A cynical interview with Adult Leisure: Navigating the peaks and troughs of the music industry

Adult Leisure are an exciting foursome originating from Bristol who aggressively muddle the line between pop and rock. Vocalist Neil Scott and guitarist/vocalist Dave Woolford were keen to speak on their slow and difficult rise to acclaim. 

“By the way guys, there’s something wrong with the camera; my face isn’t actually this pink.” This feels like a bad omen for my interview with the grassroots Bristol sensation. There are awkward nods over the Teams call, which is making me look completely pink, even more so than normal. I can’t say for sure where I wanted to take my conversation with Adult Leisure, but I didn’t anticipate how open and dogmatic they would be; the interview muddled the line between a conversation and a very friendly manifesto. 

Prior to the interview, I’d seen how openly Adult Leisure criticise the current state of the music industry in the UK and the harsh realities of band life, and they didn’t hold back with me either: “It’s quite sad that bands like us are in the minority at the minute because it’s just costing so much money in order to even be a band.” 

They felt honest and unpretentious, no attempt to pass themselves off as something they weren’t

Dave Woolford, the foursome’s guitarist, went further on the new bands that have emerged recently: “It’s clear that the industry then went, right, okay, what we need is a load of indie boys back into the industry.” Although they certainly have strong views, they didn’t mind telling me; they felt honest and unpretentious, no attempt to pass themselves off as something they weren’t. When asked where they felt their music sat in the new environment of industry fodder and new protest, there was no attempt to shy away from either: 

Neil: “There’s a place for both, you know. When we wrote ‘Kiss Me Like You Miss It’, that was something which we felt extremely. It was certainly something that we all felt at that particular time.” 

Dave: “You’re so right; the ironic thing is, is this kind of anti-establishment, anti-industry attitude nine times out of ten comes from people that have had the biggest upper hand in the music industry.” 

What followed was a very enjoyable rant on all things wrong with the music industry, and in a sense, people in general. 

Woolford’s gripe extended from The Molotovs, London’s up-and-coming punk phenomenon: “If you’re going to copy The Jam, you’ve probably got to copy their ethos as well. So Paul Weller, understandably, was quite outspoken about it and his whole social commentary thing.” All the way to Ticketmaster: “The biggest scam going.” This wasn’t an attack but part of a bigger rage against the industry as a whole: “My big concern is, in sort of what you were leading on to, is like there is no authenticity in people’s comments anymore. You hate the music industry, great, but you’re in a band, you just supported Yungblud.” 

You are who you are and you write the music that you write. The problem is when you stop doing that and you start writing for audiences

Adult Leisure

“Just going, ‘isn’t society shit’, is like, fucking hell, what are you, five? Yeah, everyone knows it’s shit, but what’s your take on that?” Modern attempts at politically charged music seemed not to be to Woolford’s taste, but he did make an exception for Nina Simone’s ‘Strange Fruit’, which he called “one of the most amazing songs you could hear.” There are talking points which seem to dominate the hearts and minds of so many artists: image, fanbase, whether they are pop, and often how they can change these things. I was struck by how little these concerns seemed to register with Scott and Woolford; unphased by my questioning of the Adult Leisure image. Woolford, casually puffing on a large vape, put it that: “I think when you start worrying about stuff like that is when it becomes a problem. You are who you are and you write the music that you write. The problem is when you stop doing that and you start writing for audiences.” 

For so many, these lessons seem to be learned in the most public and fame-draped fashion, but not Adult Leisure. One was left with the feeling that they had come across all these traps of band life; they gave an impression of know-how that only comes from experience. Scott was equally candid when speaking about what sort of fans he hoped to attract, with the simple and agreeable answer that: “You’d be foolish not to want a spectrum of people that love your music.” But Scott was keen to balance this with an affection for the occasional dedicated and passionate fan: “This stuff that we do means so much to them. It’s kind of incredibly surreal. I think that we just count ourselves very lucky in terms of where we are, but at the same time, we work very hard for it.” 

Pop isn’t a dirty word

Adult Leisure

It would be easy and perhaps more profitable for Adult Leisure to lyrically rage against the new machine of social media and the walls of the music industry, but despite having more reason than most for resentment, they have resisted the call to grunge and don’t look down on the world of pop. “Commercial pop music is shit, right? And that’s not a bad thing, it’s just a load of house producers just making hits that everyone can sing along to in the car, bang. Pop isn’t a dirty word.” The two were happy to embrace the likes of Peter Gabriel: “These albums that technically are like alternative albums, I just see them as some of the biggest pop albums ever made.” 

That’s what I found so intriguing about Adult Leisure, or at least the half I met. They didn’t blow up on TikTok, and they haven’t sought notoriety by crowing about the twisted nature of the world, as many others have. They may be cynical, but no one can argue with their work and simple pursuit of good music.