How to make the sounds from Adamski feat Seal 'Killer' with DRC
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From illegal raves to the top of the charts, Adamski is the musical mind behind ‘Killer’ and Seal is the soulful vocalist.
The history of this track is also the story of Seal’s rise to fame, starting in 1989 when Seal first saw Adamski performing at an illegal rave. Seal gave a demo tape of himself to Daddy Chester, MC and flatmate of Adamski at the time, who was impressed with Seal’s unique vocal talents. The pair would eventually meet at London’s Solaris club on New Year's Eve, where Adamski invited Seal to work on a few tracks together.
In its original instrumental form, Adamski called the track ‘killer’ because it sounded “like the soundtrack to a movie murder scene”. Seal’s vocals were recorded at the end of January 1990 and the finished track was released on 21st March. Very much a ‘climber’ it initially charted just inside the all-important top 40 UK singles chart, scraping in at 39 on 14th April, but by the 12th of May, it had made it to the top spot, where it spent four weeks at number one
Speaking about the meaning behind the lyrics, Seal describes that they are about "transcending whatever holds you back", encouraging the empowerment of freedom.
Killer by name and killer by nature, it was only a matter of time before this track became a smash hit across Europe, and thrust Seal and Adamski into the limelight of mainstream fame. The lightning pace of this proved to be a surprise for both artists, as Seal quoted in a 2013 article from The Guardian; "within a week, I went from being a relative nobody – this weird guy at raves, with silver bits in my hair – to a household name."
We can’t promise that this tutorial will bring you a similar rags to riches rise to fame, but you are sure to learn some ‘killer’ sound design, literally, with this week’s DRC Sound Design Tutorial - how to recreate the sounds from ‘Killer’ by Adamski and Seal.
Click here to download the Ableton project file
Sounds, sealed, delivered,
Team Imaginando