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Adamski Reincarnates As Adam Sky - Electroclash Has Energised Me

Author: Jonty Adderley
Sunday, February 2, 2003
13 years after his seminal rave anthem Killer made Adamski and his guest vocalist Seal international pop stars, Adam Tinley looks poised to return to the mainstream media spotlight, courtesy of his superb rock & roll tinged remix of Miss Kittin's Stock Exchange and a whole host of new tracks.

"This electroclash scene has energised me," he told Skrufff's Jonty Adderley this week.

"I know some people are too 'hip' to use the word electroclash (said with a voice dripping with scorn), but whoever came up with the term, Hell or Larry Tee, did an amazing job. I don't think anyone could have thought of a better term to summarize the kind of music I've liked all my life."

As well as reworking the Kittin & Hacker track he's also collaborated with Crossover on a stunning cover of Wire's best know punk hit I am the Fly, which is currently rocking the dance floor of his old mate Jonny Slut's club Nag Nag Nag. And with both Crossover and Kittin & the Hacker being signed to DJ Hell's Gigolo Records, it's unsurprising that he's also set to licence tracks for Hell as the year progresses. Though from now on he'll be using a new name of Adam Sky.

Nowadays based in Barcelona, Spain, Adam was chatting in the West London studio's of internet station TrusttheDJ after appearing on fellow 80s clubbing veteran Mark Moore's weekly show, where he appeared trimmed down, focused and impressively enthusiastic.

"What attracted me to going to clubs in the first place was that I thought of them as being a hub of creativity not some place for generic, boring music by numbers stuff that they became. Though it's not like that so much anymore, because now we know where to go."


Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): You've totally reworked Stock Exchange adding guitar parts to transform the song, how did you get started-

Adam Sky: "I made the music follow the story of the lyrics because they're so fantastic. I've missed hearing good lyricists and that kind of creativity in club music for years. I wanted to put my own stamp on it obviously, based on my new direction. I'm trying to bring a kind of 1950s B Movie element into my work, put through a kind of 2010 filter. I think I'm achieving that, well, I like it anyway."

Skrufff: Was it an easy track to remix-

Adam Sky: "Yeah, yeah. I was living in Italy when I started doing it so I hired the best guitarist in Bologna apparently and asked him to play certain things. I can play guitar but not particularly well so I basically directed him by singing him the parts or playing them badly to show him what I wanted."

Skrufff: I understand you were talking about a label deal with Gigolo, what's happening there-

Adam Sky: "Well we were planning it, I was running around trying to be a record executive but after a few weeks I realised that role really wasn't my forte. I'm in this game because I'm a musician primarily and I hate dealing with numbers and phone calls and all that sort of thing. I was having to put my own projects "on the back burner" second place) and that means a lot- I've got so many projects on the go right now and I need to finish some of them and release them. The Gigolo deal would have made me responsible for releasing some of the Gigolo records in the UK.

What's happening now instead is that I'm starting this label in a new low key way to put out my own stuff, just for the satisfaction of hearing the music I've been working on for weeks and months, then licensing it through Gigolo. So that means I won't have the responsibility of dealing with situations such as someone phoning up saying the 'S' is the wrong shape and typeface on a sleeve'."

Skrufff: You've changed your name to Adam Sky, you've recently collaborated with Boy George and Crossover, are you very much back in the game now-

Adam Sky: "This electroclash scene has energised me. There's a track that Jonny and I did together, also with my brother in about 1987, a cover version of X Ray Spex
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