A random message on my Insta chats from Nottingham singer songwriter Sam Fletcher took me on a journey in searching for his music. Very much an RnB/Soul influenced singer and a great voice, Sam kindly agreed to make some time for an interview.
Thanks for the interview Sam, what's your music background, influences and inspirations? I’ve always loved music from an early age, memories of performing around the family home to Madonna and Michael Jackson. When I hit around 15 years of age I started to write down my thoughts and feelings and creating melodies and turning these into songs, I’ve always written from the heart and like to tell my story through song. There was a turning point when my voice changed slightly and I developed a tone which caught people’s attention.
I met a producer called Kc sounds and a rapper/producer called Reapz whilst I was working at house of Fraser in Nottingham, these collaborations were great and I really found myself as an artist. I did gigs such as main stage Caribbean carnival, main stage at Nottingham pride, performed at my local HMV store and also was a support act for one of Rupauls drag race queens Farrah Moan.
After some time I wanted my music to mature with me and was always keen on working with a guitarist to really get that full live performance feel, I worked with an amazing guitarist called Ryan Cornall who managed to create the most perfect sounds to suit my style and we started to make a name for ourselves on the open mic scene, unfortunately shortly after he moved away and I just wanted to carry on pursuing my dream of being a singer songwriter and despite feeling like I had to start again from scratch I found my latest guitarist on the site join my band with whom I wrote and created the EP Chasing a Dream.
I find my style hard to describe, I’m pretty versatile as an artist but it’s mainly RnB, soulful, with hints of blues and I sometimes even throw a rap in there (I was a garage mc back in the day too!) but my main thing is singing from the heart, opening up and telling my story, I’m an open book.
My main inspirations are John Legend, Amy wine house, Paolo Nutini, Sam Smith and Allen stone.
The recent lockdown has been hard for a lot of folks, how has it impacted on you over the past 18+ months?
Wow how has lockdown and the past 18 months affected me, well let’s just say it had a HUGE impact on me and my mental health. Being single, living alone, having lost my job I did hit rock bottom, I was in a dark place and was suffering, my creativity was stripped from me and I had just released the EP Chasing a Dream along with guitarist Peter Suffolk, with absolutely no way of promoting it. When you hit rock bottom there’s only one way to go and that’s up, but I just kinda lost my way and myself. I’m only slowly recovering now.
What's your latest work/project and what inspired you to make it?
I've already mentioned that my latest project released was the EP Chasing a Dream, the inspiration from this came from love. I feel that when I open up my heart on song it allows me to naturally dig deep into my soul and show all my emotions through my vocals and music, basically after all the set backs I was still and always will be chasing my dream (until it happens, I have an unwavering faith that it will one day) you’ve always got to have hope.
Where can folks get to see and hear your work?
My music is on Apple Music, I tunes, Spotify etc under my name and artist name Sam Fletcher
Can you list your social media links? https://www.instagram.com/sam_fletch_fletcher/
What's next for you? What’s next for me... now I feel I’m getting myself and my life back on track after the lockdowns I’m now on a mission to find another guitarist to work with and/or keys player and also keen to work with producers on original songs, I’m still writing a little behind the scenes so hopefully soon I can record and release new material as well as start to gig again.
And finally, Sam is there anything else you'd like to add about your work, or a message for the readers?
A message to the readers, life will throw curve balls your way and there will be times when you question what your doing. If what you do comes from the heart and it’s your passion and ambition, never give up and keep chasing your dream.
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