DAVE'S DIARY - 13 APRIL 2020 - ADAM BRAND INTERVIEW
NEW BABY AND LOVE FOR ADAM ON EVE
“Now there's a woman that I love/ at times we fight but we make up/ if I lost it all she's be enough, yeah/ life's been good to me/ got a baby in my arms/ she's done upset my apple cart/ she taught me good/ she taught me love/ yeah, life's been good to me.” - Life's Been Good To Me - Willie Shaw-Adam Brand.
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Prolific award-winning Queensland country music and TV star Adam Brand's life has long resembled a powerful, passionate roller coaster. But now he has two beloved females to thank for the tranquillity and peace that fuelled his 17th album Speed Of Life. They are new partner Nui and their baby daughter Pepper. And, like a good country odyssey, it was a chance meeting with Nui in a Thailand shopping centre that sparked their romance and passionate new songs. “Every year or so I go away for a detox in Thailand ,” Brand, now 50, revealed to Nu Country TV. |
“I have a 10 day or two-week juice fest fast to clean out my body and get rid of touring stresses. We met a few years ago at a shopping centre, having something to eat and staying in contact. It was a strange and wonderful two universes colliding.”
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The collision inspired Brand's album and daughter Pepper's role in his video Life's Been Good To Me , filmed at his Gold Coast home. “Pepper was in the video, she's very photogenic - my little girl,” Brand explained. “Nui's not in the videos. I had to get a stand-in. But the song was inspired by Nui. I have spent so many years chasing things and wondering where I should go. You get to a point where you slow down and look around you and find peace. I was slowly doing my thing. My personal life has been on show through the years but some people didn't know about the relationship until we announced we were having a baby.” Thrice wed Brand's love for his new family was enriched during recording in Nashville as he viewed scans of Pepper before singing songs inspired by her and Nui. “The album was recorded more than a year ago,” Brand, born Adamo Alberto Brun, revealed. |
“I wanted to record it before our baby Pepper was born. I took her scans into the studio while I was recording. It gave me a sense of peace. I had a year to spend at home with her and Nui. She's definitely part of this. The biggest part was the state I was in while recording it. When I was working on these songs my whole perspective changed because I was going to be a dad. It affected my thought pattern and what I wanted to sing about. I felt their influence in making this album. The space you are at in life - the songs really touching my heart that I wanted to sing. If I hadn't been in that stage of my life I probably would have gravitated to other songs.”
CASEY DONOVAN AND ADAM NOT ALONE
“You are not alone/ we're all flesh and bone/ even though you think you are/ you ain't all that far away from home.” - You Are Not Alone - Adam Brand-Travis Meadows.
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Another woman - 2004 Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan, now 31 - guested on new song You Are Not Alone.
“I did an event with Casey just before I went off to record the album,” explained Brand who won reality TV show Dancing With The Stars in 2009 with ex-wife Jade Hatcher and was recently on The Masked Singer .
“We were chatting. I thought this song was perfect for her. She's an ambassador for RUOK? It was a perfect song to do together - she's a powerhouse.”
Brand wrote the song with long time Nashville writing partner Travis Meadows.
Meadows, 55, was born in Mississippi and grew up in Jackson and released his fourth album First Cigarette in 2017.
“I have written with him for 10 to 15 years,” Brand said of the former missionary who shared a Biblical bond with Adam's pastor stepfather.
“Travis had bone cancer many years and lost a leg.”
Meadows also wrote Don't Want to Let You Down that Brand sings as a prayer to Pepper.
“When I first him in 2005 or 2006 this was one of the songs he had written,” Adam recalled.
“When I first heard it 15 years ago I said I love this song. I want to keep this song - one day I want to record this song but I couldn't do it until I had a baby. As soon as I found out Nui was pregnant I thought I can now do this song. This song is so special - a very special personal song to me to be able to sing to my little girl. I don't want to let you down. I want to do my best. If I show up late occasionally I'm sorry. The incubation was worth it - the most incubated song I ever had.”
Brand also adopted another song Fly as a tribute to Pepper.
“It's very much influenced by having a family and being a dad,” Brand added.
“It's a prayer to her - I hope you go far. When I first heard the demo the first words were incredible words - may the world measure love by you. It's incredible It didn't let me down - an amazing song.”
ADAM FLIES FOR PEERS
“May you give more in this life than you get/ may you leave with memories than regrets/ may your friends be many and your enemies few/ and may the world measure love by you.” - Fly - Rick Huckaby-Keith Dozier-Reed Waddle.
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Adam released a new single and video for Fly - a song he describes as a prayer he wants to give to someone he loves. The video was shot in the Nashville studio of Grammy Award winner producer Luke Wooten while Adam was recording the song and in Australia . “Before I recorded the album I went to Tamworth before the festival,” Brand recalled. “I went to the college ( CMAA Academy of Country Music ) and gave the young artists a chat. I have been doing it for many years and I sang Fly for them.” |
The album's inspirational entrée Speed Of Life and finale Times of Our Lives with Jordan Brooker on guest vocals are perfect bookends.
Indiana born singer Brooker is managed by Brand's producer Luke Wooten.
“It starts with a statement of how life goes and ends with a statement about making the most of life,” Brand explained.
“Tonight's the night - don't waste it. People say it's not like the good old days but these are the good old days - the days we're gonna sing about and talk about in a few years' time so let's make the most of tonight.”
Brand also wrote Baby I Miss You with Nashville producer and hit writer Rivers Rutherford.
“We wrote that song quite a long time ago,” Brand recalled.
“It was after midnight - he had his guitar and lit up a cigar. This song poured out - it's a song about missing somebody when you're apart and busy. Fortunately for us I'm around a lot - we're living in the same place. I have been home a lot - you press the pause button.”
Brand also included another personalised love song Messing Up A Good Thing .
“It's an honest love song,” Brand revealed.
“I can mess anything up. I've been messing stuff up since I was a kid when I had my first job.”
Brand's first job was dental technician in hometown Perth after he was a student in Colac and Wallington near Geelong .
“This is really special I don't want to mess this up,” Brand explained of the song message.
“If it can be broken I'll break it. It's a real honest look at your vulnerabilities - things you don't get right. You wake up in the morning to an angel face even if you have the devil on your shoulder. I want to do everything I can to not screw this up. It's a very honest look at a relationship.”
Brand is making the most of his 2020 national tour cancellation to promote the album on TV, radio and print media.
The singer is preparing for throat and vocal cord surgery.
“There's a little bit of inflammation called LPR ( Laryngopharyngeal Reflux )”
Adam explained.
“I have acid in the oesophagus and larynx - it's the burning of it. I have to get that under control so they can scrape of all the scarring that it's caused. It's a few months before they can go in with the knife.”
Brand released a third video to follow Speed Of Life and Life's Been Good To Me.
“We filmed Speed of Life in an industrial area you fly over when you come into Sydney ,” Brand said of the song that traces the speed of a journey from teen years to being a parent and a senior citizen.
“It's in that stretch on the other side of the bay from the runway.”
And his video Freaking Weekend released while he is in vocal rehab?
“All the vision came from gigs I have done over the years,” Adam explained.
“We just collected all these flashbacks and collages.”
Brand has won 12 Golden Guitars, sold over half a million CDs & DVDs and scored three Platinum and five Gold albums.
Speed of Life follows his 20-year recording anniversary album Milestones, Get On Your Feet in 2017 and his Adam & The Outlaws album Good Year For The Outlaw in 2016 with Drew McAlister, Travis Collins, Matt Cornell and Mike Carr.
Speed Of Life (ABC-Universal ) was released on March 13.