Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born May 21, 1988 in
Tottenham, North London, England. She began singing at the age of four
and credits the Spice Girls for what she is today. Growing up, the girl
group was a huge influence on her passion for music. Adele graduated
from BRIT School in Croydon in May of 2006. Leona Lewis was a classmate
of hers. Originally, Adele was interested in a career in A&R. After
recording a three song demo, Adele gave the recordings to a friend who
then posted her work on MySpace. Her music received much positive
attention and led to a phone call from music label XL Recordings.
Doubting the legitimacy of the offer, Adele brought her friend with her
to the meeting. The offer proved to be legit and Adele was signed to the
label in September 2006.
“As soon as I got a microphone in my hand, when I was about 14, I
realised I wanted to do this,” she says. “Most people don’t like the way
their voice sounds when it’s recorded. I was just so excited by the
whole thing that I wasn’t bothered what it sounded like.”
A fan of such diverse artists as Jill Scott, Etta James, Billy
Bragg, Peggy Lee, Jeff Buckley and The Cure, Adele’s soul-tinged songs
of love’s lost and memories made are set to resonate with all who hear
them.
“I’ve got no problem explaining what my lyrics are about,”
ADELE
says. “I really like poetry: I’m not very good at reading it, but I
love writing it. Singers like Jill Scott and Karen Dalton are amazing;
proper poets.”
“My debut album is about being between 18 and 19; about love,” she
continues. “‘Daydreamer’ is about this boy I was in love with, like
proper in love with. He was bi and I couldn’t deal with that. All the
things I wanted from my boyfriend, he was never going to be. I get
really jealous anyway, so I couldn’t fight with girls and boys. It’s
quite a sad album, [with songs about] being cheated on and not getting
what you want”.
Anchoring it all together is ADELE’s incredible voice. As immediate
as it is undeniable, its power is matched only by her Force 10
personality. “I’ve always liked being the centre of attention, yes,” she
laughs.
ADELE is from a resolutely un-musical
family. “It all comes from impersonating The Spice Girls and Gabrielle,”
she cheerfully explains. “I did little concerts in my room for my mum
and her friends. My mum’s quite arty; she’d get all these lamps and
shine them up to make one big spotlight. They’d all sit on the bed.”
Later, when her dad’s best friend, a dance producer, rightly declared
ADELE’s voice ‘wicked’, he invited her to record a cover of ‘Heart Of
Glass’. The first time she got a microphone in her hand, she realised
her calling.
Secondary school proved instructive in as much as it gave
ADELE
an outlet to “meet all the R&B kids” and “sit around the playground
singing.” But it was a pretty rough place and pursuing music there was
something of a challenge, on account of the fact that
ADELE
wanted to sing and perform her songs but “the teacher was a bit
rubbish. They gave me a really hard time, trying to bribe me, saying
that if I wanted to sing I had to play clarinet to sing in the choir. So
I left.”
So
ADELE upped sticks, signing up to The
Brit School, the Selhurst college whose alumni number Amy Winehouse,
members of The Feeling and Kate Nash. However she had her misgivings…
“If I hear someone’s from stage school I’d think they were a
dickhead, and I know it might make me sound like that. But it had free
rehearsal rooms and free equipment and I was listing to music all day,
every day for years. The music course was really wicked. There was no
dancing or anything like that. No jazz hands.”
During her second year, ADELE’s resolve to be a singer was given a
little extra boost – Shingai Shoniwa, the turbo-lunged vocalist with The
Noisettes moved in next door. “She’s an amazing singer. I used to hear
her through the walls. I’d go round and we’d jam and stuff like that.
Just hearing her and her music really made me want to be a writer and
not just sing Destiny’s Child songs. ”
Despite being quick off the mark on MySpace – her friend set up a
page for ADELE’s music on the last day of 2004 – it wasn’t until 2006
that labels started noticing her talent. “I’d hate people to think that I
was a ‘MySpace singer’,” she says. “I’ve got no right to be that. I’ve
got, like, 10,000 ‘friends’, whereas Jack Peñate’s got about one
million…”
When XL called her in for a meeting,
ADELE was nervous enough to take a chum with her.
“I never, ever thought I’d get signed. The A&R guy emailed me and I
was ignoring it… I didn’t realise they [XL] did all these amazing
names…”
Despite interest from plenty of other labels, the independent
regarded for its one-off, defining acts (for rock band, see The White
Stripes; for rapper, see Dizzee Rascal) proved the perfect match for her
one-off talent, and XL will put out ADELE’s stunning debut album “19”
early next year. A single, the beautiful heartbreaker, ‘Chasing
Pavements’ will precede it.
Before that comes ADELE’s debut release on Jamie T’s Pacemaker
Recordings label, ‘Hometown Glory’ – a stunningly evocative picture of
“all my fondest memories of London”. ‘Daydreamer’, a remarkable ballad
notable for lyrics like ‘feeling up his girl like he’d never felt her
figure before’ and ‘he could change the world with his hands behind his
back’ has already floored the audience on the prestigious ‘Later With
Jools Holland’.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen if my music career goes wrong,” she laughs. “I haven’t had a proper job yet.”
Adele returned late in 2010 with a new, critically acclaimed single
"Rolling In the Deep." It was the preview for her second album
21. Most of the production on the album was done by
Rick Rubin and Paul Epworth. Upon release
21 went straight to #1 in the UK racking up the best January first week sales since the debut of
Arctic Monkeys in 2006.
21 is scheduled for US release in February 2011.
Consider that one unlikely turn of events.
