Adam Hawley

from Adam Hawley Jan/Feb 2023

by Smooth Jazz Magazine

Grammy News

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By: Keivu G. Knox

Photos By: Ron Hancox

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Adam Hawley is a Billboard Chart topping artist that is set to build his brand even further. After having 8 #1 singles from his own projects, Adam is now collecting multiple charting singles as a producer. He was recently on the successful Christmas Tour featuring Mindi Abair, Vincent Ingala and Lindsey Webster. In the midst of all of his projects, Hawley took some time to talk with Smooth Jazz Magazine to talk about his accomplishments, and future endeavors. SJM: How’s everything going? Adam: Everything is great, just got off this Christmas Tour and so I have a few days off to relax. SJM: Tell us about the tour, I heard some rave reviews about it! Adam: It Was fantastic! We did 19 shows in 25 days. We were all over the country and had really great turnout for all of the dates. There’s a lot of talent on that stage with Mindi, Vince and Lindsey, and if you’re familiar with Peter White’s tour, we had their band backing up. The sound engineer was great, and the tour manager was awesome, we had a lot of fun. SJM: Does it feel a little different touring with an all-star lineup like that vs. touring by yourself?

Photos By: Rhonda Kilpatrick

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Adam: It was a lot of fun and very collaborative. There were several group numbers but also room for us to do original tunes. We had some Christmas collaborations on songs, and so that concept is rather different from when I’m on stage with my band. The cool Photo By: Cheryl Wolters thing about the tour and collaborating is that I just had a tune called “Let ’s Get Down Tonight ” that just went to #1 which features Vincent Ingala on the album, so it was an easy decision for me to include it in the show. SJM: Was there anything new that you discovered about Mindi or Vincent or Lindsey while on the tour? Adam: Well Lindsey and I have done a lot of dates together within the last few years, and we’ve gotten to know each other really well. But I’ve seen Vincent and Mindi all the time on the cruises and festivals but I’ve never really played with either one of them, so it was fun to do that. It was great to see the crowd’s reaction for them and being able to really see what makes them tick. SJM: Sounds like a great success, and this year has been a very successful one for you. Congrats on “Shine” which was a song you produced, being recognized as the #1 Song of the Year for Smooth Jazz Airplay. Adam: Thank you. I’ve been spending a nice amount of time writing and producing for other artists lately. That has been a lot of fun for me and truthfully 16| SmoothJazz Magazine Let the music take you… Jan/Feb

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I’ve been doing more of that than my own stuff. I tell people if I’m not on the road I’m on my computer working on other projects for people. But yes, Kim Scott released “Shine” in January of 2022 and I produced, mixed and co-wrote it with her.I feel very fortunate to have won this award for the second time (“ To The Top” was the same award in 2020). I am also happy for Kim because she is a really great artist and a great person, one of the sweetest people that I know. It has been a stellar year as I’ve had 4 songs go #1 this year and I really count my blessings for having such great support. SJM: With all of the outside production you have been doing, do you get a different thrill out of producing for others than working on your projects? Adam: It is a different challenge with some similarities. I pretty much take how I prepare for my own projects, but just direct it outward, so the thing for me that is most important is the personality of the artist that I am working with. That is important for me because I can be working on a track and I will say ‘this song is not a good song for Adam the artist ’ and I will set it aside and put it with the tracks that I would consider for other artists to check out. I just want to accentuate the vibe of the artist, and that is critical because jazz radio wants to hear unique voices. They are not looking for me to be the next George Benson or Will Donato to be the next David Sanborn. But I think I am getting more success and fulfillment now when working with others vs. myself because I was fortunate to have a lot of success early in my career as a solo artist and I did not produce for others as much back then. SJM: Is production something you envisioned doing when you started? Jan/Feb Let the music take you… SmoothJazz Magazine | 17

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Adam: Absolutely! I had been doing tracks for a long time, I remember I started doing it when I was 11 or 12. I had a Roland 8-track recorder then and it would record to ZipDisk and I thought that was the coolest thing. I was a multi-instrumentalist back then too, playing piano, bass, drums and singing a little bit. So I started our making remakes or songs that I really liked. I can remember remaking “ Ventura Highway” by America and writing original material back then as well. I actually recorded an album on it in my high school band. I just found out that in this industry, you just never know. Everyone has songs and tracks that they have done and are looking for placement, and so when I started out I would ask to place my songs and no one would offer. But after my first two albums took off, people started asking me ‘hey your albums are great, who produced it?’ I would tell them that I did. Then they would ask “who mixed it?” and I would tell them that I did. It just grew from there. The true turning point as during COVID in 2020. In April I was feeling sorry for myself with all of the dates that were being cancelled and at some point, I said that I had to get off the couch. So I began working on music and posting what I was working on. In California, everyone was stuck inside, and everyone was on social media, so I put a video of me in the studio working on a track and just put a feeler out there that if anyone needed a track to Photo By: just let me know. Right after that, I had maybe 10-12 people reach out to Ron Hancox me saying that they loved the track and can you do something for me. I literally went from having 3-5 clients to about 15 clients all at once.

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SJM: With everything that you do, from the producing to the teaching, to the touring to the FB live shows, how do you balance it all? Adam: It ’s all about time management. I wake up early, around 5-530 and work out, take my son to school and then I’m back in my studio by 8. I’ll work until about 6 or 7 and if he has basketball practice, I may work until about 9. I am fairly regimented in that way and it works best for me. That is not a knock to those who work late and stay up until 2 in the morning, that just never worked for me very well. I can’t take credit for all of it though. Being married and having a son, I’ve learned how to really allocate my time and make it count. I’m very project oriented as well, and so if I know that I have an album coming in 18 months, I’ll be setting aside tunes in preparation for it well in advance so that I’m not pressured when the release date is a month away. SJM: So the obvious question now becomes: what do you do to relax? Adam: Not much! (laughs) We go on family vacations one of year. We love going to Hawaii, we’ve been like 5 times in the last 5 years, and so that ’s our goto destination. We go to the movies, and also have movie nights at home. My son is 14 so he’s into the Marvel movies, so we will spend time watching those.

SJM: Switching gears a bit, tell us about your time at Kalimba Music, did you have any interaction with Maurice White while you were there? Adam: My first two albums were on Kalimba and how I got with them is what I truly call a “California Story.” I’m originally from Oregon but I Jan/Feb Let the music take you… SmoothJazz Magazine | 19

was on the road carpooling with Greg Manning who is a great keyboardist and artist for a gig. He was already on Kalimba and knew that I had been working on some things. I really was just telling him congrats on his record, I wasn’t trying to do anything else. So during the chat I told him that I wanted to make a jazz record and he said to let him know when I was done and he would pass it along to Kalimba. The other interesting thing is I had Euge Groove on it and he passed the album to Shanachie Records. But with Kalimba, the A&R heard the album and saw me at a concert and wanted me to sign with them. I was very excited, and I signed in May of 2015 and just knew the album would be coming soon. They felt that with me being a new artist, they wanted me to wait until the first quarter of 2016 because they felt the first quarter is the best time to break a new artist. So the album sat in the can and I had to wait. It was the longest 9 months of my life! But right before my album is slated to release, Maurice White passes away, so I didn’t knowhow it was going to work. The good thing is that they stayed true to their word. They release the single and album on time and my first single went #1 and it snowballed from them. I didn’t get a chance to work or interact with Maurice directly but I was able to interact with a lot of people on his team so I gained a lot of knowledge and appreciated my time there. SJM: How did you approach the idea of being an independent artist after those first two albums?

Photo By: Rhonda Kilpatrick

Adam: The decision was made for me in a sense, because after those two albums Maurice’s son looked at everything and felt that the label was not profitable enough to continue. As a result, I felt confident because of the success of my first two albums. I know others like to be with a label and signed but I was looking forward to the opportunity to be independent. I’m very hands on and self-managed, so I’m used to being responsible for so much, and it was not a stretch for me to be honest. It is a blessing and a curse because while I can control the rollout of a project, I have to be the one to contact all of the different entities, from artwork, to promotion manufacturing, publicity, etc. One of the biggest reasons I did it was that Jason Gorov was my radio promoter while I was at Kalimba and he was familiar with my work and I figured if I signed with another label, I would have to go back to the drawing board with that piece. SJM: How has it been to have your wife in the industry working with you? Adam: Its been great. We actually met at church making music together. I was the music director, and she was the worship leader. We have been working together in 2006 and it 2012 when I started touring, she wasn’t on the road with me. The good thing was that since 2016 as an artist she was able to come on the road and we’ve loved it ever since. She’s a part of every show, and its great to have her because her vocals help to balance out my show. It really started organically because Photo By: Ron Hancox at the start I would feature her on one song but it went so well I thought we should do more! We just found more ways to incorporate her into the show and it was worked out tremendously, as it also allows us to spend more time together. Jan/Feb Let the music take you… SmoothJazz Magazine | 21

SJM: Can we anticipate a collaborative duet album in the future? Adam: Well, she will continue to be featured on the projects that I do but we are working on her project. We’re in the early stages of figuring out the original tunes and the reinventing of other songs. You want to create a buzz for it and wait for the right time, but that buzz has become a roar now! People constantly ask about it when we’re out on tour so we feel it ’s the right time. SJM: Final question for you, what is one thing that people would be surprised to find out about you? Adam: That is a great question! I definitely enjoy playing video games with my son. Normally he wipes the floor with me on NBA 2K, but I was proud to beat him 3 times yesterday. It was the first time I beat him more than once in three years, so I was very proud of myself (laughs). SJM: Thank you so much Adam, anything else you want to share? Adam: Just want to let people know that I have a Christmas album coming in October, and then I’ll be working on my album for early next year and looking forward to seeing people when I go back on tour soon! SJM: Thanks again Adam for your time. Adam: Thank you, it was my pleasure!