Meet Sonny E — the self-described “Teddy Boy Timelord” fusing rockabilly swagger with rave-born futurism. Known to many as Adamski, the once–“Acid House & NRG King” who helped define an era with hits like Killer, Sonny now returns under a new guise that bridges vintage rebellion and modern tech. His latest single “Time” is a decades-spanning experiment in what he calls Cyberbilly — a playful collision of classic rock’n’roll spirit, electronic invention, and AI collaboration. Having lived through some of the most radical shifts in pop culture, Sonny E remains a true musical misfit: still curious, still restless, and still rewriting the rules of what the future can sound like.
– You’ve described ‘Time’ as taking half your life to complete. What kept drawing you back to it over the years and what finally told you it was finished?
It began as a ballady kind of thing on my acoustic piano just to entertain myself but as
I’m not really a balladeer it was just something to do whenever I got near a real piano…and I always remembered the chords and melody…bits of the lyrics came over
a long time cos I never forced it …I never imagined it would fit over a classic rockabilly
bassline until recently thanx to ai being the best collaborator I’ve ever known…but only
the backing vocals are ai …oh and the guitar solo which is only one note so not threatening the livelihoods of ‘real’ musicians…self-included….maybe I had a sore finger that day ? don’t remember
– You call your sound ‘Cyberbilly’, a fusion of rockabilly and modern tech. How did that concept first crystallize and what does it represent to you artistically and personally?
When I was 15 an old hippie friend of mine, who, aged 40 seemed to me like an old
sage, gave me a cassette of Alan Vega (singer of electronic pioneers Suicide’s) debut
solo album cos he knew I loved psychobilly and likewise drum machines …which is
pretty much what it is…it’s my all-time favourite album and no.1 inspiration to this
day….then I moved to London aged 17 just as Sigue Sigue Sputnik were starting to get
noticed …they also site 1st Vega album as a major influence but they also made a huge
point about new technology which fired my imagination…and on top of that their
singer had glued on hair which has impacted my sartorial style
– As the man once crowned the ‘Acid House & NRG King’, what lessons or spirit from that era have carried into your Sonny E. persona?
I was unintentionally kind of venerated as the rave poster boy and spokesperson for
the scene which felt really awkward and embarrassing cos I had nothing to say …all I
thought about was drugs, sex and parties…I didn’t understand why what I considered
sketches, basslines and chords resonated so much with the people…I was just a cog
in the wheel of a humongous cultural shift …so I now know it’s good to have a concept
and artistic parameters…Seal asking if he could sing on my stuff was serendipitous….I
wasn’t looking for a singer but I liked his voice and he was a fun, and more interesting
than most, fellow party person…but then I followed up our massive hit song with
myself singing an Elvis song, which was (to me) an obvious nod and wink to Alan Vega
which understandably went over the heads of the extacty generation lol…so of course
my rave overlord status was quickly relegated to irritating arsewipe.
– You’ve mentioned AI as “the most inspiring development since sampling”. How are you using AI creatively, and how do you see it shaping the future of music?
It’s just like having a non-binary partner that knows the entire history of music from
every corner of the world, can play every single instrument known to man, can sing in
any known (or indeed unknown) style or language, is available 24/7 and never moody
or argumentative cos they’ve been on shit cocaine!
– Rockabilly and rave might seem worlds apart but you bridge them naturally. What do you think these genres share at their core?
The letter R ! and they’re both born of people striving to do what they’re passionate
about with limited resources and often times inexperience and total irreverence for
established forms…
– You grew up surrounded by evolving subcultures and radical sounds from The Cramps to Derrick May. Which of those early influences still echo loudest in your work today?
I’m eternally grateful for being young when we were constantly bombarded with new sounds and genres and maverick artists and promoters brave enough to defy the norm…we even had avant-garde experimental music on mainstream prime time tv when I was a kid! (the Flying Lizards, the Creatures and early Human League spring to mind) …I love a record Derrick May made as Rithim is Rithim in ‘87 called ‘The Dance’…the bassline has a bit of that oom pah thing going on which is apparently in a lot of rockabilly…I 1st heard it in a muddy field in ‘89 …I really loved that juxtaposition of dancing in nature like an ancient tribal ritual to music that at the time sounded sooo futuristic and otherworldly…in fact it was the apex of pop culture as we know it as far as I’m concerned …oh and The Cramps-greatest rock’n’roll band in history!
– Leaving school at 16 and diving headfirst into music sounds like a punk act of faith. How did those early ‘outsider’ experiences shape the artist you’ve become?
I suppose I’m just a misfit
– ‘Time’ sounds both nostalgic and futuristic. If you could time-travel to any musical moment, past or future, where would you go and why?
thanx that was my intention…
I just love the idea of stretching time from 70 years in past to 70 years in the future
– You describe yourself as a “Teddy Boy Timelord”. What does that alter ego allow you to express that Adamski couldn’t?
Well obviously the internet has rendered all music timeless and when I’m surfing online i can actually feel I am traversing time…+ I always wanted to be a ted since seeing one strutting down a London street in a flamingo pink drape suit during the 70s ted revival…but if I’d dressed like that in acid house days I’d have been laughed off the dance floor…and drenched in sweat after half a tune …I did however proudly wear brothel creepers …teddy boys (and girls) were the 1st youth subculture in Britain…and until a few years ago you’d see old random diehards swaggering about …I have a close friend aged 89 who was trashing cinemas to the soundtrack of Rock around the Clock in the early 1950s ….types of behaviour that led to him having a full frontal lobotomy in the 60s …but in spite of that his memories of the era are crystal clear and inspiring…we made a song together which is my 1st single called ‘Teddy Boy Teddy Boy’ Sonny E. released his new track ‘Time’ on 5 th September and is available across all platforms.
IG: @sonny_e_cyberbilly
yt: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc5D4ZH3HNvYWvG5lQk3KMA
sc: https://on.soundcloud.com/ejpSn1AGYqkiFqcbtI
fb: https://www.facebook.com/sonny.e.cyberbilly
bandcamp: https://sonnye.bandcamp.com
https://www.sonnyemusic.com/
