Fast Tempo + Single Feature | Sam Sly
On anxious questions, fairy floss, and pulling off the music you hear in your head
Joining Tempo for a quick-fire interview is queer musician Sam Sly who makes 80’s indie synth pop and recently released the single The Truman Show in an effort to make something epic and euphoric.
Hello Sam, firstly congratulations on your latest single The Truman Show being out in the world. Can you tell us what it's all about?
Thanks so much, I’m so excited it’s finally out! I wrote this song at a time when my anxiety made me think that the people around me were just pretending to like me and telling me things I wanted to hear. It was born out of those anxious questions you ask yourself after leaving social interactions like “was I being too much” or “did I say something wrong.”
What are five words to describe your sound?
I think I’d pick queer, euphoric, colourful, danceable, nostalgic.
Where did you record the single and is it part of a forthcoming album?
I recorded some live instruments at Lake City Records in Canberra, which is where I lived before moving to Melbourne last year. The rest I did at home on my computer using a mix of virtual instruments and samples from Splice.
It’s the first song I’ve put out that is fully written, produced and mixed by myself, which feels pretty amazing!
This song isn’t part of a bigger project at this stage, BUT, I want to work towards an EP or Album soon!
How did you solo project begin?
I’ve been writing music and doing gigs since I was in high school, but I felt my solo project started taking shape while I was at ANU doing the Bachelor of Music. I think learning a bunch of jazz theory, doing production courses, composition courses, performing recitals etc built a lot of skills I needed to be able to create and pull off the music I was hearing in my head. After graduating I started recording for the first time and in 2021 I released my first single and put together my band to do a single launch. From that point on I booked heaps of gigs and kept writing, producing, recording and releasing music.
If your music was a meal, what would it be?
Oooo this is hard, I know this isn’t a meal but maybe fairy floss or candy in general. My thinking behind this is that
my music can be sweet, colourful and playful but can also make you feel soft on the inside, or light like you could fly away.
I hope this makes sense.
What’s your top three influences?
I feel like it changes all the time but at the moment it’s defiantly MUNA, Chappell Roan and The 1975.
What’s the best advice you have got?
This also feels hard to answer, but I think, at least for me,
it’s letting people into your world more. I’m a massive perfectionist about my music which makes me want to hold onto everything too tightly which results in a loop of decision fatigue/paralysis.
Lately I’ve been trying to let go of reigns a bit and to let others into my creative process, whether that’s collaborating in songwriting, production, photo concepts, video ideas etc and already I have seen how much this has freed up my creativity.
Do you have any cool gigs or musical related things we should know about coming up?
I can’t reveal it all now, but I do have a single launch in the works for the 29th of May, so keep a look out for this!!!
Lastly, what’s your favourite Melb/Naarm band right now that I should interview for Tempo?
I’ve been really enjoying Matilda Pearl at the moment, she’s got a really cool sound and aesthetic going on. I especially love THINKS THAT HE’S JESUS, it sounds like a classic coming of age song from a movie, which I love!!!