On the release date of Samm Henshaw's second EP: The Sound Experiment II, I revisit an interview with the musician undertaken on his debut Scottish headline at Glasgow's King Tuts back in May.
Who is Samm Henshaw?
"I am Samm Henshaw, I am twenty two years old and I'm from South-East London.
I grew up in a church so I was very much surrounded by music, so I'd see loads of young people playing in the band and I found it really inspiring. I always said I wanted to be up there, I wanted to do that, play the drums play the keys whatever, so taught myself how to play. I'd watch people and try and pick it up and implement it into what I was doing. I played drums in church and then by the age of thirteen I picked up keys, then guitar, then started to sing.
Music was always a hobby never something to make a career from, I used to watch tv and watch people like Usher and think there's no way I could do that, but then I studied music at university and there became a chance that I could make something of it and have a life from it. So I met my manager at university and from there on in I started properly making music with my mates.
I played instruments way before I tried to sing, singing was always something my sister did, I remember she used to sing round the house a lot, but I used to sing in the shower and she heard me and got me to pursue it."
So family was a big influence at this point?
"Definitely my sister (if she heard that she'd go crazy) but I was influenced a lot by the music my mum and dad and cousin's would listen to, my cousin's especially were into MTV and I remember watching and picking that up, the likes of Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, but also with the heavy gospel background as well I would listen to a lot of that."
How did you balance the pursuit of music whilst trying to get through university?
"When I started, I didn't, at that point I still only thought there was a chance I could get into it, so I started working towards it, doing things I had never done before like recording and writing music for myself and just piecing that together. When I lived in halls I was put with boys that produced so we all became good mates and started working together that way. That was first year. So the summer before second year I did my very first show, it was an acoustic afternoon set in Shoredich and from then on I started getting more shows, spending the whole Summer gigging and I got back to uni thinking I don't really want to do this anymore. I went through the first half of uni no complaints and then I met some guys on my course with a mutual love of funk and soul music so we decided to form a band. We started gigging way too much so that's when it took over from studying and my parents and management had to sit me down and tell me to finish uni and stop gigging until I'd finished. So in third year I only did one gig for my dissertation and that got me signed."
What advice would you give to people in a similar situation?
"The one thing I've learned from my mum is to always finish what you started. So if that thing that you started is university, just finish it, the worst that can happen is that you don't enjoy it. You go through so many things in life that you don't like and by the time they're done, you barely even remember it. From what I didn't learn on my course at uni, I picked up from the people around me and it helped me with life."
Did studying music put you off at all?
"Yes, a lot of times. It taught me a lot about music, it taught me what I don't want to do and what I don't want to know but at the same time it really did take the fun out of wanting to create music. To be fair, having music as a job does that, so going through uni prepared me for where I am now. There have been moments where I've gone to the studio to write a song and just not been in the mood especially with creativity you want it to be free and open and it's just not like that with this job.
I originally wanted to be a music teacher, in my head I wasn't good at anything else. I liked music, I seemed to be good at it and that's all I saw myself doing, but now it's turned out far better than I ever imagined."
Ready for festival season?
"So ready to get at them, I've spent the first half of the year cooped up in studio's and I can't wait to do them, I'm also extremely nervous because I always look at the lineups beforehand and some of them are insane!"
Tell me about the EP?
"It's basically an extension of the first one, but you can hear the evolution of it. The first one took me three years and I didn't know what I was doing and the songs were written with my mates in our rooms and we were all very new to it and the process and putting it together. I'm not bashing the last EP, I love it, it's to this day still one of the best things i'll ever do but you can tell I just started so with this one it's well put together, the songs are more put together and I think it's an evolution, a growth. Influences come from all over the shop, I listened to so much music in the run up to it so there's everything from a bit of John Mayer to gospel people like Kirk Franklin so it was all over the place, even some country."
The band also goes by The Sound Experiment, what can you tell me about them?
"That literally started with my guitarist saying we need a name, I think because they're all such characters, such individuals they're not session musicians, they're my mates, they're free to do what they want to an extent because they all have their own identities. I think it confuses people and I was going to stop it for the next EP or album which won't be called the Sound Experiment."
Talk of an album?
"We're recording, the thing is, songs are always going towards something whether that's an album or another EP we don't know yet but i'm making more music whatever that ends up eventually being.
Post festivals you can look forward to more music, maybe more shows."
Twitter: @SammHenshaw
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