I had the awesome opportunity to chat with songwriter/producer/remixer Will Adams, aka Liam Walds, whose remix of Lana Del Rey's "Video Games" has reached nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube and has been licensed by Lana Del Rey's management.
A fresh graduate of Yale University and a fellow Phillips Academy Andover alum, Will keeps himself inspired through pop music and his own personal experiences. He shared with me his background, organic process of creating new music, the story about how his remix became viral, and more.
When I attended Andover, I simply knew of Will as one of the talented musicians on campus who performed at our school's selective talent show. So this interview was particularly inspiring for me, as I was able to see how Will has transformed his passion for music into a full-time career.
How were you first introduced to music?
I grew up taking piano lessons, but what really got me into the music that I’m making now was when I was around 12 or 13. My mom got a new laptop and it had GarageBand in it, and I just went to town with that. I became obsessed with making music, and eventually started using more powerful softwares like Logic. I started writing when I was around 10-years-old; I really liked writing stories and songs. So when I had access to this new technology, I gravitated more towards making songs come to life.
“I would get comments on the YouTube saying, ‘I heard this in a club in Europe’ or ‘I heard this on the radio,’ which was just insane.”
How is your songwriting process different from when you first started?
I used to write lyrics before writing the instrumentals, but now the process is more intertwined. It’s not really specific, but I usually start with a melody and lyric that I have in my head, which I then record. But on the other side of things, I usually have an idea of what sort of sound and feel I want the song to have, so I try to bring those seeds up together at the same time.
Were you involved in anything at Andover that impacted your decision to pursue music?
Yeah! It definitely helped foster it. I was still making music and remixes and doing my own thing, but I did get involved with – I hope it still exists – the Modern Music Production Club. During my freshman or sophomore year, we put together an album. We auditioned songs – I had one of my songs on it. It was a little bit low tech – we just created recordings, since there wasn’t really a defined studio, but it was a great way to get the ball rolling and meet other musicians.
Casey McQuillen & Will Adams performing at Andover's Grasshopper Night in 2008.
Casey McQuillen & Will Adams performing in 2010.
Casey McQuillen [fellow Andover student-musician at the time] also kept me in the music world. During my sophomore year, she contacted me and a few of her other friends to form a band to perform at the Grasshopper Night [Andover’s annual, entirely student-run talent show]. She sang and played guitar while I played piano, and we also had a drummer and violinist – it was a lot of fun. Casey would usually bring her own songs, and we would build the rest of the instrumentation together, which was cool – to on-the-spot, be at the piano, and create new melodies and make the songs even better.
Does anyone help create your music? Have you collaborated with other musicians?
Not really – I like the idea of being the jack of all trades and being able to have a hand in every single process from the writing, to the recording, to the producing, to the mixing and mastering. It’s very intimate that way.
But collaboration is also great – it reveals new things. The few times that I’ve written a song with someone is a really different ballgame. It challenges you to step outside what you would normally do, so that’s also been a learning experience.
If you had to describe your music in three words, how would you describe it?
In terms of genres, I’m sort of all over the map. But I would say "catchy," "emotional," and the word that’s coming to mind is "clean."
Do you have any musical influences?
Yeah! A fair amount. In terms of aesthetics, Imogen Heap is someone who I really tried to emulate and learn from. She does a similar thing where she is involved in every part of the music-making process, and she’s just really daring and willing to try new sounds and spend a lot of time making her music sound really unique. Even in her last record, you can just listen to it and ask yourself, ‘How the hell did she make that sound?'
Where do you gather inspiration from?
The songs I write are pretty personal – it’s a way for me to focus my feelings. Usually if I’m writing and the song just isn’t working, it’s usually because I haven’t really thought about what I’m trying to express well enough, or I haven’t gotten to the heart of the issue I’m writing about. So it takes a lot of reflection to make sure that the lyrics are clear to me and that I’m talking about one specific thing.
Sonically, I’m a huge fan of pop music. And it’s so interesting to think of songwriting as a science, as much as an art, because there’s a process to it, and there are ways to write a song that you know people can’t get out of their heads. I’ve been into the upbeat pop songs, and right now I’ve been into making fun, synth pops – similar to people like Betty Who, St. Lucia, RAC – artists that can get people to dance but also have a lot of emotion behind their music.
How do you decide what songs to remix?
Usually, if I’m listening to a song, I can imagine, ‘What if it sounded completely different or put my own spit on it?’ and that’s sort of where it comes from. The act of remixing is so amazing because it can just give a song a completely new world, and an alternate reality almost – to take a song and just warp it.
Can you lead me through your process of making music?
At the base level, I’m listening to music all the time – either that, or I might still have something just playing in my head. It’s kind of crazy. But because of that, a melody will come into my head that’s usually attached to a lyric, and then that lyric has some sort of base reality to it. As in there’s a reason why I sang that lyric, so I try to figure out what that’s connected to, and what I’m trying to express.
It sort of depends on where I am. Sometimes I might be in bed falling asleep, and then so I’ll just take out my phone and record it with a voice memo so I don’t forget it. Or if I’m at my computer, I can open up Logic and do a really quick, rough recording.
From there, I start to build it in my head, and that’s sort of my test to see if that’s really what I want to keep pursuing. Then I’ll keep working with lyrics, and then when I’m really ready to dive in, I’ll start a Logic project to create the sounds and put everything together. And then I record the vocals.
Is there a reason why you use Logic over other software?
I first started working with GarageBand and got really comfortable with it. Logic is also just so professional and high-quality. While it might not be as industry-standard as ProTools, it’s still in the Apple family and is really easy to use after getting comfortable with GarageBand.
I’ve tried a few others like Ableton, ProTools – but Logic is comfortable for me.
Are you interested in collaborating with more with artists?
Yeah, definitely. It can seem daunting since you have to put yourself out there and be honest and flexible when you’re working with someone. But it opens up so many possibilities and can be a great refresher and reminder that there are so many other people doing what you do and that share the same passion.
Even remixing is in a way like collaborating, because I have this vocal and pre-made song that I have to work with – so it challenges me creatively.
Do you have anyone you’re dying to collaborate with?
Oh gosh – there are so many. Like I said, Betty Who, those kinds of artists. While it may seem out of reach to remix some of the top artists, part of it is just asking. RAC, for example, said on his Facebook that he got started by just dropping a line and just messaging hundreds of his favorite artists to ask if he could remix their songs. And if you’re lucky and the original artist likes it, they may promote it…and it can just unfurl from there.
Speaking of remixes, I heard your Lana Del Rey “Video Games” remix a few year years ago, and I had no idea it was created by someone that also went to my high school. I posted it on a playlist on 8tracks, and it definitely became a favorite track. How did that remix reach such success?
The “Video Games” remix was crazy – just how it blew up and is by far my most successful hit. I’m really grateful for how much it has opened up opportunities for me. It hit over 1,000,000 views on YouTube two summers ago. It was really cool.
Seeing that it went viral, did you have any help promote the “Video Games” remix?
Not really – it just happened. I put it up on YouTube in October of 2011. I remember going back to it a few months later and the views had spiked. And then I saw that Lana Del Rey’s management sent me a message through YouTube, and they said, “We really love the remix – we’d love to license it.” And so they did, and the views just kept piling up. I would get comments on the YouTube saying, “I heard this in a club in Europe” or “I heard this on the radio,” which was just insane. I think I was striking while the iron was hot – the timing the I uploaded was great. Lana Del Rey was starting to get really popular, and “Video Games” was too, and dubstep was definitely “a thing” – if a song existed, there would be a dubstep remix of it.
What is your favorite song at the moment?
“Vermillion” by Sofi de la Torre. I discovered her music last summer. She’s a songwriter who creates really melancholic music, and “Vermillion” – which might be my favorite song of all time – is so beautiful. It’s sad and lonely, but it just makes me feel so much.
How about your favorite song of yours?
Remix-wise, the “American Girl” remix I did of Bonnie McKee. And from my first album, the song “Cardboard.”
What does music mean to you?
It’s a way to communicate intimately, person-to-person. Going back to that song “Vermillion” by Sofi de la Torre – it’s about living in a big city and feeling so isolated, and it just spoke to me right to the core and it was incredible. I love the idea that this person who I’ve never met, and might not ever meet, wrote this song and was feeling the exact same way, even if it was a different situation and city. But music creates this connection with the artist and all the other people who are listening to the song, and they can share the way they feel through music.