Interview with musician Sam Clark
Photo by Mathieu Bitton
This is reposting of the interview I did with Australian musican Sam Clark back in 2013. He agreed to let me email him some question and the following interview is what came out of that
But first a huge thank you to @SJCOfficialFans on twitter for helping me with the questions and for generally being awesome and uniting all the SAMurai from all over the world!
Just to get to know about Sam’s musical background, we first asked about when he first started to sing and this is what Sam told us
“I started singing with a purpose when I started to play guitar. I was 15 years old and quickly got bored with simply playing guitar and moved onto singing and playing.”
Every successful musician needs a supportive family behind them so we also asked about Sam’s family and this is what he said
“My family were kind enough to pay for singing lessons which helped me immensely. They have always wanted me to balance whatever makes me happy with whatever keeps me alive and that gave me the courage to chase my dreams.”
and since musical talent often runs in the family we also asked if any of his family members play music but no one in Sam’s immediate family does
When being asked about his musical inspirations, Sam says the following
“My musical inspirations are constantly expanding/evolving. My earliest musical memories are dancing along to Peter Coombe and my parents playing albums by people like Van Morrison and Billie Holiday. I remember making mix tapes to play on my parents battery operated stereo while I rollerbladed in the car park across the road. The first albums I ever bought (I’m not quite sure of the order) were RHCP – Californication, Smash Mouth – Astro Lounge and The Offspring – Americana. This was when I was about 12 years old.From there my musical tastes have evolved dramatically. When I was 15 (and just starting to play guitar) I’d been listening to a lot of Ben Harper, Jack Johnson etc – mainly acoustic based music – but I also listened to a lot of hip-hop, Rap, Metal, Punk, Rock, and everything in between and was soon to join a cover band inspired by Simon & Garfunkle. I definitely was drawn more to guitar driven folk/pop/rock based music which is definitely clear in my music today. Right now I’m listening to Jack Peñate, A$AP Rocky, Macklemore, Jónsi, MuteMath, Sigur Ros, Other Lives, Daft Punk, Young The Giant, The Cold War Kids – my next iTunes purchases will probably be some songs by The Trouble With Templeton or Georgia Fair after seeing them at a gig this last weekend.”
Furthermore Sam told us that the first song he remebers ever listening to is “Peter Coombe – Newspaper Mama”
Rather closely linked to this we asked him about his favorite album by another artist to which he said “Ohhh woowwww… tough one… Again constantly evolving but right now Jack Peñate – Everything is New.”
Every musician has that special place they want to perform, that musisican they would love to open for and those musicians they would love to collab with so we of course asked Sam about all these things.
About where the would most like to perform, he said “Wow, what a question. Since watching the Incubus Live at Red Rocks DVD I have always wanted to play there! Maybe one day…”
When it comes to who he would like to open for, he said “Right now I reckon it’d have to be Jack Peñate.” so maybe that can be at Red Rock
And last but not least, if Sam could collaborate with three other musicians (living or dead) he said the following ”Right now (as this list constantly evolves) Jack Peñate, Sameer Gadhia from Young the Giant or Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson” and we are sure that some kickass songs would get out of a collabs like that!
We were also curious about where Sam usually gathers songwriting inspiration ajd what his usual songwriting process is to which Sam said
“Life in general. Things that I feel passionate about one way or another (love/hate). I usually write chords just before melody just before lyrics.”
Members of Sam’s fanbase are called SAMurai and we were curious to hear if his SAMurai ever influence his music and Sam told us that every time he logs on and read the comments left for him, they affect my mood and how his day will turn out so the SAMurai inspire him every day.
Sam does not hide that his fans mean everything to him so we asked him to describe his fans in three words and he said “S.A.M. Sexy, Amazing, Magnificent”that is quite a lot to live up!
If you already know Sam or have read my earlier post about him you’ll know that Sam released an EP called “My Own Way” and when being asked about what song from the EP that means the most to him he said “My Own Way – it is about my split from my label and management” Sam also told us that he has never regretted leaving the management and recordlabel
We also asked Sam which of his own songs he is most proud of and why to which he said ”I think my unrecorded song Take Me By The Hand is one of my most honest songs. Honesty in music is unfortunately a rarity these days.”
Just to keep it all from being too serious and music orientated, we decided to also ask about Sam’s favourite food and what his drink is when he goes out. To the food question Sam’s answer was “Vegetables” and about the drink he said “I’m taking six months off drinking this year so generally water but I do love an Old Fashioned.”
Since Sam is both an actor and a musician, we thought it would be interesting to hear which of the profesions he would choose if he had to only choose one of them. This is what Sam said “In terms of a career – acting as it is (ever-so-slightly) more stable.”
Furthermore, we thought it would be interesing to hear what he would be doing if he was not singing or acting to which he said “I have no idea but I’d make sure I enjoyed a big part of whatever it was. I’d love to buy and renovate houses and then sell them. I like being creative and making things.”
We also asked best advice he has ever been given is
“Tough question… I’ve been given lot’s of advice and some advice is valid once you reach a certain point in your life. This is one of my favourite quotes though – “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ― Albert Einstein.”
When it comes to hidden talents Sam says that he has plenty but one is that he can gleek on cue. (If you don’t know what that is then don’t google it!!!! :P)
And no interview without asking about celebrity crushes. Here is what Sam said:
“Gotta be Jennifer Lawrence right now but I also find Marion Cotillard incredibly talented and beautiful – oh and I also just fell in love with Betty Yeowart from The Trouble With Templeton.”
I think the last question is on the mind of every SAMurai. We asked what we can expect from him in the future and if there’s anything he’d like to share, upcoming shows/tours or songs/albums to which he said “Hopefully a lot more music, acting and the crossover of those two things! In the meantime you can stay up to date with what I’m up to via my website samclarkofficial.comwhere you can catch up with my blog posts and find links to all my official social networking sites etc!”
I’d like to end this by saying a huge thank you to the awesome Sam Clark for answering all my questions and for generally being an awesome and kind guy!
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