Ady Suleiman Is At His Most Free On Second Album, Chasing

The former major label signee faded from public view for more than half a decade – now he’s making his most assured work yet.

One of Ady Suleiman’s goals at the start of the year was honourable yet simple – to read one book per month. “I managed the first three and then stopped,” he tells Man About Town, “so not great.” The Nottinghamshire-hailing musician can be forgiven for failed literary conquests, however, as goals, for him, tend to live in the professional realm rather than pastime pursuits. And, at work, 2025 has been a vintage year.

The tangible evidence comes via the five tracks he’s released since August comeback single “Miracle”, his first release since 2019 mixtape “Thoughts & Moments, Vol. 1”. The mixtape followed his 2018 debut album Memories, released after a signing from Sony Music in Suleiman’s early twenties. His ability to telegraph emotion via soul-rich, mellifluous cuts marked him out as one of British music’s most auspicious storytellers in the late 2010s, but after “Thoughts & Moments”, Suleiman went quiet. The intervening six-year hiatus has been a “mad journey,” he tells us. Mental health struggles, creative stagnation, a global pandemic and a reacquaintance with his Zanzibarian heritage were among the medley of life experiences encompassed.

While soulful account of the interpersonal dissonance caused by social anxiety “Miracle” ended Suleiman’s release drought, team-up with Birmingham rapper Kofi Stone “Never Meant To Hurt You” followed a month later. October drop “Brother” saw Suleiman achingly muse on racially-motivated brutality, following reflections on the 1993 murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence. Around the track’s inception, Suleiman was living in Woolwich – the southeast London market town of which Lawrence was resident – and poignantly realised they shared the same bus route home. He ended this year with December cut “What If”, a propulsive jazz-imbued effort that applies buoyant sonic textures to an account of the cyclical anxiety he felt trapped in when his fortunes in work, family, romance and identity were flowing against him.

Taken in totality, the releases signal the 33-year-old stepping into an epoch of artistry more free than anything he’s embarked upon before. The album on which the tracks are housed – Chasing – follows on 16 January, so perhaps he could liberate himself of any new year goals in the coming year – he’ll be hitting the ground running regardless. Suleiman is now a man operating without restriction, after all. “There was definitely a period where music was one of my main stresses,” he explains, “whereas now it feels like a real joy again and a real freedom – that’s everything.”

Hey Ady! Massive congrats on your upcoming album, Chasing. It’s been six years since your last record – can you catch us up on what’s been happening since?

Thank you so much. What have I been doing in the six years? So much and also so little. The majority of it has been writing and recording, making music. I’ve made so much music, which I’m excited to put out. This album is just the start, really.

We then went into the pandemic, which was a difficult time for me for numerous reasons. Creatively, I felt quite stifled in lockdown. So when everything lifted, I took a trip back to Kenya and Tanzania, which is where my father’s from. I’ve got family out there. It was an incredible trip. I planned to be there for two weeks to visit family in Mombasa and Zanzibar – I ended up staying for three months until my visa ran out [laughs]. This was back in 2021. Since then, I’ve been going back for at least three months every year.

It’s been really lovely for me to delve back into my Swahili roots and get back in touch with that side of myself. Other than that, it’s really just been London life, music, writing, recording, trying to get this record finished and trying to get back out there. It’s had its difficulties, but I’m so excited to be here now and have an album coming out.

You closed out 2025 with the fourth track released from the album, “What If”. Can you tell us about the day you made that song?

The day I made “What If” I was in Zanzibar with my producer, Miles Clinton James. We were right on the beach in this little hut – basically a beach house, and we had all our studio equipment set up there. We were actually working on another track on the album, and I can’t even remember how it happened, whether it was a glitch or on purpose, you’d have to ask Miles. But basically, we heard this little two-bar loop, and we were both like, “Yeah, this is cold.”

So we looped it, sped it up, changed the pitch a little, cut the drums, and that became the basis of “What If”. That’s literally it. It’s basically a two-bar loop from another track on the album, so we sampled myself.

That day, I started thinking about what the music was saying to me and what I wanted to write about. The nature of it made me feel a bit scatty in my mind, and it took me back to a really anxious period of my life that I’d never written about before. This was after putting out my last record, and I remember thinking at the time that I’d need to talk about this at some point, because it was such a pivotal moment for me – dealing with loss, self-doubt, social anxiety, things I hadn’t experienced before. As soon as the beat was there, Miles and I just sat together and wrote the song that evening. We came back to the UK, and I recorded the vocals, but creatively it came together very quickly – one of the fastest on the album.

“What If” explores the insecurity that follows you in various situations in life. Three albums in, over a decade in the industry – do you feel more assured as an artist now than you have in the past?

Oh wow, that’s a great question. I mean, right this second, yeah. I think it comes with age. The older you get, the more assured you become in yourself, and that obviously plays into being an artist. For me, it’s very difficult to separate myself from the artist – it’s all the same thing. That said, I do think we’re fluid as people. There’s an awareness now that things might feel good today, but that doesn’t mean a few months down the line you won’t feel different.

Life goes up and down. It’s not a constant upward trajectory of growth, assurance and security — even if, overall, that’s where it’s heading. There are peaks and troughs along the way. I think I’m the hungriest I’ve felt in a long time, career-wise. And probably, most importantly, I love music and writing again.

When you set out to make the album, was exploring new possibilities musically an important part for you? Did you find yourself saying “What if…” a lot in the studio?

Yeah, I guess you’re always open to exploring possibilities, especially at the beginning of a project. At the start, there are no restrictions — you throw loads at the wall. After a while, though, you do have to consolidate ideas, themes and sounds so you can actually make decisions and create something cohesive. I don’t really like the word “restrictions,” but you do need some kind of framework.

I think it’s a bit like deciding what you want to eat. Sometimes you really don’t know, and other times you know exactly what you’re craving — something warm, something filling, something light. Making music feels similar to that for me. At this point in my life, I know what my bag is. I know what I’m feeling, what I want to make, what I want to hear. I never want to replicate something that already exists. I’m always inspired when I feel like there’s something missing that I want to hear.

So I’m open to possibilities, but there’s also a sense of direction. It’s about guiding that feeling until it becomes something concrete. I knew I was going to make a live-sounding, soulful R&B record because that’s what I was listening to and that’s where I was at. How exactly that took form was what I was open to exploring.

The themes across Chasing are broad – love, identity, mental health, heritage. What new side of you as a storyteller do you think the record reveals?

I don’t really think there’s a new side, to be honest. I think I’m just older. Those themes have always been in my music. Heritage is something I’m very connected to, but this isn’t a heritage record. I’d love to make a heritage concept album at some point, but Chasing isn’t that. It’s more about love, identity, self-discovery, introspection and romance.

It’s quite a soft record. And what’s interesting is that, even now, my perspective has shifted since writing it. As an artist, you’re always releasing music that you wrote months or even years ago, so by the time it comes out, you’ve already grown. I might say things differently now, or feel differently about some of the situations I was writing about. But that constant growth is something I really value. Being static isn’t great for your mental health, and I think part of why the last six years were difficult at times was because life, especially during the pandemic, felt very static.

You made the album between Zanzibar and London. Can you tell us why you chose to go between those settings and how they both informed the record in different ways?

I’m half English and half Zanzibari, or Swahili, so those are the two places I’ve been living between during this time. Zanzibar was more of a haven. It was quieter, less busy, and it made it easier to pull ideas together, write lyrics and structure things because I had space and clarity. It’s a beautiful place to work.

London is where everyone is for me – musicians, producers, studios – and it has a real hustle to it. I’m not sure how consciously that comes across in the album, but you can hear Zanzibar in moments. The album opens with waves crashing, which we recorded while tracking guitars out there. Lyrically and conceptually, though, the songs come from my life in London and my experiences there. So the album really lives between those two places.

You’re starting 2026 off strong, professionally, with a new album. What’s one goal, away from the job, that you’d first love to achieve before the year is out?

I really love these questions; they make me actually think. Away from work is tough because so many of my goals are career-driven. I would love to finish another book. More than that, though, I want to put my phone down. I feel like I’m in front of a screen too much. Especially over Christmas, I’d love to properly switch off, even just for a period, and spend less time on my phone, read more, and be present. That would feel like a really good goal for me before the year’s out.