Adrian Sherwood
Encyclopedia
Adrian Sherwood is an English record producer best known for his work with dub music
as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut
, Depeche Mode
, The Woodentops
, Primal Scream
, Pop Will Eat Itself
, Sinéad O'Connor
, and Skinny Puppy
. Within his role as a record producer, he has worked with a variety of record label
s, however his most well-known label is On-U Sound Records
. Sherwood has been a member of the band Tackhead
.
, and founder of Hitrun Records as well as Green Tea Records and Soundboy Records. He is also the fourth member of industrial hip-hop
outfit Tackhead
, credited as "mixologist."
During the early 1980s he brought together many Jamaica
n artists under the collective name of Singers and Players including Prince Far I
, Mikey Dread
, Bim Sherman
and many others, this helped promote the individual artists at the same time as promoting the record label, On-U Sound Records
. He also worked with Suns of Arqa
on many of their early records.
In 1986, he began working with Jamaican dub producer and singer Lee Perry. They produced the classic album Time Boom X De Devil Dead and Sherwood's support helped relaunch Perry's career.
He made contributions to the industrial
genre in his remix of Einstürzende Neubauten
's song "Yü Gung" on the album Halber Mensch
, as well as his production work with Ministry
, Cabaret Voltaire
, KMFDM
, Terminal Power Company
and Nine Inch Nails
. Adrian has also delved into the blues
, producing Little Axe
's Real World Records
release Champagne and Grits in 2006.
In 2003, Sherwood supported Blur
at Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
In 2003, Adrian Sherwood released his first album as a solo artist, Never Trust a Hippy, which featured collaborations with various artists such as Sly & Robbie, Steven "Lenky" Marsden, Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie and Jazzwad.
In 2006 he released his second album Becoming a Cliché that again featuring numerous artists such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, the late Bim Sherman, Dennis Bovell, Little Roy, Lee "LSK
" Kenny, Samia Farah, Raiz and Mark Stewart. A limited 2-disc version was released simultaneously with the second disc titled Dub Cliché.
On beginning a solo career, Sherwood stated, "I wanted to do some of my own writing and make something that was challenging for me... As a producer, it's my job to satisfy the artist foremost. I wanted to make something that was a little more aggressive and modern. I wanted to paint a picture that was contemporary, one that specifically showed where my brain was at. I've got to the point in my life where it's time for me to call all of the shots."
Most recently, Sherwood received notice for the original reggae score he created for the acclaimed 2006 independent film, Johnny Was
starring Vinnie Jones
, Roger Daltrey
and Samantha Mumba
.
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, The Woodentops
The Woodentops
The Woodentops are a British rock band that have enjoyed critical acclaim and moderate popularity in the mid-1980s.-History:The band formed in 1983 in South London with an initial line-up of Rolo McGinty , Simon Mawby , Alice Thompson , Frank DeFreitas , and Paul Hookham .After a...
, Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
, Pop Will Eat Itself
Pop Will Eat Itself
Pop Will Eat Itself are an English alternative rock band, originally formed in Stourbridge in 1986, with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a Grebo act, their style changed to incorporate sample driven indie and industrial rock...
, Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
, and Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial musical group, formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1982. The group is widely considered to be the founders of the electro-industrial genre....
. Within his role as a record producer, he has worked with a variety of record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s, however his most well-known label is On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records is an English record label best known for releasing its own unique flavour of dub music since the 1980s. The label is owned by producer Adrian Sherwood and home to acts such as Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, The London Underground, Little Annie, Creation Rebel,...
. Sherwood has been a member of the band Tackhead
Tackhead
Tackhead are an industrial hip-hop group that were most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, industrial music and electronica intersect...
.
Background
Sherwood was co-founder of Carib Gems and Pressure SoundsPressure Sounds
Pressure Sounds is a British record label, specializing in releasing reggae music. It is run by Pete Holdsworth although Adrian Sherwood was involved at the inception of the imprint...
, and founder of Hitrun Records as well as Green Tea Records and Soundboy Records. He is also the fourth member of industrial hip-hop
Industrial hip-hop
Industrial hip hop is a fusion of the dissonance and dystopian subject matter of industrial music with the rhythms or vocals of hip hop music.-1980s:The origins of industrial hip hop are in the work of Mark Stewart, Bill Laswell, and Adrian Sherwood...
outfit Tackhead
Tackhead
Tackhead are an industrial hip-hop group that were most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, industrial music and electronica intersect...
, credited as "mixologist."
During the early 1980s he brought together many Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n artists under the collective name of Singers and Players including Prince Far I
Prince Far I
Prince Far I was a Jamaican reggae deejay, producer and a Rastafarian. He was known for his gruff voice and critical assessment of the Jamaican government. His track "Heavy Manners" used lyrics against measures initiated towards violent crime.-Biography:He was born Michael James Williams in...
, Mikey Dread
Mikey Dread
Michael George Campbell , better known as Mikey Dread, was a Jamaican singer, producer, and broadcaster. He was one of the most influential performers and innovators in reggae music...
, Bim Sherman
Bim Sherman
Jarret Lloyd Vincent better known by one of his stage aliases Bim Sherman, was a Jamaican musician and singer-songwriter.-Biography:...
and many others, this helped promote the individual artists at the same time as promoting the record label, On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records is an English record label best known for releasing its own unique flavour of dub music since the 1980s. The label is owned by producer Adrian Sherwood and home to acts such as Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, The London Underground, Little Annie, Creation Rebel,...
. He also worked with Suns of Arqa
Suns of Arqa
Suns of Arqa are a World Music collective founded in 1979 by Michael Wadada. Since the group's formation, over 200 people from around the world have played and recorded with them, and in many cases these were like-minded musicians Wadada met as he travelled the world...
on many of their early records.
In 1986, he began working with Jamaican dub producer and singer Lee Perry. They produced the classic album Time Boom X De Devil Dead and Sherwood's support helped relaunch Perry's career.
He made contributions to the industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
genre in his remix of Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
's song "Yü Gung" on the album Halber Mensch
Halber Mensch
Halber Mensch is the third studio album by Einstürzende Neubauten. Some Bizzare Records released the album in 1985...
, as well as his production work with Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
, KMFDM
KMFDM
KMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
, Terminal Power Company
Terminal Power Company
Terminal Power Company was a British industrial-alternative band.-History:Formed in 1989 in Birmingham, UK, by Paul Aspel and John Roome, designed specifically to be a "cyberpunk band", the band cited many diverse visual influences on their music. Amongst these were William Gibson, John Shirley -...
and Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
. Adrian has also delved into the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, producing Little Axe
Little Axe
Little Axe is the stage name of Skip McDonald an American blues musician. McDonald played jazz, doo-wop, and gospel when young, and moved to New York as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers.Axe joined the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bassist Doug Wimbish and...
's Real World Records
Real World Records
Real World Records is a record label started in 1989 by Peter Gabriel to record and produce world music.-Overview:The label grew up alongside the success of the WOMAD festivals and Peter Gabriel's exploration of music from other cultures, and helped push world music into the general public's...
release Champagne and Grits in 2006.
In 2003, Sherwood supported Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
at Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
In 2003, Adrian Sherwood released his first album as a solo artist, Never Trust a Hippy, which featured collaborations with various artists such as Sly & Robbie, Steven "Lenky" Marsden, Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie and Jazzwad.
In 2006 he released his second album Becoming a Cliché that again featuring numerous artists such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, the late Bim Sherman, Dennis Bovell, Little Roy, Lee "LSK
LSK
LSK is an English singer, songwriter and record producer based in Leeds who uses a mix of reggae, punk rock and Hip Hop. He originated the style that has been compared to The Streets, which is mentioned in a song on his second album Outlaw...
" Kenny, Samia Farah, Raiz and Mark Stewart. A limited 2-disc version was released simultaneously with the second disc titled Dub Cliché.
On beginning a solo career, Sherwood stated, "I wanted to do some of my own writing and make something that was challenging for me... As a producer, it's my job to satisfy the artist foremost. I wanted to make something that was a little more aggressive and modern. I wanted to paint a picture that was contemporary, one that specifically showed where my brain was at. I've got to the point in my life where it's time for me to call all of the shots."
Most recently, Sherwood received notice for the original reggae score he created for the acclaimed 2006 independent film, Johnny Was
Johnny Was
Johnny Was is an Irish/British gangster movie directed by Mark Hammond, written by Brendan Foley, and made in 2005 by Ben Katz Productions, Borderline Productions and Nordisk Film...
starring Vinnie Jones
Vinnie Jones
Vincent Peter "Vinnie" Jones is an English film actor and retired Welsh footballer.Born in Hertfordshire, England, Jones represented and captained the Welsh national football team, having qualified via a Welsh grandparent. He also previously played for Chelsea and Leeds United. As a member of the...
, Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...
and Samantha Mumba
Samantha Mumba
Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba is an Irish singer and actress.Her first album was released in 2000. Her most notable role was Mara in the 2002 film The Time Machine. She has also appeared in a number of Irish independent films.-Early life, education and early career:Mumba was born in Dublin,...
.