We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carl Adams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carl below.

Carl , appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

The violin was my first instrument. I was 11 and played it through middle and high school. Around 15 or 16 I picked up the bass guitar and actually started writing songs. I didn’t have a computer, so I’d just write note names on index cards and pray I remembered how the song was supposed to come together rhythmically. This led to some ideas that I’ve long since forgotten, but as time went on I no longer needed to write anything down.

Looking back, I think all those hours spent sharpening the blade in isolation for that long is the best possible thing I could have done for myself. I slowly pieced together a musical identity that I’ve only added to as time went on, and the limitation of not having a computer forced me to really hunker down and figure out ways to remember what I was coming up with. From there it was just getting my skills up as an instrumentalist and writer. Plenty of 4-5 hour sessions. I’d play for three and write for two every single day. That routine served me well, especially as I got older.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a composer and instrumentalist. All of my songs are instrumental and span across multiple genres. Hip-hop, electronic, classical, and metal are the four genres I’m strongest at. I play the violin, bass guitar and electric guitar, all at a respectable level. I have 37 songs out and there will be more as time goes on.

My superpower is the ability to write songs without needing conditions met. That’s the one thing that separates me from nearly anyone else my age or younger. There’s no “I’m sad today and can’t write music” or “the vibe just isn’t right for me.” Not a shred of that exists with me. If I sit down and decide a song is getting written that day, it’s getting written that day. This is a result of the fact that I sat in isolation for an exceedingly long period of time. Day in and day out, I practiced writing and cultivating a musical identity that I could call my own. That’s usually where people go wrong and they don’t spend enough time figuring that out. Across all the genres I write in, it sounds distinctly like me.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It builds patience. Even when you don’t see the end result of what you’ll be, you trust that your work ethic will get you where you want to go. This path teaches you a whole lot about life.

You can’t just pick this up and put it down 3 minutes later and think you’ll be elite. That goes for anything. You are what you repeatedly do. That’s something most people don’t actually comprehend. I’ll use this example to paint the picture: There was a period of time where you could not walk. Your muscles had to develop. Then you crawled. Then you’d try to walk and you’d fall over multiple times or you’d need help to do it. All of this led to the end result. People might see the 15 second Instagram clip of the guitarist playing 16ths at 275 bpm and go “wow I’ll never be that” but what they don’t see is that the guitarist spent 8 hours a day for a decade getting to that point. It’s the same principle with elite athletes and how effortless they make their jobs look. There’s work there. This isn’t high school P.E. where the gym teacher rolls out the balls and people just play for 2 hours. There’s muscle memory they have to develop. Sets/plays to study. All these tiny subtleties that lead to the end result. People don’t understand that when they’re sitting on their couch screaming at the TV telling athletes how much they suck. They have no idea what it takes.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

This might seem counterintuitive because I’ve spent most of this interview gassing myself up, but this ultimately isn’t about me. Yes, there’s a level of success that I expect to get out of this. However, the ultimate goal is to use that success to shine a light on some of my peers. There’s a lot of them, and they work just as hard as me if not harder. I want to make sure that they also get recognized accordingly. That’s one of the things that drives me on the days where I start going “maybe I’ll take today off.” As long as I remember what I’m actually doing this for, good things will happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/carlmakesstuff
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlmakesstuff
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBYL7jMOC3Yy1sUBi-zDqpQ

Image Credits
Gregory Crowson