NPR music photographer Adam Kissick shares his love for 80s pop and rock
Adam Kissick has a job that can only be described as The Ultimate Dream.
He’s NPR’s go-to music photographer and at almost every concert he attends, he’s got the best seat in the house. SXSW, Newport Folk Festival, or Coachella — Kissick can be found right in between the stage and the crowd.
As a regular on the concert and festival circuit, Kissick documents rare, fleeting moments that offer a refreshing take on photos that typically consist of the same three components: the artist, the stage, and the audience.
“I strive to capture something that makes you feel intimate with the performance, even if you weren’t there.”
When working a festival, Kissick will see as many as 100 to 150 bands in a week, but the work is quick: Stay for a few songs, snap what you can, and on to the next set.
“I get the chance to see some of my favorite bands of all time, but sometimes only for three songs.” he said. “But I wouldn’t be in that position in front of the crowd and in front of my favorite band if it wasn’t for this. I’ll never take it for granted.”
The photographer began to dabble in concert photography when he attended the College of William and Mary. He’d go to hardcore shows with friends, buy three disposable cameras from CVS before the show, take a ton of photos, and get them developed. His equipment evolved (“I’ve been to many a mosh pit with multiple cameras and six lenses, and just hope for the best!”) and little did he know, he’d continue capturing concerts as a career in the future.
In 2011, Kissick was photographing for a local paper in North Carolina, when NPR reached out to the paper for someone to cover Moogfest the morning of the festival. He immediately drove for four hours to Asheville and soon found himself in the same room as Brian Eno during a press conference.
“This job gives you access to your heroes, and lets you give back to them with your own photos and art.”
Since then, NPR has kept its recommendation and is now the photographer’s main music outlet. (When he’s not capturing concerts, Adam photographs weddings with his wife Christy.)
When asked to describe his fellow photographers, two words come to Kissick’s mind: summer camp. At individual, niche festivals like the Newport Folk Festival, photographers reunite for a few days and at the end, say, “Can’t wait to see you again next year!”
“Everyone’s so positive and are constantly challenging me,” he said. “Everyone’s very inclusive and accepting and there to better everyone else.”
For someone who’s heard hundreds of bands play, Kissick lists U2, Prince and Michael Jackson as his favorite artists.
He’s seen U2 in concert multiple times, including once during their recent Joshua Tree tour. “It was life-changing,” he said. When the album first came out, he was six years old.
“Every time it comes on, I get transported back to the same place where I heard it for the first time,” Kissick said about his favorite song of theirs, “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
“The world expands when that song starts. When I was six years old, it completely shaped the way I heard music from that point on.”
Kissick has also seen Prince perform during the artist’s Musicology tour in 2004 (“Thank goodness I got to see him”), but regrets never having seen Michael Jackson. He’s a fan, to say the least.
To say the most, he once asked his parents to legally change his name to Michael Jackson at four years old. His favorite album is Dangerous because it contains the biggest, most emotional songs Jackson ever wrote, including “Heal the World” and “Will You Be There” (“A great gospel song”).
It’s hard to believe, but Kissick’s passion for music hasn’t died down, despite having attended countless shows. You can still find him at a concert, screaming the lyrics while taking the perfect shot.
Adam Kissick admitted to having already created a similar playlist for himself before we approached him… and to making five different versions of this playlist after we did. Check out his 12 official tracks below.
Note for note, my favorite song of all time. “I get up, I get down…” The world’s most perfect lyric. What’s more to say? Really.
My earliest musical memory is my dad singing Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin” to me. I am forever grateful to him for my first introduction to rock and roll.
“Welcome to the New Power Generation. The reason why my voice is so clear, is there’s no smack in my brain.” These are the first words Prince speaks on Lovesexy before launching into a joyous rave-up about God and the Devil, Heaven and Hell. Regardless of how he went out, it will always be the song of his I turn to the most to fill me with spirituality and the positivity of choosing a drug-free life.
And speaking of spirituality…
If you have spent any extended period of time chatting about music with me, there is a 100% chance that I will bring up my love for The KLF. In the long list of artists and bands that have had the most influence on me, Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, furthermore known as The JAMs) are right up there at the top. The KLF taught me the true value of having an artistic vision and sticking to it no matter what. They also taught me about Stadium Trance, Acid House, Ambient House, Grindcore, illuminati, Twin Peaks/Angelo Badalamenti/David Lynch, the importance of a good sample, Tammy Wynette, and the number 23. And to this day, “3 A.M. Eternal” is the only song I have ever requested on the radio.
Listening to Peter Gabriel beyond the hits is very much like discovering your own secret world of beauty and grace, sometimes with as much dark as there is light. My first proper introduction was his Secret World Live record. I bought it at NYC Tower Records on a high school trip to see Rent in 1998. Listening to the album that night on the bus ride back to upstate NY was the start of a long and wonderful musical journey into Prog, Art Rock and World Music. Also, Manu Katché, Tony Levin, and David Rhodes are geniuses.
What do you get for the playlist that only has room for 12 songs, but you still can’t bear to leave out Bruce, Cyndi, Stevie, Steve, Huey, Ray, Lionel, Hall AND Oates? The greatest gift of all, “We Are The World”, that’s what. I genuinely love this song. The bridge with Michael into Huey into Cyndi… chills. Steve Perry absolutely soaring. Springsteen straight busting veins on his solos. And so. much. power from Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and James Ingram. Ugh, it’s like a fever dream of 80’s glory that should only exist in my fantasies, but there it is on YouTube, ready for me to watch again and again and again. Thumbs up, Lionel. Thumbs up indeed.
This Is The Sea is one of those magical records that you search your whole life for, but can only find when you are ready for it. And it will find you, not the other way around. When it found me, it felt bigger, more important, and more mine than the music that came before it.
I’m sitting in a car… in a Friendly’s parking lot… it’s the late 80’s… my mom goes inside to pick up either a carton of Wattamelon Roll ice cream OR a couple of Conehead Sundaes to-go (I can’t remember which, but either way, supreme). Cue (on the radio) Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois and the intro to “Where The Streets Have No Name”. THAT. INTRO. As soon it was over, I wanted to reach through the stereo and make the DJ play it back on infinite loop. And it wasn’t so much the notes from the organ as it was the AMBIANCE that birthed those sounds at the very beginning. I could literally FEEL the environment built by Eno coming through the speakers. Those first 30 seconds informed everything I would come to love about ambient music, furthered many years later by Music for Airports, Harold Budd, Mathias Grassow, Biosphere, etc… Also, the rest of the song changed my life and made me see the world in Widescreen, but you know… details. :)
If “Will You Be There” is Jackson at his most spiritual, “Earth Song” is the terrestrial equivalent. Michael sings his absolute guts out over how precious the Earth is and how the human race is ruining something so pure and beautiful. I adore it more and more with each listen, especially as its message feels more urgent with every passing day.
Rhythm Nation 1814 is my favorite pop record of all time. Honestly, I could have picked any of the album’s seven Top 5 singles (!!!), but I went with “Escapade” because when I hear those first notes, I lose myself in the immediate joy and elation, time-traveling back to 1990. Also, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis 4 Ever.
My mom and I would always listen to No Jacket Required on the way home from her picking me up from school in the mid-80’s. There are obviously a lot of stand-out tracks on that record, but “Take Me Home” rings the loudest in my mind. Singing at the top of our lungs, it is a perfect memory. Also, I was totally obsessed with Phil’s Beverly Hills jacuzzi limousine at the end of the video.
Listen to Adam Kissick’s curated 12 songs playlist on Spotify.