British singer opens up about melodic inspiration, comeback
FOR close to three years, Sam Wills invested his time on a small log cabin. Together with his friend Phairo, the English singer was building the cabin out of recycled pallets. The process, while strenuous, led to the birth of his debut album Breathe.
“It took a ridiculous amount of time as well. I was making the cabin while recording the first album. I would spend time building the cabin during the weekends, a couple of hours here and there,” the UK singer told theSun over a Zoom call.
The efforts certainly paid off as Breathe shot Wills to fame, amassing over 450 million streams worldwide. The breakout single Traingazing became a viral hit on TikTok and Instagram, cementing Wills’s place as a rising star.
Four years have passed since and Wills is ready to follow up the success with his sophomore album Speak. Blurring genre lines, the 12-track album sings off feelings of stagnation and escapism, as it plays in story order across themes of desperation, love and heartbreak.
Celebrating its release, Wills elaborates on the inspiration and process behind creating the lead single Voicenotes and the album.
How have you been taking in the positive feedback with Voicenotes?
It is always amazing to see a positive reaction to a song. It is always nerve-wrecking to put out new music because you pour so much into it. So, seeing the positive reception is a relief.
Tell us about the inspiration behind Voicenotes?
I was thinking about phones and how we communicate with each other. It has changed so much over the years. People communicate with voice notes now. They do not even send Whatsapp messages or texts, just voice notes to each other.
So, naturally, you share a history of conversations with someone online. Even when they are no longer in your life, you still have that history. That is where the idea came from.
What was the songwriting process like?
With Voicenotes, I made it with my long-term collaborator and a good friend of mine called Phairo. It felt comfortable because we wrote it. We started it on the piano. I came up with the melody, which became the chorus melody.
Phairo, then came up with the guitar part, which followed it. It was an easy-going writing process, which was nice. Not everything has to be a challenge.
How does Voicenotes complement Speak?
It brings an element that does not exist in the rest of the album, which has a more traditional jazz melody and harmony. I have tended to lean a bit more towards folk elements, but Voicenotes in particular fits a more jazz kind of area in the album.
How would you like Speak to introduce you to new and longtime listeners?
There are going to be parts of the album that people who enjoyed the first album will appreciate. There will be elements that will feel similar, having rich and dense harmonies as the first album. But, there will be more folky elements.
There will be a level of sadness to it in parts. There is also some joy, production-wise. So, I hope Speak will please old fans as well as interest new ones.
Which track was the hardest to record?
Hardest in a technical sense was Coulda Been Us, which was the second single. I find lyrics quite difficult and I have to really take my time. When I write, often it is the chords and melodies that will come first. The odd line here or there comes later.
For this track, it was the second verse that I could not make as good as I wanted it to be. It might have even taken me two weeks at least. The more I tried, the harder it got. Eventually, I had to just stop for a few days and do something else.
So that was difficult, and it was tricky to mix as well. As for the other songs, it was the songs that did not make it to the album. We tried hard to make it work, but they just did not make it. But, they might come on a deluxe version.
What do you hope fans take away from Speak?
I hope it brings comfort to people. It draws on human experience that we have all felt at one point or another. The experience of feeling lost, and not knowing what direction life is heading in.
It is music for people who do not say much but feel a lot. So, I hope it brings comfort and joy. That is my main goal for the album.
Any words for your Malaysian fans?
Thank you for being supportive. It is not something I pictured when I started making music that there will be people over the other side of the world who know and enjoy my music.
I certainly hope to meet a lot of you in person in the next year or so. I have wanted to come over to Southeast Asia for personal reasons too. So, I am super excited about the possibility.
