Sam Johnson releases new single ‘Trip On Gold’ on August 16th through Made Records
Listen to ‘Trip On Gold’ HERE
Sam Johnson releases his new single ‘Trip On Gold’ on August 16th through Made Records. The playful ‘Trip On Gold’, co-written with the renowned Irish songwriter Iain Archer, explores the desire for authenticity and permanence always lurking beneath Johnson’s playful exterior: “I never had much luck in life but I always had a way with words / My heart can’t get satisfied, living with this modern curse.” It’s a track about “the transient, casual nature of relationships,” he explains (“Don’t want a magpie love / I’d rather go for gold”). “But I’m naturally romantic, so there’s an uplifting side to it all.”
‘Trip On Gold’ is the follow up to Johnson’s most recent single, his impossibly catchy calling card ‘Medicine For My Brain’ which was the first single to be released from Sam’s forthcoming debut EP. A witty kiss-off to the music industry, with a dazzling guitar accompaniment reminiscent of his heroes John Martyn and Ben Howard, ‘Medicine For My Brain’ is currently Track of the Month (August 2019) on BBC Intro Shropshire and also received support on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X as well as Spotify New Music Friday playlisting in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland amongst many other playlists and Deezer’s Brand New UK, Radar Weekly.
It’s a potent combination: a voice as big as George Ezra, and a sense of emotional resonance that has more in common with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Sam Johnson’s upcoming debut EP, produced with multi-instrumentalist Elliot James, is the product of a period rather more intense than most people go through in their early twenties: the end of a six year relationship, and the passing away of a beloved father. Far from being a record of sadness, his thoughtful, ebullient debut captures a young man’s growing sense of who he is, vulnerability and all.
And there has arguably been one stroke of luck in Johnson’s song-writing life so far: his accidental pedigree mentor, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. After his uncle married Shields’ sister Anne Marie, Sam became a regular at their large, family Christmases in Ireland, and the “super-cerebral” Kevin took him under his wing. “He was instrumental in founding any kind of confidence in me,” says Johnson; each year, the teenager would save up songs to play him on acoustic guitar, and one Christmas, when he was seventeen, Shields took him to the famous Grouse Lodge recording studios in County Westmeath to record a handful of early demos. The songs got traction via the BBC Introducing scheme, and Johnson had his first real sense of focus, “all because Kevin was so kind.”
See Sam Johnson live:
With Ferris & Sylvester
3rd Sept – Guilford – Boiler Room
4th Sept – St Albans – The Horn
5th Sept – London – Omeara
16th Sept – Birmingham – Hare & Hounds
17th Sept – Oxford – The Bullingdon
18th Sept – Nottingham – Metronome
19th Sept – Brighton – Green Door Store
20th Sept – Newcastle – Think Tank ?
22nd Sept – Glasgow – Stereo
23rd Sept – Edinburgh – Mash House
With Lily Moore
10th Sept – London – 100 Club
‘Trip On Gold” is out August 16th
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