Tea and festival glory – A Samuel Jack interview
Not long after releasing his latest single Surrender (Jan 2017), London-born Samuel Jack has seen his work skyrocket to success. With previous songs being used on hit American TV shows such as Nashville, Grimm and Satisfaction, the musician is quickly becoming a huge success.
Now a resident of sleepy Dorset, Samuel answered some questions on tea, touring and triumphs.
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So tell me about the new single Surrender.
I’m so excited to have the song out in the world, it’s an important one to me. Surrender is about listening to your heart over your head. It’s about arriving at a point in a relationship when it’s do or die, when it’s all or nothing. I’m a firm believer you should do what you feel, in the end your heart always knows best.
What is the feedback looking like so far?
So far it’s been great! It’s an amazing feeling having an audience sing along to your songs at gigs – makes me smile from ear to ear! We’ve had a great response online, charted well in the singer songwriter charts and recently featured on a ‘New Music Friday’ playlist for Spotify Spain, so I’m brushing up on my Spanish!
So you have performed at Glastonbury, Larmer Tree Festivals and Innocent Unplugged, what was that experience like for you?
Festivals are awesome fun. I love playing festivals of any size or stature – Glasto was a special one for me as I’d never been there, even as a punter – there’s just something about the vibe at festivals that you could never really replicate, everyone’s happy, there for a good time, you’re out in the open, the sun’s shining (hopefully.) Larmer Tree was one of my favourite gigs to date, amazing crowd there, I watch the footage back every now and then and it still gives me goosebumps even now.
Where are you from originally?
I was born in London, lived there until I was about 12, then went to South Africa for a couple years, via the Netherlands, then came back to the UK where I moved to the beautiful South West countryside.
Your music seems to have made its way stateside, how does it feel to have your work featured on such huge TV shows?
I was lucky enough to do a mini west-coast tour last year, I had the opportunity to play for some of the television networks out there and fortunately they liked some of my songs – having my tunes on the TV is a great way for me to get my music out there with more and more people discovering new music via that means, it’s certainly really helped me raise my profile as an artist overseas and domestically.
Do you have any plans for a tour?
Oh yes! Many many plans afoot for both UK and European tour dates. Some of my own shows and others as support. Can’t wait! Europe is notoriously an awesome place to play, I hear great things about Germany, the Netherlands and France in particular, so I’m keen to get over there asap and see what all the fuss is about.
Coming from a small place myself, how did you get your name out there and did you expect to have gotten to this point?
To be honest, no – I didn’t think I’d get here, don’t get me wrong I’ve got a long, long way to go before I’m framing platinum disks but I never thought i’d be doing everything I am now, not in a million years. I’m really lucky and have a great management team around me that work incredibly hard and together we’re getting my music out to the world. To, arrive at that point, I think for the most of us musicians it’s just about hassle and hustle, gig hard, work hard, hammer your music around the place until people listen.
Age old debate: milky tea or straight up? (got to have a silly question of two)
Best question ever. I’m mega anal about my tea. I like it really strong. Leave that bag in there for a while, let it do its thing – then literally just a splash of milk. So its kinda golden black, or orange, builders tea. Not that I’m fussy..
Would you rather lose one arm and one leg or both thumbs? (right stupid questions out the way!)
Savage! Take my thumbs, they’re all yours.
Where was the best place you have ever performed?
Too hard! I’ll have to say ‘best place (s)’ so: Glasto, Universal Studios, L.A and …….Larmer Tree
Who are your main inspirations?
I draw inspiration for lots of places, as for musicians, I’d say Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, BB King, then more contemporary artists like, Foy Vance, Tom Odell, Gallant, the list goes on – I’ve always been inspired by blues, soul and roots music, but I love a classic songwriter, and more contemporary electro-soul fusions, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
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