Do you ever find yourself wondering about the producer who recorded your favourite cd, or the photographer who took that photo of your favourite band, or the director who made that amazing music video you just can’t stop watching? Who exactly are they? What inspires them? How the heck did they get involved in the music scene in the first place? Well now you can wonder no more as we bring you the first of our features into some of the people that keep the music industry ticking over; people who may never personally enjoy the limelight or the kind of overwhelming attention bestowed upon bands, whose work we just might take for granted, but who are an integral and necessary part of the ‘machine’.
For the first of these features we take take a look at up and coming London music video producer Adam Powell, whose unique style of work has been steadily gaining him increased interest in underground circles. Discovering a passion for wielding a film camera as a teenage skateboarder filming the antics of friends back in the late 90’s he made his first music video for Death Metal outfit Gorerotted in 2004, and has since gone on to make videos for some of the UK’s best metal bands including Architects, This Is Menace, From Grace, Your Demise and The Ghost Of A Thousand. His latest video for Welsh metallers, Shaped By Fate’s new single ‘They Told Me You Were Dead’ has been widely praised by fans and industry alike for its impressive style and unique visual elements. The idea of taking a small stick and poking around in such a promising and interesting mind appealed to us so we caught up with Mr Powell to find out just what it is that makes him tick.
What inspired you to be a film maker?
I never set out to be a ‘film maker’. I remember when I was about…16 maybe, watching a super 8mm film my friend had made and thinking “I could never do that”, then later a guy came to my college and told us how TERRIBLE AND DEPRESSING it was to be a music video director and I thought to myself “that job sounds rubbish, I can’t imagine anything worse than making videos for the Spice Girls” – because that’s what I thought music video directors did. I’d only really seen pop videos and I thought you had to like sell out, and get bossed around by pop stars. And then I started skateboarding, borrowed a VHS camera from my friend’s rich step dad and started shooting all of us skating and messing around. It was pretty much all downhill from there.
How old were you when you made your first film, and what was it about?
I don’t know really, 1996/97? My first films were skate videos…they were just about friends being silly and skateboarding.
Have you made any types of film other than music videos? Movies, documentaries etc? If not is this an area you’d like to get involved in?
Apart from skate videos and short stuff about bands not really to be honest, I’m kind of learning a lot about making films with music videos, I’m pretty sure everyone in this job wants to make shorts/features, but it’s not something I feel pressured or in a rush to get into right now.
Are you self taught or did you study film making?
HAH, I got an F in film studies, because I was out making skate videos instead of doing coursework. I’m entirely self taught, and I’m not THAT technical either so it took me ages to get my head around F-stops. Probably some of the worst times of finding my way around video was trying to get hi8 footage from a camera onto some shitty 486 or whatever came before Pentium (I cant even remember) and trying to edit. I had to cut my videos up into little bits to get them to play without stalling and record them to VHS in sections. Cold as ice.
Where do your ideas come from?
My head box. Mostly anyway. Where DO ideas come from…because I need more in my line of work….the collective consciousness possibly? I should stop wasting time trying to think anything up at all and invent a rocket to shoot me directly into the collective consciousness, so I can steal EVERYTHING.
In the new *Shels video you are seen shaving all your hair off. How did that come about? Was that done specially for the video, or was it footage you had and it seemed appropriate to use it?
One day for some reason I kinda, half decided I wanted to shave my hair off; I was going to shave it to make a music video for one of my songs, but I had been promising Medi from *Shels a video for so long and I love that band so much that I was like like “fuck it”. I went to Boots and bought the clippers and whilst I was walking out I was like “well I’ve got to do it now”. But yeah, I set out to make a video of a guy shaving his head, I don’t know, I was interested by the idea that some people would see it and gasp, and some people would be like “it’s just hair”. The fact it’s a whole identity stripped away but at the same time it’s really nothing you know? Just hair, whatever it’ll grow back. Also for me it symbolises trying to make a change, and hope.
Do you consult ideas closely with bands before you film, or do you prefer having artistic license to produce something unique that they don’t get to see till the video is finished?
I want 100% artistic license 100% of the time!!. HAHA. Buuuut I can’t have it, my job is to please the client/band/label and they quite often for some reason think they are film makers?? haha just kidding. But yeah, I try and do work that’s true to me whilst making the client happy. I feel I do my best work when left to my own devices and from responses from clients it seems to work that way for them too.
What’s your favourite piece of work to date?
Down I GO – Wasp In A Jar. It’s a collection of thoughts, and it was a real outlet for me as I was working in this shitty office and it was either make that video or start a Fight Club. Also the band had no say in any of it whatsoever! HA! Either that or *Shels, because I love the track, and the video means a lot to me. It’s just so personal.
Which band would you most like to work with and why?
I’d like to work with Prince, just to see how fucking crazy that would be. Um Fugazi, because I’ve loved them so long, Do I really have to pick just one? Ok, I got it, Mos Def, how amazing would that be? Or maybe Justin Timberlake, so when people ask me in bars who I’ve worked with and I reel off a list of hardcore bands they wouldn’t walk off in disgust for once.
What’s your next project?
Um good question, that’s a secret. No it’s just hard to say, because I get a LOT of bands saying “HEY SHOOT US A VIDEO” and so few actually come off…I guess a lot of bands are on crack.
To find out more about Adam’s work visit his website: www.adam-powell.com
Words: Marianne Harris
Photos: Marianne Harris
