Big love to the utterly brilliant Adam Norsworthy for taking the time to sit down with The Riff Report crew 🤘💙
Absolute gent, cracking chat, and proof that passion, graft, and proper tunes still rule the roost.
If you enjoyed the interview (and why wouldn’t you, mun?), do us a solid and check out the album pre-order links below — supporting independent artists keeps the scene alive and kicking 🔥🎶
👉 ENTER SITE | Adam Norsworthy
https://www.adamnorsworthy.co.uk/
Go on, have a click. Your ears will thank you. Proper tidy. 🤘😈
🎶 Origins & Identity
- You juggle a lot of roles. singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, festival director, frontman. When someone shouts your name across a pub, which version of Adam turns round first?
Oh in a pub it will just be Adam, the mate/father/brother. I spend so much time juggling between the roles you mentioned that pub time is ‘switch off’ time for sure. And I’ll have a pint of lager, if you’re asking, thanks!
- Growing up, what was the first moment music stopped being a hobby and started feeling like something you had to chase, consequences be damned?
I think around aged 10 or 11 – Once I’d started working out how to play a few Beatles licks on my mum’s guitar, I was hooked. I never really seriously considered doing anything else after that. In a more grown up way, I found myself having to do other things to pay rent etc, but even at my last job they fired me with kindness by saying “just go and be a musician at last, stop pretending you want to do anything else!’.
🎤 The Milk Men Chapter
- Fronting The Milk Men puts you in a very different headspace to solo work. What does the band let you do creatively that you’d never get away with on your own?
Well it lets me play in front of far more people for a start. But creatively The Milk Men are a blues/rock’n’roll band so I get to wig out on the guitar more and turn it up to 11. Songwriting-wise, it’s always inspiring to work with Jamie. He will take an idea of mine down a different path and that can be very exciting. We get to dress up and pose a lot more too. But it’s the group dynamic I enjoy most, just working with talented, driven, likeable people. Being a solo artist can be a little solitary at times.
- British RnB doesn’t always get the same spotlight as other genres. Have you felt like you’ve had to fight harder to be heard?
To a certain demographic, for sure. It’s not a music that appeals to a large swathe of younger people, and that’s a battle all the acts on the scene have – to find a younger audience. But I live in hope that guitars and bands will make a huge comeback and when they do, we will be right there with our colleagues on the scene waiting, guitars at the ready!
🎸 Solo Work & Songwriting
- When you’re writing solo material, where does it usually start. lyrics, melody, rhythm, or a late-night “that’ll do” demo?
Absolutely from anywhere. Words, melody, chords..any of them can come at any time. There are just no rules. It can be a heartfelt thought or feeling, a fascinating story from a history documentary, something someone said, a guitar lick that just falls out of your fingers when you are noodling away. I do find these days a lot of ideas come to me late at night, and I suddenly find myself humming them randomly to myself before bed. Maybe that’s age!
- How brutal is your own editing process? Are you the type to delete a song forever, or do half-finished ideas haunt your hard drive?
Ah I never delete a song forever, I put it in the “garage” so to speak, to work on it another time. A couple of my/our best songs have been mash ups of old unfinished songs. I do think you have to be your own harshest critic though. You need to be brutal with your own songs and ask the tough questions. That said, feel is everything and if it feels right, then it’s done.
🎛 Multi-Instrumental Madness
- Being a multi-instrumentalist, do you ever struggle to know when to stop adding layers and just let a song breathe?
Not really. A good song will almost guide you itself as to what is needed. And with almost every song I can hear what I want in it as soon as it’s written. And as I mentioned, it’s all about feel….Part of the craft is knowing when to walk away and let it breathe. I like space in my music and frankly I’m not a good enough multi -instrumentalist to put too much on there anyway. I’ll have a go at any instrument though, if just to add texture to something.
- Is there an instrument you respect but secretly hate playing live?
Oh piano, for sure. I’d love to be able to play piano beautifully but I’m a total plodder. I love playing as it’s a beautiful instrument, but I’m no natural! And I have played some laughably bad piano live in my time.
🎪 Festival Director Life
- Festival director is a whole different beast. What’s the most chaotic behind-the-scenes moment you’ve dealt with that punters never saw?
Well, I don’t want to jinx anything but at Milkfest we have such a brilliant crew that it has been remarkably smooth back stage. I think the most chaos has been allocating parking spaces – everybody wants one! The funniest moment was probably Todd Sharpville bringing his dog Genghis on stage with us, which he hadn’t mentioned he was going to do. But it was great, all in good spirit and a lot of fun.
- Has running a festival changed how you behave as an artist backstage? Less diva, more empathy?
Haha, I’d like to think I’m the furthest thing from a diva! I’ve always tried to be polite and show respect to everyone. We’re all in this big live music machine together, so being a diva is an alien concept to me. I’ve no doubt annoyed people one way or another over the years, but I’ve never ever done a gig with anything but the most positive intentions, on stage or off.
🧠 Music Industry Reality Check
- What’s the biggest myth about being a “working musician” that needs chucking straight in the bin?
Well, if you’re a serious working musician, as opposed to a hobbyist, I don’t think people quite understand what a commitment it is and how much work goes in before you get on to that stage. The writing, the rehearsing, the logistics, the travel, recording, gear maintenance, finances – and now of course you have all the social media work you need to do. With all my different hats it literally never stops and I could easily work 18 hours a day every day on all my projects.
- Do you think the UK music scene is getting better or worse for grassroots artists right now?
Unquestionably worse, with no thanks to the government (as always). Live venues and music pubs are closing every week, and many that do stay open can barely afford to pay their acts. Tribute acts are taking over. Many young people are forsaking grassroots live music and saving their money for the big festivals and artists. A lot of the punters on our scene are ageing and won’t be getting out to see live bands forever. But as I mentioned earlier, a revival is always just round the corner. It just takes one great young guitar band to go viral and everything can change. With all that is going on in the world right now I can totally see an angry young band capturing the zeitgeist and doing just that.
🔮 Looking Forward
- What excites you more at this stage. chasing bigger stages, or building something meaningful and sustainable?
I get so much pleasure from it all. I really do. I have enjoyed many of the tiny shows just as much as the big ones. I am just grateful to have an audience, and The Milk Men’s fans in particular are a wonderful bunch of people. We feel really inspired to keep delivering (pun intended!) for them as we know our music brings them a lot of joy and happiness. Hopefully that is meaningful in its own way, and we hope sustainable!
- If you could fast-forward five years, what would success actually look like for you?
I’m already a success in that I do what I love for a living, but if you’re asking what I’d have on my wish list I’d certainly like Milkfest to be established as one of the pre-eminent blues events in the calendar, making more and more money for charity and with scores of well-known acts knocking on my door to play. As for The Milk Men…I’d say some bigger mainstream festival slots, an appearance on Later, Glastonbury, some big European shows, a crack at the mainstream charts…and for me? I need a new kitchen. Am I being too greedy? 😉
🍺 Finish On a Riff Report Classic
- Last one. You’ve got control of the festival speakers for one song only. What are you playing, and why that tune?
I think I’d probably whack up Steve Wonder’s Superstition as loud as I can and just enjoy watching that groove work its magic on everyone. It never fails!
