The 'Ghost Town' singer has admitted he was "getting a little fried" by the music business before he left major label Warner Bros. Records and needed to remind himself of why he loved music in the first place.
Asked if he had fun being able to experiment with his sound without the pressures of a looming deadline for his upcoming LP, 'Velvet', Adam replied to website MusicFeeds.com.au: "Yeah, I’ve always liked to be an artist who gets to reinvent themselves a little bit. I like changing it up.
"I don’t like repeating myself and I don’t like following what other people are doing necessarily.
"I like figuring out what works for me. With this project, more than ever, I feel like I’m more in the driver’s seat.
"That was part of all of the changes I had to make in order to be able to make what I wanted to make.
"Because I got to a point after my last album, and I’ve been proud of everything I’ve ever put out, I mean it’s all work I stand behind, but I was getting a little fried on the business.
"The commercial stuff, the numbers, the streams, the money.
"It all just started to overpower what it was that I really like about making music in the first place."
The 38-year-old singer - who releases his follow-up to 2015's 'The Original High' on March 20 - feels that his album turned out how it is because he was able to "follow [his] instinct" and steer away from "all of the noise".
He added: "So I think in that process of changing my business set up, I was also soul-searching a bit for a way to check back in with myself.
"What do I love about this business?
"What do I love about music?
"It’s performing for people and creating. That’s what I love.
"The other stuff is just like part of the equation.
"It’s not why I do it.
"It took me a second to figure it out but I really insulated my process this time and I think my album is a result of that.
"It’s just me following my instinct and tuning out all of the noise.”
