Adam B. talks on his Run By Myth project and debut album 'I am Harmony' The cryptic name came to Adam in a dream:
'A huge combustion engine, in a barn, petering out, dying, I asked if there was some way I could save it. What kept it running, I asked, the engine replied that it was 'run by myth'
Psychoanalysts, start your engines
After much soul – searching, Adam played The Riddler, teasing peers, throwing the cryptic phrase out here and there, and leaving people to find their own meaning. He does concede, however, that a few close friends caught on to his own interpretation.
'Run By Myth is an experiment'
‘I grew up on Motown and Sam Cooke, then the first ‘golden age’ of hip hop in the eighties, rock came next, jazz, world music... So whilst there’s a lot of rock elements on I am Harmony, there’s also a lot of diversity. I love going from, say, heavy metal, into jazz...I (love) tangents...’
College – educated, classically trained, Adam spent more than a decade in bands. One incarnation saw him perform at South London’s The Paradise Bar, sharing the bill with an unsigned The Noisettes. Soon after it became clear that, by chance, Adam and co. shared similarities with another new group. ‘Sounding like no-one else’ became ‘sounding like Linkin Park’. The band imploded. Around this time, the idea of Run By Myth was born. The DIY ethic a necessity, it being impossible for Adam to find a band willing, or able, to cross genres the way he wanted. Clear influences include Meshuggah, Led Zeppelin and Jeff Buckley, but I am Harmony has a ‘certain Run By Myth sound’ throughout, encapsulated on the title track, hazy guitar reverbs on a bed of driving percussion, the mantra 'I am your harmony' a mix of both a woeful declaration of servitude and a celebration of belonging, the yin to the yang of tracks like the ferocious 'Body of Sin' and 'Blossom', machine – gun guitars, guttural growls and relentless drumming.
'...Music is a big influence on my life, but life has a big influence on my music...all experiences go into making a Run by Myth song. You’ve got to make music for yourself – if you’re not 100 per cent into what you’re doing, how can anyone else be? I don’t give a shit what anybody else thinks of what I’m doing! But the danger of working by yourself is that you can lose perspective. I’m always trying to write something that’s better than what I wrote before...’
Adam is optimistic about the future of music. Many balk at phrases like ‘... internet following...’, but he counters that it was ‘technology for all’ that gave birth to movements such as punk and hip hop, without which, ground-breaking groups like Black Flag and Public Enemy – other influences - would never exist: ‘...one of the 17 year olds with a laptop and a myspace page might just be the creative genius which comes along and ‘saves’ music...’ he states.
‘...(On touring I am Harmony) very interactive, lots of audio visual, lots of lighting effects, more a communal experience, rather than giving it the big, obvious, ‘rock star’ air grabs, I want the distance between the band on stage and the crowd to be lost...’
So what comes next? ‘Run By Myth has so many elements, rock. Jazz, soul, there is no set end’ he says, laughing, ‘there’s photography... so many different media elements to experiment with...I am interested in ideas about harmony in the universe, harmonious light, melody...’. Collaborations are lined up, Adam is knee – deep in producing with the Wolfkind project ‘that’s a collective, musicians, artists, media being produced in one form or another; though I am taking a backseat, that’s Jay (of Wolfkind)’s baby...shout out to aries7nine, too...’
Run By Myth ‘Essentials’:
Sam and Dave: ‘anything by them’
Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key Of Life, ‘...of course...’
Star Wars – ‘I got Watchmen fatigue – I’ll wait for the DVD’
Marvel Comics ‘...Marvel over D.C. all day...’
‘This is your brain on music’ Book by Daniel Levitin
‘The cyclical serpent’ Book by Dr Paul Halpern
‘Anything by the late, great, Mr Robert Anton Wilson, it goes without saying...’
myspace.com/runbymyth
