Diandra Reviews It All Skrizzly Adams: Independent Artist & Artist

The perk of being an independent spirit is that you can grow to be a really virtuous one. Having your own back doesn’t mean you, automatically, become arrogant or aggressive towards the world or yourself. It is, instead, a journey to figure out how to deal with your flaws while building strengths, forgive your mistakes while learning from them, and remember that regrets are born from what you didn’t do, but lessons are born from what you did. Skrizzly Adams has always been an independent spirit; building his career, style, life, and dreams with complete creative control. In our interview, we discuss what it is to be a visionary, and the work it takes to learn how and who to trust with your vision.

Diandra: Why are you doing in a 12 hour ride to Nashville?

Skrizzly: I am a driving addict. Twelve hours is nothing to me. Driving detaches you from everything and keeps you clearer. Every two weeks I drive down to Nashville. We have had the opportunity to detach because we can’t go out to party or bars, and driving just lets you go.

Diandra: So, in a way, the pandemic has taken away our ability to distract from things but not, necessarily, detach from them?

Skrizzly: I think you are right. I think, in an odd way, the pandemic has been a benefit for people in the arts because you are always a creative, but there are less distractions. Most artists we work at home.I have a little studio at my home. The focus is a good thing. I have even seen that things in my personal life, that were toxic, are pushed to the side.

Skrizzly Adams – Too Close To Fire (Official Music Video)

Diandra: So do you feel it has affected the album?

Skrizzly: Brilliant! Really good question! Most of the album was written before the pandemic. I am driving down to Nashville, now, to finish it so, maybe, these songs I write might be affected. A lot of the album was about past relationships and me trying to capture my late twenties, so when I wrote this album, I was kind of in a neutral state. But who knows? Maybe, after the pandemic, the world will change so much that all that I have said is irrelevant? Maybe, a song about falling in love or fighting at a bar will be irrelevant? Maybe, that will never happen again?

Diandra: Maybe, you can do a deluxe album or a double album of a before and after?

Skrizzly: That is a good idea! I might think about that.

Diandra: With your music being so emotional. who is Skrizzly on neutral?

Skrizzly: I don’t even know where to begin about writing a song from a neutral place. I feel like my music is pretty chill. I guess a neutral me would be from an “eye of the storm” place. It would be difficult. My goal is to always capture a very strong, polarizing emotion. It doesn’t really rely on a relationship. I just want, when people hear the song, they remember that feeling.

Diandra: You have spoken about how you grow beyond the song, like, you sing about a situation or theme, and then your connection fades to that situation. How do you sing the song then?

Skrizzly: You definitely lose a connection. I hate to say that. You, definitely, cringe at your own song. My biggest song is, “Dance With Darkness,” and I wrote it at age 23 and released it at 27. I absolutely hated it I did not like it, and I remember the night I released the song, seeing the numbers, and thinking, “This is a bomb.” Then, the next few days, it started gaining more numbers and it went viral. So, it goes to show you that I don’t know anything.

I have produced songs for other artists that became hits, and they were songs about my life, but I didn’t want them. I think you have to put your personal issues aside, produce your song, give it a fair marketing shot, don’t put TOO much money, and understand this is your job. It is your job to sing your song. Give it a shot, and don’t let your emotions get in the way. A song you hate might change someone’s life. Moreover, I am not the consumer. The song is for the listener.

Diandra: That is a very business perspective that I don’t see in many artists.

Skrizzly: For sure! The thing you have to realize that the minute a song is released, you are in the commerce arena. Nothing that I did, artistically, matters anymore. Once it enters the commerce arena, that is it! I think that mentality is a “producer” mentality, which I consider myself a producer first. You have to be, almost, hypersensitive to make the track, but desensitized to release it and handle how the consumer or commerce world handles it.

Songwriting is my passion and producing is my dream job. I make the music I want to hear. I do what I love and, miraculously, it became my profession. I don’t need a smash record, I just need to make songs that are who I am.

Skrizzly Adams – Resurrect Me (Official Music Video)

Diandra: As someone independent, what do you admire about yourself?

Skrizzly: I can confidently say, in my most humble way, that I have lost a lot of the negative qualities I had in my twenties. I think that I have become a lot better at trusting, collaborating, and optimizing the people around me, which, before in my twenties, that was, probably, my weakness. I can, now, pass my track off to someone, and see they are passion about it and not micro-manage them. You got to let the passion happen, and not let the previous ways of doing things block new ways. It can be different, but it can be “me.” It is like being a football coach. You have to trust, not let your ego get in the way, and understand when to put someone in and get someone out.

Diandra: It feels like you became more intuitive and easy-going.

Skrizzly: You put all that perfectly in two words.

Diandra: It’s my job. (we laugh) So what was the inspiration behind your new song “Too Close To Fire’?”

Skrizzly: It was about this 19 year old fan of mine who was totally obsessed with me and wanted to have my babies. I was single, at the time, when I did a post where I jokingly put this picture up of myself like I was dating myself, and she put, “Unless you are a psychopath, this doesn’t need to happen.” She got to know me over time and then she stopped talking to me. I think she got married and pregnant, and my friend asked me, “Whatever happened to that girl?” And I joked “Oh, she got too close to the fire! She figured out I was a psychopath.” She thought she liked me because she liked my music, but then she met me. (he laughs) There is no bad blood; she really just moved on, but, it’s funny, I just started saying “Too Close To Fire.” I did a voice memo and then I recorded it, and, it’s funny, the original version was like a waltz and very inspired by Taylor Swift’s “Lover.” It doesn’t sound anything like that. I wrote the lyrics about a relationship, with a good friend of mine, that I had that was very “on again and off again,” and it was destructive and reckless but it was also romantic and fun. It was a very liberating thing to be reckless all the time with someone. It’s strange.

Diandra: I get it! It is like when someone shares your darkness you, oddly, feel lighter with them. You feel like you can put a guard down and not have to work so hard to hide or calm it.

Skrizzly: Perfect! Exactly! Say that! (we laugh) My story is too complicated, the way I put it.

Diandra: You have “Too Close To Fire” embodies that album and its themes.

Skrizzly: I wanted to do a trilogy, My first album is about learning that the answer is that there is no answer. Things go wrong. Album Two is about accepting that and making something from it. Accepting that things can get reckless. This album is a transition album. You are trying to establish growth, but you can make negative progress. Maybe, I will end up with a family doing a barbecue and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but things can go wrong trying to get the. Still, you can get there.

Chris Webby – Flawed (feat. Skrizzly Adams) [Official Video]

Diandra: What is your favorite childhood memory with music?

Skrizzly: It is funny. I started making music as a child, and I didn’t realize I was record producing or being a songwriter. I just remember that it was such a high. It is such a gravity pull. You do music because you have to do music; it chose you. Everyone who wants to be a famous singer is really just chasing chance. As a kid, I just did music because it was such a rewarding experience and it still is one.

Diandra: Singing and writing about love, what have your leaned about it?

Skrizzly: What I have learned through love, as songrwriter and singer, is that love is a lot more complex than a Hollywood film or country song makes it out to be. Love can be anger and lust and hatred and deep care, all at once. It can be so much all at once, and not what a romantic comedy paints it out to be.

Diandra: What is the worst romantic film you have ever seen?

Skrizzly: How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. I thought it was so stupid, and every girl loves it.

Diandra: No, not every girl. It is not the best writing, but it is a perfect cable film because you just put it on for noise while you are doing chores around the house.

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