INTERVIEW: Yorkshire singer-songwriter ADMT discusses life on tour and new music

Rising singer-songwriter ADMT is an artist known for wearing his heart on his sleeve.

The Doncaster singer, real name Adam Taylor, initially honed his music skills through busking during the pandemic, transitioning from being a drummer in a band to becoming a solo performer. After his cover of 50 Cent’s ‘Best Friend’ went viral (with the rapper sharing it on social media), ADMT propelled into the spotlight and started to release his own music.

Drawing inspiration from personal lived experiences, ADMT’s music is a breath of fresh air which combines his gorgeous vocals with hard hitting yet relatable lyricism. He has since gained an online following of over 1.5 million, captivating audiences across the world with his music. With a catalogue of soul-baring tracks behind him, this is an artist who will never shy away from tackling difficult subjects. He wants the world to know his truth and he does so beautifully with such honesty.

2025 has been a huge year for ADMT with the release of singles including ‘F**k You’ and ‘Queens’ featuring rapper Big Narstie. He is also in the middle of his second UK tour, culminating with a show at Dingwalls, London on Halloween. There is no doubt that ADMT is one to watch and is destined for an even brighter future.

We caught up with ADMT to discuss his new music, touring, songwriting, and hopes for the future.

Thank you for taking the time to speak to us while you’re on tour! How’s it all going so far?

My pleasure, thank you for having me. The tour has been insane so far to be fair. Everything just feels really real now. I don’t know what it is. I was just speaking to a friend earlier about it and something feels different. I think when I did my first tour, people sort of came for one or two songs and now it feels like people are there for the full show so it’s been pretty magic.

You’ve still got some UK and European dates ahead of you, including a performance at Dingwalls in London on Halloween. What can fans who’ve yet to see you live expect from these shows?

I’ve never been really good at explaining what fans can expect from shows. I guess people have just got to come and find out, you know?! I think and hope that everything I’ve written is honest and hopefully people will experience that and feel the emotions that I felt when I was writing these songs and making these songs and the same thing when I’m performing them. Hopefully they’ll be on that journey with me throughout the show.

What are some of your home comforts that you need to have whilst out on tour?

I like to say I’m not a diva. I don’t think I’m a diva, maybe the boys will have another opinion on that, but all I really need when I’m on tour is a pillow just for when we’re in the van or get into places and stuff just so I can try and get comfortable. My headphones just so I can listen to music or podcasts as well. That’s pretty much it, there’s nothing major that I need. I’m quite low maintenance, well, I think I am anyway haha.

One of your most recent releases is ‘Fuck You’ which feels quite self explanatory, but can you talk us through the inspiration behind it?

I guess more than anything, it’s about empowerment to me. It’s about taking control of your own life and your own feelings. I feel like at some point in everyone’s life, we’ve all, whether we use the swear word or not, we’ve all experienced a position where we have to say, we’re not doing this anymore. I’m not going to accept this level of behaviour from someone else or myself, whether it’s gaslighting or manipulation.

I think as a younger guy, I felt a lot of that throughout my life. And I think ‘Fuck You’ is just the point where you say, no, I’m not doing this anymore and I’m taking back my power, you know? That’s kind of why I wrote it. But yeah, I also feel it feels good to say it sometimes.

You’ve also just released a new track called ‘Queens’ with Big Narstie, and performed it with him for the first time in Nottingham. What was the fan reaction like?

It’s been amazing to be honest. I was sat on this song for a minute. I wrote it a year or so ago with some friends and then Big Narstie was cool enough to invite me to the studio one day and we were chatting. I was like, do you know what? I have got a song that maybe you’d like. And I played it to him and he laid the verse down and that was it.

The reaction’s been great. It’s something I wrote about the things that my mum went through and I just tried to be as honest as I could because I know there’s a lot of people out there probably going through the same things as well. Hopefully people can feel that and resonate with that. But yeah, it’s been sick to be fair, buzzing!

“Queens is a song for my mum, who’s always been my rock and biggest support. But it’s also for every mum out there doing her best to hold things together, provide, and love unconditionally. This is a celebration of their strength. I’m mad grateful that Big Narstie jumped on this song. He’s a legend, so to have him on my track is mad. I feel truly blessed for his energy.” – ADMT

“Nothing can compare to a mother’s unconditional love. I’m blessed to be surrounded by Queens and grateful to have been raised by a queen. I love you Mum and all the Mum’s around the world.” – Big Narstie

You’ve released a lot of incredibly personal music over the past year or so – what do you hope that people will take away from your music?

I don’t think it’s up to me what people take away from it. I hope they take away something that’s positive and reassuring. If it’s a difficult topic, maybe something that hopefully helps them in their own journey of growth throughout life. But I don’t really hope that anyone takes anything apart from that. I feel like our journeys are our own and that’s up to people to feel how they feel when they feel it, if you know what I mean.

You talk about a lot of hard hitting topics in your music including mental health, poverty, housing issues, and youth education. How important is it to you to create music that others can relate to?

I think it’s really important to…I think the overarching thing is, people relating to your music is all you have and I don’t write songs about stuff just so people relate. Obviously, I hope everyone relates. That’s my dream, that people can relate to stuff. But also I guess some of the things I talk about especially with mental health and things like that, it’s a bit upsetting that people relate. I kind of do it because I just want people to be okay and not suffer.

I think suffering is one of the factors of the human condition. I think we all suffer in our own ways. And if me or other artists can alleviate some of that through the music, then that’s really all that matters. I also think it’s important just to be honest about our perspectives on life. I’m not saying I’m right. I just think everyone is alive and everyone has a perspective. Therefore, everyone is entitled to that perspective and I hope that anything I say, in whatever way I say it, just brings people a little bit of peace, maybe.

What’s your songwriting process like? How do you go about pouring your heart and soul into your music?

It’s mad because when I first started writing songs, I was in a factory trying to write songs on a night shift and I couldn’t hear myself think because it was so loud. And I guess now it’s a lot different to that but one of the things that is just important to me is just finding something that resonates, finding something that feels like it’s the thing that I want to write about and then I feel like your honesty and the way you do it, it gets pulled out of you.

There’s lots of different ways I like to do it. I just like to find something, whether it’s some chords or a guitar or a piano, I like to find something that feels like it is the topic that I want to talk about if you know what I mean. Sometimes you can play some chords and the topic comes out of the chords almost, you don’t have a pre-planned thing of how it’s going to be. I don’t really have a process like that, it’s more if it feels real whatever it is. If it’s love it’s got to be true love. If it’s heartbreak it’s got to be real heartbreak, If it’s mental health it has to be real. It has to be about something that is real because I don’t think you can fake emotion and I feel like if you do it’s always lacking a bit compared to something that is real.

Do you have a favourite lyric that you’ve penned?

I think one of the most important lyrics for me and something that I’ve written is from a song that I did called ‘Overboard’, which is about mental health. It’s just about people understanding that they matter and that they should stay here with us and not do something that they might regret.

It’s just the opening line, it’s “I want you to know that I see you and your voice to me will always be heard”. Because I feel like we’re conditioned to sometimes believe, regardless of our job or our position in society, in this tribe of humanity, that we’re lesser than and I just don’t believe that. I think everyone is the same, everyone is equal and everyone should know that they matter, their opinion matters, their voice matters and their life matters.

You can count the likes of 50 Cent as a fan of yours – who are some of your current favourite artists and influences?

This is always a difficult question because there’s so many artists out there now, there’s so much talent, it’s just difficult to even list. I could probably list hundreds of people that I’m just like, this person’s amazing, this person did this, this artist inspired this. In terms of newer artists, I’m a huge fan of Olivia Dean. I think she’s incredible. I feel like she’s timeless, she’s just insanely talented. The way she writes and the way she captures emotion and life in what she does is magic.

But I often go to older music. I sort of scatter between older stuff and newer stuff because I feel like there’s magic in old songs as well that are almost forgotten about and you can bring that hopefully into the stuff you’re writing here and now as well. I was listening to Angie Stone yesterday just because she was amazing. Honestly, the list goes on, it’s so difficult to answer that question. So basically, everyone haha!

You started your career through busking during lockdown – we were all just doing things to try and survive during that time, so did you ever imagine that by 2025 you’d be embarking on your second tour?

I made a decision with myself a good few years ago, probably around lockdown. I was dealing with a lot, it was the darkest time of my life in regards to my mental health and things like that. And I think I made a decision to fight [for myself] as long as I did it in a good way and hopefully a compassionate and kind way, but fight for myself and for what I felt like I wanted for my time on this planet and that was doing this.

So there’s part of me that was like, yeah, I knew this would happen, but I don’t know if that’s just me being an idiot haha. I feel like I wanted this to happen but I don’t think you can ever know what’s coming. There’s always that person in you that’s like the imposter, like, ‘oh, you can’t do this, what are you doing?’ sort of thing. I mean, that guy never goes away, I just have to tell him to shut up.

If you asked me if I thought I’d be doing another tour like this and the rooms would be sold out and the people would just be just the sickest audiences I’ve ever played to? Probably not but also there’s that bit in you that had to believe it for it to happen. The truth is, I don’t know what I thought then. I think I was taking each day as it came just with how life was in general. But I know that I’m super grateful and I’m super blessed to be where I am now.

You also used to play drums in a band before making the move to become a solo artist. What was the hardest thing about that transition?

I think the hardest thing is when I was playing drums and I was sat behind a drum kit, I was super safe and no one really looked at you. I was just sat at the back. I never really aimed to be a frontman or like a singer really, it was never the plan, the plan was always to be a drummer. I think the hardest thing was actually probably my own ego. I thought, ‘ah, it can’t be that hard, you know’. I used to speak to the frontman of the band and be like, ‘bro, why don’t you do this, why don’t you do that?’ and then when I did it, I was like, oh shit, this is well scary. This is not what I thought at all.

I actually think the hardest thing was understanding that it’s mad difficult to be a singer and the person who everyone’s looking at when it’s not necessarily your natural go-to thing. If I’m having a conversation outside, I’m confident, I can talk to people, but getting on the stage for me and doing this thing where everyone’s just looking at you is pretty nerve-wracking and I still sort of battle with that today. Again, it’s the imposter syndrome thing that comes in, I’m like, what is going on? Much safer behind the drums, but also I feel like there’s power in being vulnerable and being there and just being honest about whatever is going on and whatever it is I’m doing.

What’s been your highlight of your career so far?

There’s obviously things like 50 Cent noticing me, the love that he showed me was huge. It was like winning the lottery for a musician to have that sort of exposure and just more than anything, the fact that he didn’t have to do that for me. He didn’t have to show me to the world and I think that’s something that’s always going to stay with me forever for as long as I’m here. That was massive.

But throughout my career, I’ve been lucky with other artists – there’s a group that I really look up to called Foreign Beggars early on that allowed me to be on their album and took me under the wing. And I was like, I don’t deserve this. This is crazy. And then Big Narstie reaching out and saying, ‘come to the studio’, was like, what? I’ve just been super blessed by other artists who are in a lot more successful positions than I am just showing me love. I think that’s showed me how I want to be if and as this grows with other artists on the come up. I think there’s something magic about that and it shows people’s nature and shows who people are.

That’s just to name a few. There’s been so many times but this tour in general [is a highlight], like I said earlier, just looking back and I’m like, ‘oh, these people know all the songs, that is mental’. This tour has been a highlight. You just pinch yourself, you know, like you pray to whoever you pray to and you work hard but I think when things actually start to happen, it’s important to just reflect and be like, ‘wow, this is mental’. I’m just super grateful. I feel like the highlights keep coming in so many different ways. It’s mad.

2026 is fast approaching – what are your dreams for the year ahead?

I kind of try and keep it simple. Obviously my goals and my ambitions are always that I want to do as much as I can while I’m on this planet. Like most of us, I want to experience as many things as I can, as many emotions as I can, and live a life that hopefully I can look back on and be like, ‘you know what, you didn’t skip anything, you didn’t miss anything. You did all right’.

I think the underlying thing is always just to keep going and keep growing. Growth is all I want. Like mentally, spiritually, in my career, everything really. I just want to do better, see the world and hopefully help some people while all that’s happening as well.

‘Queens’ is out now.

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