ADAM OVERCOMES DYSLEXIA AND DEPRESSION
for bullies. After high school, he took odd jobs, went to college and was accepted to Napier University in Edinburgh to study film and photography.
At university he found friends and common ground among the students, some of whom were also dyslexic.
Music was the one constant in his life. At school, lunch hours were spent in the music room, composing songs with a guitar.
After university, he formed Y’all Is Fantasy Island, a Scottish alternative folk band who released a couple of critically acclaimed albums and regularly supported now famed Glasgow group Frightened Rabbit.
Y’all Is Fantasy Island lasted from 2006 to 2010 but didn’t ever really break through.
But Adam said: “I was very ambitious. I really saw music as my vocation.”
He also still loved film and he directed, edited and wrote the evocative score for the acclaimed short documentary The Shutdown.
The film, written by Alan Bissett, focuses on the Falkirk novelist’s recollection of growing up in the shadow of Grangemouth Refinery and an explosion which injured his father.
It was filmed in one night with a budget of £50 for petrol money but won seven major accolades, including two Oscar-qualifying festival awards, in San Francisco and Palm Springs, as well as two BAFTA nominations.
Adam said: “We had no expectations for it and we were all really stunned.”
His second short film, No Hope For Men Below, was inspired by Falkirk’s Redding pit disaster of 1923, in which 40 miners lost their lives.
He continued to be dedicated to his music and his numerous achievements include a Scottish Album of the Year-nominated solo album, Imaginary Walls Collapse.
Famed for his mesmerising performances on stage, he has played alongside Warpaint, The Twilight Sad, Norman Blake, King Creosote and Ela Orleans.
His new orchestral fusion album, Fire Behind The Curtain, took eight years to complete and features songs dealing with the depression and anxiety that have dogged Adam since childhood.
He said: “Depression has been a constant throughout my life. It has been pretty bad, very dark at times. It’s been debilitating, paralysing.”
Adam now feels it is positive to use his platform to help destigmatise the struggle of depression.
He said: “I used to try to hide it but now I realise it is OK to acknowledge it and share it with other people.
“Depression destroys lives and I think it’s important for the stigma of mental health to diminish.”
For the last year, he has spent time in therapy and has learned to “live in the now”.
He said: “I feel good and a lot more confident than I did. I still have bouts of depression but I am learning to think of them as temporary and recognise they will pass.”
Released through Scottish label Song, By Toad, the new album includes the haunting song Strangers Care When You Burn.
It was inspired by his grandfather’s death and cremation and Adam mixed the arrangement with spoken word.
He said: “The line ‘fire behind the curtain’ is a testimony to my naivety. I thought when the coffin disappeared behind the curtain, the cremation started there and then. It is also a metaphor for the fire, the hidden chaos of life, when we choose to hide behind our very own curtain.”
Adam continues to write film scores and is respected in the creative arts across Scotland.
At times he finds it difficult to correlate his success with the little boy in the dunce’s cap.
He recalls his mum taking him to an educational specialist for an IQ test and the expert declaring Adam to be intelligent “but he will never be Steven Spielberg”.
Adam said: “It is surprising to look back on your achievements. I realise I have done a lot, although I also think I could always do more.
“When the first film I made won so many awards, I did feel it was two fingers to people like my teachers. I think it’s important that people think before they say negative things to children.
“Children need encouragement. They should be encouraged to follow their true vocation and they should never be called stupid.” ● Fire Behind The Curtain is out on Song, By Toad record label in May.