WORD POWER
Adam Gottlieb tackles social injustice on music and poetry tour
Adam Gottlieb is looking forward to his first time performing in New Mexico.
The Chicago-based musician and poet will be in the Duke City on Sunday, July 22.
“Life is good and music is good,” he says. “It’s very full. We’re getting ready for this tour, and there are so many moving parts. At the same time, I’m finishing up recording this album.”
Gottlieb is venturing outside Chicago for a set of shows for the first time.
“I’m still processing the fact that I’m headed on a tour,” he says. “We’ve been doing so much and taking so much action, it doesn’t feel like it hit me yet.”
Gottlieb’s working on a new album, and he can’t wait to finish it.
“I’ve been working on this since before 2014,” he says. “There are some songs that are old. In fact, there’s one song on the album that is the very first song that I ever performed.”
Gottlieb started recording the album in February and is almost done with the core recording.
Next up will be the mixing and mastering.
“Each song has a unique journey,” he says. “Some songs start with a kind of feeling and a musical foundation that doesn’t have any idea or story concept attached to it. I work on that musical foundation and I really listen to it and observe what feelings come up in me.”
Gottlieb is also influenced by the actions and events in the world.
“The social injustice and the struggles that are happening around me in Chicago, the country and the world,” he says. “It’s not easy to write about the times that we live in, because the times that we are living in are so intensely dangerous and scary. The mission of the band is to try and meet the moment in history that we’re at with music. This is the project that I’ve given myself.”