A+D+A+M Lab4 is headlining Hard House Academy on October 18th. He’s been passionate about music since he started playing drums aged 7 and has been in the music scene since he was 17. He now has his fingers in many different musical pies! Since Lab4 split last year, he’s been busy getting stuck into non-hard dance projects like The Judas Coven (industrial electronica) and The Horizontal Instrument (a more acoustic sound). He’s somehow found time to prepare a new kick-ass live show as A+D+A+M Lab4 which he will unveil at HHA – get ready to be rocked!

Adam had a chat to us about his music inspiration and some of his favourite songs - it’s a diverse little lot! Here’s a run down of what makes him tick, some you’ll be familiar with, and some you probably won’t…

Johnny Cash ‘I see a darkness’ - American 3: Solitary Man 2000. Johnny’s voice in his later years was just so amazing, its almost like you can hear his whole life in his voice. This and his cover of Nine Inch Nails ‘Hurt’ are amazing. It’s not just the tonal quality of his voice but also his timing that’s so inspiring. Even someone who is not a Johnny Cash fan would find it hard if not impossible to not be drawn into these songs…

MGMT ‘Time To Pretend’ - Oracular Spectacular 2008. I first heard this tune on E4 on the TV in my room after the last Tidy Weekender, it came on while I was packing my bags and just stopped me in my tracks. I knelt in front of the TV, riveted until the end when I thought I’d find out who it was… Well the program finished and I didn’t find out who it was, I scoured websites and listened to the radio loads just in case it came on but believed that it would be one of those magical tunes that I would hear once and spend my life wishing for. Then two months later, I was in France listening to Virgin Radio and within the first bar, I knew it was that elusive tune from the Tidy weekend. I love the mixture of 60’s psychedelic rock / pop and the massive fat synth line through it that’s in danger of washing the mix away.

Coldplay ‘ Death and all his friends’ - Viva La Vida 2008. I have always respected Coldplay but never been a real ‘fan’. I saw a BBC gig that they played recently and was drawn to the rougher edge that they have live and found some of the new tunes very interesting so I bought the album. I love the whole CD but from about half way through, this track just comes to life. I love the way that it starts off almost mediocre and then goes into these massive dynamic chord changes and stabbs…

Tom Waits ‘ I hope that I don’t fall in love with you’ - Closing Time 1973. I love so much music from 1968 - 1974. I love everything about this song, Toms voice is so beautiful, the lyrics create such a story in a way that only Tom Waits can do and then the warmth of the recording is something that is rarely heard in this day and age of overly compressed and maximised masters…

Nine Inch Nails ‘The Downward Spiral’ 1994 - Brutal, disturbed and genius - Music and Lyrics. This was NIN at their absolute best. To me this album is perfect from start to finish, every single beat, note, screech , scream, lyric… Brutal ! I wish Trent Reznor would get back to his disturbed less happy state of mind and heart just so we get another album like this one!!!

Adam Ant ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ - Kings of the Wild Frontier 1980. This sounded like nothing I’d ever heard the first time I heard it (nearly 30 years ago!!!) and it still does! - The whole tune is just out there on it’s own! I love the rhythms , the guitars, the whole structure. There’s something very techno and tribal about the whole tune. In fact the only thing that I can compare it to is the Ennio Morricone album below…

Dave Clarke ‘ Wisdom to The Wise’ - Red 2 1994 and Archive One 2006. This tune still sounds perfect to me, I can remember dancing to this in The Cosmic Cave at Universe @ Club UK and at Tribal Gathering back in 1994/95. There’s something so severe and serious about it, the arrangement is pretty minimal but just draws you in all the way. This tune is perfect… there is also a remix (I think by Robert Hood?) that is also perfect…

The Prodigy ‘No Good - Start The Dance’ - Music For The Jilted Generation – 1994. For me this was The Prodigy at their best… Brutal and underground, minimal but perfectly arranged and constructed all on a Roland W30!!

Ennio Morricone ‘For A Few Dollars More + A Fistful Of Dollars’ film soundtrack. I have loved this since I was about 5 years old when I first watched the movies, I loved it then because it reminded me of how cool the films were. I used to listen to it over and over and I think it was one of the biggest lessons for me in construction, dynamics, texture, melody, contrast… everything is there.

ZWAN - ‘The Number Of The Beast’ - From the film ‘SPUN’. The film SPUN is an absolute classic film about a bunch of run of the mill ‘drug fuck speed freaks’ which is just so well directed but also has an amazing soundtrack through out. This track was originally written and performed by Iron Maiden but this stripped down acoustic version just shows what an amazing piece of song writing it is.

Thanks for taking time out to ponder for us Adam! We’ll see you on the main stage of Brixton Academy on Saturday 18th October & you can show us how you bring all these influences and more together to create A+D+A+M Lab4.

Don't forget to add yourselves to the Who's Going list

And check out the Hard House Academy afterparty at Plan B!