I got to admit, we’ve been waiting for this moment as we were planning to have a more detailed conversation with a 25-year-old Pop artist Connor Adams since the release of his previous single ‘Don’t Play with a Heart’. That’s when he stormed our world and we were hooked on his music and personality. He is extremely genuine in anything he does and through his music, he speaks about his personal experiences.
Last Friday we witnessed the release of his latest single ‘Deeper’ and we knew it’s literally now or never as Connor is already picking up streams like crazy and he definitely is off to a flying start.
My sound is guitar-heavy, vocally driven pop songs that pack a punch.
COnnor adams
How are you surviving the lockdown?
Yeah, all good thanks, guys. My guitarist Nic lives with me and luckily we have a little studio set up, so we’re creating every day which has been a massive positive to take from all this.
Where do your ideas for songs come from?
Real-life experiences I’d say is the main go-to. Whether that’s my own personal subjects, or friends, family etc. That’s what I feel I’m most confident writing about, writing songs that are true to you tend to unfold a lot easier and quicker because you know the story like the back of your hand. Therefore the songs write themselves.
What does your creative process look like?
It all starts with a fresh cup of coffee, a guitar or piano and about 10-20 minutes of singing gibberish melodies. From there we’ll flesh out the structure into Logic and start building the foundations!
Tell us about your journey until your latest release ‘Deeper’
So 2020 was always going to be the year of new music from me, we kicked off the year with our biggest headline show to date at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds which was awesome! I then released the first single of the year ‘Don’t Play with a Heart’, which went on to do super well which I’m chuffed with!
Then the world started to shut down…And we were put in an awkward situation of whether to release music or not. Pretty instantly the answer was yes, we should be releasing music. So here comes single number two of the year ‘Deeper’. A song that really excites me, it has so many of my favourite elements in this single – Pop, Rock, Hip-Hop, Singer-Songwriter etc.
What does it mean for you to put music out at this odd time?
In the strangest way, it feels really special to be releasing music in this historic time we’re living in. We’ll look back years later at this record and be like ‘Damn, we released all this through quarantine?!’.
‘Deeper’ focuses heavily on the struggle we have dealing with personal battles. It takes
CONNOR ADAMS
you on a night ride through the city lights as if you are wearing a VR headset, using
alcohol as a brief coping mechanism, before being dragged back to square one.
What does ‘Deeper’ mean to you?
As much as ‘Deeper’ is a fun, energetic and upbeat track, it was written at quite a dark time in my life last year. I was struggling to cope with a family issue that went on for months on end, without knowing I’d turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism which slung me into a bad spiral. Luckily the story ends happily and I no longer have to use short fixes. Deeper really did write itself, I remember feeling this weight come off my shoulders pretty instantly. The beauty of music, hey?!
Is it correct to say that creating music and sharing it with the world, as personal as it may be, is part of the healing process?
Massively for me yeah, as I previously mentioned ‘Deeper’ was a massive part of me getting over some personal issues last year. I don’t know if it works for every artist, but it certainly does for me. I’m not very good at talking when I’ve got a problem, so all my talking tends to be put into songs. That’s where I feel comfortable to talk about issues that I’ve got going on in my life.
You are a visual artist who enjoys creating videos, documentaries… ‘DPWH’ had such a killer video while ‘Deeper’ is rather a personal one. How did the idea for the video come about?
Thank you! It’s honestly something I love diving into, the visuals are super important to me. So with ‘Deeper’ we originally had planned a full-on fight scene with all the Avengers, imagine fire breathing dragons, lightsabers and all. I’m talking end of the world stuff! But then…Corona happened. So we reverted to plan B, some studio shots of us creating the record! Thank the lord cameras were rolling in the studio otherwise who knows what the video would have been?!
Music to me is comfort, home and a friend I’ll have for life.
CONNOR ADAMS
‘Don’t Play With a Heart’ is so far your most successful release. Congrats on the 100k+ streams milestone. What was the secret behind it?
I never really go into a writing session with a goal in mind, i just write whatever comes out on that day. So i really don’t know, but i’m over the moon with how it’s going down!
How do you come up with all the funky & cool ideas to promote your music?
We like to keep creative in this little hub that we’ve got going, so the promotion of the music has been something that I’ve grown to really love. It’s super important, why go to all that hard work creating the song and not promote it? Right?!
Do you experience any of the challenges as an independent artist working in the music industry?
I mean yeah there are challenges, but we’re building day by day to get to where we want to be. The biggest thing we want right now is exposure to the songs, and you guys are helping us do that! So that’s pretty darn cool, isn’t it!
Looking back, is there anything that you would have done differently in your career?
I could quite easily say yes, but everything that was either a mistake or not worth doing is the biggest lesson you’ll ever get. So I’ve learnt from a lot of mistakes and at the end that’s made me a stronger person/musician.
Write as much music as you can and also gig as much as you can. It’s all honing your craft, setting you up for the future!
CONNOR’s advice for those who are at the beginning of their music journey
If we’d hack your Spotify account, what artists would we find?
Well at the moment you’d find some tasty throwbacks such as Don Henley‘s ‘Dirty Laundry’ or Peter Gabriels ‘Sledgehammer’. But to be honest with you my Spotify is jam-packed with a broad selection of artists and bands that I listen to, I absolutely love discovering new music.
Do you have a song, that when you hear it, you’d say, “I wish I’d written that”?
‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac, everytime without fail. My band and I perform it live in the set quite a lot, always goes down a storm!
Do you have any recommendations of artists we might not have heard yet?
I saw a band called Rews open up for The Darkness last year. They’re super energetic with some wicked melodies, check them out!
I really do feel that to be successful in the music business you must be happy in what you’re doing.
CONNOR ADAMS
Which artists inspired you the most?
Dave Grohl, Ed Sheeran, Justin and Dan from The Darkness. Oh yeah and Kelly Jones from The Stereophonics. These guys heavily inspire me in music, all you have to do is listen through their records and be in awe of how great they really are.
Do you think there’s anything artists or fans can do to support each other during these strange times of COVID-19?
Just keep playing the records man, show your friends, share it to your social medias etc! This really helps us spread our music to the world.
What is the first thing that you will do once the lockdown is fully lifted?
Give my band a call, book a venue and go play a show until they kick us out the venue. I really miss gigging, can you tell?
What have you got planned for 2020 and have any of your plans been impacted?
Well, we’ve released two singles now ‘Don’t Play with a Heart’ and ‘Deeper’. So following this comes a 6 track EP. That’s likely to come out sometime in the summer, ideally we’d love to be able to tour this record at the end of the year. See you there?
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience?
Thanks for taking the time to hang out with me, this has been fun! We’ve got a load of fun things planned for the rest of the year, so if you want to tag along for the ride connect with me @connoradamsmusic.
Look forward to seeing you soon guys, all the love. CA x
Make sure to connect with Connor Adams via Instagram » Facebook
