Interview: Berwick

‘I was sat in a café in Shoreditch and I saw a guy struggling with some planks. I offered him a hand, turned a corner and there was the Lion and Lamb.’

At this moment Adam Berwick’s life changed. Up to this point he had studied and begun to make music but upon meeting Mauro, the owner of the aforementioned pub, he soon secured a two-and-a-half-year residency at a pub in Peckham. This in turn led to gigs at Eastern Block in Manchester, Take 5 in Bristol and many other gigs across London. During this formative period in his early 20s, he learnt the fundamentals of DJing and production that would serve him so well further down the line.

Another key moment came when he wrote to DJ, and irregular BBC Six music DJ, The Blessed Madonna. She came back with sound advice – ‘run partiers, play parties, make music for the parties’. It's what Berwick has done ever since.

It served him very well. His productions are now picking up serious traction. His first EP Power Supplies under the name CNCPT13 came out in 2020. Soon after he put out his first release as Berwick with a label from North Carolina – this landed really well with thousands of listens worldwide. Another track Physical Spaces which he put out on the SSS label from Bristol, was a real game changer. It got played on the Boiler Room stage at DGTL festival by French artist Bambounou and was then championed by Dublin-based DJ, EMA. This in turn led to the track being played by Mary Anne Hobbes on BBC Six Music where she got Adam to introduce the track for himself.

It feels like things are really beginning to converge for the Stroud-bred producer. He has been refining his live set and this summer will play super-hip boutique dance festival Westival for a second time, sharing a bill with Eris Drew amongst others. He has a new electro-tinged track on the Planet Reborn compilation on Avoidant Records where he is joined by the likes of renowned producers Bloody Mary and DJ T-1000. He will also shortly put out an EP with rising stars of the Liverpool / Bristol scene Dual Monitor.

While momentum is certainly building it's fair to say Adam has spent his whole life working towards this moment. Spending his formative years listening to Al Green and Barrington Levi he honed in on bass culture from an early age, clubbing in Stroud and Bristol. 

A flirtation with outdoor pursuits was soon relegated as a career choice following his watching Bonobo’s Boiler Room set at a party and a course in art and event management in London followed. A part-time job at Fabric nightclub ensured he remained rooted in dance culture just as Dubstep exploded. Befriending a crew from Croydon he soon discovered vinyl culture. Linking up with old Stroud friend Joel Wycherley who he later went on to create the duo Body Logic with – it was at this point he saw the man with the planks…

Berwick’s music is a culmination of a number of different club styles – UK Bass, techno and, particularly recently, electro. He has influences (DMX Krew and Radioactive Man and Machine Woman are mentioned) but he’s also keenly aware that ‘comparison kills creativity’. Another creative output is with his partner Mimi who DJs under the name of YouYou met at a night at the SVA and have recently begun DJing together back-to-back. This is always a combination worth looking out for on the rare occasions they play together in Stroud.

Adam is of no doubt that being brought up near Stroud has had a key bearing on what he has become. ‘the record shops, landscape and venues like SVA and Studio 18 have all shaped me wanting to make music. I think it's fantastic that venues like these put on events for under eighteens as well. Stroud has got space for people to broadcast what they do to other people and that’s so important.’

For sure, there is a hotbed of musical and artistic creativity in these valleys and Berwick is another who has run with a firm foundation to breakout and find acclaim further afield. He won’t be the last.