Adam Neely is a bass player, band leader, YouTuber and much more as you’re about to find out in this interview.
I sat down with him recently in NYC and got into what it takes to be a bass player and artist in 2025 and beyond.
Check out all things Neely:
http://www.adamneely.com/
https://www.sungazermusic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/adamneely
Huge thanks to The Birdland Jazz Club for letting us use the space, and to Max Nierlich (https://www.maxnierlich.com/) behind the camera.
📚 Bass Books: https://janekgwizdala.myshopify.com/
👕 Merch: https://janekgwizdala.myshopify.com/collections/time-and-sound-merch
📨 Free Newsletter: https://janekgwizdala.substack.com/
🌎 My Website: https://janekgwizdala.com/
💿 CDs and Vinyl: https://janekgwizdala.myshopify.com/collections/signed-cds
📅 Tour Dates: https://janekgwizdala.com/tour
🎧 Stream My Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3cyUxCQ4FTSjowdUNaaWnN?si=uKTYXP2sSWODYo_6DrCl3w
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45 Comments
Great video, such an engaging and thoughtful conversation. Thank you both!! Shoutout to Rafael Chavez and Chris French and the Elkhart Truth Jazz Band!
Loved this. I recently saw Sungazer when they was over in the UK touring their latest album at Future Yard. I was a long term watcher of Adam of some of his earlier videos and learnt a lot from him. I ran the same hours of scale exercises he did on a live stream. I didn't quite do as much haha but it made me appreciate tough work in the practice room. I was one of those that went because I wanted to see Adam, but I genuinely fell in love with his music and its opened a new world for me.
What was the deal with the sour patch kids? JK, you guys are great together!
Oh sweet. Will hoon this
For all the hassle, the Vlogs really impacted my life. Made me a fan of you and not just your music haha 🙌🏼
WOW! MarloweDK! Love that guy’s work
Awesome video. I love that it did get very specific and nerdy at times. Sometimes people shy away from putting that stuff out because they fear the audience only wants surface level stuff.
Welcome to Janek & Adam’s “Organic Bass Wobble” 😂
I remember Adam from back in the days of the MXTabs forums. It’s been so cool to see his career grow and flourish in the way that it has. Thanks for the great interview, Janek!
Great interview. I must confess I am although a member of the Black Hole appreciation society.
I loved your vlog, made me a fan
I love Adam talking about having halfassed performances! So relatable. And how awful you feel when you know you weren't on top form. "You're only as good as your last gig" is a feeling that's constructive but can also be distressing.
I follow both of you since like 10 years and seeing you both doing this interview is a peak moment for me! The way Janek prepared it with his questions really created such an interesting flow + so many insights into being creators on so many levels. In the beginning Adam seemed a little tensed up but that changed so much and you both just played off of each others – great stuff! Greetz from Berlin/Germany btw. Michael League is/was living in Catalunia/Spain partly 😉
I’m seeing Sungazer in Dublin in August, so I expect Adam to be fully-assed! 😅
Excellent interview! 😊
As bass player/music enthusiast, I have been following you guys since 2016/2017… One can feel how more experienced and confident Adam became. It has been a long road 🙂
🐐🐐
This makes my day. Thanks guys. BASS!
Funny to hear Adam talk about his approach to meeting fans after gigs based on an important interaction he had with Victor Wooten, it wasn’t much but I remember having a few Twitter interactions with you (Janek) when I was studying in the mid 2010’s that meant a lot to me.
I think having access to artists helps to ground young musicians and moves away from the modern tendency to put artists on pedestals in ways that can make their talent/ability feel unachievable.
Don't forget to sell used toothbrushes and razors as part of the merch. You never know what will sell
Great interview as always, Janek! Would love to see you interview Neil Stubenhaus…:)
49:24 He's not wrong you know…
You guys are two of my main inspirations as a bass player and a (wannabe) composer, I've been waiting for this interview for ages. Thank you, you made my day!
Organic bass wobble represent!
Thanks you so much for having this interview, love both of your channels and it's neat to see both of you in the same room.
The one thing that I wish was elaborated more on was the idea of booking gigs outside the usual jazz network. Namely, is this an actually viable means to expand your audience? My personal experience with prog metal fans is that they like the idea of jazz, they hold it in high regard, but have very little understanding or experience with actually listening to jazz.
My (biased) impression of jazz audiences is that they're broadly grouped into 2 camps: people who want to hear straight ahead takes on standards, and people who want to eat dinner with smooth jazz in the background. Both camps are stuck in different decades. If my impression has any degree of truth to it, then of course any jazz musician would want to expand their audience, I just wonder how viable it really is. Nerve with Jojo Mayer seemed to be sustained by an audience that was more interested in electronic music, and similarly Naked City with John Zorn was sustained by an audience more into Hardcore Punk and Noise Rock. What I'm trying to say is, what Adam is attempting has been done before, but I wonder how accepting the prog metal scene is of Sungazer.
Come on man! come to play to Buenos Aires @adam
It's great when you don't look at a clock for 58 minutes – I looked at it in the top rh corner at the beginning & then forgot all about it as i did with my own clock!
This was fantastic, Janek – thanks for having Adam in and for this great conversation. 🙂
The reals right here.
The Vlogs were kick-ass IMHO…. it's where I first started following you. It was the first time I heard a top-tier musician speak directly and honestly about all things music and bass. Dont discount that output!
Dadam sexy
Great In Janek’s videos its all
about him and his products, and his whatevers… every few minutes!! Boring. It’s the same from five to to ten years. So?
Adam is more about the music. Not his money.
I don't know if I have clicked on a video faster than this one…
God the thumbnails…
19:57 What a fantastic fucking reference
Great conversation. Thanks Janek!
Shawn lives in Berlin? Damn, I thought I saw him at a concert there in the audience but was too shy to say hello and ask and also thought "that can't be him" 😅
Honestly this is one of the most valuable conversations I’ve seen in a while. 2 hero’s talking about what it really takes to do what we do, so cool to see you two finally got a chance to hang!
Keep it coming Janek!
Great convo. As too Merch selling . I’ve brought up musically in the punk rock idiom and merch sales was the lifeblood of the band got us from gig to gig fed us and kept the ball rolling . These days my main band I’ve been with near 30 years now indie pop band who had some success in the 90s couple of multi platinum albums , we always do well on the merch but if any of us from the band go to the merch table after the show we literally quadruple the takings every single time . And yeah used strings . Drum heads . Picks , drum sticks and hand written lyrics or in your cases hand written scores will make a fortune . And you would be really surprised what people are prepared to pay for them ! 🤘🙏
i have to echo @calebgonzalezmusic – The daily vlogs really inspired me to just go for it! And now i get to tour the world as the frontman of one of my favourite childhood bands. Thank you Janek
I'm not a musician, let alone a bassist, so the videos that appealed most to me were the essays or the ones that got into theory or sound science. But at this point with how long I've been watching Adam, I'm just happy he's doing something he enjoys.
What was the song at the end?
Amazing conversation btw. It's cool to listen to Adam outside of his own videos, he comes across as a very introspective, thoughtful kind of person
really fantastic!!!
I kept waiting for Chelsea to throw an avocado tuna at him from off camera.
Wonderful interview!
That Maple Leaf Rag video is still up on Adam's channel. It's amazing.