love that. I love feeling like that."

The juggling act has become a bit more complicated this season, as Busch's role on "Buffy" has increased. Seen in two episodes last season, Warren has joined forces this year with two science-fiction obsessed geeks -- Andrew (Tom Lenk) and "Buffy" recurring character Jonathan (Danny Strong) -- to bedevil the Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) with a combination of technical wizardry and black magic.

Unlike Buffy's supernatural foes, the very human Troika can't just be staked or beheaded. "No, we can't," Busch says. "We're subject to the laws of the United States government, not this higher power, not the demon world or anything like that."

The trio also echoes another theme of the show -- what it means to be an outsider. With Warren and his friends, rejection has turned to revenge. "No, it doesn't turn out harmless, because I feel what's been done to them isn't always harmless. They feel real pain from what's happened. They don't have any social means with which to balance things out, to judge what's right or wrong, because they've always been outcasts."

"If you don't know what's right or wrong or where it falls into society, you just know that you've been wronged your whole life, and that seems to be all right with everybody else, you think, 'Maybe me wronging you will be all right. Maybe that's what I've learned through what I've gone through. That's what you have to do to get what you want.' Deep down, you know it's not right, but you get blinded by it, especially when you're hurting people you love, because you don't know how to love them."

Don't expect Warren to escape unscathed. "You mean repercussions?" Busch says. "There's bound to be some splashback."

CYBERSPATIAL ANOMALIES: To learn more about Busch's band, Common Rotation, visit the official site, Common Rotation.com. For the man himself, try his official homepage, Adam-Busch.com

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