Bryan Adams: The best of me
road. That story would not happen anywhere else in the world, welcome to India. It’s always an adventure. This will be our fifth tour of India, I’m not sure many artistes have done that from the West.
Q. Since the start of your career you have produced several massive international hits. What is your secret behind this consistency? A.
I get asked this all the time, and I can only answer it by saying that I take care of myself. I’ve got a great team, and we try to have a laugh whenever we can.
Q. Love and romance are themes that recur in your songs. What is it about this particular genre of songwriting that appeals to you so much? A.
Aren’t most songs about love and romance? Even rap goes there, albeit more explicitly.
Q. What is your creative process like? How do you write songs? A.
Songs are elusive but good ones are even more elusive. I’m quite straightforward. Get the idea across in the first 30 seconds of a song—it’s always been my approach. The inspiration is the theme of getting out, or looking back on life, relationships, all of those themes seem to occur... And luckily those themes seem to be with me still. I don’t really have writer’s block. I keep jotting ideas down and then, when the time comes to make a song, I fish through them to see if anything lights a fire.
Q. You continue to be a global music icon. What do you think has helped you strike a chord with an international audience? A.
I still love what I do more than anything. I’m really grateful and privileged because I can still go out there and play and sing. And I can kind of feel like we are better than ever.
Q. How do you think you have evo l ved as a musician since your first album from 1980 to your latest one, Ultimate? A.
Well, I’ve learned that in order to continue to have a career, you have to tour. The challenges are how to develop it, so it’s always interesting for not only the audience, but for you as the artiste. The tour we are bringing to India took a couple of years of tuning and changing things.
Q. There have been many changes in the music industry over the last decade. Albums are streamed online and music apps dominate. Musicians, too, are more focused on releasing singles rather than finished albums. How have you
Live shows have always been Sardar Patel Stadium around 30 severely wounded veterans from the British Armed Forces that had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan for my book and exhibition at Somerset House, London. It was a humbling experience.
Q. Do you approach photography as a means of creative self-expression, just as music surely is for you? A.
It all about creating something from nothing, and hopefully at the end of the work, you are left with something beautiful. I like the idea of waking up every day and making something beautiful, whether it is music or photography. I like the idea of starting with nothing and at the end of the day having something really nice to look at. That’s all it comes down to.