Sonny E. on Cyberbilly, AI, and the Guts to Start Again

Decades after conquering the charts as acid house prophet Adamski, Adam Paul Tinley has a new obsession. Meet Sonny E., his self-styled “teddy boy timelord” persona built on a 30-year journey into the futuristic, rockabilly-infused sound he calls ‘Cyberbilly’.

How does the Adam Paul Tinley of 1989—the acid house prophet known as Adamski, then on the verge of conquering the world with ‘Killer’—view his new creation, Sonny E.? “He would look at him enviously,” Tinley admits, “and wish he had the guts to do it!”

That new creation is a self-styled “teddy boy timelord” who fuses the raw, twanging swagger of 1950s rockabilly with the cold, futuristic logic of artificial intelligence. The sound is ‘Cyberbilly’. His new track, ‘Time’, is the mission statement—a two-minute blast of energy that, aptly, took him half his life to finish.

Sonny E. is not, Tinley insists, a “reinvention”—a “misleading” term he mistakenly signed off on. This is no mid-life crisis rebrand. “Sonny E. is an art project and is not my ‘self’ as such,” he clarifies, while recovering from a “hideous” bout of COVID. “I’ve simply amalgamated musical and aesthetic stuff that I’ve loved all my life with what inspires me now…while naturally and simultaneously evolving a character to present it…who I enjoy being but is def not me.”

The 30-Year Pot Noodle

The song ‘Time’ dropped in September, but its new music video gives a stark, monochrome face to its sound. The track is a tight, two-minute rockabilly strut, all twangy guitar and restless energy, driven by a relentless cyber-beat. It’s Hasil Adkins by way of a malfunctioning android.

And it took decades to get right.

“I know there’s an infinite number of songs about time,” Sonny says, “but not as many as there are songs about love and/or sex and dancing… Aptly, for the subject matter, it’s taken me around half of my life to complete this song.”

Most artists would agonise over that admission. Sonny E. treats it with a candid shrug, contrasting it with his past. “I’ve always thought that the best songs are instantaneous,” he admits. “And indeed I once co-wrote a hugely successful hit song that was about as challenging as making pot noodles compared to the 3 decades at catering college that ‘Time’ felt like.”

The punchline? “I must say that I spent most of those 3 decades failing to show up for class.”

The song languished because it was an idea without a home, a sketch without a frame. “[It] took years and years cos I came up with a few chords I really liked on an acoustic piano and a few words that meant something to me,” he explains, “but [it] could’ve ended up a schmaltzy ballad or cheesy pop song that I would’ve never garnered the enthusiasm to finish.”

How does the Adam Paul Tinley of 1989—the acid house prophet known as Adamski, then on the verge of conquering the world with ‘Killer’—view his new creation, Sonny E.? “He would look at him enviously,” Tinley admits, “and wish he had the guts to do it!”

The breakthrough, fittingly, was pure Cyberbilly. “However, recently, while pissing about with an Ai app, I realised that simple sketch… would fit over one of my all-time favourite rockabilly basslines…”

You can watch the official video for ‘Time’ at this link: https://youtu.be/hnWMcFbhcOw

What is Cyberbilly? ‘Gasoline on My Fired Imagination’

To understand Sonny E., you have to rewind past the rave scene, past N-R-G, and back to a 15-year-old kid in a small-town psychobilly band. The DNA of Cyberbilly, it turns out, was always there.

“An old hippie friend… kindly made me a cassette of Alan Vega (of synth pioneers Suicide)’s debut solo album,” Sonny recalls. “Which has a heavy emphasis on both [rockabilly and drum machines]… and it immediately became my favourite album… and still is… it’s actually framed above my piano.”

That album was the first breadcrumb. The next was Sigue Sigue Sputnik. “When I was 17, I went to some early Sigue Sigue Sputnik shows, which was like pouring gasoline on my already fired imagination,” he says. “They’ve also cited that album as a major influence, but then also added sci-fi and contemporary technology elements… which were also hugely appealing to me.”

This, he explains, is why Cyberbilly exists. It’s the synthesis of rockabilly, electro, psychobilly, and futurism. It’s The Cramps and The Meteors filtered through the lens of Devo and Suicide.

So, what about the massive, acid-house-shaped elephant in the room?

“As regards to acid house I dogmatically and purposefully avoid referencing it, like-wise punk rock,” Sonny states flatly. “Cos although those two massive cultural and societal shifts had significant impacts on my life I realised that incorporating those styles [into] this particular project of mine is A) too obvious B) too easy and C) kind of boring.”

The AI Paradox: A Teddy Boy’s Guide to the Future

The final, crucial ingredient to Cyberbilly is AI. Tinley is electrified by it, seeing it as the most inspiring development since sampling. It’s also the source of the project’s central, brilliant tension.

“I’m SO excited by Ai for new possibilities in music and visuals… but paradoxically I am, like many people, somewhat petrified,” he says. “That ambivalence has been a great basis for lyrics.”

This isn’t about lazily layering styles. It’s about intricate fusion. For Sonny, AI is the tool that can finally build the impossible bridge between his obsessions.

“The deeper I get into Ai, the more I’m drawn to old music, poor quality lo-fi recordings and human imperfections,” he explains. “The fact that many people despise music that utilises Ai tools cos they think it doesn’t sound human made me realise that a lot of music I’ve loved throughout my life has been for that very reason… a singer can easily destroy the emotional value of a techno [track] for example.”

He sees AI as a way to “fuse all the nuances and characteristics” of disparate genres in a way a human couldn’t, “unless they happened to be a billionaire with a time machine and never ever slept!”

It’s this ability to look forward and backward at once that defines the “teddy boy timelord.” When asked what one musical moment he’d visit between 1955 and 2099, he flips the script. He used to fantasise about taking acid house back to the ’50s to “freak them the fuck out.”

“I’m SO excited by Ai for new possibilities in music and visuals… but paradoxically I am, like many people, somewhat petrified,” he says. “That ambivalence has been a great basis for lyrics.”

In His Own Cyberbilly Bubble

For all his futuristic focus, Sonny E. is a man out of time. He’s making vital, energetic music that doesn’t fit neatly into a box, and he knows it. The landscape has changed since ‘Killer’ tore up the charts.

“I’ve done a lot of shows where the reactions and feedback was akin to my shows in the early rave scene,” he says. But he’s realistic. “I mistakenly felt I must be on a similar trajectory… Promoters take way less risks now and they’re mostly guided by algorithms. I kind of forgot that I was a part of a rapidly growing scene back then whereas now I’m in my own cyberbilly bubble.”

That guts he wished his younger self had is on full display in his live shows—a one-man-band assault that channels the energy of psychobilly originator Hasil Adkins. It’s raw, immediate, and a far cry from the superstar DJ setups of his past.

(You can see footage of his live show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cv1FepE2s0).

For those willing to prick that bubble and see the live energy for themselves, Sonny E. has one date left this year. If the live footage is any indication, it’s a bubble you may well want to be in.

Sonny E. Live Dates:

12 Dec: Speedway, Folkestone

This isn’t a comeback. Adamski never left. This is Adam Paul Tinley finding the right art project, the right persona, and the right technology to fuse a lifetime of obsessions into one, twanging, futuristic whole. This is Sonny E. This is Cyberbilly.