Adrian Sherwood
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Adrian Sherwood (born 1958) is an English record producer best known for his work with dub music, his collaborations with Lee Perry and Mad Professor, and his label On-U Sound Records, as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut, Depeche Mode, The Woodentops, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinéad O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy.
Career
He is co-founder of Carib Gems and Pressure Sounds, and founder of Hitrun Records as well as Green Tea Records and Soundboy Records. His most well-known label is On-U Sound Records. He is also the fourth member of industrial hip-hop outfit Tackhead, credited as "mixologist."
During the early 80's he brought together many Jamaican artists under the collective name of Singers and Players including Prince Far I, Mikey Dread, Bim Sherman and many others, this helped promote the individual artists at the same time as promoting the record label, On-U Sound Records.
In 1986, he began working with Jamaican dub producer and singer Lee Perry. They produced the classic album Time Boom X De Devil Dead and Sherwood's support helped relaunch Perry's career.
He made contributions to the industrial genre in his remix of Einstürzende Neubauten's song "Yü Gung" on the album Halber Mensch, as well as his production work with Ministry, Cabaret Voltaire, KMFDM, Terminal Power Company and Nine Inch Nails. Adrian has also delved into the blues, producing Little Axe's Real World Records release Champagne and Grits in 2006.
In 2003, Sherwood supported Blur at Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
In 2003, Adrian Sherwood released his first album as a solo artist, Never Trust a Hippy, which featured collaborations with various artists such as Sly & Robbie, Steven "Lenky" Marsden, Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie and Jazzwad.
In 2006 he released his second album Becoming a Cliché that again featuring numerous artists such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, the late Bim Sherman, Dennis Bovell, Little Roy, Lee "LSK" Kenny, Samia Farah, Raiz and Mark Stewart. A limited 2-disc version was released simultaneously with the second disc titled Dub Cliché.
On beginning a solo career, Sherwood stated, "I wanted to do some of my own writing and make something that was challenging for me... As a producer, it's my job to satisfy the artist foremost. I wanted to make something that was a little more aggressive and modern. I wanted to paint a picture that was contemporary, one that specifically showed where my brain was at. I've got to the point in my life where it's time for me to call all of the shots."
Most recently, Sherwood received notice for the original reggae score he created for the acclaimed 2006 independent film, Johnny Was starring Vinnie Jones, Roger Daltrey and Samantha Mumba.
