Making a career in music seemed like an obvious choice for Adam. Coming from a musical family, he got his first taste of success at the drummer for rock group Sabio, touring across Europe before he’d turned 21, “I’ve gone through life and always been near music. Both my parents have always played in bands, so from quite a young age I was always on the road with them and going to gigs seeing live music, so it’s naturally gone that way for me. I got really into sport in my early teens, but music was the thing that I knew would be there for me. It’s the obvious thing for me to do really.”

Buying a computer and home recording software so he could record demos with his band, Adam soon found himself working on his own music, “I’ve always been into funk and hip-hop and I’d been DJing for a while so I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to have a crack at making something’.” It proved to be a pretty good idea, the mash-up track leading to Adam’s working relationship with breakbeat legend Krafty Kuts, “I got loads of my favourite records and sampled them and ended up with ‘Tricka Technology’. I took it down to Krafty’s shop in Brighton, where I used to buy records, and he was right into. He came around and listened to a few other bits and pieces I’d been working on and that’s how we became friends. For a couple of years I’d engineer all his mix CDs, and then eventually the Finger Lickin’ album came up for him and I got involved.”

Some of A Skillz’s achievements include primetime DJ sets at UK clubs like Fabric, Ministry of Sound, Chew The Fat, The Boutique and Blowpop, and behind the scene engineering work on music from labels like Defunked, Arista, Curious and Supercharged. Adam’s work has also skirted with chart success, having co-produced Blu Cantrell’s UK number 1 hit ‘Breathe’, “I don’t consider myself to have made it in any way at all, I’m always trying to push myself further. I’m grateful for where I am, but I’m always trying to push it to the next level. In some ways I’m never satisfied with where I am, so there’s always more to achieve. I really do feel like I’ve been given a good opportunity, to express myself through music, not everyone gets to do that so it’s all good!”

As someone who has proved to be just as comfortable behind a studio console as he is in a club’s DJ booth, Adam struggles to pick a favourite between studio and DJ work, “There are pros and cons to both really. Being in the public eye as a DJ, it takes you around the world and that’s so amazing, to see all these places I wouldn’t normally visit otherwise. I enjoy performing and getting a buzz from the crowd. The real satisfaction, though, comes from working in the studio on something, then taking it out and playing it and seeing the reaction of people. It’s kind of like the best of both worlds that way.”

Adam’s upcoming tour will be his first chance to show his skills as a solo artist, and with pleasant memories of his recent Christmas and New Year tour still fresh in his mind he’s looking forward to returning down under, “Since doing that tour I’ve been looking forward to coming back ever since leaving. Every day was amazing, I played some of the biggest gigs I’ve ever done, like at Field Day in Sydney with Kurtis Blow. That was the first show we did with Kurtis, it was just an incredible experience. This time round it’s going to be my chance to prove myself as an artist in my own right.”