Barry Adamson

About Barry Adamson

Barry Adamson is a songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who first made his reputation as a sideman, working with Magazine and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds before he struck out on his own with a unique solo career. Adamson's music is richly atmospheric with a cinematic feel, and he made his solo debut with a mock soundtrack album, 1989's Moss Side Story, before going on to score real movies. Often blending organic instrumentation with loops and samples, Adamson's music often blends retro sounds with up-to-date production, fusing jazz and European pop on 1992's Soul Murder, experimenting with electronic music on 1996's Oedipus Schmoedipus, fashioning a seedy blend of jazz, pop, and dance music on 2002's The King of Nothing Hill, and fashioning '60s-influenced pop and soul on 2024's Cut to Black. Barry Adamson was born on June 11, 1958 in Moss Side, Manchester, England. The son of a mixed-race couple, Adamson became fascinated with art and music at an early age, and wrote his first song when he was ten years old. In his teens, Adamson was studying graphic design at Manchester's Stockport Art College when he immersed himself in the city's burgeoning punk rock scene. When Howard Devoto, the co-founder of the Buzzcocks, quit the band to form his own group Magazine, Adamson came aboard as their bassist, and appeared on their 1977 hit single "Shot by Both Sides." When Magazine broke up in 1981, Adamson contributed to Devoto's 1983 solo album Jerky Versions of the Dream, and did studio work with new romantics Visage, former Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley, electronic popmeister M, and post-punk noisemakers the Birthday Party. After the Birthday Party split up, frontman Nick Cave asked Adamson to join his new group, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds made their debut with 1984's From Her to Eternity. Adamson would handle guitar, percussion, keyboards, and backing vocals as well as bass on the albums The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), Kicking Against the Pricks (1986), and Your Funeral … My Trial (1986) before he left the Bad Seeds in 1987 to strike out on his own. Adamson signed with Mute Records, and his first salvo as a solo artist was the 1988 EP The Man with the Golden Arm; giving a preview of his fascination with film music, the title track was adapted from Elmer Bernstein's score for Otto Preminger's gritty 1955 drama about a drug-addicted jazz musician. For his first full-length solo effort, Adamson created 1989's Moss Side Story, which was conceived as a soundtrack to an autobiographical film that did not exist, dominated by instrumentals. The LP was well reviewed and led to Adamson being commissioned to score Carl Colpaert's 1991 thriller Delusion. Adamson also started producing other artists, starting with Australian singer-songwriter Dave Graney for 1989's My Life on the Plain. Adamson's 1992 album Soul Murder was more song oriented but still deeply informed by film music, and it was nominated for the 1992 Mercury Prize for outstanding releases from U.K. artists. Adamson wrote several pieces for Allison Anders' indie hit Gas Food Lodging, including one where he collaborated with J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. 1993's The Negro Inside Me was a six-song EP influenced by the rise of acid jazz; the studio band included future Trent Reznor collaborator Atticus Ross. Adamson was also tapped to produce the debut album from Ethyl Meatplow, 1993's Happy Days Sweetheart, led by future Geraldine Fibbers frontwoman Carla Bozulich. 1996's Oedipus Schmoedipus was another electronic-influenced faux film score, with Nick Cave, Carla Bozulich, and Pulp's Jarvis Cocker all contributing to the songwriting. Iconoclastic British filmmaker Derek Jarman invited Adamson to write the music for 1996's The Last of England, a bitter look at England under the rule of Margaret Thatcher. 1998's As Above, So Below was a moody, jazz influenced project, and the following year, Mute Records brought out The Murky World of Barry Adamson, a 12-track compilation drawn from his solo releases to date. In 2002, Adamson returned with The King of Nothing Hill, a more-song oriented collection than his previous efforts. It was his last album for Mute, and he opted to form his own label and production company, Central Control International. Central Control's first release was 2006's Stranger on the Sofa, which followed in the model of The King of Nothing Hill. In 2008, Magazine staged a reunion tour and Adamson returned to the lineup, though when Devoto chose to extend the reunion past the initial run of dates, Adamson dropped out, in part to complete work on his own album, 2008's Back to the Cat. After years of scoring films, Adamson made his debut as a filmmaker, directing the 2011 short subject Therapist. (A second short from Adamson, The Swing the Hole and the Lie, premiered in 2014.) 2012 brought Adamson's solo effort I Will Set You Free, and he and Nick Cave worked together for the first time in years when Adamson was brought in to do a remix for the song "Palaces of Montezuma" by Cave's group Grinderman; the track appeared on Grinderman 2 RMX. The following year, Adamson played bass on two songs on Cave's album Push the Sky Away, and joined the Bad Seeds on their subsequent concert tour when health problems prevented Thomas Wydler from joining them. Adamson was back to work as a solo artist with 2016's Know Where to Run, and a six-song EP, Love Sick Dick, was issued the following year. 2018's Memento Mori was a career-spanning anthology that included 15 songs from his solo era and one song each from Magazine and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. The U.K. label Live Here Now released a concert album taken from an October 2018 performance in London, 2019's Live at the Union Chapel, and a four-song EP, Steal Away, was issued in 2021. In 2022, Adamson published a memoir, Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars, which dealt with his life in music and his tumultuous existence off-stage. 2024's Cut to Black was a typically moody set of songs informed by '60s pop and soul sounds, with lyrics that touched on the themes from his autobiography.