Sam Fender On Getting A (Literal) Taste Of America And Why "Everyone Needs A F—ing Elton John"
Sam Fender wants to "smash America" – and he's right on track.
After years of scoring hits in his native U.K., the Geordie singer/songwriter is breaking through to U.S.audiences with "Seventeen Going Under," a tale of growing up confused and yearning, told without inhibition in an upbeat style.
Fender's growing stateside success is due in part to a banner year in his home country, where he headlined Glastonbury Festival earlier this summer and performed to 40,000 people in London's Finsbury Park. His second studio album — also titled Seventeen Going Under — won a BRIT Award and was named Album Of The Year by NME.
Fender's music has broken free from the estate councils of his northern England hometown and obliterated the seen-it-all attitude that permeates London music culture to engender awe in America. His appeal comes from his ability to straddle the line between rock anthem and indie heartache with his songs, delivering jolts of universal emotion in the key of U2, Bruce Springsteen and early aughts guitar rock. The singer has also drawn legions of fans on TikTok, who find commune in his deeply personal lyrics.
Fender is in the midst of his first U.S. tour, a portion of which has him supporting Florence + the Machine on major stages such as Madison Square Garden. On stage, Fender and his five-piece backing band of childhood friends rollick through songs with political and parental influence — buoyed by fist-pumping choruses and Clarence Clemons-worthy saxophone wails.
Though Fender already knows he won't be playing many shows next year — just a handful of performances "headlining something massive," he confides — in the meantime, he's culling his fan base.
Fender sat down with GRAMMY.com to discuss his growing international audience, writing process and a very special gift he received from Elton John.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
You're a bit on the precipice here in the U.S. How does that feel to you?
Everything in the UK is f—ing skyrocketing at the moment in terms of our career. We're doing a f—ing huge headline show at home which we're gonna announce really soon, like 50,000 people. The reason why I was talking about this — I wasn't just outright bragging — is because it’s really humbling to come over here when nobody f—ing knows who we are.
But you were on the biggest stage at Outside Lands in San Francisco.
But we don't have the usual amenities — we couldn’t get a tour bus. So we're in a f—ing RV which aren't designed for sleeping on while moving; that's so uncomfortable. There's four of us in that one. And it's sweaty, and you can't sleep at all.
It’s been a challenge, it’s been testing. But it’s lush because that's when I think this band really kind of bears its teeth. When we're like f—ing struggling it just takes us back to when we first were touring around Europe, but it's kind of bringing back all that excitement. It's like we've got to fight for it a bit more, which is really quite refreshing.
Have you felt that audiences were particularly responsive to you here?
People are picking up on [the themes of my lyrics]. It’s a small-town existence. It's lovely to see the songs connect on that kind of level in a place that is so far from home, you know?
I heard your band are childhood friends.
Me and [guitarist] Dean [Thompson] have known each other since we were 11. Joe [Atkinson] at the back [on keys and guitar], we've known each other since we were 14. And Johnny [Davis], the saxophonist, he's my brother's mate. My brother is 10 years older than me, so Johnny was always another sort of big brother character. I thought he was the coolest guy. It's like a family band.
What have you guys been doing in the RV when you can't sleep?
We don't watch anything because we don’t have any internet connection. It's been pretty dire to be honest. We've just been eating chocolate bars and reviewing them.
So what has been your favorite so far?
Butterfinger. I f—ing love them. I think they’re amazing. I like Baby Ruth and I like PayDay as well. All the nutty ones.
I'm with you on that. Except for the Butterfingers. It's a little OG for us.
It's like it sticks to your teeth and everything. I came to America to get hit by the most disgustingly sweet things. I think this is exactly what America should taste like.
Beyond getting the taste of America, has it been any different touring for American audiences than British or European ones?
It's sort of similar in a lot of ways. But I think the crowds are more enthusiastic from an early stage in your career.
We were told that LA was going to be really somber and nobody would give a f— sort of thing. So we were like, “Oh it's going to be like London!” But it was the complete opposite of what we expected — the whole room was bouncing, and we had them in the palm of our hands. That was the best feeling. Everyone kept coming up to us after like, "That doesn't happen in LA."
What's been your favorite song to perform during this tour?
"Get You Down" and "Spit of You" — I haven't seen my dad in a while, and that song's about him. So I think the further apart I am from him, the more I start to sing that song with conviction. It's been lovely and it's been going down really well. When we started playing it., there was just some kid in the crowd like, "This is my favorite f—ing song!" and it just really f—ing pumped us up.
Do you think that a lot of your fans are from TikTok?
Well, when you hear "Seventeen Going Under" and they scream two lines and then the kind of volume drops off [laughs] — yes. But they've stuck around and they're still singing other songs as well. So I don't give a f— where they're from.
I used to kind of poo-poo TikTok. Even at 26, I was like, I feel old to be on this. But then obviously, it all kicked off, so I'm not complaining. The way I look at it now is this — it's just another medium for kids to discover music, which is f—ing amazing. Because if they do come to the show, and they only know that one line from TikTok, probably by the end of the show, they'll know some more songs. A lot of these young new fans have come through — it's recurring. It's not like they've dropped off the face of the Earth.
It must be really interesting to see so many people engage personally with these very specific lyrics that you've written. A lot of people probably don't get the chance to see that.
It was a bit of a headf—k to be honest. At first, it was a bit overwhelming, because a lot of these initial stories and TikTok were like a lot of the posts that were like really heavy stuff [like] kids talking about being victims of domestic abuse. It was really quite a harrowing thing to kind of be constantly bombarded with notifications of that sort of level of story, and it kind of put weight on ["Seventeen"] for us. Even though my song touches on violence and things like that, it's not about my parents or anything.
It's essentially about being a skint [British slang for poor], how my mother being skint, and it's about how the government in my country treats poor people. How they go after people like my mum when she wasn't very well — not all the f—ing corporations that slide their taxes in the Cayman Islands.
That's the beauty of it, though, isn't it? I write about [that] and then the kids dig it, and it means something to them. And that's what it should be like; There's loads of songs out there that mean something to me for some memory that might [not be related to the artists' intention].
I think that all of your songs sort of sound a little bit different. Like there's some U2; I could hear like a little bit of Beastie Boys in the intro to one of your tracks. There's so much Bruce Springsteen in your sound to me. Who are your biggest creative inspirations?
You actually just said three bands that I adore. I f—king love Beastie Boys. I love U2 and I love Bruce Springsteen. I love the War, Achtung Baby, Joshua Tree era U2. I love Springsteen's entire catalog. Beastie Boys I f—king adore. We actually walk off to "Sabotage." The opening to "Spice" has that sort of visceral energy.
My dad used to sing in the social clubs back in the Northeast, and he used to sing all of the soul songs. And the first time I ever drank a whiskey with my dad, I was 15 or 16. I came downstairs and he was listening to, I think it was either "She Is My Lady" by Donny Hathaway, or it might have been "A Song For You."
He had a tear in his eye, poured us a glass of whiskey, and said, "Sit down and listen to this. This man is the best singer you will ever hear.” And then I started learning Donny Hathaway songs as a kid.
Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave…love that '60s stuff. I used to cover Sam and Dave in my band [sings "Hold On I'm Comin'"].
What were your creative goals during the creation of Seventeen, and how do you see yourself evolving from that?
I wanted to do an album that was more cohesive than the first one, but it's not mega cohesive. From "Aye" to "Last To Make It Home," those are very different sounding songs. But I think lyrically, as a whole, [Seventeen] was more concise, and had more of a continuity with the story. It was more about growing up. It was all about mental health, love and loss, and all of the things that you have experienced in your early adult life.
What happened after with the success of it in the U.K., was something that I never ever thought. I never, ever dreamed of charting a single because guitar bands don't really get into the charts over there. The last time a band got into the top 10 before us was the Arctic Monkeys and that was in 2013. And they got to No. 8; we got to No. 3. That, for us was a real eye-opener as to how [the album has] connected.
Are you writing anything right now?
Yeah, I'm 16, 17 songs into another record.
Has that success been influencing what you're writing?
The actual writing of Seventeen itself was a catalyst for the next album. I had done such personal songs on the first album, the second album, I did a bit of therapy and that gave us so much to write about. Which was really cathartic for us and it really kind of helped my mental health.
To be honest with you, the only time that I feel sane is when I'm recording and when I'm writing. All of the distractions that you have in life, whether it be drugs, drink, sex, whatever, all of them things don't come f—ing close to just blackening out a page. It's more necessity than inspiration. I opened Pandora's box with that record. And I can't close it, but I'm good because it's cathartic. And it's a healing process as well.
It's the best way to pick up a shot at self esteem. It's the best way to grieve something. I had a really big breakup a year and a bit ago, so I've had a lot to write about that. And a lot of writing about my own failures as a partner and the trials and tribulations of trying to keep a lover when you're doing this as your job.
So it sounds like your next record is going to be very mature.
It's self deprecating and self-effacing, so nothing much has changed. [Laughs]
"Alright" was the most recent single that you released – why was that the one you chose?
I totally thought it was gonna go on Seventeen, but then I'd wrote 60 songs for Seventeen because of the pandemic. For the first two, three months of it; I was alone. I've got a health condition…so for the first three months I was completely stuck and wrote "All Right" 'round that time.
[The song is] about depression, but it's also about the idea that I felt like I've always cheated death, because I got ill at such a young age. So is this idea that I feel like I've just always cheated death somehow and my number is going to run up at some point.
You've been supporting some pretty awesome artists – is there anyone who you'd love to share a stage with?
We've [supported] Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Stones. It's like, I just need Springsteen. And then I just get to die happy.
Then your number will be up. Speaking of greats, I read in NME that Elton John says you are the one man that's like putting out good rock music.
Elton's like my uncle now, my fairy godfather. Elton and David [Furnish, John’s husband], they're just like my f—ing dads. They took us well under their wing. I was being unhealthy and doing too much of everything else, and they were the ones who scooped us out of that pit. I stayed with them for f—ing two and a half weeks.
I sat up all night with Elton, night in, night out, just listening to music. I'd play him stuff and everything I played him, he'd heard. He is a f—ing encyclopedia of music.
There's so much music that he showed me that is now a part of my soul. For example, the Band. I've never really listened to the Band, I only heard a couple of hits. And then next thing you know, I go back home and there's this knock on the door. This guy just walks up with a box full of f—ing vinyl. And all of the things that we listened to, he bought on vinyl and got couriered to my house.
I've never ever met another artist that is so f—ing devoid of jealousy and envy. I mean, it's probably because he's one of the biggest rock stars ever, but he's so, so open and he loves so many different types of music. It's so f—ing inspiring. Like the amount of kids that he's pushed, including myself — the little punk band, the Linda Lindas, he loves them as well, shouts them out. He doesn't have to do that. He's Elton f—ing John, and he literally spends half his time just pushing kids to achieve their dreams.
He is such a wonderful human being. Everyone needs a f—ing Elton John.
Lastly, do you have any larger goals? Either in the coming years or immediate term?
I would love to maintain what we have. Like, I hope it doesn't peter off. I think my personal goals are that every single member of my band has a house that is theirs. Once I've achieved that, then I know that I've looked after the boys. These are my friends who've sacrificed to follow my dream. Once they have got that, then I know it was worth it.
That and, uh, smash America.