Head In The Clouds With Adam Cooper

DJ and producer Adam Cooper is no stranger to playing on the big stages of the house music world. 

Headlining some of the worlds most famous clubs including Avalon, Ministry of Sound, Supperclub, Pacha, and featured regularly on the decks for International and Ibiza heavy weight brand Pukka Up supporting some of the worlds biggest EDM acts including Swanky Tunes, Carl Kennedy, Alex Kenji, Denzal Park, TyDi, Angger Dimas.

Well known for his infectious bootlegs and mash ups, Adam is quickly gaining a reputation for his original productions, getting support from Radio Stations worldwide and International DJ’s a like. Adam has had a catalog of summer releases out on Beatport & iTunes including ‘Contrast’, ‘Phantom’, ‘Oxygen’, ‘Rock It’ as well as remixes for Dave E on Worka Tune Records and several remix and Original release projects on ‘Club Stream’, ‘Monochrome’ & ‘Antiblaze’ Records.

Adam’s biggest releases of the summer were ‘Inside’ and ‘Shine’ featuring the awesome vocals of Canadian Pop and Rock Singer Janey Brown which have so far reached number 51 on the New releases chart on Beatport.

His weekly podcast available on iTunes has over 50,000 downloads per edition from his constantly growing subscriber base of 70,000+ and is growing by over 500 new listeners per week, allowing him to fill the headsets of dance fans globally.

Adam has a popular spot on London’s Select UK Radio, The UK’s leading House Music Radio Station. Catch Adam 1pm til 4pm every Wednesday on Select.


Hello Adam, It’s such a pleasure to be interviewing Thank you for giving us this opportunity.

How are you doing, and what was your first thought when you woke up this morning? 

Hi, I’m great thanks and it’s my pleasure. First thing I thought of this morning was “Is that the time!!!!!”

           

Can you tell all the Thinkers out there a little more about who Adam Cooper is on a non- musical front?

That’s a hard one as my life revolves around my music and the dance music world. I’m 33 years old, from Reigate, Surrey in the UK. I love to keep fit, wakeboarding and basketball are my favourite sports to play. I love to watch F1 and Football as a spectator. I’m well travelled and I have lived most of my 20’s early 30’s in SE Asia in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Bali. However, I am now based back in the UK as I felt it was a better launch pad for my music.

We are from South Africa and ask all our guests this, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear South Africa?

A beautiful country. I have been lucky enough to visit Cape Town to see my brother get married. My sister in law is South African.

When did you get your big break in the EDM Industry?  Did you eternally know you wanted to have a career in Electronic Dance Music or did you have other plans when starting out?

My first break was in Malaysia when some friends who owned a popular bar asked me to come and play a set at their venue, that turned into a residency and within a few months I started to receive bookings in Singapore, Bali and Bangkok. That’s when I knew this was something that I wanted to pursue and I went about learning how to make music as I saw this as the natural next step in my evolution as an artist.

You’ve just released Head in The Clouds, we’re loving the release, what inspired the track and are you happy with the final product?

Thank you, I’m so pleased you like it. When I started making Head in the Clouds in April I wanted to make something that really captured that summer feeling, a track that made you want to smile. I wanted it to have a real groove to it rather than just a driving festival track. I’m very happy with the final track, but there are always little things that I would change with a track after I finish it, I’m a perfectionist. What matters to me is if people enjoy it, there is no better feeling for me than to see people love what you have created.

You are notorious for your catchy bootlegs, when did you decide to produce your own original tracks and where do you draw inspiration from when producing?

For me it was the first step to me understanding how to make music, learning layouts of tracks and how each element of a track effected it and why it was there. When you make a bootleg or a mash up you get the grasp for leveling, making sure everything is keyed properly and mixing in vocals to instrumentals. So it was all part of the learning process for me.

How long did it take you to find your signature sound and how would you describe it ?

I would say that I have a couple of main styles that I produce which are driving progressive and catchy melodic House. But for both styles I try to pack as much energy in as possible. 

Ibiza is said to be the summer party capital of the world, and you are playing in Ibiza in July.  Growing up did you ever think you’d get to play on the island? What can fans expect from your Ibiza sets?

It’s something that I have always dreamed of doing and I can’t wait, it’s the spiritual home of House music and it’s something that all DJ’s aspire to do. Growing up I would say it was always on my ultimate wish list and this summer I get to full fill that dream. The fans can expect loads of euphoric builds, driving high energy drops, lots of edits featuring those vocals we all love to keep the music familiar to the crowd, it’s going to be a lot of fun. 

After Ibiza you going to be jetting off to play in Singapore, one of the most stunning cities in the world, what are you looking forward to experiencing in Singapore, have you played there before?

Singapore will be great for sure, I have DJ’d there many times before and I have good fan base there and lots of friends. I’ll be playing for the Monarchy, which is a great new night situated on top of the OUE building, so the views will be stunning and as will the crowd.

We find it extremely hard to keep up with all the releases in the electronic music world, do you think that there just way to many releases coming out on a daily basis. How do you keep up with all these releases and go about selecting tracks for your “Get House’d” Podcast?

I completely agree and that is why podcast focuses on progressive and electro house. I love all types of house music but I honestly don’t have time to constantly go through it all every week, although if I feel a gig will need me to adjust my playing style for parts of my set then I always make sure I have the music to suit the occasion.

Select UK is the Uk’s leading house music station and you are a resident on Select, what makes your show unique from all the other radio shows out there?

I think every DJ has their own unique style but my show is a combination of the best new tracks I come across that week mixed in with the best that is making my live sets, I also play a lot of my own original content way before release date to give people a taster of what is to come. Finally I have a weekly guest from all corners of the globe in a 30-minute guest mix to show case what up and coming talent there is in the world. But the main thing you’ll notice when you listen is the continuous raw energy.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

I would say completing the Singapore half Marathon in 1hr 45 mins. It took a lot of hard work and preparation, it’s not the fastest time in the world but it felt amazing to get round in that time and I know I couldn’t get much quicker. Knowing that you have put everything in and achieved a good result is unbelievably satisfying.

We all human and we all have bad days, what cheers you up when you feeling down?

Music and good friends.

You are from the UK and its no secret people love their ink up there, so if you had to get a musical inspired sleeve what would it look like. Which DJ and Producers would find a everlasting place on you ?

Ha ha, do we now. No chance it would ever happen, no ink for me please, I think David Beckham has enough ink for everyone!

It’s the middle of 2014 already so lets wrap up the first 6 months with your best selection of 2014 so far:

            •           Best Track: Dannic - Lion

            •           Best Remix: Hook N’ Sling - Tokyo Nights (Axwell Remix)

            •           Best producer: Dannic

            •           Best remixer: Kryder & Tom Staar

Do you have any last message for you fans..

Thank you for your everlasting support, you are a true source of inspiration. Keep listening because there are big things to come!

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