Sampha joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss his new single “Spirit 2.0”. He tells Apple Music it’s part of a forthcoming album and discusses returning to making music and performing live, his songwriting process, relationship with Drake, and more.
Sampha Tells Apple Music About The Origin of New Song “Spirit 2.0”…
This is definitely a part of a project of the record, an album. I'm super excited to share it at some point.I wrote this one over a period of time and through COVID and going through quite a few things like a lot of people, and it's a track I felt like I needed to write for myself really at the time I wrote it and the lyrics came over a period of time. Initially it was just the chords and the melody and the mood lines and stuff...I just wrote the chords and the mood lines, and literally it was just in the park looking up and just the feeling just felt like a meditation and just something felt really good really of the moment and I definitely felt like I had something, and it was just nice, just for me it was quite a personal thing. Some of it is just the natural influences that came out. It was the syncopation of West African music, because it was like I wrote at that tempo, the kind of drums I was imagining was these acoustic jungle inspired drums.
Sampha Tells Apple Music About Returning To Releasing Music…
It's such a weird thing, sometimes it feels more like a dream when it's actually out there in the world and the collective consciousness is making sense of it, it's a strange thing, but it's lovely, it's beautiful, and I'm into it. For me and just artists, we move on quite quickly, so sometimes seeing it, getting it out, it feels like the final stage of being able to move on with this.
Sampha Tells Apple Music About His Songwriting Process and Listening Back To His Own Music…
…when I write, I don't write a lot and the music that I do write and the things that do stick, generally the sign is that I keep listening to it and it feels good. And sometimes I want to listen to it again to make sure the feelings still there, and sometimes it's like therapy to me as well, sometimes it's a way for me to recenter myself. So yeah, I definitely listen to it maybe a bit too much. A lot of the time I go into the studio and I don't have a concept or it's not contrived, but I see the things I keep gravitating towards and the things I keep mentioning. And I think the older I get, the more I can see the reflection, the more I'm aware of the reflection, but still the output is still quite cathartic and me just seeing what's in there, things I can't really articulate in words and it's just come out this way.
Sampha Tells Apple Music About His Relationship with Drake
We've just been sharing things with each other and just communicating. It's going to be epic when we get together.
Sampha Tells Apple Music About Returning To The Stage…
To be honest, I felt quite anxious, it's been a while since I've performed as myself performing my own music, and then I was performing with a new band and performing some of the new material, but it's been such a beautiful experience. People were so lovely and warm and welcoming and really gave me an amazing energy both here, I'm a New York at the moment, and in London.
