Steve Adey
Encyclopedia
Steve Adey is a musician and singer-songwriter. His music is characterised by slow tempo
s, minimalist
arrangements, underpinned by a rich baritone
vocal and chordal piano playing. To date, Adey has released just one album, as well as various EPs and singles.
in 2006 through independent record label Grand Harmonium Records.
Music journalists often categorise his piano, vocal led songs as folk
and singer-songwriter
, but also acknowledge a harder, less generic, left of mainstream approach; No Ripcord
's Simon Briercliffe writes "His voice is rich and carries on long after it's comfortable, at times far louder and more in your ear than is comfortable, leaving you hanging on every word." All Things Real was critically well received. Writers generally warmed to the album's introspective songs and well chosen covers. US journal for improvised and progressive music 'Signal to Noise' heralded the album as "haunting folk into straight-up epic territory." Many reviews picked up on the integration of hi-fidelity
crossed with a lo fi, home made approach. Sunday Times critic Mark Edwards: "The secret lies in the gap between Adey’s main influences: on the one hand, the mournful, home-made alt-country of Oldham
and Smog
; on the other, the pristine atmospheres of the Blue Nile and Talk Talk
." Critic Leon McDdermott (Glasgow Herald) writes "Adey channels the spirit of Smog, minus Bill Callahan's caustic take on dysfunctional relationships; elsewhere, there are hints of the late Jeff Buckley
's mournful tenderness."
Grand Harmonium released lead single "Find the Way" (31.06.06), containing two new acoustic recordings of "Find the Way" and "Mississippi". Mississippi: Remixed, a download only EP
, featuring Kramer
, A Marble Calm
, Black Sheep
and Sweet Billy Pilgrim
was released (14.05.07). The Marble Calm remix was also released on 12" vinyl via Tonefloat Records. A limited 7" single and download, "Burning Fields" b/w "Everything in its Right Place" followed in September 2007.
Steve Adey (with full band) played several festivals around Europe in 2007, and in August 2007 headlined his debut UK tour.
In 2010, a new Steve Adey track (excerpt) was featured in an advert for Mercedes-Benz
.
A new album will be released later in 2011, preceded by a five song EP entitled These Resurrections, which was released on May 9 via Grand Harmonium Records.
was recorded between September 2003 and April 2005, at Longformacus Parish Church, and a rented cottage in Longformacus
, Scottish Borders
, UK.
The recording was "fixed" and mastered by Calum Malcolm
.
The album consists of both original compositions and cover versions of Bob Dylan
's Shelter from the Storm
and Will Oldham's I See a Darkness
.
Sunday Times journalist Mark Edwards on Shelter from the Storm:
"You’d have to be a fool to cover one of Dylan’s best-loved songs. Either that, or a singer with the presence — and presence of mind — to slow it right down, exposing the beauty of every syllable." Ian Mathers from Stylus Magazine
: "Never has Dylan’s “creature void of form” sounded so wracked, so stricken."
The album includes the song 'Mary Margaret O'Hara', a tribute to the Canadian singer / actress Mary Margaret O'Hara
.
An initial album recording, featuring choral singers and members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
was abandoned, due to the wrong feel and a less personal sound.
In various interviews, Adey has said that the Bonnie Prince Billy, a.k.a Will Oldham album Master and Everyone
is a very important and influential record. Also, Oldham's 'I See a Darkness' was covered on All Things Real. Uncut
magazine cited that "Adey is clearly in thrall to the folk fatalism of Will "Bonnie Prince Billy" Oldham along with Dylan and the knotty American pre-war minstrels that inspired him." Talk Talk lead man Mark Hollis is a major influence. Hollis released his only solo, eponymous album
in 1997. Adey commented the album was "Uncompromising and in a different league."
to folk, both in the US where he lived for several years, and his current home city of Edinburgh. He recorded (engineered) and produced both All Things Real and the forthcoming album.
of "Laughing" was made available for free download at steveadey.com in March, 2006. The song was played live during the autumn tour of 2007 and will probably be included on the forthcoming studio album.
A new studio album will be released in 2011. A full string section was employed during the initial recording. The sound is more "live" with more emphasis on a stronger "band feel." Album two was recorded, for the most part in a church, utilising the natural acoustic and room ambiance.
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
s, minimalist
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
arrangements, underpinned by a rich baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
vocal and chordal piano playing. To date, Adey has released just one album, as well as various EPs and singles.
Biography
Adey released his debut album All Things RealAll Things Real
All Things Real is the debut album by English singer-songwriter Steve Adey. The album was released on March 6, 2006, through Grand Harmonium Records...
in 2006 through independent record label Grand Harmonium Records.
Music journalists often categorise his piano, vocal led songs as folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, but also acknowledge a harder, less generic, left of mainstream approach; No Ripcord
No Ripcord
No Ripcord is an online music and film magazine based in Sheffield, England.-History:The website was originally created in April 1999 by editor-in-chief David Coleman and A.M. Booth...
's Simon Briercliffe writes "His voice is rich and carries on long after it's comfortable, at times far louder and more in your ear than is comfortable, leaving you hanging on every word." All Things Real was critically well received. Writers generally warmed to the album's introspective songs and well chosen covers. US journal for improvised and progressive music 'Signal to Noise' heralded the album as "haunting folk into straight-up epic territory." Many reviews picked up on the integration of hi-fidelity
Hi Fi
Hi Fi is Hugh Cornwell's 2000 album. All instrumentation Hugh Cornwell with appearances from Justin Chapman, Michelle Marti, Mike Polson, Gita Langley, Jesse Murphy, Rachel Helleur, Úna Palliser, John Dominic....
crossed with a lo fi, home made approach. Sunday Times critic Mark Edwards: "The secret lies in the gap between Adey’s main influences: on the one hand, the mournful, home-made alt-country of Oldham
Will Oldham
Will Oldham , better known by the stage name Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music...
and Smog
Smog (band)
Bill Callahan , is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has also recorded and performed under the band name Smog. Callahan began working in the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with home-made tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders...
; on the other, the pristine atmospheres of the Blue Nile and Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
." Critic Leon McDdermott (Glasgow Herald) writes "Adey channels the spirit of Smog, minus Bill Callahan's caustic take on dysfunctional relationships; elsewhere, there are hints of the late Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley
Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...
's mournful tenderness."
Grand Harmonium released lead single "Find the Way" (31.06.06), containing two new acoustic recordings of "Find the Way" and "Mississippi". Mississippi: Remixed, a download only EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, featuring Kramer
Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer , known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc...
, A Marble Calm
Peter Chilvers (musician)
Peter Chilvers is a Cambridgeshire-based British musician and composer best known as a collaborator with Brian Eno and Tim Bowness.Chilvers is one of the three co-founders of the Burning Shed online record label, with Tim Bowness and Pete Morgan....
, Black Sheep
Black Sheep (hip hop group)
Black Sheep is an alternative hip hop duo from Queens, New York, composed of Andres "Dres" Titus and William "Mista Lawnge" McLean. The duo is from New York but met as teenagers in North Carolina, where both of their families relocated. The group was an affiliate of the Native Tongues, which...
and Sweet Billy Pilgrim
Sweet Billy Pilgrim
Sweet Billy Pilgrim are an English Experimental Rock/ Folk band, composed of bassist/banjo player Anthony Bishop, guitarist and singer Jana Carpenter, guitarist and songwriter Tim Elsenburg, and drummer/percussionist Alistair Hamer.-Biography:...
was released (14.05.07). The Marble Calm remix was also released on 12" vinyl via Tonefloat Records. A limited 7" single and download, "Burning Fields" b/w "Everything in its Right Place" followed in September 2007.
Steve Adey (with full band) played several festivals around Europe in 2007, and in August 2007 headlined his debut UK tour.
In 2010, a new Steve Adey track (excerpt) was featured in an advert for Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
.
A new album will be released later in 2011, preceded by a five song EP entitled These Resurrections, which was released on May 9 via Grand Harmonium Records.
Debut album: All Things Real
All Things RealAll Things Real
All Things Real is the debut album by English singer-songwriter Steve Adey. The album was released on March 6, 2006, through Grand Harmonium Records...
was recorded between September 2003 and April 2005, at Longformacus Parish Church, and a rented cottage in Longformacus
Longformacus
Longformacus is a small village in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is around north-west of Duns, in the Lammermuir Hills. The Dye Water runs through the village, flowing east towards its confluence with the Whiteadder Water nearby...
, Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, UK.
The recording was "fixed" and mastered by Calum Malcolm
Calum Malcolm
Calum Malcolm is a Scottish record producer, sound engineer and keyboardist based in Edinburgh.He started his rock music career with the band The Headboys in 1977....
.
The album consists of both original compositions and cover versions of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Shelter from the Storm
Shelter from the Storm
"Shelter from the Storm" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his 15th studio album Blood on the Tracks in 1975. The song also appears on two live albums by Bob Dylan -- Hard Rain in 1976 and At Budokan in 1978. An alternate version of the song is featured in the original soundtrack Jerry Maguire...
and Will Oldham's I See a Darkness
I See a Darkness
I See a Darkness is an album by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. It is Will Oldham's sixth album, and the first on which he used his Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker. The album was released in 1999 on Palace Records. The album also features Bob Arellano, Colin Gagon, Paul Oldham, and Peter Townsend.Johnny Cash...
.
Sunday Times journalist Mark Edwards on Shelter from the Storm:
"You’d have to be a fool to cover one of Dylan’s best-loved songs. Either that, or a singer with the presence — and presence of mind — to slow it right down, exposing the beauty of every syllable." Ian Mathers from Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
: "Never has Dylan’s “creature void of form” sounded so wracked, so stricken."
The album includes the song 'Mary Margaret O'Hara', a tribute to the Canadian singer / actress Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress, who has been hailed as one of the greatest cult heroines in rock music despite having released very few of her own recordings. She is best known for the critically acclaimed album Miss America, released in 1988.-Early stages:O'Hara...
.
An initial album recording, featuring choral singers and members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is Scotland's national symphony orchestra. Based in Glasgow, the 89-member professional orchestra also regularly performs in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, and abroad. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company has performed full-time since 1950,...
was abandoned, due to the wrong feel and a less personal sound.
Influences
Writers consistently reference Smog, the Blue Nile and Talk Talk as influences.In various interviews, Adey has said that the Bonnie Prince Billy, a.k.a Will Oldham album Master and Everyone
Master and Everyone
Master and Everyone is an album by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. The album also features Tony Crow, John Kelton, Paul Oldham, Marty Slayton, Matt Swanson, Gary Lee Tussing, and William Tyler, and was produced by Lambchop's Mark Nevers.-Track listing:...
is a very important and influential record. Also, Oldham's 'I See a Darkness' was covered on All Things Real. Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
magazine cited that "Adey is clearly in thrall to the folk fatalism of Will "Bonnie Prince Billy" Oldham along with Dylan and the knotty American pre-war minstrels that inspired him." Talk Talk lead man Mark Hollis is a major influence. Hollis released his only solo, eponymous album
Mark Hollis (album)
Mark Hollis is the only solo album by the former Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis. It was released on Polydor on 2 February 1998, then reissued on Pond Life on 13 March 2000. In 2003, the album was released in LP format on Universal Records. Its sound is noted for being extremely sparse and minimal;...
in 1997. Adey commented the album was "Uncompromising and in a different league."
Recording
Adey has previously engineered and mastered recordings for classical labels, recorded various types of music from heavy rockHard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
to folk, both in the US where he lived for several years, and his current home city of Edinburgh. He recorded (engineered) and produced both All Things Real and the forthcoming album.
Discography
- All Things RealAll Things RealAll Things Real is the debut album by English singer-songwriter Steve Adey. The album was released on March 6, 2006, through Grand Harmonium Records...
(LP - 2006) - Find The Way (CD single - 2006)
- Mississippi: Remixed (EP - 2007)
- Burning Fields / Everything In Its Right Place (7" single - 2007)
- These Resurrections (EP - 2011)
- Just Wait Till I Get You Home (Download only single - 2011)
Other songs
A (kitchen) demoDemo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of "Laughing" was made available for free download at steveadey.com in March, 2006. The song was played live during the autumn tour of 2007 and will probably be included on the forthcoming studio album.
Current activities
Steve currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.A new studio album will be released in 2011. A full string section was employed during the initial recording. The sound is more "live" with more emphasis on a stronger "band feel." Album two was recorded, for the most part in a church, utilising the natural acoustic and room ambiance.
Sources
- Signal To Noise #43 : fall, 2006
- Uncut #108 : May, 2006
- Sunday Times - Songs of the year: Shelter from the Storm
- All Things Real' - Video EPK
- Penny Black interview
- 'All Things Real' Sunday Times review
- 'All Things Real' Stylus review
- Live, Edinburgh, 07 Skinny review
- Longformacus Steve has recorded in the Kirk of Lammermuir (see image top left).