Sam Tompkins is becoming the man of the moment. Off the back of the viral cover track ‘Moon’ which turned into a hit on TikTok, the artist has recently signed a deal with a new EP on the way shortly. Sam has come a long way from busking in the streets with friends. His social media presence has been strong for a number of years, gaining a cult following of listeners who love all the covers and deep and personal songs that he releases.
Sam is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, his music is close to the bone and all sung in notes that hit perfectly. When we speak, the artist has recently got back from Nashville and LA, where he’s been busy working on new music. He lives in Brighton currently after moving away from his small seaside hometown; “It’s more creative, and got a more of a liberal feeling to it. You can be who you want to be!”
Clash got the opportunity to speak with Sam to see what’s coming up for the artists during this exciting period.
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You’ve just come back from America, how was it over there?
Yeah all good, I’ve just come back from Nashville and then LA. I’m still very Jet lagged, but feeling good!
It’s definitely a busy period for you right now, there’s a recent video of you getting a tattoo with Ty Dolla $ign on the piano in the background.
It does definitely feel like a bit of a simulation. It’s strange because it all hasn’t felt that weird to me, like I don’t think of it as weird. It just has been very gradual to this point. But i feel very lucky to be in this situation, and the gears have definitely switched to a quicker pace now it all seems to be happening fast.
Your latest single was released recently, could you tell us more about the track?
Hero is about my dad and him going through some stuff when I was younger. Looking more about the bravery that he went through, when he was definitely feeling down in the dumps, and how grateful I am – because my life would be so different if he wasn’t here. So it’s just an ode to my dad really.
The music video is powerful too – in which you play the character of your dad. What did he think of it?
He loved it, with stuff like that you have to be really careful. But I spoke to him about it a long time before and he liked the idea. He gave me total artistic freedom. There’s certain points in the video which are dratamised, and some which are not. There’s stuff we put in there for narrative reasons, but the key elements are in there true from that time. He really loved it and the ending part, where it shows me calling him after the shoot had finished. I think he was spooked by how much I look like him, it genuinely freaked him out.
Most of the music you make is very personal and close to the bone, how easy do you find it to write like this?
When I started writing music, none of it was coming from a particular place. Then I went through something very tough and wrote about it and realised how special that song came out over anything else I had done before that and how much I wanted to listen to it and get that feeling.
From that point I wanted to make sure all the music I put out there was personal, or had a concept that spoke to me and was just more personal. Everything I’ve released for the last two years has been really personal, and I’m proud of that. In this current industry, I love the music that comes out, but it’s in a room of about 100 people and not organically made.
I’m not someone who has a problem with that. I love good music, but I think a lot of people are searching for stuff which is personal. They want something to relate too and that is where I hopefully fit into the industry.
Was the song you’re referring to ‘Follow Suit’? This is how a lot of fans got to know you. It was a really personal song about a friend.
Yeah that’s the song I was referring to, I’m glad you picked up on that.
How would you describe your music?
My music is more like a mood rather than a genre. I never know how to describe it, like it’s kind of pop. But what is pop? It’s a mood when you want to feel something. I hope people come to me when they want to feel some type of way or relate to something.
Some artists have used social media so well to build their platform. This is the same for you with TikTok. The cover of ‘Moon’ exploded on the app. Has it been crazy?
Yeah so I dropped the original cover on Instagram reels and TikTok. It did reasonably well on TikTok but mental on reels, with over 10 million views. Then it went quiet for a month until the drill remix was released and went massive on TikTok and Reels. So it had two different times. But now it’s extremely mental, I’m in the top 500 artists on Spotify in the world. It keeps climbing too, keeps going up by a million streams per day.
So what can people expect from the new EP?
It’s been in the works for a long time, but it’s my most honest body of work and I can’t wait for people to listen to it. There’s songs about family, coping mechanisms and it’s got lots of subject matter that relates to real people. I’m really proud of it.
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‘who do you pray to?’ EP is out on March 18th.
Words: Joe Hale // @joesquestions
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