ADMT talks tackling mental health in music: “We need to show people that they need to stay”

14 August, 2024

ADMT. Credit: Press

ADMT has spoken to NME about the importance of being so open about his mental health through his music and social media – and shared what it means to be opening Leeds Festival this month.

It’s been another huge year for the rising Doncaster singer-songwriter, releasing a string of streetwise but soulful genre-clashing singles – including a viral cover of 50 Cent’s ‘Best Friend, which got the approval of the rapper himself, leading the artist to release a full version online. This only added to ADMT’s hundreds of thousands of streams and followers.

“I’m feeling quite blessed,” ADMT – real name Adam Taylor – told NME. “I’m just a guy from Donny. For all this mad stuff to be happening is sick – I’m super grateful. This is my dream.”

Reflecting on his hometown, he admitted that he’d “spent his whole youth trying to escape Donny,” but could now appreciate all the “great things” about the Yorkshire city, which is also hometown to Yungblud.

“There are so many great people; it’s a soup of cultures and music and that’s helped me in the stuff that I write,” Taylor went on. “It’s a working class town. I’ve lived so many different experiences because of this place. Sometimes, [being here] definitely hasn’t helped me, but it’s definitely helped me with regards to writing tunes and that.

“What Yungblud has done is really special. I don’t know him personally, but he seems like he really gives a shit. Anything is possible. You’ve just got to get to work, and pray a little bit!”

He added: “I got brought up with pretty much just my mum around. I worked all the jobs on the fruit market, the fish market, a factory, then busking. When you’ve been through all the graft, it makes you appreciate it more. If you get lucky breaks early on in life then that’s sick and a blessing for you, but when you haven’t then it keeps your boots on the ground.”

Check out our full interview with Taylor below, where he also spoke to us about spreading a positive message around mental health, battling his own demons, what it means to play Leeds Festival, and plans for his long-awaited debut album.

NME: Hello ADMT. You’ve a very open and personal relationship with your fans – regularly posting messages and writing music about your own mental health and past suicidal thoughts. When did that kind of connection to your listeners come about?

ADMT: “I spent a good couple of years suffering with depression. It was hell. The only way that I saw a way to deal with it was by venting through the music and writing it down. The more I was doing it and sharing it, I saw that it was helping other people.

“It almost sounds cliche, but I have a lot of these existential thoughts these days and think, ‘What’s the point in being here if you’re just going to do it all for yourself and not give to anyone else?’ If that’s through the music and stops people from doing something that they might regret, then that’s all that matters. I was there at a point, and I can’t describe anything like it. We need to show people that they need to stay. It’s the biggest tragedy known, that someone wouldn’t want to be here any more.”

The resistance to hold back breaks down when you realise you’re not alone… 

“I spent some of my younger years getting bullied; I never really fit in. I feel like now, my honesty helps me feel like an army. This is me, this is how I am. If we showed each other a bit of compassion and understanding about how we’re all on this journey together, then we’d be in a better place.

“Someone said to me the other day, ‘In 100 years, no one we know now is going to be left on this planet’. This is your squad! I’d rather know that everyone was good, happy and living a good life. If they feel the other way, then they should be able to speak about it with people there to go, ‘This is how I feel, how can we help each other?’”

A lot of your fans are in their mid-to-late teens, who are looking forward to Reading & Leeds because they get their results after their GCSE and A-Level results. They’ll be feeling like these are the most important months of their lives with everything heightened… 

“Yes, definitely. We just do that to ourselves. Because of the TikTok age and those pressures, there are a lot of people that feel like they’ve got the weight of the world on their shoulders – but you just haven’t! We put all these pressures on ourselves, but we don’t have to. Try not to take much on board.”

How do you strike that balance of having so many listeners but being so close to your fans?

“I try to reply to everyone and be there if I can. We’ve got a Discord with a mental health chat in there. We’ve also got a normal chat after we had fans saying, ‘I want to come to your gig but I don’t want to come on my own’. That’s shit, so we wanted to fix that and give them a place to meet other people.

“When the mental stuff kicks in, one of the biggest factors is loneliness. If you can build a community – whether digital, in real life or both – and just give people a place to at home without being judged, attacked or out of place, then that’s the best thing you can do.”

ADMT. Credit: Press
ADMT. Credit: Press

You’re headlining the Festival Republic Stage on the opening Thursday at Leeds Festival. That must be exciting as a Northerner? 

“Leeds was always the one I wanted to play, so big love to BBC Introducing for putting me on last year and Festival Republic for having me back! I love the festival; it’s got such a good energy and vibe. It’s great for ADHD!

“I’m pooing my pants a bit, I can’t lie! I don’t really think about it too much before because I put pressure on myself and then get well anxious about it. I’m just looking forward to going, catching a vibe and meeting new people, and the manifestation of all this stuff I believe in. This is happening! It’s crazy, man.”

What does this festival mean to you?

“I went to uni in Leeds, which changed a lot of my musical life. I was just going to get a normal job, and I did for a time but it never felt like it was right for me. I went to Leeds College Of Music, and that opened my mind to things. It seemed like the big city to me, growing on what people had taught me in Doncaster. Leeds is like home. I just love the place. It’s one of the first places where I really felt like myself.”

After that, what does the rest of 2024 have in store for you?

“I’m looking forward to starting to write my first album. I’m writing pretty much every day because I need it. I’ve not really thought about it until now, so I’m quite nervous. I’ve got ADHD so I’m quite flat-out mentally all the time, and never really pause to think where I am along the journey.”

Where will the album take your music from what we’ve heard so far?

“It’s got to be my story. I’ve got songs already written that I’d ideally like on it, but I also just feel like I’ve got to write with some friends and bare all. There’s love, there’s loss, there’s pain. I’m not sure if I should write another mental health song, but I could do a whole album on that!”

What’s your dream for the record and where it takes you?

“This sounds like arrogance, but I have to do this. I have to tell myself it’s going to be somewhere ace! You can’t admit to yourself that things might not work out, so I always have to say, ‘This is going to be everywhere – we’re going to explode into the world’.”

ADMT plays the Festival Republic Stage at Leeds festival at 10.15pm on Thursday August 22. Reading & Leeds 2024 will be headlined by Liam Gallagher, Lana Del Rey, Fred Again.., Blink-182, Catfish & The Bottlemen and Gerry Cinnamon. Check out the full line-up and stage times here.

Reading & Leeds will return for the August Bank Holiday weekend. Tickets are on sale now here for Reading and here for Leeds.

For help and advice on mental health:

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