0:03 my name is Adam Holmes and I'm a
0:06 songwriter from Edinburgh in
0:08 Scotland I was lucky to spend the first
0:11 10 years of my career touring the world
0:19 albums above all else I consider myself
0:23 a songwriter and so when the world came
0:25 to a standstill in
0:28 2020 I had to think differently about
0:31 how to be a
0:34 songwriter this is the story of how I
0:38 helped David and Kevin tell their story [Music]
2:04 a well-written song can take you on a
2:08 journey it can provide healing it can
2:11 take you places that you maybe wouldn't
2:15 go andless you had connected in that
2:21 [Music]
2:24 Sal I live at the medals in Edinburgh
2:27 and I was walking around the medals one
2:30 day I can recall having a really really
2:34 clear thought it was like it
2:37 arrived like what if you write songs for
2:40 fans like what if what if you can sort
2:43 of use yourself as an instrument to help
2:46 people communicate things or help people
2:48 tell their
2:51 story it's such a gift that feeling when
2:53 it arrives and it's like and it
2:56 says what it needs
2:58 to to say and it's such a kind of image
3:00 isn't it that
3:03 like only oceans divide us you know it's
3:06 like a really special couple of words in
3:16 song how the commissions worked was I
3:17 decided I was going to do them I
3:19 advertised them on social media and I
3:24 did mail outs to my mailing list so 90%
3:25 of the commissions that I've done came
3:27 through that
3:31 David found my music through a playlist
3:33 searched my website and discovered from
3:34 my website that I was doing commissions
3:36 and just and booked
3:39 one at pitch workor social every year we
3:42 do a best albums of the
3:46 year uh newsletter sort of thing that
3:50 goes to all of our uh listeners and
3:53 Adam's Dreamweaver album made that list
3:57 that year not long after that list came
3:59 out I was on his website and I know
4:02 noticed that he was doing these song
4:05 commissions it was during the pandemic
4:08 and artists were more affected than
4:11 anybody as far as making a living and I
4:12 thought well I would love to support
4:15 that how would I do that what would be
4:17 the idea for a
4:24 there um I first about Adam's
4:27 commissioning project uh VI an email um
4:30 and it was at a time when I was just
4:32 starting to think about a very special
4:34 year that was coming up for myself and
4:36 my wife Judith uh so it came at just the right
4:37 right
4:39 time one thing I remember that he said
4:42 to me in the various Zoom calls that we
4:45 had about it is he was looking for what
4:46 I wasn't
4:49 saying you know usually I would talk to
4:50 people for 30 minutes about commissions
4:52 I talked to David I was on the FaceTime
4:55 with him for like 3 hours you know I
4:57 just was really getting a sense of him
5:01 as an individual and get in a sense
5:04 of what existed around him and how he
5:06 thought and what he felt and and also
5:10 trying to pay attention to maybe the
5:14 undercurrents right because there's you
5:16 know the self that we present to the
5:18 world and that never really makes for a
5:20 good song like it's always the part of
5:28 conceal the song I commissioned Adam to
5:30 write I wanted to ref reflect the fact
5:33 that we'd both reached a certain age in
5:35 our life Judith and I and that we'd been
5:37 able to negotiate 40 years of marriage
5:40 and negotiate is the right word I think
5:42 you know they I think any lengthy
5:43 marriage doesn't just occur naturally
5:45 you both have to put effort into it and
5:48 put uh put quite a lot of work into
5:51 it we both had parents who got divorced
5:54 in very ugly acrimonious
5:56 circumstances and so I wanted to
5:57 celebrate the fact that we kind of
5:59 broken the cycle of what our parents had
6:01 done done so that was that was the kind
6:04 of start point and also I wanted to get
6:06 someone whose art I really admired to to
6:09 to commission someone to do something
6:10 which frankly I was incapable of doing
6:14 myself which was writing a love [Music]
6:27 song just that for the verses basically
6:28 which I don't know what it was in the
6:29 demo but [Music]
6:34 [Music]
6:36 what I understand about what Kevin has
6:39 done for a job is he understands Meyers
6:42 Briggs personality testing incredibly
6:46 well and he is able to speak with people
6:49 analyze their uh behaviors and
6:51 preferences and offer them a perspective
6:54 on where they fall within the categories
6:56 of Myers
6:59 bricks both Judith and I are quite quite
7:01 quite introverted we're quite shy we're
7:03 quite retiring we're not naturally
7:06 outgoing and um uh gregarious so it was
7:08 it was a really interesting experience
7:10 to try and get all the stuff that was
7:13 inside out and to to to put it into kind
7:15 of a work of art that I thought was
7:17 going to endure and that that reflected
7:19 who we both were as
7:22 people the sense I had was that Kevin
7:24 was having his life in VAR you know
7:26 where normally he was the person who would
7:27 would
7:31 be asking questions getting to know
7:34 people uh finding out what people liked
7:36 and what their preferences were he'd put
7:37 me in that
7:40 position uh frankly it was Agony uh I
7:43 can well remember the first time the the
7:44 process of of meeting Adam for the first
7:47 time was was very challenging CU if you
7:49 have a preference for introversion most
7:50 of the work is done inside yourself
7:52 inside your mind so just sit when
7:55 someone who said tell me your story it
7:56 was actually really challenging and I
7:58 found it and I think he found it equally
8:00 um quite a ult first hour and a half
8:02 that we spent together with him
8:04 literally trying to pull this stuff out of
8:05 of
8:08 me the broadly speaking when you're
8:10 writing commissions for
8:13 people you meet up with a woman who
8:14 wants a commission and she says well I
8:16 felt this and I was feeling that and I
8:18 wanted to express and and you meet up
8:21 with a man and they go in 1965 I had 17
8:24 you know so
8:27 initially I sat down with Kev and he he
8:29 he just he listed loads and loads of facts
8:30 facts
8:32 and I was kind of like we're going to
8:34 have to and and what did you feel about
8:35 that I needed I needed a bit more I had
8:38 to push him to be like and how did that
8:42 make you feel you know and uh God bless
8:44 him he was he was very accommodating
8:46 eventually the moment when he finally
8:47 broke through when I was telling the
8:50 story is was when I finally decided what
8:51 are you what are you getting so uptight
8:53 about what are you worrying about what's
8:55 the worst that can happen as a result of
8:58 this this this story being told and I I
9:00 sort of get myself of talking to and
9:02 said look you you started this nobody's
9:04 forcing you to do this just tell the
9:07 story just be open just be honest just
9:09 say as you feel [Music]
9:14 [Music]
9:19 it only oceans this is called yeah there only
9:21 only
9:24 o should we get are we play on the go
9:27 from the last s year about a year yeah
9:29 so the people you're working with can
9:31 understand under the time is going to
9:34 be it may be quite lonely sometimes CU
9:36 you actually have to read or you try
9:45 weeks I was born in 5 East Scotland in a
9:47 one room
9:50 hospital and for the uh first five years
9:54 of my life I lived with my
9:57 grandparents and my
10:00 mother so I had a great family uh life
10:02 for the first 5 years but it really
10:05 wasn't the typical one cuz my mother
10:12 mother having me out of wedlock when
10:15 you're 18 years old in a little village
10:17 in Scotland must have been very
10:19 traumatic and came with a lot of Shame
10:21 and it affected our relationship for our
10:24 whole lives and it affected her on a
10:34 probably when I was about
10:38 three uh my mother met my now
10:41 stepfather you know so for a couple of
10:43 years they they dated and then he he
10:46 went off to Canada to sort of make uh a
10:50 home in Canada and my mother and I came
10:53 about maybe five six months later I
10:56 think it might have been and it was very
10:58 traumatic for me because as I had
11:01 mentioned really my parents were my
11:04 grandparents my mother was really not
11:06 very much in my life so here I was off
11:09 in an airplane to Canada with somebody I
11:11 barely knew to go and live with somebody
11:15 I knew even less it was a it was a tough
11:22 time I I scheduled some time to write
11:26 the song and then I thought nah no I'm
11:28 not going to do it it doesn't feel right
11:30 don't know why and it was about a week
11:33 later and I was sitting in here watching
11:36 um a movie so I stood up I walked to the
11:38 kitchen I popped the kettle on and it
11:41 was just like there it is that's it went
11:45 and sat down got the guitar and it all
11:48 of it was just there in like I don't
11:50 know it felt like 10 minutes I'm sure it
11:52 was longer
11:55 but it you know I've not had that yeah
12:02 I think do you know it's working nice
12:05 having that two like the sort of
12:07 mid-range stuff and then another layer
12:10 of that toy stuff with a bit more Focus
12:11 yes I have that sort of lower anchor
12:12 it's nice yeah
12:15 yeah
12:19 go I've gone for lamps only in here just
12:20 you know get with the vibe with the rest
12:23 of the room we're with you
12:33 [Music]
12:41 o one night at about 2: in the morning
12:44 the phone rings at home and you know
12:45 when the phone rings at 2: in the
12:47 morning you don't expect good things you expect
12:48 expect
12:51 emergencies it was my sister my half
12:54 sister in Vancouver who has been pretty
12:57 obsessed with figuring out uh my background
12:59 background
13:01 well she had connected with somebody on
13:05 Facebook in Scotland and asked them or
13:08 said to them hey I think you might have
13:10 the same father as my
13:14 brother and as it turned out they
13:15 responded very
13:18 positively they had known about me but
13:20 of course they didn't know even my last
13:23 name they didn't know I where I was they
13:28 had no idea but my father had said that
13:35 this I hadn't been looking she had but
13:38 when she found them it was like wow
13:43 that's amazing and the great thing was I
13:47 was going to Britain a month after that
13:48 I already had the ticket to go to
13:51 Britain a month after that so I was able
13:54 to meet these folks within a month of
13:58 hearing about them so that was terrific [Music]
14:00 [Music]
14:04 the first night uh in a little town called
14:05 called
14:10 inuri uh in aberin Shire I met with just
14:15 my siblings we had dinner it was lovely
14:17 um we spoke about my father obviously a
14:19 lot I learned uh you know kind of a
14:22 little bit about who he was and had a wonderful
14:23 wonderful
14:27 time the second night was a bigger
14:29 thing being in that room with you know
14:33 about 35 people uh most of them that
14:37 looked like me or my kids was amazing uh
14:41 I mean everybody was just so great it
14:44 was effortless really it was like
14:47 stepping into a family gathering that
14:50 you kind of knew people to some degree
14:53 it just felt it felt
14:55 uh really good I don't know how to put
14:57 it in different words you know it just
15:04 that song
15:07 um just as a songwriter in my own right
15:09 holds a very
15:12 special place in my heart it was like watching
15:14 watching
15:17 uh watching something unfold you know I
15:20 didn't really feel like I had a had a
15:22 sense of control in it it was just like
15:24 oh there's that bit oh there's that oh
15:25 that fits perfectly with that bit like
15:29 boom boom boom it just kind of unfolded you
15:34 know so [Music]
16:01 in
16:05 1951 to this world I came my parents
16:08 were not M to my
16:11 Foundation to my
16:15 foundation and I still recall the colors
16:18 my baby sister's clothes I never knew my
16:22 mother but that's the way goes that's the
16:27 way Only The
16:30 Ocean the
16:34 only time
16:37 Earth in the space [Music]
16:45 that I think when we talk about
16:48 family that's a big part of what we talk
16:50 about right is like our
16:52 roots and obviously there's a lot of
16:54 reference to that in the song we talk
16:58 about in these roots I've found my soil
16:59 like a space to grow [Music]
17:05 in there's something about blood isn't
17:07 there there's something
17:18 from feeling L some forgotten feel from
17:24 a long long time ago a long long time
17:36 only in the space
17:42 that us I'm an Oran on the
17:45 sun I'm an [Music]
17:48 [Music]
17:51 or I think it's that take I think we've
17:53 got it honestly I just think this might
17:55 be yeah what do you
17:58 think play it without worrying about it
17:59 cuz that takes there yeah yeah
18:01 pressure's of just have fun with yeah
18:04 just have fun with us okay I know I
18:07 shouldn't have said it
18:10 oh that was just like an open goal there
18:11 I had to go [Music]
18:14 [Music]
18:18 there after I'd written the song I sent
18:21 it to David and I sent him my voice memo
18:23 and I said I just told him about the
18:25 process and I said this is what's
18:27 happened listen to this [Music]
18:29 [Music]
18:33 it really just felt like he was we were
18:36 in this amazing process together so when
18:38 I was sharing it with him it was it was
18:40 not like look what I've done it was just
18:42 kind of like look what's happened that
18:43 we've do you know what I mean that we've
18:47 both kind of uh isn't this mad this is
18:49 like it's like me and David's baby
18:53 basically this song and um
18:58 so uh it it felt more like showing him
19:00 something than asking a question if that makes
19:02 makes [Music]
19:05 [Music]
19:08 sense at 2: a.m. one night me I heard
19:11 the phone start ringing my baby sister
19:15 called me to hear my heart was s was
19:17 music to my
19:21 ears and she showed me seven pictures
19:23 and the Man look like me she grew the
19:26 roots and plucked the fruits down from
19:29 my family tree from my [Music]
19:31 [Music]
19:44 blood may not mean this world to
19:49 you and these roots are
19:52 found oh my
20:03 may not lean this world to
20:07 you these roots are
20:12 my and these Ro are [Music]
20:26 found
20:32 wow I'm pretty spe less except to repeat
20:34 in these roots I found my soil that's
20:37 the line wow
20:40 fantastic Adam you're something
20:55 God
20:58 beautiful I can't wait to uh play this
21:00 for uh all the folks that have been
21:05 impacted by it you know this is uh just another
21:16 level thing I've been thinking a lot
21:19 with these commissions is it's like
21:22 playing someone in a film and um you
21:24 just hope that
21:27 you've done them Justice and done the
21:29 story Justice and
21:32 and um the more generous people are in
21:35 their commissions the better the song is
21:37 always you know and and David was so
21:40 generous and not only in telling me the
21:42 the cool exciting stuff but all of it
22:02 I met Judith when I was 24 and she was
22:07 29 and I was 24 going on about 12 I was
22:09 a very immature young man and I suddenly
22:11 met this woman this this extraordinary
22:13 woman who would put up with Nimo
22:15 nonsense who would not take any of the
22:17 the crap and I wanted to try and tell
22:20 the story of how we both how I brought
22:22 something to her life and she more
22:23 importantly had brought something to my
22:25 life that was that was really
22:26 significant in fact I'd go further to
22:28 say really significant is the single
22:29 most sign significant thing that's
22:31 happened to me over the course of my
22:33 life I wanted to celebrate the fact that
22:35 no matter how bad it had got we'd been
22:37 able to find some kind of way of working
22:40 through it and keep it
22:43 going it wasn't like Kev sat down and
22:45 was like write me a love letter for my wife
22:46 wife
22:49 right I think what he thought he wanted
22:53 was like a sort of anniversary gift
22:58 right I think from being with him what I
23:00 think think he actually wanted was an
23:03 opportunity to like to say certain
23:05 things to Judith to really
23:10 honor her and what she brings to his
23:13 life the easiest way to make something
23:16 Universal is to make it really really
23:18 personal I just feel that this song
23:22 really is for them I'm really
23:24 appreciative that they're willing to
23:27 allow me to share it cuz I I love it as
23:32 an example of a commission curious to to
23:34 see how people connect
23:38 it I think it's also important
23:41 that men find a way
23:44 to be romantic and to
23:48 be to to make gestures towards their
23:52 wives because I think socially it's less
23:55 acceptable and the other way around and
23:57 and I think this is a beautiful example
23:59 of of that [Music]
24:01 [Music]
24:02 well I heard I heard the song For the
24:05 First Time several times it was a very
24:07 collaborative process so after that
24:09 initial conversation he came back with a
24:11 couple of clarifying questions and then
24:13 I guess within about 10 days or so there
24:15 was a a draft version of the song you
24:18 know very rough and ready uh acoustic
24:20 guitar not particularly well recorded
24:22 but that didn't matter but with the with
24:25 the words and also u a written um copy
24:27 of the words so that was that was the
24:29 first step and from that he was able to
24:32 refine it he was able to take some
24:34 feedback not about the tune definitely
24:37 not about the kind of feeling of it but
24:38 there were just a couple of little
24:40 factual things about you know dates
24:42 because it does feature something about
24:44 dates and places and locations so it was
24:46 just a matter of sort of correcting that
24:50 and then the final draft um the final
24:52 version I heard none of which Judith
24:54 knew about I I did this all in the
24:56 background uh without her having any
24:58 knowledge of it I wented the first time
25:00 she heard it for it to be as it was for
25:06 perfect I think we first heard of Adam
25:08 Homes at Shetland Folk Festival and it
25:12 would be about maybe 10 years ago 9
25:21 ago I was just totally blown away just
25:23 totally totally blown away that Kevin
25:25 would have done something
25:34 he's always a great one for
25:37 surprises and um I remember that evening
25:39 so clearly it was just the most
25:41 extraordinary extraordinarily wonderful
25:45 beautiful evening yeah it's in my memory [Music]
25:47 [Music]
25:50 forever he'd said we have to be back
25:51 here at a certain time on this
25:55 particular day so we were here and uh
25:56 somebody came to the door and I went to
25:58 the door and it was Adam with his
26:02 daughter Rosa they were soaking wax it
26:05 was raining a lot and um he Adam just
26:07 said you know I've got something for you
26:09 here you didn't know about this did you
26:11 and Rosa gave he said to Rosa give
26:15 Judith this and she had the song written
26:19 down and in a frame and he had a stick a
26:21 memory stick and he had the song on it I
26:23 was just kind of totally blown away I
26:26 didn't know what to say what do you
26:29 say it was just just like a dream come
26:32 true when you when you have appreciated
26:35 somebody's music so much and seen them
26:38 in lots of different places then to have
26:40 that person come into your home it was just
26:41 just
26:45 amazing it was truly
26:47 amazing that's the great joy that the
26:49 song brings every time we hear it it
26:51 just reinforces what we've done what
26:53 we've been through what we've achieved
26:56 where we've got to in our lives and it
26:59 um I ration listening to it it it's not
27:01 played on a regular basis it's played at
27:03 moments when we think it's it's it's not
27:05 needed but it's a good moment for us to
27:08 just remind ourselves of uh where we
27:11 were where we've got to and how we did
27:13 it we wouldn't sit down and play it
27:16 together but I would play it I might be
27:18 on a train for instance if I was going
27:21 somewhere or just by myself and just
27:24 when you don't think of yourself in that
27:26 way and it's not what anybody would ever
27:29 really say to you is it
27:31 we don't say that to ourselves enough at
27:34 all so to have somebody sing that for
27:43 yeah it's a it's a massive gift it's
27:47 Unique and it's a oneof and it's uh I
28:11 [Music]
28:14 I've watched you from a distance I've
28:18 watched you from afar and know what a
28:21 woman you
28:24 are two souls in a world of Sorrow we
28:28 were born 4 days apart and oh what a
28:30 woman you [Music]
28:31 [Music]
28:35 are and I watch your color shine and the
28:38 way that you greas this world and I knew
28:41 I would spend tomorrow in the arms of my Dar
28:43 Dar
28:47 girl we never had a family home lived
28:52 above the local bar and oh but a woman
29:05 [Music]
29:09 nth floor of a council highrise no heat
29:15 but it was ours oh what a woman you
29:19 are young love in the heart of London
29:21 Young Love in a Cen
29:26 bar what a woman you
29:28 are through the years we
29:31 together traveled over the whole wide
29:34 world with the work that took me further
29:38 from the arms of my darling
29:41 girl we've lived our lives together
29:45 we've lived Our Lives apart
30:01 oh oh [Music]
30:32 [Music]
30:35 your laughter soft and tumbling his
30:40 ears you [Music]
30:42 [Music]
30:46 are in the heart of gard's T I'd live
30:48 for a million [Music]
30:52 [Music]
30:56 years and I made my own transgressions
30:59 as a life and a love done World felt the
31:02 touch of a true salvation in the arms of
31:04 a darling
31:08 girl we've traveled such a long way
31:13 we've come so very far oh what a woman you
31:15 you
31:19 are oh what a woman you [Music]
31:20 [Music]
31:23 are oh [Music]
31:46 I was raised in a a two- bed flat one of eight
31:47 eight [Music]
31:49 [Music]
31:53 kids it was a very chaotic
31:56 environment my mom ran it as a mental
32:00 health droping Center for people in the
32:02 community you could come back one day
32:05 and there'd be someone you didn't know
32:07 sitting drinking a cup of tea playing a
32:11 guitar smoking a rollup and I kind of
32:15 learned about uh humanity and I guess to
32:20 some extent I learned how to read people
32:23 and how to listen to people and on some
32:25 levels in terms of keeping myself safe
32:28 as a kid I learned
32:31 how to listen for the things that they
32:35 maybe didn't know that they were kind of
32:38 saying doing the songwriting commissions
32:40 you have to look at the time that I made
32:43 that decision it was Co I went from
32:46 being a tourm musician doing 150
32:48 concerts a year all over the world to it
32:50 was it was just gone the the whole
32:53 industry was gone and I had this little
32:55 kid and I had some followers on social
32:57 media and I had to make some money to
33:06 Rosa it's changed me as a
33:10 songwriter what I learned
33:14 was I'm just a collection of
33:21 opinions so it's really changed the way
33:22 that I
33:25 approach my own art because I feel way
33:33 it helped me to to be more open
33:36 to the influence of [Music]
33:38 [Music]
33:41 creativity I went from being as I said
33:44 before a guy who was just touring all
33:47 over the place reacting to the world to
33:49 coaching other songwriters helping them
33:52 with their social media helping them get
33:54 gigs helping them write their songs or
33:57 record their songs Rose as six and I
33:58 want to be at home and I want to be
34:00 around for her and I want to have my
34:03 boots at the door and that's very much
34:06 my definition of success now before I
34:08 had a lot of external influences I had
34:11 people say no you want to go and sell
34:12 out this and you want it to be this
34:15 exact sequence of events and I never
34:18 felt great that never felt like success
34:21 to me what did feel successful is when I
34:34 you know sometimes I think like who
34:36 would I be right [Music]
34:37 [Music]
34:40 now if that hadn't
34:42 happened I'm appreciative of the
34:44 opportunity that I got
34:47 to find a different version of success
34:50 and find a version of success
34:53 which fits around being a
34:56 parent I'm never going to look back and
34:58 and wish that I'd been away on tour the
35:00 whole time that Rosa was little and so
35:03 this new life that I've created for me
35:04 and for
35:09 her feels way more uh aligned and I feel
35:18 it I think we'll get some stuff out of
