Adam French - 'Wanna Be Here'

‘Wanna Be Here’, the stunning new single from Adam French, is both lyrically and musically beautiful. 

To say I’ve been excited about this song for two and a half years now is an understatement. Having first heard it on Communion’s ‘New Faces’ tour, back in April 2016 — in the beautiful setting of St Stephen’s Church, Shepherd’s Bush — along with the likes of Matt Woods, Rukhsana Merrise and The Beach, I was blown away by the sounds of Adam’s voice echoing around the stunned silence of the audience. On record, the song only seems to stretch to greater echelons of perfection. The almost pained desperation of the lyrics combined with the haunting guitar and Adam’s inimitable voice to create something transcendent. 

Adam French has been releasing music for a good few years now. From Congleton, Cheshire, Adam had his first break, as it were, in a very unique fashion: in 2013, he embarked on a solo tour of Africa. This was followed by festival appearances in England before, after the release of his ‘Face to Face EP’ and the announcement (and subsequent cancellation) of a UK tour, he seemed to vanish.Fast forward to October 2017, when the ‘Weightless’ EP is released, the title track of which is a brooding and atmospheric track which quickly became a fan favourite, featuring alongside it a tremendous and unique cover of The Walkmen’s ‘The Rat’. This was followed by another EP, ‘You From The Rest’, which was released shortly after a string of shows including a sold out O’Meara in London, as well as a string of shows supporting Jacob Banks. 

‘Wanna Be Here’ comes hot on its heels and serves as the debut single for his debut album, rumoured to be due out early next year — and it isn’t an understatement to say that this is quite comfortably the best song that he has released. So far anyway; an acoustic version almost undoubtedly on the way is sure to surpass it, stripped down to simply Adam and his guitar. 

Starting with the slightly distorted sound of said guitar and some gentle, wordless exclamations sounding both inconsolably downtrodden and cautiously optimistic, it builds the pathos of the song before any words can be sung; when they are, with Adam promising to a loved one that he’s there to help them, to ‘solve all [their] problems’ and asking why they’ve changed, it becomes devastatingly emotional. ‘“Wanna be here’ is a song about the difference between happiness and comfort”, he says, explaining the meaning of the track. ‘“It’s important to share life with somebody that makes you happy and brings out the best in you... and it’s never too late to cut loose from those who don’t.”’. That can best be seen in the chorus: ‘you don’t wanna be here but you’ve got nowhere else to go... if you don’t wanna be here, go’: realising the toxicity of someone in your life, and making the hard decision to cut them out. 

Every note and every word in the track is near-perfect at worst and sublime at best. I can honestly say that it’s my favourite song out at the moment and, if the quality of this track is anything to go by, the album should be stunning.

Adam should be bigger than he is, and judging by his music, it’s only a matter of time. 

Words of James O’Sullivan