Persistence pays off for Grammy-winning alumni Adam Lunn
Huddersfield alumni Adam Lunn has been celebrating the success of his contribution to an album of Bob Marley songs that was named as Reggae Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
Born and bred in Huddersfield, Adam graduated from Music Technology and Audio Systems in 2006 and has gone on to work with many big names in the music industry as a mixer and engineer.
His work with Nigerian artist Wizkid on a cover of One Love on the album Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired By The Film accompanied the acclaimed film means that Adam can add Grammy winner to his many accolades.
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“There’s clearly a lot of love out there for Bob Marley still, but I was totally not expecting this. It was a huge surprise, but a very nice one,” he declares.
With his work on Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired By The Film winning the music industry’s ultimate accolade, it is reward for Adam’s persistence in a career that started with him making cups of tea and answering phones.
Moving from up front to behind the scenes
“We were quite musical in my family, in that I enjoyed pillaging my uncle’s record collection when I was growing up,” says Adam, who is now based in London. “I played guitar and formed a band with my brother when we were still at school. I’m a 90s Britpop kid at heart, and I loved Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Kula Shaker.
“Our band actually recorded a demo tape at the old Beaumont Street studios in Huddersfield, and recording bits and pieces at home became a bit of a hobby for me. I was more interested in recording the music and doing the engineering, rather than actually playing it live, so I thought why not do it as a degree as I liked that side of things so much.”
Adam made the most of the University’s state-of-the-art facilities, but his final year project saw him go back to the pre-digital era to analyse a ground-breaking album from the sixties.
“I researched the techniques used to record Jimi Hendrix’s first album, Are You Experienced?, so we recorded on to tape like Hendrix did and used really simple mic setups, just a couple of mics on the drums and things like that.
“It was good fun, I created my own reverb by going into the bathrooms at the university and setting up a speaker at one end and a microphone at the other end. It captured the reverb from the bathroom like they would have done with reverb chambers back in the 60s.”
"You've got to earn your stripes in a demanding business"
Adam wrote to many recording studios after graduating, but after a frustrating time when most didn’t reply to him, he secured work experience at Resident Studios in North West London. This led to work at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, where Adam says his willingness to help out in any capacity – making drinks, answering phones on reception – led to a situation where his skills as an engineer were increasingly called upon, with character seen as important as technical know-how.
“You are working with and for some high-profile clients in some of the best facilities going, so it is important that people can trust you. The early stages might seem a bit menial, but you are probably being assessed to see if you're cool and a nice person. They don't want people who are going to want to take photographs or get in the way, so you've got to earn your stripes.
Listen to Wizkid's cover of One Love.
"Once you've done that and they trust you, when they need you, you’re in. You can be the most technically gifted musician or engineer, but that might not necessarily mean you're successful in the music industry. It is a tough business, and quite cutthroat.
“There is a lot to be said for persistence and personality - how friendly you are, how nice you are to people. You could be in a studio full of musicians who are up against it, in a high pressured environment for hours on end, so then it's not just about technical or academic skills, it's about people skills.”
Adam’s career has seen him work with a range of artists across several genres, from the mainstream pop of Olly Murs and Rita Ora, to rapper Nines on his acclaimed albums Crop Circle and Crabs In A Bucket. His collaboration on a musical project with actor Idris Elba saw Adam work in the legendary Abbey Road studios, even getting to tinker with a piano used by The Beatles on one of their most famous tracks.
“We worked in Studio Three, but we were allowed to go into Studio Two where The Beatles recorded most of their work. Idris is a massive music fan like me, and it was mind-blowing to go in there. I was shown a piano in the live room and the engineer pointed out it was one of the pianos used for the famous final chord on A Day In The Life! It was awesome, there is no other studio like it in London and it has a very special aura."