INTERVIEW WITH BRYAN ADAMS FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES
Bryan Adams has been entertaining fans for thirty years with his rock music. With the release of his latest album, 11 (his 11th Studio Album), Adams talked with TheCelebrityCafe's Dominick Miserandino about making music, revealing his true self, and changing how he promotes his work.
DM: It seems like you're doing intense promotion lately.
BA: I never used to do that many interviews back in the day. I think for 'Waking Up the Neigbours' we did one interview.
DM: What made you come out for this one then?
BA: A few things. I never wanted to give anyone the excuse to say 'Well you didn't do it so that's why your record didn't happen.' Also when I worked with Jeffrey Katzenberg at Dreamworks I did this thing called a press junket for this film we did together and it was like a hundred interviews a day. After that we decided if that's how they promote films I should do interviews for my album as well.
DM: This never occurred to you before?
BA: Not really. I think the music should do the talking.
DM: Some of your earlier stuff is still going strong. It's not as if you're promoting it at all.
BA: No, I don't.
DM: In 2006, 'Summer of '69' was considered the best song to drive to.
BA: Last year we were told it was like one of the biggest songs played on YouTube.
DM: In that sense was it the music speaking for itself?
BA: Certainly is. That song is 25 years old now so it's had that many years to incubate. A lot of songs, like that one, hit big in America but really not anywhere else. It didn't chart anywhere in Europe until at least 10 years after it was released. I remember in 1993 that someone told me, 'Hey, did you know that 'Summer of '69' is number one in Holland?' I think songs can have a life of their own regardless of the promotion.
DM: Is that the nature of the song itself though? That song in particular is a timeless song.
BA: I guess so. I'm glad you said it though. Thank you.
DM: I'm sure that if you could snap your fingers and make every song a timeless one you would, but were there certain things while you were recording it that stood out? Is there stuff in your current album that made you say 'This could do it?'
BA: I don't really know.
DM: I suppose if you did know you'd do it every week.
BA: We could take the cookie cutter out and we'd be slapping them out all the time. I think 'Summer of '69' - i think it's timeless because it's about making love in the summertime. There is a slight misconception it's about a year, but it's not. '69' has nothing to do about a year, it has to do with a sexual position.
DM: Out of all the people who hear that song, how many do you think realize that as they listen to it?
BA: I don't know. At the end of the song the lyric says that it's me and my baby in a 69. You'd have to be pretty thick in the ears if you couldn't get that lyric.
DM: I knew it from doing my research but I think for a lot of people it goes in one ear and out the other.
BA: It's like 'Little Red Corvette.' People didn't think that was about anything. They think it's about a car.
DM: That's what I'm saying. I think people will just nod their head and think that sounds great. I'm wondering if you performed that in concert and mixed up all the words, how many people will notice?
BA: Maybe I should mix 'Red Corvette' and 'Summer of '69' together.
DM: It seems like you have a lot more passion - a different degree of energy, promotion-wise - on this current album. When I see the interviews, you seem passionate about this particular album.
BA: I go into a record with essentially same feeling I have towards all of them. I don't think this one changes my feeling towards it. It's my new work. I'm trying to tell everybody about it and then get on to the next one.
DM: I saw in one interview on Youtube you pleaded them not to show your old videos. Why was that?
BA: They were badly directed.
DM: I thought it might have been because you were tired of hearing 'Summer of '69' again.
BA: No. The music's great. I don't have any problems with the music. Until recently I just trusted the people who were directing. I just trusted them they would have done justice to the song. Maybe 10 percent of them are watchable and the rest of them are tripe.
DM: What would you have done differently?
BA: I won't let people direct my videos anymore.
DM: So the last one was completely yourself.
BA: Yeah.
DM: Is that more work for you?
BA: It's a lot more work. But a lot of people can see me for what I am - what's real - rather than something that's an imaginary, trumped up idea of what the song should be. I mean, if I were to work with a director I'd want to work with someone that's incredibly visual. There's no point in doing anything that doesn't represent you. Right now I'm in that mode. I just want to be real, 100 percent. I don't want to candy coat it whatsoever. Here I am. Take me for what I am. Right now I'm on a tour in America just doing the whole thing by myself on an acoustic guitar.
DM: That sounds like a really raw experience