Adrian Utley
| Guitar, bass, piano, moog synthesizer,
rhodes, horn and string arrangements,
producing.
Musical
influences: jazz, Jimi Hendrix, John
Coltrane, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Stevie
Wonder, Ennio Morricone, Mick Ronson, Herbie
Hancock, Howlin Wolf, A Tribe Called Quest,
Public Enemy, Radiohead, Beatles, Nirvana,
Ravi Shankar, Mahler, Muddy Waters, Debussy,
Wes Montgomery, Joy Division.
General info:
Adrian and Dave McDonald were major
contributors on 'Dummy' but did not become
official members of the band until
'Portishead'. Despite of Adrian's big role as
a musician and co-producer on their albums
he's still not a full member of Portishead.
Apparently Geoff and Beth are the only ones
contracted by their record label, Go!Beat.
Apart from Portishead, Adrian has done some
soundtracks for films and TV. He has also
worked with artists like Goldfrapp and
Sparklehorse. Adrian is said to be one of
Britain's best jazz guitarists.
Geoff Barrow on
Adrian: "Adrian is an excellent
jazz player. He also plays bass, and we work
on musical ideas together. In fact he's a
more musical person than I am. So when it
comes down to old samples like what I need to
create something, we work on together. I get
him to play something and then we work on it.
He's also a good producer. He always wanted
to play odd kind of spy music, and that kind
of tremolo guitar. But because he was a jazz
player nobody was particularly interested. So
when we clicked, it was excellent. Because
that's what I was looking for."
