I recently had the opportunity to review Dancing On The Ceiling single by Sam Shaw for LeftLion Magazine and decided to contact him for a more in depth interview.
Thank you for this interview Sam, can you tell everyone about your background and how you got involved in music?
I started playing guitar at the age of 12. My parents bought me an electric strat style starter guitar and I fell in love. I started trying to learn the songs I loved listening to every day after school. I remember when I first cracked Purple Haze... That was a major breakthrough. Years later, I ended up playing that song with some friends at the big end of school concert, and everyone was dancing and loving it, even some of the buttoned up straight teachers. It felt so amazing to conquer my fears of performing like that! After that performance, everyone around me told me to pursue music, and so I did. All I wanted to do during school was play in a band and make music, and now I was leaving school I finally had the chance to! On results day, I rejected my place for English Literature at Manchester Met, called up Confetti on my phone, and somehow convinced them to give me a place on their Music Tech course. From there I dived straight in the deep end of pursuing my dream to be a musician. I began doing open mics with Meg Morris, one of the greatest musicians I've ever met. She helped me find confidence to perform guitar onstage, and I helped her to learn guitar. Eventually a loyal crowd grew to the point where we were banned from playing our favourite open mic... So we got a proper full band together, and played various gigs with a constantly rotating lineup. The main musical influences at this time were The Velvet Underground, early Happy Mondays, Mac Demarco and Tame Impala. My dad was a huge supporter of the band, driving us to every gig and giving us all the support he could give. when he suddenly passed away in 2017, everything changed. I put all my time and effort into recording a Sundaze album called "Introspection", in dedication to him. I made it alone at his home using the skills I learnt from my uni course, writing each part, playing pretty much every instrument and recording it myself. Eventually Sundaze toured that album and became more focused in its sound, picking up a heavier influence from bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Fall. I took part in some improvised psych jams with Jimmy's Big Ideas as well as some with members of Sancho Panza, which hugely shaped my approach to performing. Every show we did sounded different, as we jammed out the songs and changed them up for the stage. Standout shows included headlining Bodega, endless shows at The Chameleon, as well as many headline gigs at Rough Trade. We also gigged around the country, playing in London, Sheffield, as well as a particularly fun show at the O2 Academy in Newcastle, where we played a ridiculous unrehearsed cover of "Smells like teen spirit", which sent the crowd into a frenzy! That was probably our biggest show, the room was packed and we felt like true rock stars!
What have you been up to during lockdown?
Sundaze continued gigging until 3rd March 2020, when we played one of our best shows at The Bodega in Nottingham. But once lockdown happened, a huge amount of stressful changes took place in our personal lives and a lot of strain was placed on the band. I used the time I had in isolation to record and mix a new album, which eventually became the one I am now planning to play live and eventually release. Neil Young & Crazy Horse became a huge influence, as did bands like Spacemen 3 and Pavement. I put all the intense emotions I was feeling into making this music. The process of creating this album helped me immensely to cope with the strain of living under lockdown, and I'm not sure I would've been able to complete it if I hadn't had the amount of free time I did during 2020 & 2021. I used my Tascam 424 tape machine to record the songs onto, and only used real instruments and as much analogue gear as I could. No MIDI! I wanted it to be a real and authentic sound. During this time I also wrote and mixed "You'd Be Mine", working with my friend Ella Heaton who sang on the track. This was the first song I released under my name, Sam Shaw, rather than Sundaze. I was overjoyed when I saw how popular this track became, with it currently reaching 70,000 streams on Spotify and the number continues to rise steadily. The amazing experience I had while working with Ella gave me the urge to begin a new chapter and release the new music I was working on under my real name. I'm currently very excited as after years of hard work I have finally finished making my new album, which is called Hypnosis. It has been formed around experiences I have had over the last few years and lyrically I see it as a diary. I haven't written or performed songs that are this autobiographical or honest before, so it will be an interesting experience to play them live with my new band. My new steps are to begin properly gigging this album and eventually release it. Our first practices have gone very well, and it has felt so great to be back in the room fleshing these songs out and finally bringing them to life after spending so long in my home studio.
What's your latest project and what inspired you to make it?
My latest project is probably the release of my new single "Flame", from the new album. It’s out on Spotify on the 18th February, and I’m really excited for everyone to hear it! It’s definitely one of my favourite tracks off Hypnosis. I wrote it during a 3-day house party, when suddenly at 3am the guitar riff and a rough version of the whole song really just popped into my head! It was like someone had turned a radio on in my brain and Flame was just playing... The next day I quickly rushed home and started recording and mixing the song. When I listened back to the finished mix I was so happy! I’m also working on a music video for Flame with my friend Becca which has been so fun to make, I’m looking forward to releasing that too.
Where can folks get to see/hear your music?
Up till now I have focused on releasing my music on Spotify. I may add more avenues for listening such as bandcamp, youtube etc as time goes on, but so far I've found that Spotify has worked the best for releasing my music. I am currently looking to work with a record label to release my new music with. https://open.spotify.com/artist/0BmKEHacAbCKmzCGvwZ2sw?si=1VfcE7GURVecpWndYmmKYA
Can you list your social media links?
My main social media that i use for music and anything else is instagram @areyousshaw
I have facebook too but use that less regularly
What's next for you?
What’s next... Well releasing Hypnosis is the current focus. But in terms of what’s next, as in after that, I’ve actually started a new collaborative band with 3 great friends of mine, who happen to be some of the best musicians I know! We’ve written a lot of new tunes and they’re all sounding amazing. We’ll be recording them soon and announcing gigs etc. It’s really unexpected and exciting! More details to come very soon.
Anything else you'd like to add about your work, or a message for the readers?
I'd like to add that the music I write comes from a place beyond sitting down and writing songs for the sake of it. I wait until the songs come to me, often during times of deep emotion, and then try my best to capture them in a recording. This means my songs take a long time to finish, and have a lot of personal meaning behind them. I am often nervous when releasing songs for this reason, but the love I have for making music always helps me to get past this barrier. I hope this comes across when listening to my songs. Any support I am given, whether coming to a gig or streaming a song is more helpful than people may realise. I feel grateful to be in the place I am where I can look back at the memories I have made and know I have done the best I can to be where I am today musically. My message for the readers is to say thank you for supporting me and for reading this interview. I hope you enjoy listening to my music! Peace x
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