Hat New Era / Jacket Per Gotesson / Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Adidas

Your debut album has been a long time coming. How do you feel about it coming out in the world for everyone to listen to after working towards this moment for so long?

I’m feeling really good, actually. I’m really excited for people to hear it. When you’re making an album, you can release singles and stuff, but people don’t always get the context of what you’re working towards. After writing it for such a long time and sort of building it up in my head, it’s nice to know it’s so close, and it’s happening. I’m feeling really proud of it and excited for people to hear it.

You’ve previously expressed that you recorded over 250 songs leading up to the finished product. Listening to the record, it clearly takes a more ballad, mid-tempo approach, sonically. During the creative process, were there more up-tempo songs you recorded that didn’t make the cut?

I think, honestly, as far as I’ve been releasing music, my music has been a little bit more downtempo and emotional. And I felt like with my first album, I really wanted to get that feeling out. There are still some upbeat songs. You’ve got stuff like “die for someone,” and there are more harder-hitting songs like “numb” and stuff. But yeah, mostly it’s emotional. I think that’s because I wanted to be as vulnerable as I could on this project, and I feel like that was the best outlet for it. Perhaps in the future, there’ll be some more. I wrote a lot of different styles of music, and a lot of up-tempo stuff. “phones in heaven” was a cool, sort of midway song where it’s emotional, but had this double-time feel. There was definitely a lot of that in the creation of this, but I found that my what I was writing about and what I felt was the concept of this album, it felt like the right thing would be to keep it in a more ballady way, but have production sort of create more of a vibe to it that it doesn’t just feel like really slow piano or guitar songs. There are elements of crazy drum stuff on it as well, which is exciting.

Hat New Era / Tie Gucci / Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Adidas

I have to say, “die for someone” has always been a favourite of mine ever since you first dropped it.

Oh, thank you. That’s so nice. I love “die for someone.” It did really well in Germany, for some reason. I’m not sure why. But, yeah, it got played so many times on German radio. That made me think, ‘Oh, perhaps when I’m crafting another record in the future, I’ll lean into that sound a bit more.’ We’ll see.

The oldest song to listeners is “lose it all.” However, what’s the song that’s remained on the album throughout the writing process?

It’s actually the album title track, “hi, my name is insecure.,” which when I wrote it initially, I didn’t think was gonna be the album title. But as soon as I felt like an album was coming together, I felt like hi, my name is insecure. was the right title. That one came in 2021 and the rest of it followed afterwards. I think that for the first half of the album, I didn’t know I was writing an album. And then when I wrote “lose it all” or maybe just a little bit before that, I decided that it was album time and that I was gonna put these songs that I’ve been writing for so long into one big project.

That album was postponed last year. Did you go back into the studio and record some more?

So the reason for the postponement was merely just to give myself some time in my personal life to get a lot of other things in order so that I could actually relinquish a lot more of my time and effort into promoting the album. The writing for the album was finished in November, and then we changed a couple of things after we pushed the release back, production-wise. But the last song to be written was “then there was one.” I think I wrote that in October or November of last year whilst I was in New York.

There are no collaborations on the album. Was that on purpose?

Honestly, I’ve never really had this thing where I felt like I wanted or needed this project to have any collaborations. I felt like when I was writing it, I would have been open to it if there was anything that came up, and I definitely have made some songs for some people, but, I just felt like for this album, it was an introductory to me. Once I pieced together what the concept was, it felt like it had to all come from me. Perhaps in the future, for the next project or something like that, there will be some. Who knows?

Hat Extended Family / Shirt Ami / Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Timberland

A lot of people have been wondering whether the song with Teddy Swims will ever be released.

So me and Teddy did record a song, and it came right at the end of this process. But honestly, when we were getting it together, I just felt like there wasn’t enough time to get it totally right, and I felt like I wanted to give that song a better run at a later date. Hopefully, that’ll come out. But we did perform it together in Amsterdam, which is really cool. It’s a really nice song.

During an appearance on the Private Parts podcast, you admitted that you didn’t consume albums like people used to when they would be listened to from top to bottom. Making this album, did you go back and revisit albums you used to enjoy to create the flow of yours?

That’s a really good question. I have been making more of a conscious decision to listen to more albums. I don’t know if I did that to craft my own, but I felt like I did look back at some of my favourite albums growing up because I always find the albums that are your favourites tend to be ones that you listened to growing up. When I was 16, I really liked the + album by Ed Sheeran. I would say that was an inspiration for me with this first album in how I wanted people to feel when they heard it. You know? Not every song is a really happy song. Some of them are love songs but are not happy in that way. Some have more of a somber feel, and they’re about feeling down or going through the motions of life. I’d say that had a little bit of an impact. But lately, one of my favorite albums I’ve really delved into is from a guy called Mk.gee. Because of our attention span, with social media and stuff, it is sometimes hard to dig into a full album. Since crafting my own, I think how I feel about them has changed. I definitely listen to them a lot more now.

Hat New Era / Shirt Axel Arigato / Tie and Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Clarks

You admitted that you didn’t always know that the album was going to be titled hi, my name is insecure. Did you have many other working titles leading up to this point?

I did, actually. At the very, very start, I thought it was gonna be called Look At What You Nearly Missed. However, the song “hi, my name is insecure.” was becoming a more important part of the album. The title itself correlated positively with the rest of the album as I was writing it.

In our very first chat, you said you could never envision your career past performing at Brixton Academy. Last November, you performed at Hammersmith Apollo, due to Brixton being temporarily closed. Both venues have a similar capacity. Now that goal has pretty much been met, what’s next?

I guess now the goal is to just keep growing in whatever sense that is. That’s really interesting you remember that because I still think that in a lot of ways. Like, what now that I’ve done the Apollo? I always say to people it feels like a victory lap. Everything I do now is just me celebrating that I’ve gotten this far. Like, I’ve been able to put this all together along with my amazing team and grow this far. But hopefully now I get to do an arena, like The O2 or Wembley. I played Ally Pally supporting The Kid LAROI, so I guess I’ve semi-ticked that off my list, but I think one of the arenas would be cool.

Hat New Era / Tie Gucci / Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Adidas

You’re such a prolific songwriter. Have you thought about writing for other artists? And have you thought about whether that would be an easier process, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes?

I definitely have. At times, I have done it. Nothing has seen the light of day, just yet. Maybe perhaps one day it will. There was even a song on this album that I wrote for another artist that’s come out, but I ended up taking it because I loved it so much. I don’t know whether it’s easier, but it’s just different. Because when I’m writing for myself, I’m very much drawing from my own experiences, which can be quite emotionally taxing. There’s a really freeing feeling about writing for other people where you’re putting yourself in other people’s shoes. I’m quite empathetic, so I can sometimes feel that emotion when I’m writing it. But there is less stress and less pressure to get something meaningful to me in that process. Whereas, if I was writing for an artist that I’d listened to a lot of and I had an idea of what their sound was, I could write that and not find myself feeling so emotionally drained sometimes afterwards. So it’s easier in that sense. It’s emotionally easier. In general, it’s just different because writing a song has always got its troubles. There’s always the difficulties and tasks that come with writing songs.

For the trailer of the album you shared, you said there has been a lot of rejection to get to this point. Having found success, how do you deal with rejection now?

I’m glad you asked this question about rejection. I found that when I was starting, I was given a lot of false promises. Even up until five years ago, I would work with people and they’d say, ‘Oh, we’ll be able to get this to so and so and be able to get you on this.’ And then, nothing would come of it. I went to labels, and they were like, ‘Yeah, this is cool,’ but they wouldn’t be interested in it. That would really hurt me, but it didn’t hurt it hurt my ego. It sort of reinforces any insecurities that you have around it. I guess it depends on what it is. Rejection comes in all forms. You know? In that album trailer, I was talking about these sorts of rejections by labels and by managers back in the day and people who I thought would collaborate with me and didn’t. But as time’s gone on, you do learn to accept it. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the success, but perhaps there was a portion of naivety that came with me being young in the industry and not really knowing how it all works. You have to take everything with a bit of a pinch of salt. In life as well, you have to. Not everyone is 100 percent gonna back you up. Sometimes you’ve gotta be there for yourself. I don’t know if it’s success that’s changed my mind on rejection, but now I see it as just part and parcel of what I do and, part and parcel of life as a whole. If I’m feeling really excited about something and it doesn’t happen, I naturally get upset, but I definitely am more equipped because of past experiences to deal with it. I don’t think it matters how successful you become, these things can still get to you if the wind’s blowing in the right way, you never know.

Hat New Era / Jacket Per Gotesson / Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Adidas

I read an old magazine quote about you that said, “Sam Tompkins is one of those musicians that doesn’t fit into any male musician mould.” It’s no secret that this industry loves to compare artists to one another. With you having such a strong identity, do you think that’s helped or hindered your come-up in any way?

It’s interesting because when I first started, when I was like 16 to 21, I would say any time pre having a beard, I was always compared to Connor Maynard or Justin Bieber, a lot of those male R&B, pop vocalists. I never quite understood it because I felt like my voice wasn’t quite like theirs. But I could also understand to a certain degree because I have got a certain style of vocal use that sort of resonates with those two and others that I was compared to. I think it was when I started creating my own type of music or what I felt represented what I was about as a person, and I was writing more honest music, I think that’s when I found it hard. When I got signed to my record label, Island, I think, 22, maybe 23, we struggled to get me on Spotify playlists for a long time. And I think that maybe has something to do with the fact that they didn’t know where to put me. And there was a certain time when I didn’t know where to put myself. It’s definitely been hard. I still haven’t had a BBC Radio 1 playlisting, for instance. And that’s not to do with them, perhaps. It’s more to do with the fact that my music hasn’t fit the criteria of what they perhaps want in their playlist. I don’t know. I’m still happy to keep searching and find what it is that would be considered radio-friendly in this country. 

I’m still able to sell out Hammersmith Apollo and I’m still able to do tours. That’s because I found my audience. I think once you’ve found your audience, no matter how niche you are and how different you might seem to other artists, people are still looking to feel what you are writing and what I’m writing, at least, I would like to think at this point in my career. I feel really proud of that because it has meant that everyone who’s found my music has found it through me just being me and not conforming to anything for anyone else’s benefit. I think that’s what people resonate with the most. It’s when people are as genuine as they can be.

Hat New Era / Shirt Axel Arigato / Tie and Trousers Talent’s own

Have you found yourself comparing yourself to others, though?

Oh, all the time. All the time. It’s really hard not to. Especially when you’re coming up in the social media generation like I came up. I was signed before TikTok and stuff, and before that, I would suffer with comparisons maybe to do with people in my peripheral that I knew were at the same level as me. But as time’s gone on, I guess TikTok, Instagram, Reels, and Facebook, and all these things that sort of equate to numbers, you can literally see if a person’s doing better or worse than you. So it’s hard not to ignore it. I would be I would be a total liar if I told you that, ‘No. I don’t compare myself.’ Some days, I’m really confident and I don’t really give a shit. But some days when I’m not having a good day or I feel insecure about something and I look at someone’s Instagram post, I’m like, ‘Shit. They got that.’ I’m really happy for them, of course, but I’m also like, ‘Why am I not there?’ I think it’s natural. And I think that’s kinda what this album’s about really in the sense of, I think once you own up to your insecurities and you own up to who you are and what you are, and what you’re afraid of, no one can really poke a stick at you with it.

Going back to the album, what is your main goal that you’d like to achieve with it?

I’d love for it to chart. I’d love for it to sit somewhere in the top 10 or top 20. But, in terms of actual quote-on-quote success, however, I think the main the main goal of this project for me is to have said that I’ve done it. I’ve released a debut album. You never get a debut album more than once. You only get one unless you join some group or you do something else. I’m excited to tour and see what it feels and means to people. That would be amazing. But really and truly, all I care about is having it out and having people finally be able to hear a true body of work, 16 songs that I’ve whittled down from 250 and hopefully, selected the best and seeing how people resonate with it. That’s the ultimate dream for sure.

Hat New Era / Tie Gucci / Trousers Talent’s own / Shoes Adidas

Sam’s debut album ‘hi, my name is insecure.‘ is available everywhere now.
Follow Sam