A Fall member from December 1998 to February 2001 Adam’s bass graced the Marshall Suite,and Inutterable albums and the Touch Sensitive and F-Oldin’ Money singles. Also a producer and programmer Adam brought new soundscapes to the world of The Fall. Martin caught up with him recently to see what he was up to…..
1. What was your musical upbringing, as in bands liked and instruments first played?
I began my musical foray at 8, learning the piano like most kids doing the grades. I soon lost patience with my teacher who showed no regard for my taste in music so would bash away for many hours learning stuff by ear that I wanted to play. Much to the annoyance of anyone bar the dog who was within earshot. Having done this for a further 7 years I decided it was time to expand my horizons. I got hold of a four track, a bass and borrowed a peavey guitar amp which was pretty nasty sounding but had delay, chorus and phaser built in! At this point you’re thinking what bloody relevance this all has, and so was I. That was until I was invited by a friend’s dad to come over to his mate’s studio. So the following week I’m sitting in John Collins’ studio listening to him mixing Ghost Town by The Specials. From this point on I realized I wanted to be a bass player and a producer. I was listening to a lot of dub (Lee Scratch, Prince Far I, Scientist), Joy Division, PIL, The B52s, Killing Joke and Psychedelic Furs.
2. Which bass players do you admire?
I admire Jah Wobble, Youth, Hookie, Mani and Spliff as bassists as they resonate and have very distinctive styles.
3. You joined The Fall in late 1998. Can you tell us how this came about?
I joined The Fall halfway through the Marshall Suite. Speth, who was sound engineer for The Fall and also the band I was in called Nev (with whom I was in a band) when the previous guitarist went AWOL. Two weeks later I got a call from Nev saying that there was a gig at the Astoria tomorrow night and did I want to play bass? Why not, I’ve got 24 hours to learn the set, that should be plenty of time. WRONG! Nev turned up at about 3am the following morning with a bag of CDs and cassettes. Having spent the remaining hours learning the bass parts by ear and writing in hieroglyphics on scraps of paper, we met up with Julia who went through the set list and calmed my nerves backstage at a packed venue. 5 minutes to go and Mark strolls in, looks at the list, tears it into shreds and begins writing out a new one adding three tracks I’d never heard before. Welcome to The Fall. When I finally did get to know most of the songs I tried to make the bass parts my own either by embellishing (The Joke) or by defining my own sound (Big New Prinz).
4. Do you remember specific gigs from the time or do they sort of blend into a whole?
I remember quite a few moments or overall vibes from various gigs, mainly the really good ones, (the ones I loved at any rate) and a couple of really dire ones (******* **@*!) The Paradiso (Amsterdam), Porto, Ashton, Southend and Hastings were great I think. Leiden wasn’t the best gig we did!
5. The re-release of the Unutterable shows some significant developments from the Testa Rossa monitor mixes to the final product. Do you have any comments on the process especially the use of “Pro-tools”.
A few of the tracks on The Unutterable were started on Pro Tools in demo form. Dr Buck’s Letter, Two Librans, Serum and Way Round were recorded at mine and Nev’s warehouse space. I programmed a lot of stuff on a Roland MC909 and we recorded some bass and guitars, then got Mark over to do some vocals. Once everyone had added their parts at Testa Rosa I did some fine tuning in Pro Tools before the final mix. Anything that needed re-recording or adding we did on 2 inch then span stuff into Pro Tools to tweak. It really came into its own on tracks like Dr Buck’s Letter because Tom added his drums last and a few timing tweaks and sounds needed adjusting to make it work.
6. If you had to choose, which one: The Marshall Suite or The Unutterable?
I love a lot of the tracks on The Marshall Suite and The Unutterable but I think The Unutterable is a more interesting album.
7. What musical projects have you been involved in since leaving The Fall? The only reference I can find to your work is with Galatica, but little else. Can you fill us in?
I’ve recently set up my own studio in London and am engineering and producing there now. I’ve just finished a couple of tracks with Rob Coyne and i’m getting vibes for some tracks of my own.
8. Do you have any particular favourites from the rest of The Fall’s output?
I rate Fall Heads Roll, and I still have a huge soft spot for Extricate.
9. Finally, what bass do you prefer to use and do you have any hankering to play lead guitar at all?
Fender Precision ’79 and ampeg SVT2 amp. I play a bit of rhythm guitar but I’ve got bass in my blood!