When you reach a point, where you speak to U2, there are two things which are more than true: It was a long way here and barely anything can top that. Plenty of various conditions had to fall in place, some great people had to help, it’s something worth remembering and it only took few months to reach Adam Clayton of U2.
Well, naturally rather years, as only few of us in Muzikus magazine team might hope for such an attractive product. Based on the gear essence of the magazine, there are plenty of top class equipment brands promoting their products and naturally carefully analyzed by our strict reviewers. Next to that, they are all also really happy, if we include them inside the few interviews we do. One might think we work on a deal: “We will get you a top musician and you speak nicely about the brand!” You wish my friend…
If we would have done it even once, readers would kill us, it would be more than clear to a musician and interview would suck. Therefore, when we talk to someone, all of the brands, which he/she ever used, are discussed and compared, no matter, who arranged the interview. In the case of Adam Clayton, it was more than a free interview, as there are numerous brands promoting their products, with Adam included on their portfolio of signature artists, in our magazine: Everything from Fender, Aguilar, Warwick and possibly even Ashdown. The ground was more than open for comparing and finding compliments and an appropriate time of usage for each. However we didn’t stop there.
We started covering what Adam does in his free time, as I just saw on U2’s Facebook page he was enjoying a visit in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. Than we moved to the magic of their live shows, followed by a new album and discussion on a band’s writing style. This was a chance to discuss some of the crucial songs as California (Remembering their innocent early days) and Song for Someone, where we also talked about Woody Harrelson and how they managed to get him for their brilliant video. Towards the end we talked about the new generation of musicians, which are walking in their footsteps, however still influencing them back and Adam’s charity activities within Walk In My Shoes Charity. No need to mention, there was not enough time for everything.
I was preparing for weeks, since I heard about the chance for an interview and I had numerous A4 sheets filled with structured questions. When I was informed, it would be a ten minutes interview, I had to pic only the best ones. As a part of my research, I looked at every single good article and interview from recent days, but also some of the established stuff from the past. Personally I can recommend some of them here:
God bless you Muzikus team
Nothing would have happened if I didn’t have a proper support from the Muzikus team, especially the editor-in-chief, deputy editor/graphic designer and a colleague Milan Janeček, who supported me, as a professional bass player, on the gear questions. Plus, I knew he was trying to get this interview within our team for years. Interview was actually supposed to be done at first over email, few months ago. I provided an extended list of questions by the end of July and we have waited for weeks. Suddenly, I received a call from editor-in-chief, saying Adam will call me personally at 10AM Stockholm time on 16th of September. When Adam called, we even agreed on sth more than twenty minutes. Cheers mate and thanks for a great interview!
What next?
After that, you can only humbly thank those who helped you, thank higher powers and hope you will get Ozzy or other guys from Black Sabbath, while they are still alive…
