IS THIS THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN MUSIC?


I met Adam Ficek a few months ago when Kirsty, at XYZ magazine in Brighton, asked me to take some portraits of Adam for an upcoming article. We met at a Babyshambles gig in Kingston, and arranged to take some shots before the gig. After a productive shoot, Adam sat down with me in a riverside bar and we had time to chat about the whys and wherefores of being a musician in a post download world. What struck me was how charming and unaffected he is. He possesses a consuming passion for his art form and it transpired that he had a degree in musicology. What also struck me was how productive and self disciplined he is. Formerly the drummer with Babyshambles he also records and performs under the title Roses Kings Castles, plays DJ sets and performs on his own as Adam Ficek Solo. Heres an extract from the biog from his Roses Kings Castles site.

ABOUT ROSES KINGS CASTLES

"RKC was originally intended as a platform to air the many songs and instrumentals I was writing back in 2007. It went relatively unnoticed until the NME gave my first single 'Sparkling bootz' a shining review. At that time I was sending my singles out by hand, kids and grown ups would send me a paid envelope and I would in return, send them my new single. As you can imagine this cost me quite a few pennies and so began the commercial venture of selling my ware. My ultimate goal was and still is, to make enough money to pay for the next musical venture......

The 'Apples & Engines ep' last year (2009) was intended as a stop gap between the first and second album. So that brings us to my next single 'one born every minute' it's the first release to be taken from 'Suburban Time Bombs' out in May.

With the evolving releases came the inevitable performance side of things, I played most of the instruments on the early releases myself so I kept all the early shows just me and a guitar. With the release of 'apples & engines' with it's 'band' sound I started using some other musicians to bring the venture to life. Generally just a three piece consisting of myself, a bass and basic drum set up.

RKC is now at the point of being a six piece band to try to fully recreate most of the music on the 'Suburban Time Bombs' album."

Roses Kings Castles are currently touring the UK followed by an Adam Ficek Solo stint in Italy.

http://www.adamficek.com

http://www.xyzmagazine.co.uk


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