About

Adam Duffill (born June 17, 1989) is a Rock Singer/Songwriter from Southend, Essex. Known for his energetic solo performances and connecting with his audiences, Adam has built up a strong following. Reviews have been complimentary towards the recording artist, with his vocal abilities being described by reviewers as ‘a penetrating, distinctive voice with dulcet tones’. In a career spanning 7 years, Adam has quickly established himself as a top professional performer and achieved several accolades; the most recent of which included seeing off 10,000 other participants to reach the UK Songwriting Competition Grand Final.

Background/ Music Career

It would certainly be fair to say that Adam Duffill has a clear and ambitious vision for his music. At the age of just 14, Adam fronted and formed a local three piece band, with whom he first got the opportunity to see his songs reach large audiences.

But despite being popular amongst teens in the Southend area, after three years and having gained experience at recording studios, live shows at various halls, theatres and even schools, it was time for a new direction.

"I think because we were quite a simple, pop-rock band people liked us because they could sing along to the songs. It was a fantastic experience; I really enjoyed people singing along to the songs I had written just to let off a bit of steam in my room! But I think all three of us wanted a different type of band and eventually we decided to go off and do different things."

This lead to a surge of new songs, including live favourites 'Sinking' and 'Who I Am'. It was around this time that the newly inspired solo artist then stumbled across an advertisement whilst watching his beloved Southend United. It proved to be a pivotal moment:

"There was an advert in the match day programme for a competition called 'Blues Idol'. I am always a bit reluctant with the X Factor route, because I feel the music is secondary and it certainly doesn’t promote making new music, but I knew that if I could get through I'd get to play at Roots Hall in front of thousands of people. That place held so much meaning to me, as I’d grown up spending my weekends watching my footballing heroes play on that pitch, so I felt it would be a really special moment for me if I did get the opportunity perform there. I did the audition and never really considered the possibility of actually making it through, but I ended up reaching the final and got to sing in front of 10,000 people prior to a big game against Brighton. As far as the competition went, I finished runner-up to Josh Dubovie who ended up singing for GB in Eurovision, but the experience definitely shaped me as a performer and gave me the determination to keep moving forward and to push for more opportunities like that.”

Following that early milestone, Adam won a host of competitions, including Southend's Got Talent, as well as progressing well in national contests such as reaching the Live and Unsigned Regional Finals in two consecutive years. As the Rochford-born musician began to establish himself locally, festival appearances followed including Village Green Festival in Southend, with 31,000 spectators present on the day, as well as performances at O2 Academy2 in Islington, London Excel, and Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge Stadium being the most notable highlights.

An unlikely source provided the pathway for thousands of music fans across the world to continue the momentum and further increase the 28-year-olds fanbase, even reaching so far as one of Adam’s musical idols the American Grammy Nominated band Goo Goo Dolls.

“YouTube has been a completely incredible and surreal experience for me. The whole thing was purely a bit of fun for me originally – there was no grand plan to build or fan base or anything like that. It was purely for a bit of fun. One of my most successful videos is a cover of Iris. No big production or anything like that – just me in the garden, an acoustic guitar and my brother filming me on an iPhone 4! It got a great reception and I had comments coming in from all over the world from people saying how much they’d enjoyed it, so I began to try and make it a bit more professional from there. I knew the Goo Goo Dolls where aware of me, as their drummer at the time Mike Malinin had tweeted about one of my original songs. Then I did a cover of a song from their new album and they featured it on their Facebook page which has over a million fans. It was quickly sharedaround quite a lot and before I knew it the video had reached 3,000 views. To be honest, whilst it was great to gain some new fans, the main thing for me was to get the recognition of a job well done from a band who influenced you to pick up the guitar and write songs in the first place. It was a truly special moment.”

Right now Adam believes that he is writing songs that are, in his own words, ‘as emotionally close to the fire than ever before'. The 28-year-old has his focus firmly on finishing his debut EP ‘Torch To Light The Universe’ and continues to try and become a successful solo artist by playing live shows, promotion, recording, social networking non-stop in order to achieve his ambitions:

"I just want people to hear the music and form their own interpretations of it. If people hear it and don't like it, that’s fine. At least they know it’s there and they've heard what I've got to say. You know, the thing that excites me is just being to play my songs and for people to be able to relate and feel something. This is an exciting time for me. I've finally got a chance to try and fulfil my ambitions and the more people that will come on the journey with me the more enjoyable it'll be."

Many questions have been asked from the solo artists fans as to when the long-awaited debut album 'Torch To Light The Universe' will be released:

"People always ask when it'll be done, but financially and time-wise it hasn't been possible to get a solid stint of recording until now. I'm a bit of a perfectionist with the recording process as well, so that makes things take longer, but hopefully the record will really portray exactly how I was feeling when I wrote the songs. I want to be able to take a step back and feel like I made the songs as good as they could be.”

There is no question that the multi-instrumentalist has a clear vision for how he wants his songs to sound, but there is also a clear understanding of where the inspiration for his songs come from too:

“It's all about trying to capture how you feel about the world around you and how different people react differently to the situations that exist within it.”

“I like to try and recreate a catchy, melodic rock sound through my songs - think Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls, Bon Jovi, Fleetwood Mac, Train, Tom Petty and you will start to get my drift - I like to move around the stage and get to know my audience throughout my shows, and to try to create an upbeat atmosphere. I want my music to move people, to lift them up on down days, and to slow them down when they feel things are too going too fast. But most importantly, I want people to take their own meanings from the songs, to feel a connection from listening and to enjoy it.”

Adam's long awaited debut single “I’ll Be Waiting” is available now worldwide on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon. With a new album in the works and plenty of singles working their way out to music fans across the world over the next few months, Adam Duffill is certainly well worth keeping an eye on.

"This is an exciting time for me. I've finally got a chance to try and fulfil my ambitions and the more people that will come on the journey with me the more enjoyable it'll be."