Singer/Songwriter Adam Friedman has a long career ahead of him. His unique sound, poignant lyrics, and energetic stage presence make him one of our favorite performers to watch. CelebMix had the opportunity to talk to Friedman about his inspirations, new EP and much more.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQl30vgBSUw/?taken-by=adamfriedmanmusic
How would you describe your sound?
My sound, first thing I’d say it’s constantly changing. At the moment, it has a somewhat sleek production quality to it but always at the forefront of the sound is the songwriting. Songwriting always comes first to me. The sound comes second. Right now, it’s more of a sleek modern production.
What in the beginning made you want to be a musician?
When I was young, my mom used to play Micheal Jackson in the house, Eric Clapton, so I kind of grew up like most kids did, with my mother always playing music. My brother is 3 years older than me. I was 8 at the time, he was 11, and he was obsessed with a band called Blink-182 so I automatically became obsessed with them. I started to listen to the radio with bands like Third Eye Blind, Blink-182 and of course, my mom played The Beatles. When I was younger, I thought that it was just one person playing music. I thought it was one person doing everything, making it, writing it, performing it, recording it. I always thought it was one person so I grew up thinking I had to learn everything to do that. Obviously, I learned that later it is teams of people but I would say being young and being very very inspired by this so called music I was hearing, more so being compelled to want to do this sort of thing.
Who are some of you inspirations?
My inspirations go all over the place. Obviously, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton-his guitar playing, I remember my mom playing Layla when I was really young and me going what is that sound? How is he making it? Obviously, through my brother, I became obsessed with bands like Blink 182, Sum 41, Third Eye Blind. Then I had a very big stint with Eminem, I became obsessed with Eminem. In college, I was really really inspired by a lot of film scores at the time. This then translated into Sam Cooke, I fell in love with Ray Charles. I got a piano book in college and really dove into how Ray Charles played his songs, how he voiced his chords, which is in my piano playing to this day. Sam Cooke, in his melodies which are big for me now. Coldplay, going back when I was younger thinking that it was one person making this music when I got older, I was very intrigued by all different parts roles that people played that led me to be inspired by these different producers that work on a lot of these records. John Mayer, Steve Jordan doing his record. My favorite album by him, Continuum, and he did Coldplay and one of my favorite records by them, Ghost stories, Paul Edwards had a big thing with them, Adele. People like Mark Ronson and his work with Amy Winehouse, that is hugely inspirational. It just goes all over the place. I could go on and on and just confuse you. So go on the internet and type the 100 greatest artists….
Don’t worry, we got all you references.
Great! I’ll stop there.
Tell us about your new EP.
My new EP is songwriting that has been going on for a couple of years now and from working with Mike Posner and his new album, At Night, Alone. We wrote a lot of music with him which really helped me hone in the style of songwriting that I’m kind of going after right now which is very upfront, on the nose writing. Some of the songs were inspired by my ex-girlfriend, who I fell madly in love with. She moved away for reasons which are totally understandable. She moved back home to where she is from in Brazil. So there’s a lot of songs about the separation of love and the coming together of love and the idea of the distance between, the way of my ex-girlfriend. There is a lot of powerful contrast, I talk about in my writing. And the ‘what if?’ is important to me just because it touches on the touchy subject of religion. I kind of tie it off with the idea of kind of love is, I might not have a religion particularly but love is kind of the overreaching thing. Love is enough to believe in. The Ep is kind of a culmination of really fun production ideas and some of my best writing to date on those topics. Love, religion-believe it or it’s not really religious but it touches on it. Just the idea of love being the very powerful mover of sorts.
So how did you and Mike Posner come to work together?
I met Mike through my publisher and we began working together about three years ago now. We just have a very wonderful friendship and we write a lot of music together.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQgDwCcB-lW/?taken-by=adamfriedmanmusic
You’ve been on The Bachelor, how did that come about and are you a fan?
Oh em, Gee! (laughs) I have a wonderful team. My manager Max is exceptional, my publicist Heidi is exceptional, and the people that I work with are really fantastic people. I’m truly blessed to work with these people. I have the best band in the world. So all those people, my manager, the people I make the music with, my publicist. I think it was a little unprecedented with somebody in my shoes and the point in my career that I’m at to have that opportunity and I’m really grateful. The Bachelor, everybody, Herbert at the Bachelor, one of the producers was really kind to us and we just had a blast. I think it’s a just a culmination of a solid team of people. I really am so lucky to have good people on my team. The short answer is the extraordinary team that I have.
You have a new single “Sad”. What would you like to tell us about that.
It’s a song that I wrote when I was kind of at a low point in my life. It was one of those times when things weren’t working out. My relationship with my girlfriend was falling apart, I had friends that just weren’t right in my life. Great people but they just weren’t right for me. There were times that felt like that the people around me were conveying a false sense around me like when things were bad they were saying things were dandy, everything is fine. I’m more of a realist when it comes to these things. When I’m feeling sad, I’m feeling sad and try to accept that. For me, he song is about how I’m comfortable in admitting I’m sad and I’m not afraid to show it and this is how I feel and it’s okay that I feel this way. In the writing of this song, I justify being okay by talking and speaking to my mother which is a real thing too.
What would you want your fans to know that they don’t already?
That I am making music everything single day. Some days I don’t know why I’m doing it. It’s just something that I just do. It sounds cliche but it’s pretty much one of the only things I’m good at. I can do a lot of accents and random things that my fans might not know but maybe want to. I really entertain myself a lot by doing accents. It’s stupid and funny. I can put and fly an RC Helicopter together. I was the captain of my Ice hockey team and I played Hockey growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona which is very odd. Music is literally, as cliche as it is, as the tattoo on your arm or the plaque in a frame that your mother in the living room of your home, music is my life. That’s literally it. It’s my everything, it’s my religion, where my happiness comes from, my frustrations come from, it’s just the epicenter of my life. Creating it, the process of creating it, more specifically.
What are your plans for the future?
Conquer the musical world. Slowly and steadily. For me it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. I’m slowly assembling a team of people who I feel are fit for the project regarding what I’m trying to do instead of what they want. I’m going on a tangent, I digress. I think the future is constantly making music, constantly performing as much as I can. Just describing life through music. I think the way I see the world because I’m part of it. A lot of people will feel the same way so I express a need to blame the world as I see it through the songs that I write. I really really look forward to doing that in a fun way. I’m kind of a weird fun, quirky dude. Things I do are not very average, I kind of go make my own path. With hiking, I don’t really take the path, I kind of walk through the field and wander. Just expect a unique deliverance of music.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPWLgxNBu4p/?taken-by=adamfriedmanmusic
If you want to find out more about Adam Friedman, you can head to his website here.
Do you love Adam? Tweet us at @CelebMix
ncG1vNJzZmiblaGyo7nIsWWcp51ksrmvy66qoq6VYravwMSrraKdp2Kupa3MZp2roZWZuqK6jg%3D%3D