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Producer Adam Sky released his first record in 1979 at the tender age of eleven as one half of band The Stupid Babies, a band he formed with his five year old brother.
Ten years later, having been through a variety of musical projects, he began performing as Adamski, and in 1990 had a massive hit with the single 'Killer', which brought the vocal talents of Seal to world attention.
In 1999, having worked with everyone from Afrika Bambaataa to Elton John, he hung up his Adamski hat and became Adam Sky. Since then he's produced yet more great dance tracks, including the very fine 'We Are All Prostitutes' with Mark Stewart.
His latest project was a reworked version of his debut album to mark its twentieth anniversary.
We caught up with Adam to find out some more.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I was a precocious little squirt. I was deeply into the post-punk and art-rock on the John Peel radio show in the late 70s and sent a demo of my little brother and I (aged five and eleven respectively) playing kiddiepunk on toy instruments to Bob Last's (the Human League's manager) Fast Product Records... and amazingly got signed! That enabled me to buy a piano, which I taught myself to play by playing along to The Specials and Madness tunes. I was also heavily influenced by Malcolm Maclaren's ideas.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
I just remade all the tracks from my first album 'Liveandirect' cos I still have the original sequencer and floppy discs. I just tarted it up and re-titled it 'Vile Acid Rent', which is an anagram of the original title, as are all the tracks. It also includes a new version of my old song 'Killer' featuring Nina Hagen on vocals. Everybody's banging on about twenty years of this and that, so I thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth...
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I play a couple of instruments and I DJ, so I go at it from all angles. I usually have my brain well stocked with melodies and bass lines and I like taking chunks of other people's old music too. I love starting tracks but finishing them stresses me out, unfortunately. And I'm shit at getting them to labels to release them... oh well.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Well, there are untold numbers, obviously. But my ongoing obsessions are Chicago house and Detroit techno from the late 80s, 50s rockabilly and The Cramps. And my heroes are Alan Vega with and without Suicide, Brian Eno, Adonis, Derrick May, Francois Kervorkian, and probably quite a few more.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I hope you paid for that.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
To make enough money to keep a well-stocked fridge and sunglasses collection and travel back and forth from Venezuela and mainland Europe. Otherwise I just take my luck as it comes.
published october 2009
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