Home Humans of Hackney Adam Faulkner & Tim Stephens – Musicians

Adam Faulkner & Tim Stephens – Musicians

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Cycling from Hackney to Tokyo

We are two friends and musicians who left London in March 2018 to cycle to Japan and make an album along the way.

For years, we’d meet on a Friday morning before work at our favourite greasy spoon, ‘Arthur’s’ in Dalston. We hatched this plan over many a bacon and egg sandwich. We’d always mulled over the idea of writing music full time but living in London whilst doing so would make things financially difficult. After being inspired by a trip to Peru in 2017 and a very short cycling tour to Brussels the same year, more travel was also on the agenda and Japan loomed large on our ‘to do’ lists. After a bit more brain power and a few more trips to Arthur’s we hatched the idea to cycle across the globe, making music as we adventured. We worked out that we could take instruments with us and write music as we went inspired by the places and people we would meet on our journey.

Planning a route across two continents and an excess of 20 countries can take a bit of time but we enjoyed doing it. We knew we had to get through Europe to reach Turkey, which is the gateway to the east. From there we pencilled in the Central Asian ‘Stans (as they’re known), then heading to South East Asia via India before swinging north towards Japan. We estimated it would take 12 months to get from London to Tokyo.

We both have personal stories connected to Alzheimer’s. Tim’s grandmother who has sadly passed away had the condition and my grandmother has suffered with it for the past 6 years. We’ve both seen how debilitating it can be and how it robs a person of themselves and their dignity so we wanted to do what we could to raise money for a worthy cause. We also know music is an effective way of giving those who suffer from Alzheimer’s their memories back somewhat so we wanted our album, when it’s finished, to be a symbol of that.

There are so many memories so far that we could mention but making music on top of a mountain with a drummer we randomly met in Turkey has to be the highlight for us. It was a breathtaking moment set amongst incredible scenery playing our synthesisers.

To follow our journey on Instagram @TotalBikeForever