Julia Adamy: Life in the Pocket

For the past several years, Julia Adamy has been touring with pop star Sam Smith, playing their mix of dance, R&B, and soul on stages all over the world. Her deep pocket, impeccable note selection, and ability to cop a variety of tones has made her stand out in his ensemble, and fans have taken notice. Earlier this year she caught the attention of Hozier, the Irish blues rocker whose three albums have skyrocketed him to the top of the charts and poised him as one of the biggest artists of the year. This summer Adamy took over the bass duties in Hozier’s band, where she switches from electric to upright throughout his setlist.

Bass has always played a major role in Adamy’s life. Absorbing worlds of music from her bass player father, Paul Adamy, her love of instrumentation started at a young age. Growing up with a father who was in the pits of Broadway, in constant recording sessions, and heading to gigs all over New York, Julia was inspired to follow in his footsteps and even sit in for him when the opportunity arose. She studied bass throughout high school and went on to attend the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz studies. Returning to New York to apply her talents, she quickly found work playing with the likes of Bokanté (with fellow bassist Michael League), Nick Jonas, Ben Platt, Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, India Arie, Grace Kelly, Antonio Sánchez, Jane Monheit, and many others. 

Despite her resume now starting to catch up to that of her father’s, Adamy is still actively working on her craft. She stays busy in the worlds of rock, jazz, and soul by taking gigs and sessions between tours. And between her collection of basses that includes Sadowskys, Hofners, Fenders, her uprights, and various other 4- and 5-strings, she makes sure that she has the right tone for every gig she takes on. You can find her in Broadway pits, on late-night talk show stages, in studios, and in various venues all over the place — although at the moment, arenas seem to be suiting her well.

You started touring with Hozier earlier this year. What is that experience like for you, and how did you land that gig? 

It’s been really lovely. Great group of people, band and crew, and Hozier is a very kind person and a wonderful musician. I’ve worked with the MD, Ryan Connors, in the past. We did a very indie van tour ten years ago, and I was super impressed with his musicianship; we’ve stayed friends since. He threw my name in the hat at the beginning of this year, and it just worked out. 

Hozier has a lot of memorable bass-centric songs. Which are your favorites to play live? 

I definitely enjoy playing “Too Sweet” and “Nobody’s Soldier,” but also “Movement,” “Francesca,” “Almost,” and “Nina Cried Power” are favorites. On those last four, I have a lot of freedom to do my thing, so that’s always fun. I enjoy a combo of playing pre-conceived bass lines and having a general frame that I get to fill in how I like. This gig is definitely both. 

What’s a Hozier show like from your perspective? 

It’s a blast! On this gig I’m basically front and center onstage, which I’m not always used to, ha! But it’s been super fun to really get to see and interact with the audience. I always try to fully take in the gravity of these massive shows. I just feel fortunate to be in that moment with thousands of people getting an escape from the world for two hours. 

We also have zero [pre-recorded] tracks on this gig, and maybe only half the tunes use a click. It’s a very organic gig, and everything you hear comes from us onstage. So we’re all doing a lot — singing, switching instruments, etc. Also, because the set changes, I’ve always got to be looking at the setlist and thinking ahead. We’ve occasionally added a song or two in the moment onstage. If the audience is really adamant about a song, sometimes Hozier will decide to play it. Once we hadn’t played a tune since rehearsals a few months earlier, so it definitely keeps you on your toes. Since that one time, I’ve made sure to at least listen to those few that are in the back pocket every couple of weeks. 

Is it nice to switch from electric to upright during those sets?

It is. I don’t play upright every night, as the set list changes nightly, but when it happens it’s really nice. I love the instrument and also, selfishly, it’s great to keep those chops up a bit while on a long tour. Nothing worse than being out for months and months and then coming back home to a big band gig and getting blisters again! 

The upright really does work well with quite a few Hozier tunes, too, so it’s a fitting addition. There’s only one tune that was actually recorded on upright, so we added it to a few others that we felt would work. It adds a lot of warmth and resonance. 

I start by listening to the songs a lot — in the car, on the train, walking. I get to really know them, and then I start playing along. I try not to write anything down, either; it takes me so much longer to memorize things from a page rather than just by ear.

How do you go about learning all of the material and woodshedding for an artist when you first join them? 

Crazy amounts of repetition. I start by listening to the songs a lot — in the car, on the train, walking. I get to really know them, and then I start playing along. I try not to write anything down, either; it takes me so much longer to memorize things from a page rather than just by ear. Every once in a while, if a form or changes are not super intuitive I’ll scribble something down, but I try not to. I learn the record versions first, and then if there are live recordings and bass stems, I listen to those to get a sense of what the previous person did. I try to honor that but make the choices I would make. Then it’s just playing everything as much as possible. I like to go into day one of rehearsal as if it were a gig. Things always get added and change in the rehearsal process, but coming in as over-prepared as possible is my comfort. 

You’ve also played with Sam Smith for some time now. What is that music like from a bass perspective? 

I love playing Sam’s music. It’s soul, R&B, pop, dance — many of the genres I came from. Bass-wise it’s everything from simple, groove-forward lines that focus on feel and tone to disco/pop, busy bass, front-and-center lines. Their show the past few years was super polished and produced, with fun arrangements and transitions. They were hyper specific about sounds, but they also allotted freedom within shows to play around and add our own touch to the music as we evolved as a band. There’s quite a bit of synth bass, so that gig really got me to step up my synth sound-design game. It started in the pandemic with an amazing app called Syntorial, an interactive learning tool that focuses on ear training — it plays sounds and has you recreate them on a simulated analog synth. Highly recommended for all levels! I got to put that all to use at the beginning of Sam’s rehearsals, so that was fun.

Your performance playing fretless with Nick Jonas on The Tonight Show sounded fantastic, by the way. 

Thanks! I got that Metro Express Sadowsky for the show we were promoting, The Last Five Years. It was a limited run on Broadway with Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren. The beautiful score by Jason Robert Brown was originally entirely fretless 5-string bass, but for this run he added upright and 4-string electric. I’ve played fretless bass on and off throughout the years, but this show got me to revisit and focus on it for a while. I fell in love with it again! It’s such a challenging instrument, but I always enjoy dusting off and re-approaching a dormant skill. 

How different is your approach between electric bass and upright? 

I started playing both within a year of each other, so I was still learning how to play bass, if that makes sense. I think that beginning helped me try to have a similar approach to both, as I want to sound like me across all instruments. They are often used for completely different styles, so obviously the playing ends up being a bit different, but I want feel, ideas, and even aspects of tone to carry throughout. I definitely spent most of my high school and college years playing upright and the majority since playing electric. There are things that I now bring to upright that I wouldn’t necessarily have done in college just because of where I was at in the learning phase, like simplicity in groove and feel. Upright definitely stems from all my jazz and tiny bit of classical training, and electric is groove/pop world. I think it’s all of those genres and history that inform each instrument individually, but my goal is to play them both as me, a bass player, serving the music.  

You play an array of basses, from Sadowskys to Hofners to Fenders. How do you go about selecting your basses for each gig? 

It’s all based on the music — part [what was on] the original records, part what works for the live show. My steady go-to’s are my Sadowsky 5 and Fender P-Bass; they can handle pop, soul, R&B, jazz, rock, Americana. I feel like I can be super versatile with just those two instruments. Everything else after that is specific icing on the cake. For Hozier’s gig I use an Epiphone Viola bass, which is a cheaper option in lieu of a Hofner that the tour and I already had, on a couple tunes that need that Beatles-esque, muted yet punchy hollowbody sound. Hozier also specifically requested that sound. When touring I try not to need too many instruments, especially since many tours require a backup of everything, so the space can get used up fast. Three basses and three backups, plus upright and synth, have worked well for me. With Sam I just had the Sadowskys and P-Basses plus synth. 

What is your ideal bass tone, and how do you achieve it? 

My ideal tone is round, smooth, and bass-y without getting lost in the mix. It’s a fine line. I usually keep the tone knob rolled off 70% on my P, just enough to get the slightest growl yet retain the subby-ness. The Sadowsky has a treble and bass boost; I have the treble around 50% and bass at 40%, with the tone knob rolled off about 70% as well. I want the 5-string to have a little more punch. Roger does an amazing job with those instruments, but tone is also in the fingers, of both hands. I often do a slight left-hand mute just to get more precision with articulation and note lengths. I also love my Noble preamp; I use it on all live shows and recordings. I don’t use an amp for Sam or Hozier, and with the Noble I don’t miss it. In the studio I can definitely get away with a bit more bass than I can in an arena or stadium. I’ve learned along the way and in the end, I want the bass to be felt and heard!

I barely kept up with the pop music of the ’90s, and got made fun of occasionally for it, because I was busy listening to everything from Motown, Tower Of Power, and Chaka Khan to Paul Chambers, Herbie Hancock, and Miles Davis.

Your dad, Paul Adamy, is a successful bassist with an extremely long list of credits. What was it like growing up in such a musical family?

He sure is! He’s one of my favorite bass players and the reason I play the instrument. He’s played with so many people across many genres, done TV, film, jingles, Broadway. We had great music playing in the house all the time — it was fantastic. I barely kept up with the pop music of the ’90s, and got made fun of occasionally for it, because I was busy listening to everything from Motown, Tower Of Power, and Chaka Khan to Paul Chambers, Herbie Hancock, and Miles Davis. My dad did listen to and introduce me to some of the current stuff at the time, like D’Angelo, Green Day, The Roots, Beck etc. I loved looking through his massive CD and record collections. I was also surrounded by live music, constantly going to his gigs. It felt like an achievable profession because he was doing it so well and it felt so normal.

How and when did you first start playing bass?

I started on violin in 4th grade through the public-school music program. I loved my music classes, but violin was just not the right fit for me. One “take your daughter to work day,” when I was in middle school, I asked if I could sit in the pit of the Broadway show Mamma Mia and watch my dad play. He had been on the gig since it opened a year or so earlier. It was the first time I really got to see him play so close, and I had enough musical knowledge to be thoroughly impressed! I followed along with his charts, as I could read music okay but only treble clef. I just loved getting a better sense of the role of the bass, the foundation, the groove, nothing too flashy. And he does it so well, with such ease and humility. I thought it was the coolest instrument. After we got home that night, I made him teach me something. I continued playing violin in the school orchestra while learning electric bass on the side until my freshman year of high school. There were no upright bass students, but there was an upright sitting in a closet unused. I told my teacher, I play bass, how different could it be? I quickly accepted the role of the sole upright player in the orchestra, even though I’m positive it took a while for me to sound half decent on the thing. My dad had sold his upright years earlier but decided to get another one for both of us. I was also fortunate to live up the street from Bill Blossom, who at the time was in the New York Philharmonic, and I started studying classical upright with him.

What was it like having your dad as your bass mentor? 

It was incredible, but also one of those things that I truly didn’t appreciate the way I should have at the time. He was still my dad, and I got annoyed at him telling me what to do and giving me homework, but I learned so much. He pushed me when I needed to be pushed and didn’t sugar-coat things, but he was also the most supportive. We played through the James Jamerson book Standing in the Shadows of Motown. He taught me the beginnings of walking bass lines and jazz concepts. We transcribed Pino Palladino lines together. I learned Paul Chambers solos with him. He really instilled in me a love of many genres and the benefits of being versatile. 

How old were you when you first started gigging?

I probably technically started gigging around 15. I was in a band with my buddies called Fillet Of Soul — ha! — and we played some local street fairs and neighbor birthday parties and barbecues. My first semi-professional gig was probably at a theater in Nyack, New York; there was a production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, a tribute to Fats Waller. I loved getting to play that music, and I was the only high school student in the company, so, lots of people to learn from. 

Did you ever sub for your father? 

After that first night of sitting in the pit with my dad, I made pretty frequent visits to the theater. Everyone in the band was so welcoming and encouraging of me, and I learned so much from all of them — intention, articulation, subdivision, feel, so many lessons. Slowly my dad began handing me the bass for a tune or two. It started with the low-stakes exit music and grew to almost half the show. He’d practice with me at home and then let me put it to the test in the real world on Broadway. I was in college, around 19 years old, when I was back home for the summer and subbed for him officially for the first time. It was so nerve-racking! Even though I knew everyone so well at that point, not only did I have big shoes to fill, but I wanted to stand on my own as a great sub for Paul Adamy, not just my dad. I ended up being a regular for him until it closed in 2015, and I played the show hundreds of times. I finally got to return the favor when I was the chair holder for The Cher Show in 2018–19 and had him sub for me!

How important was your time studying at University of North Texas? 

It was life-changing. I got my butt kicked so hard! I had come from being a big fish in a small pond, and week one I played a jam session in a dorm room with people my age who were playing circles around me. My friends at the time teased me that they didn’t see me for a few weeks, and then I came back having a better grasp of some basics after spending many hours in a practice room. I studied with Lynn Seaton and Jeff Bradetich, both incredible players and very supportive. I also met my husband, Ross Pederson, who is a fantastic drummer, there.

But it was honestly also really difficult at times being one of the few female instrumentalists in the program. We’ve come a long way, but no one prepared me for what that might be like, and the school didn’t have a support system in place to handle it, nor did I know who to talk to about constant sexism on campus and on gigs. It’s changed since. Lynn invited me back to do a clinic, and I was happy to see and hear that some growth has happened.

What’s the greatest advice you’ve been given about bass? 

That it’s a responsibility instrument. I try to live up to that. 

[Bass] is a responsibility instrument. I try to live up to that. 

Who are your greatest bass influences? 

My dad, Pino Palladino, Anthony Jackson, James Jamerson, Paul Chambers, Dave Holland, Derrick Hodge, and Jonathan Maron. I’ve also got to include Michael League, who is a good friend from college, and I’ve been honored to play in his band Bokanté over the years. It’s fun to play in a band with another bass player, even though he plays baritone guitar and oud in the band. We still get to double a bunch of lines together. He was really the one at the time to blend the UNT jazz scene with the Dallas scene for me. I’ve learned a lot from him. 

What do you love most about bass?

I love its role. I love that it’s the foundation of groove and harmony and that I can still mostly stay in the background. I love the way it sounds, its vibration, its energy. 

Gear 

Bass 2 Sadowsky 5-string J basses with soapbar pickups, Fender 1962 Precision Bass, Fender ’57 Reissue Precision Bass, fretless Sadowsky Metro Express J 5-string, Yamaha BB 2000 PJ 4-string, Fender Mustang Bass, Lakland J  5-string, Epiphone Viola bass, American Standard upright, unknown plywood upright 

Synth Moog Sub Phatty

Rig Markbass Little Mark 800, Epifani 1×12 cab, Noble DI/preamp

Effects Boss OC2, Boss Bass Chorus, MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, MXR Bass Overdrive, Darkglass Microtubes X, Pigtronix Envelope Phaser

Strings Sadowsky Blue Label Bright Nickel roundwounds, Thomastik Jazz flatwounds, Pirastro Evah Pirazzi double bass, D’Addario Helicore Hybrid double bass

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