Interview by Jasmine Nibali
With his unique personal blend of surf, jazz
and Brazilian rhythms Adam Dunning
has become known as the “voice of
summer”. Now he has recorded a very
special song to commemorate the centenary
of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli.
When did you first start singing?
Actually, I started my singing when I was really, really
young and I’ve always loved doing it. I remember
singing at a Christmas family function, attempting to
put on a daggy high operatic voice to “Silent Night”. I
almost cringe when I think of it now. And to make
matters worse, I kept singing the same song at family
functions even when it wasn’t Christmas. The family
must have thought I was a shocker.
That being said, I did take my singing seriously
from about the age of 19. I got right into jazz, listening
to everyone from Vince Jones, to Bobby Darin, Nat
King Cole, and every now and then I would hear some
Bossa Nova and related rhythms that I just felt I
identified with, almost innately. I soon discovered that
the bossa I was listening to was the same bossa that
my older brother would play on his scratched Sergio
Mendes LP while mum was carrying me around in her
tum tum. Listening through the womb? Who knows?
When did you decide you wanted music to be your
career?
I was in London in the corporate media jungle, and
working with the BBC. Every night I would go home
and play my classical guitar to bossa nova (which by
now was totally at home in my head). Jazz and
standards were long gone, and Antonio Carlos Jobim,
Roberto Menescal, and the smell of Rio’s beaches had
consumed me. So, I began playing the standard bossa
songs from the 60s on my guitar and sang to them.