Sam Brockington is back with his debut EP Peace of Mind out on 25th November 2016 via Prospect 21. The EP draws influences from folk to blues and soul with Sam blending these genres into his own unique, fresh style.
Each track on the EP is a testament to Sam’s skilled songwriting and distinctive voice that emanates range and warmth; his baritone vocal takes centre stage throughout, filled with a fantastic grit and vibrato akin to the likes of George Ezra and Paolo Nutini.
The EP’s title track Peace of Mind, references the longing for affirmation, giving your all to someone but not having that returned. Previous single Follow also features on the EP and has racked up over 150,000 Spotify plays. The single showcases Sam’s intricate guitar style and delicate vocals, which combined, create beautiful melodies and effortless harmonies.
In this interview, we chat with Sam about the Peace of Mind EP, his influences, surviving as an indie musician in a digital age and much more.
Full Q&A with links and a stream of Peace of Mind can be found below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
So I’m a singer-songwriter writing indie/folk. The folk side is usually expressed through the guitar in my work. My friend introduced me to folk music and taught me different picking patterns, from there I went on to spend hours learning the works of John Martyn and Bert Jansch. And indie, well I’ve always loved indie music, having grown up in quite a strong indie scene in the early 2000’s I delved further in to it by my mid teens. Relentlessly listening to early Modest Mouse and Radiohead. But these are more songwriting influences, vocal influences stem from Jeff Buckley, Sam Cooke and in more recent year Matt Corby.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
I think essentially what has always driven me is a love of singing and gigging. I have always written vocal melodies from about the age of eleven, Instruments started coming in to play at around 15 when I started on bass in a garage band. Long story short, I got to Bristol age 21 having busked and been in various bands in Devon, Melbourne and London and found myself waiting on a band to come together. Life is short so I got myself a solo gig and hired out a cool looking studio, £70 for 1 hour and made a video of me playing a blues tune from the 40’s. Put in on YouTube, the response was good and I haven’t really looked back!
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
Quite often friends influence my creativity as we’re all pretty musical. That and radio DJ’s like Giles Peterson and Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 music is kind of the soundtrack to our house. They like to play a pretty eclectic mix so my tastes in music are quite varied. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot more hip hop. I have to make it clear now I have no intention to ever rap! It just wouldn’t work for me but been loving Kendrick, Anderson Paak and Chance the rapper.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
I didn’t want to be labelled as just another singer-songwriter. I hope it has a little more edge to it especially in tracks like Manta Ray where I wanted to keep it relatively stripped back to as reference point to the live performances with a 3-piece band. As a lyricist I feel like the songs represent the 2 years of thoughts pretty well, it’s autobiographical at times and can be pained, which I like to express vocally with big endings in Follow and Peace of Mind.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
If I had to choose MP3, just makes life easier, it’s the digital age…but buy my CD!!
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I use Apple Music, purely because that’s the one that came with the phone. They all seem pretty similar but my mate has been telling me it’s all about Spotify radio and recommendations. Might have to swap.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
I think the digital era has helped me connect with fans initially but because it enables you to have fans all across the world it’s a challenge connecting live with fans outside the UK.I get a lot of requests to play places like Canada or New Zealand and I looked at my Spotify transcript the other day and people are listening everywhere, even Nicaragua and Qatar. Not quite sure what the music scene would be like out there!
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
Check me out anywhere really, Sam Brockington into Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Youtube and more but right now you should head over to my SoundCloud page which is the only place you can hear my latest single ‘Peace of Mind’ pre-release.
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
Hope you like the EP out 25th November and big love to you all as always!
