Watch: ‘I’m relieved it’s out’ – Singer-songwriter Ady Suleiman performs and chats about debut album

Video: Ady Suleiman performing Need Somebody to Love from his debut album Memories

Singer-songwriter Ady Suleiman said he is ‘relieved’ to have released his debut album which took him seven years to finish.

Ady, 25, released his autobiographical record Memories on his own label on Friday (March 9) which focuses on his personal relationships and battles with mental health issues.

While touring and doing promotions before the release, he suffered from anxiety and depression which he sought treatment for.

Ady discusses mental health issues in some of his songs and his openness about them led him to be recruited as an ambassador for the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

He spoke to Kate Chaplin about battling to release his album, relief and why Notts is special to him – the full interview and performance will be aired on Ey Up Notts tonight (Monday March 12) at 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 10pm.


“It’s kind of consumed most of my life in the past couple of years so I was happy to put it out – it’s been a long time coming.

The album is just about personal experiences, just things I’ve been through growing up.

I wrote it from the age of 18 through until I was 25 – there’s a lot about relationships and love songs and it touches a little bit on mental health.

Anxiety, depression, things like that.

The main thing I want people to take away from this is that it’s an honest record – it delves into a lot of genres whether it be soul, jazz or RnB.

I would say it’s a pop record overall because it blends a lot of them together but hopefully people like it.

ady,suleiman,singer,songwriter,music
Ady Suleiman performing on Ey Up Notts

I’m relieved because there was a time I didn’t think the record was going to come out.

I hit a lot of, not lows but barriers trying to get this out to the people and my fans and now I can move forward touring it and not having to listen to it as much!

The main reason it took so long was I was with major label Sony Music and the way they work is you build up a buzz and once you have that buzz, they put the album out and sell a lot of records and they get their investment back.

If you haven’t got that, they won’t put the album out because it would cost them more money to put it out so there were a lot of stop starts.

We’d put a couple of singles out and got a little buzz but not big enough for them so we delayed it.

It got to the point where I just thought, I could see me doing this for the rest of my career so I decided to leave Sony and release independently.

Also, I’ve slacked a bit to be fair and been enjoying life!

But the reaction to it has been great, everyone has been really lovely about it.

I’ve had some great feedback and sold out Rough Trade which was great so people seem to be happy with it which makes me happy.

My family and friends came down to that gig at Rough Trade in Nottingham last night (Sunday March 11) and it’s always good to play in Notts.

This is where my career started and I owe a lot to the city and the people here.

I’ve got my headline tour at the end of this month – I’m playing at Coco Camden, Manchester Gorilla and Birmingham O2 Institute.

Then I’m touring with Anne-Marie which will be great – we’ve got some European dates which is amazing.”