A.D.A.M
‘A.D.A.M., which stands for "A Day A Month," is a project that has been evolving for over a decade. Mairearad Green, an esteemed multi-instrumentalist and visual artist, and Mike Vass, an award-winning composer and producer, have been collaborating under this moniker to create music that transcends genre boundaries. Our latest release, Everybody Wants to be Like Mary, is a testament to this creative synergy—a genre-defying dialogue that melds ancient Gaelic song melodies with contemporary electronic and ambient soundscapes.’
As far as I can remember we first started talking about making an electronic album back when Jon Hopkins released Singularity in 2018 and we were just so inspired by it! We made our first track back in 2018 and listening again to that recently, it was such an exciting starting point and so lovely to think of the journey over the 6 years to now. We recorded my old and slightly wonky metronome and Mike worked his magic on that for a unique sound that formed the basis for the track. We started using all the mechanics of my accordion to record drum tracks and that was a bit of a break through for us. We used that a lot for my album, ‘Hearth’ released in 2020 on vinyl. (You can check that out here!) The Kelp Makers and Coigach Lass introduced the blend of pipes with electronic beds and it felt really great and seemed like the obvious thing to do more of!
Last year, in 2023, we had the luxury of both living in Ullapool, having time to work on A.D.A.M and we were over the moon to receive funding from Creative Scotland to make this dream happen. The main aim was to make an album that was all killer and no filler! Hehe. The initial stage was sourcing the amazing Gaelic melodies and there is no shortage of gems there that’s for sure. The language and the style of writing/rhythms are so unique and powerful. It is an honour and a privilege to have this as our heritage!
Before deciding the melodies to use, I should say how much music we listened to in the first place. We have been collaborating as A.D.A.M for many years now and much of that has been sharing tracks to be inspired by. Many of the featured favourites are Kiasmos, Jon Hopkins, Dominic Eulberg and Max Cooper to name a few. Most of our catch ups involve a mighty playlist and some good food!
On the album I play David Naill Highland pipes that I got when I was 14 years old and have played ever since. Why change a good thing!? I also played Fin Moore small pipes and they are such a wonderful instrument to play. They just sing and I feel very lucky to be playing them! There is something about the overtones of the small pipes that we think works so well with this type of music.
I was taught the pipes by PM Norman Gillies from the age of 8 at Achiltibuie Primary School. He was a very strict teacher and didn’t like it when I took up playing the accordion. He said ‘I’d get warts on my hands’ if I played such an instrument! That aside, I feel very fortunate to have had this expert tuition. He also taught my 3 siblings and there were 4 pipers in the house next door in Achnahaird so it was fine to make a noise!
I have had the intention to make a solo pipe album for years now but I’ve got too many other exciting projects that keep getting in the way! Maybe one day!
It feels very special to be able to combine my two passions of art and music to this project and in this case, it was definitely a bold choice for the front cover artwork! The title came to us on a coffee run at Gloworm studio in Glasgow. We were just imagining what great craic Mary must have been and arrived at the title from there. I had in mind the motivational posters like, ‘keep calm and carry on’, having the acrylic blue painted text/title as the main focus and include a painting on the inside sleeve along with more hand written text. The original painting was made ‘en plein air’ on the shore at Ardmair just north of Ullapool and it was part of a joint exhibition at Brown’s Gallery in Inverness back in 2022.
I really enjoy the simplicity of this design and we really hope you enjoy displaying it on your record stands!
We also got some promotional photos done for the project by Beth Chalmers. I met Beth at the café on Eigg as I was about to leave the ‘Howlin’Fling’ festival. We did the modern thing and followed each other on Instagram and straight away, I fell in love with her photography style. We were delighted she was able to come to Leckmelm for a day and take photos for A.D.A.M. You can check out her work here.
Thank you so much to everyone involved in making this dream album a reality. We are currently working on some new tracks and our next live show is Ceòl Cholasa in September.
Hope to see you on the A.D.A.M dance floor one day soon! Find out more on our website here!
Thanks, Mairearad x
