Adeem the Artist is Adeem Bingham from Knoxville, TN. If he sounds or looks at all familiar to you then it’s probably because he used to record as Kyle Adem, who we have covered several times in the past. There’s a long story behind the name change, one involving mental health problems and substance abuse and some pretty dark places. Adeem wrote a bit about it in a recent blog post (which you can read in full here), but the below quote is a neat summation:
“I’ve decided recently that what I want to do is be very sincere with my art. I always wanted to be vague and mysterious; I thought that the space was important. Now, I feel differently; I want to tell you my name, which I’ve since changed the spelling to Adeem, and you tell me your name. Then we’re friends, and we get coffee, or beer, or food together- like before when my hope was to patch together a family of strangers.
The truth is there is organically such a broad universe dividing us from one another and I just don’t think that it needs any added mystery. So hey, I’m Adeem”.
So far only one track has been unveiled from Kyle Adem is Dead, but it goes a long way in showing the direction Adeem has taken his sound. ‘Good Evening’ sees sparse guitars allowing Adeem’s voice to fill the track, expanding outwards so that it fills your chest too. His words are disarmingly sincere, not melodramatic or overly sentimental but instead forged from that peculiar kind of earnestness which makes you feel comfortable, the sense that someone is willing to listen. Even without the back-story, ‘Good Evening’ sounds like an introduction “This is me,” Adeem is saying. “Now who are you?”
“Good evening
you’re a fine looking group
and your faces make expressions
that decide which songs I’m going to do”In this dark inner observatory
it’s a fine night for sharing songs and stories
like this one time when I was still young
I mean- I’m still young now
but I was younger when this happened…
I sang a song that was quite similar to this one”
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Kyle Adem is Dead is to be released on the 8th April, so expect a full review closer to that date.