Adult Play’s third single titled See Me Now is an infectious and seriously upbeat track that seamlessly blends different genres, but beneath its high-energy exterior lies a beatiful melancholic vibe. Spectacular! Remember their name.
Read our discussion with the band below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Scrappy Wonky Eclectic
In See Me Now the listener comes across numerous different genres. Tell us a few things about it, what is the main idea behind it?
Straight from the off it had an energy to it. I’ve written my fair share of depressing songs but this one definitely feels like the manic end of the spectrum.
I see it from the perspective of someone pursuing a love interest in a mundane setting, but with an uncharacteristic level of confidence and swagger. A momentary feeling of one’s self. It’s slick, but to the point of parody.
A lot of it fell into place pretty quickly and was made up on the spot. Plenty of the ideas from the initial demo made it onto the final version and the direction it went in was pretty instinctive rather than being planned.
Ash played a real tasty baseline for the second verse and tidied up the original groove. Jonnie and I did our usual routine of passing the mic back and forth trying out freestyle vocals. The whole process was trying to have fun with it and go with the flow. Before you know it you’re chanting about vapes and channeling your inner jungle MC. It’s not the kind of songwriting I expected to be doing in my thirties; but this is where we are.
Tell us a song you would pay to hear for the first time again?
James: Tom Waits – Dirt In The Ground. I popped that on the other day and the opening chords still give me chills.
Jonnie: Wulu – Time
Ash: The Strokes – Ode To The Mets
Artists and people that have influenced you?
James: Radiohead are right up there. Sleaford Mods too. Talking Heads, Baxter Dury, LCD Soundsystem, Warmduscher.
Jonnie: Dry Cleaning, Beastie Boys, The Cribs, The Orielles.
Ash: RHCP, Wulfpeck, RATM.
Why does it seem that everyone basically only listens to music released when they were teenagers?
I don’t know if it seems that way to me, but if people are doing that then it’s probably to take solace in the familiar. Music can play a pretty integral part in forming your identity, and you change and find yourself the most in your teens and early twenties. Some deep connections get made, so it’s like reaffirming your beliefs to revisit an old album. I guess it’s easier than trying to open yourself up to something you’re not used to.
I usually cringe at half the stuff I listened to in my teens, so I don’t think I’ll be going back there all too often. The good stuff still rings true and has a rose-tinted nostalgic quality though.
What would you change in the music industry?
Our standing within it.
Just kidding.
(Not really).
What is the story behind your name?
We tried a few different names out. For our first gig we were ‘New Labour’ which we really liked just as two words together if you strip away the historical context, but then it would always feel political, wouldn’t it?
Jonnie came up with Adult Play. I like how it can be interpreted differently depending on the imagination of the person hearing it. It can sound like harmless fun, heinous hanky-panky, or anything in between.
It makes us quite hard to find via hashtag / google search, but I like the idea of us one day being big enough to appear high up on those searches.
Imagine going on the hunt for some BDSM on Instagram and then being greeted with our mugs.
What comes next for you?
It’s probably about time we put an EP together, so I think we’ll aim to do that next.
Aside from that we’re going to play some shows outside the shire and try and see if we can get some festival slots.
Thank you!
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