I’ve been following the career of Adam Stafford for over a decade now and I don’t think there’s another Scottish musician who comes close to Adam in terms creative restlessness.
He returns this month with a new album on Gerry Loves Records. the atmospheric ‘Daylight Slavings’, is, like its predecessor ‘Trophic Asynchrony’, largely piano based.
The record feels very much removed from anything resembling indie music, rather it can probably be more fairly categorised as modern composition although there’s definitely links to Adam’s past work in terms of his melodic sensibilities.
Ahead of his two shows this week to launch the new record in Glasgow and Edinburgh, I spoke to Adam about the latest leg of his musical journey. He started by talking a little about the new record.
“I started writing this one right in the middle of ‘Trophic Asynchrony’ so the two kind of overlapped and I guess it’s like a follow-up album to that. In fact, I sent the mixes over to Robbie under the heading of Morose Piano Album!
“It’s kind of half naturalistic sounding and a little bit synthetic. I don’t know, it’s hard to put a thrilling PR spin on an album since it was just quietly composed in the despairing moments of lockdown and in the post pandemic world that we’ve got to traverse. I guess it’s quite melancholy but I also think there’s a kind of, um, anthemic tragedy in there as well, without sounding too wanky.”
‘Daylight Slavings’ is, loosely speaking, the third in a run of keyboard-based albums which started with 2019’s tape only release ‘The Acid Bothy’. Adam discussed how he had moved from that starting point to the current record.
“I got a Yamaha CS synth before the whole pandemic happened. I spent a year trying to just learn how to play it because it’s quite a tactile, little instrument. So I guess it’s just a natural progression once you learn a few chords on the synthesizer to move from that to a smaller piano. So, during lockdown I tried to learn how to play an electric Yamaha piano.”
With two piano albums in a row now, he explained the appeal of the instrument
“Pianos in general, just sound beautiful and the more acoustic the better. We used Matthew’s (Song, by Toad) old detuned piano quite a lot when we were doing ‘Fire Behind The Curtain’ and it was really nice to play an acoustic upright piano.
“My Yamaha has quite a distinctive piano sound, which I quite like, that definitely has a kind of ‘Exorcist’ vibe about it. It’s a bit like ‘Tubular Bells’ without, you know, going too far into Mike Oldfield’s past!”
If his path to these last two albums can easily be mapped out, it’s far harder to anticipate the different styles that Adam has utilised but the explanation for this restless forward momentum is far more mundane than the eclectic range of material he produces.
“It’s probably just a case of getting really bored of different styles or different genres quite easily! I’ve just never wanted to be the type of musician that just sticks in one place and tries to repeat the same thing over and over again, you know?
“Trying to recreate the same thing over again really just doesn’t interest me philosophically or spiritually so that’s probably why I do flit to different things.
“I like to experiment as well. I do a lot of quite wild experimentation at home, and some very embarrassing experimentation as well, but that will never see the light of day! They’ll stay hidden on like hard drives and old tapes and stuff.
“I know a lot of people think I just release any old crap but there is a bit of method to the madness or chaos!”
One consequence of very much ploughing a lone furrow within the Scottish music scene means that there are no fellow travellers, something he acknowledges when talking about what he’s trying to achieve.
“I don’t know. I’m not saying this is the level that I’m reaching for, but I’m really interested in stuff like Floating Points – what they’re doing is really beautiful. A lot of it’s on old 60s or 70s keyboards, so there may be a little bit of that and some quite jazzy stuff as well on the new album, I suppose. But other kindred spirits, I’m really not sure.
“I find as I’m getting older. I’m drawn to albums made before I was born and so I’ve been going through like a lot of 70s Jazz and ECM and stuff like that.”
Once again, the physical version of the album is on record and the relatively recent opening of Seabass Vinyl allowed a member of the Stafford family to contribute to the record’s manufacture!.
“We went to the pressing plant last week and saw the record getting pressed, it was really nice to see all of that in action.. My daughter was actually with us and she helped with the plastic pink chips, grinding them and making them into a puck.”
Adam is playing two launch shows – at the Hug & Pint in Glasgow on Thursday 27th June and in the Old Lab at Summerhall in Edinburgh on Saturday 29th. Whilst shows in recent years have either featured Adam playing solo or with regular collaborator, Robbie Lesiuk, he has something special planned for these shows.
““It’s the first time since we did the ‘Fire Behind The Curtain’ launch shows that we’ve played as a kind of ensemble and we’re going to be playing as a trio. I’ll be playing keys and Ceylan (Hay, Bell Lungs), who’s also supporting at the two gigs, and should be playing violin and possibly keys and all sorts of stuff. Robbie is going to be on bass and keys as well.
“So I’m looking forward to that and hopefully it’ll be a good night out.”
Daylight Slavings is released on 28 June through Gerry Loves Records.
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