Sam de la Haye
Sam de la Haye has spent the last decade writing and recording her debut album and finally England is here.
I caught up with her to discuss the record, the road to recording it, her time at BRIT school as well as what lies ahead for her.
- You are about to release you debut album England so what can we expect from the record?
Basically what you can expect is a lot of very diverse songs the record has songs that are quirky, songs that are haunting, sounds that are very intimate and songs that are quite bluesy - so there are a different genres within ten tracks.
- As you say there are a lot of elements in there from pop to blues as well as some orchestrated/piano aspects so how would you describe the sound of the record? And is this the type of music that you personally like listening to?
Someone commented the other day that I am not necessarily sure what the album is about because there are so many different types music on there. I love all genres of music and my voice is quite diverse so I can sound really good singing blues and I can sound good singing Celtic music.
I wanted to use my voice to it’s full potential throughout the whole album, so for example with one song For You it’s very Celtic and quite haunting and then there is a cheeky song called Itsy Bitsy and that is a fun piano driven, bluesy rock and roll number. And then another song The Affair is very dark so it is piano driven but it is very sinister.
So there are lots of different genres on there but it is all about the song at the end of the day so I wanted to, within the arrangements, create something that was going to represent the story rather than just being and R&B song, do you see what I am saying?
So it is about the story and projecting the story as best I can with the different arrangements so that’s why the album is quite diverse. So you can’t really say that it is a Celtic album, or a Blues album as it has lots of different styles including in it.
- This album doesn’t put you any kind of box it shows you as quite a versatile and varied artist so how important was that for you?
I think for the first album it is very important. This is the first album that I have done and I am not fortunate enough to have a record label behind me telling me what I am doing so it’s all about me and my instincts.
As I said it’s about the songs so I feel because it is my first album I can go in different directions with my second album. I listen to a lot of Blues music at the moment and I am quite excited about my second album because I think it is going to have a more rhythmic feel to it.
With my first album I really wanted to explore all of the elements that I could create and not really put myself in the box.
- So you are thinking about your second album already?
Yeah, I know I am really excited (laughs). I can’t wait and I am starting to write for it already. I think the way that my piano is, this first album has taken ten years, I am self taught on the piano and so my playing has got better in the last ten years and now I am finding that I can play a lot more rhythmical work and I am enjoying playing rhythmical work.
The first album is a lot more melodic rather than rhythmical and so I am looking forward to having more of a gospel/bluesy second album.
- So what does this album say about you as an artist?
One of the things that I am really particular about is that I don’t want to follow the crowd. I don’t think I am a pop artist I think I do what I do and I don’t follow the fashion, I just write my own style.
I am not trying to be Adele, I am not trying to be Duffy or anyone that is present now I just do what I do - hopefully one day someone will like it.
- There is a very personal feel to the lyrics so what inspires you to write?
This is interesting, in fact I was talking to my partner about it this morning, I feel like I am a voice for the people. I was explaining to my partner that when you talk to somebody the communication can be strong but when you write a song you suddenly get a three dimensional feeling - for example if Adele just spoke you about her boyfriend breaking up with her you would be like ‘yeah yeah whatever’ but when she wrote in a song it’s like ‘oh my god I get it, I really feel that I relate to that’.
So for me writing is about experiences that I have had in my life that I can’t communicate with people but when it is in a song all of a sudden people understand me and get me and it’s like we are suddenly related.
There are a lot of people out there who have heard my material and have been ‘oh my god that is exactly how I feel and I haven’t been able to communicate that to people’.
So that is why I write as I feel like I am a voice for the people and I feel that by writing that particular song someone ‘is like that’s it and I haven’t been able to express that.’
- Some artists find making an album quite a painful experience while others don’t like being in the studio so how much did you enjoy the process of writing and recording an album?
Writing the album has been a very very long experience as I have written over a period of about eight years, I wrote most of it when I was at university and I had time to write; it’s quite difficult to write at the moment as my voice is tired from gigging every night and I need to sing when I am writing.
But I really enjoy writing because it’s a difficult process almost like a puzzle, when you first start out you get frustrated because you don’t know where the piece is but one you have fitted that last piece it is so fulfilling and satisfying.
The recording process was difficult because I was driving down to Brighton twice a week, I live in Weston London, I was gigging ever night and I had a part time job during the day so it killed me (laughs).
But it was worth it in the end and it was over a period of about four months. Tim the producer was amazing because he managed to create something from the songs, I basically played him a piano vocal and he was like ’we can do this and we can do that’.
I would come back and he would play me some different things and I would be like ’wow that is amazing’ or ’I am not too keen on that’ and we would really work together to create a unique sound and the sound that was in my head.
- Tim Bidwell produced the album so how did that collaboration come about? And what did his experience bring to the record?
About two or three years ago I was at home and I had had a few to drink (laughs), Kate Walsh was the first DIY artist to become #1 on iTunes and he produced her album Your Song, and I loved her so I was Googling and looking at what she had been doing and how she had broken the circuit.
Underneath I noticed that she had been produced by Tim Bidwell and I was like ‘wow wouldn’t it be amazing to produce my album’ because he really gets piano vocal work.
As I said I was a bit tipsy so I Googled him and he said ‘I love to work with new artists, reasonable rates’ and so I emailed him, I wasn’t expecting anything but he emailed me the next day saying ‘yes I would love to work with you lets hook up.’
That week I drove down to Brighton and he was like ‘yes absolutely this is going to work’, I had worked with other producers but all they wanted to do was put drum and bass on it and they didn’t listen to the… the way that the songs work is quite detailed and theatrical.
Most producers just took everything that was beautiful about the songs away and turn it into a pop song and that isn’t who I am and this isn’t what I want. Whereas Tim was just beautiful and delicate and amazing with it really.
- You spent some time at the BRIT school so how did you find your time there and how has that training helped as you have forged a musical career?
The BRIT school was the most amazing time of my life and I love that school - I can’t recommend it highly enough. I think we had a fantastic training but I think that the best training that we had was learning to keep our feet on the ground.
I wasn’t musical theatre but I would play a lot with the music students and there was a gentleman called Arthur Bolton, he arranges a lot of the interviews, and when I was sixteen he introduced me to a lot of singer/songwriters - I had not idea who singer/songwriters were and I didn’t know you could make a living singing and playing piano.
I did a lot of auditions for Sony and all these different record companies and Arthur turned round to me and said ‘look these are just auditions keep your fee on the ground because you don’t know what is going to happen’.
I think that was a really good lesson to learn because throughout my career I have been very careful and I have been very careful of record companies, always get a lawyer. They really train you well for the industry; it’s a cut throat in industry and you have got to be careful, so they teach you quite young to be careful.
- You worked with Ray Davies last year on a children’s production so how did that come about and how did you find working with him?
Ray is amazing to work with, he is a fantastic director. When we were rehearsing he would just listen and not say anything then he would say ‘just tweak that’ and you tweak it and it just changes the whole song.
I know a friend of a friend who knows Ray’s band and throughout the course of three years I have been going to his gigs more and more and I have become really good friends with the band and the sound engineers.
Through them and going to after show parties I met Ray and expressed that I was a singer-songwriter and he was like ’fantastic send me your album because I would like to have a listen to it’. So I sent the album and he said ’I will help you out as much as I can’ he asked me if I wanted to do Meltdown so I did some things with the Cast Off Kinks and stuff like that.
Then I got a random call from Ray's office in August saying ’Ray has got a project for you’ and I was like ‘right what is this project?’
And she said ‘he had written a children’s play, which was commissioned by Grazdale Arts, and he would like you to provide the music for it and sing the songs’ and I was like ‘ok this could be interesting.’
It was just fantastic, I worked with my friend Arthur from university he played guitar and I sang, we would sing his songs throughout the play and we rehearsed for Ray for a few days in London. Then we went up to Lake District and rehearsed with the children.
What I loved about the play the most was it was just so much fun, you can get really serious in music. And the kids were amazing and so talented.
- What sort of artists are you enjoying listening to at the moment?
I really like Ellie Goulding as I think that she is an amazing singer/songwriter, at first I wasn’t sure about her because she is quite commercial but if you listen to the lyrics they are fantastic.
I also like Bill Withers, Lana del Ray, her new album is great. I listen to a lot of Ray’s stuff and I love Alison Krauss.
- You have mentioned that you are gigging regularly so where can we see you perform over the next couple of months?
For my bread and butter I play in piano bars in London, that’s mainly covers but I do do my own material as well. But I also play at the Savoy Hotel; check out my website as I have all the dates down for April.
I am also planning a release party but I am not sure about the date yet. The best thing to do is check my website www.samdelahaye.co.uk and all the dates will be up there for April & May.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw