Interview with Adam Sheridan

[EllieB]

#21512 |

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From first gracing the decks in Manchester over 10 years ago, Adam Sheridan has come a long way. Climbing up through the hard house and trance ranks, Adam can now be found performing his unique Ableton Live performances right across the globe. From L.A. to Ibiza, China to Melbourne and all through the UK, spinning his unique style of house, techno and progressive house merged together to produce a mind blowing performance.

With his debut artist album “Timezone” having just been released and a brand new record label which is already gaining support from some of the biggest names in the industry, things are looking mighty rosey for Adam Sheridan in 2011.

We took time to quiz Adam on his debut album, what’s kept him going and how to make a front door…

You’ve been on the scene for years Adam so I’m sure you’ve been through lots of struggles to start getting noticed, what do you think was your biggest break?

Over the past ten years I feel I’ve had a couple of big breaks. One time that sticks out above the rest is when I recorded my Essential Mix for Radio 1. I was the youngest person ever to record an Essential Mix for the BBC at the time, after that everything spiralled from there. I was listed as the one to watch by two of the top 5 DJs in the world, Paul Van Dyk and Ferry Corsten not long after that, then appeared on the cover of Mixmag as part of the Future Hero Feature. That was a good few years ago. I’d say the other break for me was the launch of my previous record label Soundstage Music. That attracted a lot of attention as everything I was doing on there was really fresh and interesting.

For an artist to have a solo album now is a pretty rare achievement, what made you take the steps to put the wheel into motion?

I really wanted to create a concept that would allow me to keep up the consistency that you need these days to stay in the public eye. The Timezone series allowed me to keep releasing music and not completely disappear like artists can do when they are working on a full album and then when the full album was ready to go I still get the full effect of having an album out. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. All the remixes are fantastic and the continuous mix has been getting really good reviews from everyone.

Starting out you must have had goals you’d like to achieve; many you must have reached, what are the ones you have left to aim for?

I have achieved a lot of my goals already but I have picked up a few more along the way. I’d say one of my biggest goals right now is to try and reach as wide of an audience as possible with my music and my performances. Not to pigeon hole myself with just one sound and really reach out to the masses. This is what I set out to do with Timezone. I think there’s a big variety of sounds on there that could appeal to people from all kinds of different genre’s of dance music.

Trance has evolved massively over the last 10 years, with lots of off shoot genres blossoming with a new generation of clubbers. Do you still pine for days gone by or are you embracing the new diverse sound?

I’m all for moving things forward. Don’t get me wrong I love to hear an old classic from back in the day. Music to me has so many good memories, especially the old classics but I definitely like to keep my sound diverse and not generic. Well I like to think I do this anyway ? I do miss the week in week out long list of busy club nights. That is the one thing all us DJs always talk about when days gone by are mentioned.

Rumour has it, you used to be a carpenter, still turn your hand to building any furniture these days?

Haha! Yep the rumours are true. I tried my hand at all kinds of different trades when I was younger. I left school early to labour for a plasterer so I could earn the pennies to buy the vinyl. Jack of all trades master of none as they say. I did recently have to get the tools back out actually. One of my pals needed a new front door fitting so I offered to help him out. It took me nearly 6 hours, but a job well done never the less.

Carl Cox and PVD have spoken very highly of you, having this kind of support must mean a lot to your career, do you try and support the new talent as well?

The two names mentioned above have been the biggest influences to me right from the very start of my career so to have their support over the past few years has been over whelming. I love to support new talent where I can. All the remixers on Timezone are great up and coming artists. Anything I can do to help people really, I will always try. This is one of the reasons behind the new label Audio Junkie. There are so many talented producers out there going unnoticed it would be rude not to help some of them out and get them on the label. Definitely watch this space on Audio Junkie music as we have some wicked new artists to showcase.

What would be your advice to the new breed coming through?

I always say the same thing to this question. Try be fresh and interesting, don’t just follow trends because their cool. If you love a certain style or a certain way of presenting your music believe in it and go for it. It comes across really good in everything you do. From your performances as a DJ and into your music productions. I’d also say try and get yourself across the internet as much as possible. A strong internet presence can quickly build you a strong following and generate lots of interest on your music really quickly.

The concept of your new album “Timezone” is massively original, how did you come up with the idea?

I felt like I was at the stage in my career where I needed a concept. Something to really get my teeth into and concentrate on. I was worried about just doing an album because I have seen so many artists head off to the studio to write an album, then reappear a year later and because they have not been releasing music for so long the album doesn’t get the attention it deserved. I also thought by bringing in other artists to remix and have their remixes on the album it would do a lot of cross networking. I brought in artists from different genres to again really try and reach out to as many people as possible. Also, everyone is doing albums at the moment so I thought I would try something a little bit different. It’s always been quite a hard concept to explain to people. I don’t know whether that’s a good or a bad thing?!

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