What was the first song you learnt?
Blackbird, on my big brother's half size nylon string guitar. I'd been leaning classical piano for about 4 years and one day I picked up Sean's guitar and blackbird just started to come out. It took me a day to nail it, but it was so relaxing just meditating on that riff over and over.
What’s your favourite memory of your early musical life?
I was about 3, every Saturday my mum put on 60's and 70's records and we would clean the house together and she would sing these celebratory lyrics to me of woman empowerment. I felt safe and happy.
What made you want to play music in the first place?
Even though I never had before, somehow I knew I could. I had a great ear, and everything I'd heard stuck really methodically in my mind and was planted there firmly. I also started obsessively listening to parts of my mum's tapes over and over studying particular tones of instruments because of the way the sounds made me feel.
How old were you when you started playing?
I was 8 years old. Although I had friends at school I was secretly a bit of a loner, all that slow repetition of learning classical piano suited me, it was like meditation. I stopped this at 18 and started playing guitar until at 25, I got to support my favourite local band who asked me to join and I took up the piano again and began to experiment with sound like never before.
Who were your music heroes/idols back then?
John Lennon, Cliff Richard, Carol King, Michael Jackson, the Righteous Brothers, The Mamas and the Papas,
Who are they now?
Thom Yorke, The National, Victoria LeGrand, The Sea and Cake, Sharon Van Etten, Midlake, Karen Dalton, Kings of Convenience, Jolie Holland, Bill Evans.
What was the name of your first band?
Verona's Way
Pegs Adams is a Newcastle-based songwriter and keyboardist with Firekites.