Dan Raza chats with Kirsten Adamson for his latest Sound Cafe Podcast, they chat about Kirsten's songwriting process and lots more.
You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE
Dan Raza is an acclaimed singer/songwriter based in London UK, he also produces a monthly radio show called Spirit and Roots where he does in depth interviews with leading songwriters.
Kirsten Adamson comes from an historical musical background in Scotland. Born in 1985 in the town of Dunfermline, Fife, to Alexandra and Stuart Adamson.
Alexandra, a champion highland dancer, inspired her to take part in dance classes and singing lessons from a young age. She attended the Allana Brown School of Dance from age three and took voice lessons with classical teacher Robin Gordon from age seven. Both teachers nurtured her talents and by age ten Kirsten was cast in the leading role of 'Annie' in what would be the first of many musical theatre performances.
Kirsten's father Stuart (songwriter and performer in bands The Skids, Big Country and The Raphaels) was a huge inspiration to her throughout her childhood. He encouraged her to write her own music in her early teens and introduced her to country music when he relocated to Nashville in 1998. Kirsten would spend her summers in Tennessee and it was there where she realized her voice naturally suited a country style. She continued to gain experience through her teenage years performing with various musical theatre companies in Fife, teaching herself guitar and studying tap and jazz dance.
Kirsten’s first professional session came at age 13 when she was invited to perform backing vocals on Big Country’s last album ‘Driving To Damascus’. It was released in 1999 as both a standard edition and a limited edition Digi-pack, and with bonus tracks in 2002. In the U.S., it was released under a different name, John Wayne's Dream. Kirsten performed with musical theatre companies for most of her teens embracing lead female roles of Eliza in ‘My fair Lady’, Sally, ‘Me and My Girl’ and dancing in ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Oliver’. Her most recent musical theatre casting was the part of Adelaide Adams in Guys And Dolls which ran at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh in 2018.
Kirsten taught herself to play guitar at age 17 and began writing her own material at the same time. As she crafted her songs she would record them on a Tascam Portastudio 4 track cassette recorder. These recordings were eventually made digital and became the first tracks she self-released on Myspace in 2005. In 2006 Kirsten met Dave Burn during a recording session with her brother’s band AHAB in London. She would go on to write the majority of her original material with him.
At age 21 Kirsten moved to Edinburgh in Scotland where she formed her first band The Gillyflowers, a dynamic 7 piece country/rock outfit. They gathered momentum gigging in 2008, receiving many 5 star reviews for their live performances. They also released two physical EPs entitled ‘Queen Of Hearts’ and ‘No Dancing’ but disbanded in 2013 before a full album was ever released. Kirsten continued to write solo and collaborated with Dave Burn through 2012-2014 and by the start of 2015 she had composed a full pop/rock album. She went on to release the eponymously titled, crowdfunded album in November 2015 which was well received. She then toured the U.K in 2016.
Approaching the end of 2016 she began to work more frequently with Dave Burn. Dave had booked Kirsten to sing session vocals on his solo Americana/Country album, ‘Arizona’ and Kirsten was delighted to dive back into a genre close to her heart. It was during these recordings that Kirsten and Dave went on to create Americana duo, 'The Marriage'.
In 2018 The Marriage released the single 'Live, Love, Cry' which was warmly received by the BBC and many regional radio stations. They went on to record their first full album ‘Imagining Sunsets’.
When lockdown affected the U.K. in March of 2020 Kirsten started performing solo shows online from her garden summerhouse. These shows gained traction rapidly and she was soon performing to thousands of viewers around the world.
You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE
Website: www.kirstenadamson.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kirstenadamsonmusic Instagram: www.instagram.com/kirsten_adamson