Adam Granduciel

Adam Granduciel has often struggled with depression, anxiety, and paranoia, even throughout his career as a successful musician. His mental issues have often hampered his work, causing his albums to take longer to get recorded.

Adam has been in a relationship with actor Krysten Ritter since 2014.

Adam Granduciel was born Adam Granofsky on February 15, 1979, into a middle-class family in Dover, Massachusetts. He was the second-born child of his parents, Mark and Paula Granofsky. He had an elder brother, Burton. As a child, Adam listened to metal music all the time. His parents did not like this, but unaffected by this, Adam continued to follow his interests.

Adam had not thought of making a career in music until he was a teenager. He was gifted an electric guitar when he was 13 years old. He did not know how to play it, but despite that, he kept practicing on it and then eventually got addicted to it. Till the time he reached junior high, he played on his own and did not try joining a band or performing in front of an audience.

Everything changed when he began junior high at ‘Roxbury Latin School,’ where he found a few like-minded classmates who often participated in jam sessions. Adam joined them and started exhibiting his skills with the guitar. Although it was obvious that Adam had never taken any professional lessons in music, he improved drastically. By the time he finished high school, he had already become a skilled electric guitarist.

He completed his education from ‘Dickinson College.’ He graduated in painting and photography and decided to move to California for better career opportunities. At the age of 22, he was in California with his guitar and recorder. There, he spent his days working as a waiter in a restaurant. In the nights, he practiced on his guitar and learnt new things about the instrument every day.

The biggest turning point in his career came in 2003, when he decided to move to Philadelphia, where he met Kurt Vile. Kurt and Adam met at a party and bonded over drinks and their common love for Bob Dylan. They were both talented and struggling musicians and discovered a mutual admiration for each other during their countless jam sessions. For the next two years, they prepared for their grand launch in the music industry, and in 2005, they laid the foundation of their indie band ‘The War on Drugs.’

The band started performing around Philadelphia, and although all the members of the band had day jobs, they found enough time to jam and play music in front of crowds. Eventually, the band started gaining a lot of admiration from music lovers in Philadelphia and New York, where they had occasional gigs every once in a while.

By 2007, the band had finished work on their debut EP, ‘Barrel of Batteries,’ containing five original tracks. They soon released the EP and made it available online for free downloads. They received an encouraging response from both critics and listeners. The low-key success of their debut EP and their live shows had them attracting the interest of a small-time record label named ‘Secretly Canadian.’ Thus, ‘The War on Drugs’ signed their first professional contract.

In 2008, the band released their debut studio album, ‘Wagonwheel Blues,’ under the new label. The album was both critically and commercially successful. However, this success made the members go their separate ways. Most of the members quit the group, and in the end, only Adam and Kurt remained. Sometime later, Kurt, too, moved on with his solo projects.

In 2010, the band came up with their sophomore EP, ‘Future Weather,’ and as the band starred working on their second studio album, the line-up changed a number of times. The album ‘Slave Ambient’ was released in 2011 to favorable reviews and earned a score of 82 out of 100 on ‘Metacritic.’ The album made a place among the top 50 albums of a number of music charts and lists. It was ranked 21st by the music magazine ‘Mojo’ and 37th by the magazine ‘Paste.’