Portrait: Adam Green

"He’s the contemporary answer to Bob Dylan," wrote the Rolling Stone. Spex called him "The favorite singer of all intelligent young people". He is the great grandson of Franz Kafka’s one-time eternal fiancée Felice Bauer and especially in Germany a superstar of the indie music: Adam Green. The 24-year-old cultivates the image of the drowsy genius with unkempt hair and half-open mouth. On television he mimes the fragile, even fearful guy who lives only for his music and somehow dreams his way through life. Above all, Adam Green is a songwriter.

He comes from Brooklyn, New York and wrote his first songs at the age of 13. A few years later he founded a band together with the 8-year-older Kimya Dawson and four other musicians. The first album of the Moldy Peaches appeared in 2001.

At the time, New York was the anti-folk city. All sorts of musicians presented rebellious songs packaged in traditional folk style at open mike sessions. Adam and Kimya belonged to the founders of this scene, and brought the music to the general public. Right after the first album, the Moldy Peaches took a break and its members pursued their own projects.

Adam Green and Kimya Dawson recorded solo albums, which was the beginning of a dizzying career for Adam. His secret recipe: a grotesque mix of vulgarity performed with feigned innocence and classically beautiful country music. His first album, "Adam Green", which he recorded during the Moldy Peaches days scored respectable success in 2002.


One year later, he managed the conclusive leap from the open mike tradition of the New Yorker anti-folk scene with his next album "Friends of Mine". Adam Green’s third album, "Gemstones", which appeared in 2005, instantly made the Top Ten. The musical journey through Green’s mind lasts barely 30 minutes, and the songs are on the average two minutes long. The strings are completely absent; instead the New Yorker concentrates on the organ and the piano, because most of the pieces came into being on the road. It doesn’t hurt the music because it brings Green’s lyrics even more into the foreground.

When singing, he expresses his often perverse fantasies culminating points sufficiently obscene to be ignored by the radio in the USA. A good example of the bizarre compositions of Adam Green is the song "Choke on a Cock". In one verse he tells us how much he would like to shake President Bush’s hand and in the refrain he sings about the dangers of choking to death during oral sex.

Adam Green’s music is a game of opposites. No rhythm lasts very long; there are wild changes in tempo. Constant incongruous changes in style is the style, and not only in the lyrics. Blues, folk, country, boogie – they’re all in the album. The lyrics are generally funny, and combined with Adam Green’s staged childishness, they develop an unsuspected power. The music can also maintain the standard, and the mix of styles works almost all the time, virtually postmodern in effect. Irony and opposites, harmony and the forbidden: the mixture works. But above all, Adam Green can sing. His voice is perfect for the folksy sounds, making the confusion complete. Why does such a nice young man sing such bad things?
There are no comments for this article so far. Be the first to comment!

Post your thoughts and opinion:

You must be registered and logged in if you want to post a comment! The registration is free, easy and done in a few seconds.
Click here to sign-up now!