I sat down to chat with singer-songwriter Adam Lanceley – who has quite the story!
What made you decide music was the right path for you?
Early on in life my main passion was sport. Along with being a high achiever academically I didn’t really have time for anything else. A very serious car crash which I wasn’t expected to survive meant my priorities had to change. I was in the deepest level of coma that it’s possible to be in & shattered both legs. After a long rehabilitation when I eventually made it back to mainstream education, one of the hardest things to deal with was releasing I would never be able to compete at the same level in any sport again.
I tried acting, which I’d always had a talent for but hadn’t had time to persue & for a while this was fine. I was even offered a place at the BRIT school & studied at East 15 Acting School – 1 of the recognised centres of excellence for drama in the country. I was beginning to develop severe depression though & I didn’t find hiding behind another persons character was a good way of addressing it. It was then that I realised that my music & my lyrics could be a far more effective way of dealing with personal issues.
What’s your writing process like? Do you write the music or the lyrics first?
Always lyrics. I wouldn’t know where to start if I did it the other way around. If i write a song, the lyrics are all about what I’m trying to let the world know, so this’ll impact on how upbeat the tune is & what the tempo should be. If I have the lyrics I can tailor the music to suit them.
Do you prefer performing live or recording, and why?
In the current atmosphere there’s not been an awful lot of opportunity for live performing! Nothing beats the buzz of playing to a live audience & interacting with them. When you record though, the feeling of pride & appreciation of what you’ve done lasts far longer. So for me it’s recording.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
For me music should be just about what it sounds like. End of. It shouldn’t be so much about labels using artists as an source of income. The artist should be able to say what they want to say & do what they want to do without being pushed around by external sources. I’d give more power to where the music’s coming from & make it less about who is behind it.
How do you feel the internet has impacted the music business?
That’s a tough question. On the one hand, it’s made the business far more accessible; without the internet I wouldn’t be able to get my music heard all over the world. On the other hand, there are so many more tunes getting exposure so it’s far more diluted than it once was. Overall though I think the internet has been a big asset to the music industry.
Follow Adam on Twitter.
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