about the artist_
To observe Knoxville,TN-based folk workhorse Adeem the Artist in his natural element-on stage, cooing, picking, strumming, stomping, screaming, almost nightly- is to experience the creative process in its most loving, raw heart-on-the-sleeve purity.
Born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina as good Christian boy Kyle Bingham (in reverence to NASCAR legend Kyle Petty), he went on to embark on a soul journey through the Christian coffeehouse scene, the emo, punk and college rock circuit of Syracuse, New York, the blindingly sunny Caribbean Isles (albeit in darkened corners of smaller indoor stages as a Carnival cruise ship performer), and the boozy, relaxed Knoxville, Tennessee bar scene.
There he continues, striving for an artistic live with his painter wife, Hannah, as they raise their son, honestly wrestling with and embracing his passions, insecurities, and contradictions, and bundled and jumbled up and manifested and invested in Adeem the Artist, still chasing the dream, staying pure, pushing out his "barbaric yawp...full of natural energy..." (as Whitman put it) for all the world to hear--or at least those kindred spirits in the listening rooms, indie bars and theaters and regional festivals --where they still listen to new original music.
He's put out tons of songs under multiple pseudonyms in multiple time zones across his biological life-too much to recount in this space-but in this incarnation as Adeem the Artist, he's released a well-reviewed full-length LP Kyle Adem is Dead (2016) and two EPs in The Birds series, The Owl and The Flamingo (both in 2017) and he is slated to release his second full-length Forgotten Songs and American Dreams later this year.
He's played Arlene's Grocery in NYC, Eddie's Attic in Atlanta and the Historic Bijou Theatre in Knoxville. His music is played on WDVX and WUTK-FM in Knoxville, Outlaw Country on Sirius XM, and has been featured on the Discovery Channel. Adeem is art in its pure form-he is ever-changing, experimenting, growing, striving; he is not complacent. He reaches, he struggles and fails, he exults and triumphs, he works, he creates...he is The Artist.
-Luke Brogden (Blank News, Southern Cities)
Press
"[Adeem the Artist] writes about the questions in a pensive Americana style. His songs will both comfort you and challenge you."
"[Adeem the Artist] is both comedic and dark at times. He plays the acoustic guitar and, technically, he would be considered folk but don't expect the usual niceties of the folk movement to come to the fore, certainly not the current breed."
"To describe [Adeem the Artist's] sound is not going to be doing him justice. It is far too simplistic to describe him as a singer-songwriter, but that is effectively what he is."
"[Adeem the Artist] has put together an instrumentally rich and lyrically unique album..."
"...wholly original. Call it indie-pop or folk rock, but it's a fully fleshed-out vision of [Adeem the Artist's] quirky, often funny, always poignant songwriting."
"...intense self-awareness morphing into self-deprecation that make(s) his romping, whimsical folk songwriting so hooky, ebullient, affecting and memorable..."