Five minutes with Justin Adams
Ahead of officially showcasing at WOMEX 2024, British Underground take five with Justin Adams, one-half of the duo Justin Adams and Mauro Durante.
Who are you?
I’m Justin Adams and I play electric guitar alongside Mauro Durante (vocals), who also plays the fiddle and tamburello [Southern Italian frame drum].
What are your ambitions for WOMEX 2024?
We want to meet promoters and festivals in new regions and countries where we haven’t played.
Can you describe your music in one sentence?
We call it ‘Mediterranean trance blues’, but really it’s just me and Mauro, playing beautiful spirit-lifting music.
Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/The Guardian
“Music transcends the feeling of being an individual on your own, stuck in your own identity. You feel beyond time and are connected”
What are your influences?
I have been playing music for more than 50 years, starting out in the punk world, and I partly grew up in the Middle East. I also researched North African and West African music for many years, and I’ve played with Irish musicians like Sinead O’ Connor, and people like Robert Plant. I’ve also produced Tinariwen and Rachid Taha… all of these things have influenced me. And Mauro, who I play with now, is an inheritor of Tarantella music from Southern Italy, an incredible form of music that has a Mediterranean sound to it.
Best gig you’ve ever played? Or career highlight?
It was in Santa Fe in New Mexico in the oldest church in America [San Miguel Chapel]. You just felt this incredible mixture of different traditions, from the indigenous Mexican people who built the church to the Spanish settlers who were influenced by Moorish culture. And yet you’re in the heart of America. We played to about 100 people including the indigenous community, an old schoolfriend of mine who is a Zen Master, my brother-in-law and various crazy old hippies. It was a beautiful gig.
Best audience reaction?
In the South of France, the audiences feel the ‘Mediterranean-ness’ and the Southerness of the music and really relate to that, but they also appreciate rock‘n’roll, and the bluesy, punky side.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I was excited to see Tems, a young Nigerian/British female artist, playing recently. As someone who has been listening to West African music for many years, and then I see it presented as mainstream pop music, I think that’s wicked. And that West African musicians are now playing main stages at Glastonbury and coming out and smashing it.
Who are your top three artists of all time?
Lee Perry, Ali Farka Touré, Brian Eno.
What do you love about music?
That it’s a way to transcend the feeling of being an individual on your own, stuck in your own identity. You connect…you feel beyond time and are connected.
If you are a UK or Ireland delegate, please visit horizonsatwomex.com to apply for the HORIZONS delegate unique discount code.
