Moral of the story is that this interview made me a full-on Sam Fischer stan. I fell completely in love with this album while doing research for the interview and hope that all of you take as much out of this interview as I have!
Stream ‘I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me’ here !
Hey Sam! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me! Of course, I want to talk about all things “I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me’ but first, to any of my readers who haven’t previously checked your music out, how would you describe your sound?
Such a pleasure talking with you! And for your readers who haven’t checked out my music, first of all, how dare you!? Jk jk jk, I’d describe my sound as ‘disarming pop for the nighttime crowd’ but to condense that I’d describe it as honest pop. A singer-songwriter with soul.
Now onto ‘I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me’ - releasing your debut album is a big deal! What emotions were going through your head as your geared up to give this piece of yourself to fans?
You know I’ve spent such a long time with these songs and apart from pride and love and the normal anxiety that comes with any release, I felt catharsis and honestly, relief. So much of what has really haunted me over the last 5 years is the feeling and questioning of ‘I wonder what would’ve happened if the pandemic hadn’t’, with all the opportunity lost during my first global hit, I really went to a dark place, so with the release of my debut album comes the release of all the shit I’ve been holding onto. The fans have my back and have been carrying me through, so hopefully they don’t mind carrying all that with the album as well!
There are a few previously released tracks on the record, dating back to ‘This City’ which was released in 2019, when you’re releasing standalone songs, do you know at the time that you’re for sure going to be using them on full length projects? Or is that decision not made until you’re full on crafting the album?
Let’s be real here, half the album was out before the release and with the way the world and industry and social media work, everyone had heard everything haha. With that said, there was some method to the madness. I wrote hundreds of songs prior to putting the album together and I guess when creating an album that really is about myself and the state of my mind, the songs that ended up on there just felt right. Obviously, ‘This City’ was always going to be on my debut album because there wouldn’t have been a debut album without it.
When putting together the album and living with these songs for so long, is there a track that you immediately could see visuals in your head for? And if so, could you share a bit about the vision with me?
There’s a song on the album called ‘Hopeless Romantic’ which is about the way I hopelessly romanticize my life to the point that I’m constantly let down by my actual reality. For the visual however, I didn’t want to focus on any sort of actual reality, I wanted to create that dramatic, romantic, dream-like story that I longed for in my mind and Sasha the director came to us with the creative and the idea for a one-shot music video which is what we got. I think it’s my favorite creative process for a shoot yet.
You have some incredible collaborations on ‘I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me’ from Demi, to Meghan, to Amy, what was it like getting to work with such powerhouses?
Not to brag but holy shit I have Demi Lovato, Meghan Trainor and Amy Shark on my debut album… it’s a dream. They’re all just really solid people who I’m lucky to call a friend now. I love collaboration so much and learning from the way other artists work and Demi, Meghan, and Amy are all masters of what they do, so it was educational and so damn cool.
I know that making an album is a lengthy process and that often times there are many versions before we get the final project in it’s ready to release state, was there a track that you made that you were close to putting on the record that didn’t end up making the cut? And how does that process come about?
Oh absolutely. There were many songs that I had mixed and mastered that didn’t end up making the cut that will hopefully still come out at another time. Then there were songs I thought were on the record but I ended up writing something else that knocked it off the list. There’s a song called ‘The Making of Me’ that was originally on the record and it was inspired by my relationship with my dad and really all the male figures in positions of authority who have come and gone in my life. I’m confident that song will come out at a later date but for various reasons, it just didn’t happen on this album.
‘Hard To Love’ was the track that you released just a week before the record, what was it about that song you thought would be the perfect last taste before the full project?
I think for me ‘Hard To Love’ was getting back to basics. One chordal instrument and my voice, which is what ‘This City’ is. It just felt right to give one last big sing before the album.
My personal favorite track on the album has to be ‘Somebody Cares,’ it’s a track that really spoke to me, specifically the lyric “It's a one-man fight goin' round for round,” and i was wondering if there’s a specific lyric on the entire record that really sticks out as one you’re particularly proud of?
That honestly means so much to me that ‘Somebody Cares’ is your favorite, thank you! That song is maybe the rawest I get on the album, the hook lyric is “I just want to be someone somebody cares about” and it took the wind out of my sales to write that but another from that song that took me out is “it’s like I’m afraid of being fine, like the love won’t stay if I’m alright”because it’s exactly how I felt for a long time.
We know you’re headed out on the road, when you were making the album what song were you most looking forward to bringing to life in that environment for fans?
My favourite song to play right now is ‘You Don’t Call Me Anymore’ which was a surprise because it’s kind of a ballad but one I haven’t played that I’m so excited to bring to life is ‘Second Hand Happiness’
Now that the album is out into the world and the tour is scheduled, what’s next? What is the beginning of 2024 shaping up to look like?
Honestly we’re already planning the next releases, the next collabs and what the live show is going to evolve into! 2024 is going to be one for the books and I can’t wait to get going.
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