The very cool, very hip Swerve Magazine, interviews Sam Bradley
Heavenly Shades Of Night Are Calling
SM: You just recently played a number of dates with Jenny Owen Youngs and Hank & Cupcakes. How did that tour come to be?
SB: I don’t know exactly. I think we are under the same booking agency. I met Jenny a couple of years ago. She came to a show of mine in New York and she said it would be great to tour with you.
I had been recording in LA recently and wanted to go on tour. I asked my booking agent if there was anything going on and she said Jenny was going on tour. So, I said, “Oh, let’s do it.”
So, that is how it came to be.
SM: You were born in London and are now living in Canada or LA?
SB: To be quite honest, I’m homeless. I am living in my van. I haven’t been living in Canada proper for three years now. I spent some time in Nashville on and off. I go back to London. I try and keep moving; I get pretty frustrated if I stay still.
SM: Really? Is there a reason why, like you need the new surroundings?
SB: Yeah, I’m running away from my problems. And I don’t have to pay a tax anywhere. No, I’m just kidding.
No, I got friends all over the place and I like to try and see as many people as I can. It is just the nature of what I like to do, travel and play music and keep writing. All that stuff.
SM: Does traveling help with the writing process?
SB: It keeps it fresh. When I go to England I will write more of an English song than I would if I were in the South, like Texas, for a country song. It definitely affects me.
SM: The “Hippie for a Night” song you have been doing live, which is a dead-on precise hit on hipster culture; could you elaborate on where that song came from and what inspired you to write it? And let me ask you to please get that song on tape as I would love a copy to pass around to friends, it was so good.
SB: It was basically just my reaction to the festival season and all the kids and people going out and thinking that they are part of this grand old hippie movement. I love festivals. Go out and have fun, but don’t think you are something you are not.
So, I wrote this song from this reaction and it is called “Hippie for a Night.”
SM: Is that song going on the next album? Say yes.
SB: I actually hadn’t written it when I did the tracking for the new album. It is a folky-kind-of-acoustic song, so I think that I might stick it on the album.
It is a band album that I am working on and I usually tour with my band. But for this tour, it was good to just go out alone.
So, yeah, I was considering it. I was talking about it today and it has been getting a great reaction which I didn’t actually expect.
SM: Really? The lyrics are so dead-on for that hipster movement. That is why I think people love that song. I know that is why I love it.
SB: Well, thank you.
SM: You gave voice to the very same thoughts that I have had.
SB: That is good to hear.
SM: I hope you do get some version of it recorded somehow someday.
SB: Yeah, maybe, I intend to... who knows, maybe this conversation will inspire me to go and do it.
SM: I hope so, seriously. That song needs to be heard by the masses.
SB: What would be amazing is if I got started on the festival circuit just from that song.
SM: When is the new album coming out?
SB: I don’t have a release date. My big focus is getting it finished after these tours. So after these are done, I’m heading back to Los Angeles to finish up. I am hoping that I will be there for a like a month more to make sure everything is as I want it, that it is as raw enough because that has been my problem with past recordings.
I am hoping it comes out before Christmas, but it just depends. I am an independent guy and I self-released everything so far. It would be great in an ideal world to have a bigger team backing me for a release, but if it is not this one then maybe it will be the next one.
SM: We have to talk about your involvement with the “Twilight” soundtrack. Has it helped or hindered your career?
SB: To be honest, it has helped. I have been able to get on board with great tours, I have been able to record my own albums and I have been able to have two great booking agents, a great manager and that all came around that time.
Because I had an “in” (for the soundtrack), and most importantly, there was an audience that was there, I could show up in, say, Cleveland and there would be people coming out. Before if I would have done this by myself and I didn’t have something like that platform, no one would know. It has definitely helped.
The difficulty is now it has been three years since that happened, so the difficulty is now moving on from it.
SM: How do you move on from it? How do you distance yourself from that to where you are today?
SB: I don’t think I need to distance myself from it. I did it as a writer. It happened and I’m proud of it. I’m 25 years old and that is a big achievement. It’s fucking cool, so I don’t need to distance myself. I hope I am on the right path, and keep doing what I am doing. And playing and supporting artist with great fucking integrity like Jenny for example.
SM: That is a giant accomplishment to have under your belt at 25.
SB: The soundtrack sold like four million copies, which is, like, amazing.
SM: In this day and age, any number near that is amazing.
SB: Exactly.
SM: So you said you had ‘in’ on the soundtrack. Was it through a producer you worked with or was it through some other source?
SB: Yeah, I am friends with Rob, the lead guy in the film. We went to school together. We are good friends together.
SM: Oh, I did not know that...that’s really cool.
SB: Yeah, we are childhood friends.
SM: So I take it then you have been to all the premieres. That had to have been a trip.
SB: Yeah, it has been crazy. It is crazy to see (Pattinson) up there on the screen doing his thing. It is big. It is bigger than I think he even realizes.
SM: Going back that is what I meant when I said distancing yourself from the juggernaut that is “Twilight.” With it being so big, how do you get any space from it?
SB: It’s easy. It doesn’t affect me like that. I have had the same set of ideas and goals since I decided I wanted to do this for a living.
SM: So the new record, you said you want it to sound more raw?
SB: Yeah, definitely more raw. I want it to sound— I hate all these words like “organic” and all that shit as they are so overused. I don’t want it to sound produced. I want it to sound natural. I want the instruments to sound real. I want as little sound effects as possible.
I want the sound to be full, because there is an electric guitar, there is an acoustic guitar there, and a piano. So, basically, I found a great producer that was good to just basically put a microphone in front of it.
SM: That is interesting as even what passes for plain old rock music these days has a lot of production that goes missing to a lot of ears.
SB: Sure, I agree.
SM: It is refreshing to hear that someone wants to go into the studio and just record a live album basically.
SB: If I had my way, I would just put a microphone in the middle of the room and that would be how I would like it to record. But, obviously, it just would sound like shit, but if it worked that is how I would like to do it.
SM: You sound like you have an almost Jack White approach to recording; of getting all the electronic new equipment out and just going old-school in the recording process.
SB: Yes, he is a perfect example.
SM: So the record hits around Christmas and then you tour to support it?
SB: Yeah, I hope. I better be touring to support it. But we will see. There are a lot of factors that determine what happens next. My biggest want is to expand as much as possible and try and get as many people to hear it as possible.
SM: Sound like a plan. And please, please get “Hippie for a Night” on tape.
SB: Will do. (laughing)
SB: I don’t know exactly. I think we are under the same booking agency. I met Jenny a couple of years ago. She came to a show of mine in New York and she said it would be great to tour with you.
I had been recording in LA recently and wanted to go on tour. I asked my booking agent if there was anything going on and she said Jenny was going on tour. So, I said, “Oh, let’s do it.”
So, that is how it came to be.
SM: You were born in London and are now living in Canada or LA?
SB: To be quite honest, I’m homeless. I am living in my van. I haven’t been living in Canada proper for three years now. I spent some time in Nashville on and off. I go back to London. I try and keep moving; I get pretty frustrated if I stay still.
SM: Really? Is there a reason why, like you need the new surroundings?
SB: Yeah, I’m running away from my problems. And I don’t have to pay a tax anywhere. No, I’m just kidding.
No, I got friends all over the place and I like to try and see as many people as I can. It is just the nature of what I like to do, travel and play music and keep writing. All that stuff.
SM: Does traveling help with the writing process?
SB: It keeps it fresh. When I go to England I will write more of an English song than I would if I were in the South, like Texas, for a country song. It definitely affects me.
SM: The “Hippie for a Night” song you have been doing live, which is a dead-on precise hit on hipster culture; could you elaborate on where that song came from and what inspired you to write it? And let me ask you to please get that song on tape as I would love a copy to pass around to friends, it was so good.
SB: It was basically just my reaction to the festival season and all the kids and people going out and thinking that they are part of this grand old hippie movement. I love festivals. Go out and have fun, but don’t think you are something you are not.
So, I wrote this song from this reaction and it is called “Hippie for a Night.”
SM: Is that song going on the next album? Say yes.
SB: I actually hadn’t written it when I did the tracking for the new album. It is a folky-kind-of-acoustic song, so I think that I might stick it on the album.
It is a band album that I am working on and I usually tour with my band. But for this tour, it was good to just go out alone.
So, yeah, I was considering it. I was talking about it today and it has been getting a great reaction which I didn’t actually expect.
SM: Really? The lyrics are so dead-on for that hipster movement. That is why I think people love that song. I know that is why I love it.
SB: Well, thank you.
SM: You gave voice to the very same thoughts that I have had.
SB: That is good to hear.
SM: I hope you do get some version of it recorded somehow someday.
SB: Yeah, maybe, I intend to... who knows, maybe this conversation will inspire me to go and do it.
SM: I hope so, seriously. That song needs to be heard by the masses.
SB: What would be amazing is if I got started on the festival circuit just from that song.
SM: When is the new album coming out?
SB: I don’t have a release date. My big focus is getting it finished after these tours. So after these are done, I’m heading back to Los Angeles to finish up. I am hoping that I will be there for a like a month more to make sure everything is as I want it, that it is as raw enough because that has been my problem with past recordings.
I am hoping it comes out before Christmas, but it just depends. I am an independent guy and I self-released everything so far. It would be great in an ideal world to have a bigger team backing me for a release, but if it is not this one then maybe it will be the next one.
SM: We have to talk about your involvement with the “Twilight” soundtrack. Has it helped or hindered your career?
SB: To be honest, it has helped. I have been able to get on board with great tours, I have been able to record my own albums and I have been able to have two great booking agents, a great manager and that all came around that time.
Because I had an “in” (for the soundtrack), and most importantly, there was an audience that was there, I could show up in, say, Cleveland and there would be people coming out. Before if I would have done this by myself and I didn’t have something like that platform, no one would know. It has definitely helped.
The difficulty is now it has been three years since that happened, so the difficulty is now moving on from it.
SM: How do you move on from it? How do you distance yourself from that to where you are today?
SB: I don’t think I need to distance myself from it. I did it as a writer. It happened and I’m proud of it. I’m 25 years old and that is a big achievement. It’s fucking cool, so I don’t need to distance myself. I hope I am on the right path, and keep doing what I am doing. And playing and supporting artist with great fucking integrity like Jenny for example.
SM: That is a giant accomplishment to have under your belt at 25.
SB: The soundtrack sold like four million copies, which is, like, amazing.
SM: In this day and age, any number near that is amazing.
SB: Exactly.
SM: So you said you had ‘in’ on the soundtrack. Was it through a producer you worked with or was it through some other source?
SB: Yeah, I am friends with Rob, the lead guy in the film. We went to school together. We are good friends together.
SM: Oh, I did not know that...that’s really cool.
SB: Yeah, we are childhood friends.
SM: So I take it then you have been to all the premieres. That had to have been a trip.
SB: Yeah, it has been crazy. It is crazy to see (Pattinson) up there on the screen doing his thing. It is big. It is bigger than I think he even realizes.
SM: Going back that is what I meant when I said distancing yourself from the juggernaut that is “Twilight.” With it being so big, how do you get any space from it?
SB: It’s easy. It doesn’t affect me like that. I have had the same set of ideas and goals since I decided I wanted to do this for a living.
SM: So the new record, you said you want it to sound more raw?
SB: Yeah, definitely more raw. I want it to sound— I hate all these words like “organic” and all that shit as they are so overused. I don’t want it to sound produced. I want it to sound natural. I want the instruments to sound real. I want as little sound effects as possible.
I want the sound to be full, because there is an electric guitar, there is an acoustic guitar there, and a piano. So, basically, I found a great producer that was good to just basically put a microphone in front of it.
SM: That is interesting as even what passes for plain old rock music these days has a lot of production that goes missing to a lot of ears.
SB: Sure, I agree.
SM: It is refreshing to hear that someone wants to go into the studio and just record a live album basically.
SB: If I had my way, I would just put a microphone in the middle of the room and that would be how I would like it to record. But, obviously, it just would sound like shit, but if it worked that is how I would like to do it.
SM: You sound like you have an almost Jack White approach to recording; of getting all the electronic new equipment out and just going old-school in the recording process.
SB: Yes, he is a perfect example.
SM: So the record hits around Christmas and then you tour to support it?
SB: Yeah, I hope. I better be touring to support it. But we will see. There are a lot of factors that determine what happens next. My biggest want is to expand as much as possible and try and get as many people to hear it as possible.
SM: Sound like a plan. And please, please get “Hippie for a Night” on tape.
SB: Will do. (laughing)
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