Interview: Sam Little

Recently 20 year old Sam Little released his new EP, 'Trust Me, Something Beautiful Will Happen'. Since we've reviewed and streamed the EP on here, we thought it'd be ideal to speak to the acoustic-pop, Bexhill-based singer.

Sam told us about writing the EP, how influential his time in Fleeing From Finales and Clarkson was, making music videos and the story behind the fortune cookie concept.

ATP: For anyone who’s new to your stuff, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Sam Little: I like drunk singalongs, walks along the beach, never wanting to grow up, girls and music. Oh and my name's Sam Little and I sing pop songs caus it's what I love.

ATP: Your EP “Trust Me, Something Beautiful Will Happen” just hit the digital shelves, how do you think it has been received so far?
SL: It's had a great reception, though it can always be better y'know? I mean, I only got 4/5 from Alter The Press, I've gotta work harder for that extra point haha. but yeah, I'm still trying to push it as hard as I can. There's still loads of people that haven't heard what I do and I think that's a shame. Especially when summer's coming up!

ATP: You had some problems with getting the EP done and dusted, what exactly went wrong?
SL: Just tweaks and people generally taking their sweet sweet time. The producer I went with for the EP had a nice long Christmas holiday booked and even after he got back from that, the contact between us wasn't as good as it should've been. But hey, you live and you learn.

ATP: How frustrating was that?
SL: Honestly? Pretty frustrating. I remember losing sleep a lot. If not through waiting then it'd be because of the mixes. You've always got this vision and it's strange when it's not what you had planned. But sometime's it's for the best caus you're used to a specific way and the new way can be tons better.

ATP: Are you happy with how it’s eventually turned out?
SL: Mostly yeah! I mean, I think it's a rad little EP and as it's my first release as a solo artist, I think it's ace!! I think it's helped me to think of how I'm gonna do the next bunch of songs and to realise that there's a million different possibilities.

ATP: Give us an idea of the creative process you used in writing the EP?
SL: Just through living life really. I mean, I'm not the best lyricist in the world so most of my songs arent covered in metaphors and to be honest, are just about girls. Though I'm not saying thats a bad thing! Actually, my first single 'Fallin' was actually written about one time when I went running with Rob from Lost on Campus and stacked it on some stairs (that I totally didn't see) and cut up/bruised my legs and hands. But in terms of arranging the recording and getting it to sound how I wanted to, it's all about trying out different ideas and getting inspiration from anything and everything. I listen to a lot of 90's pop and that shines through. Again, not a bad thing.

ATP: You decided to release the EP in the form of a fortune cookie. What was the story behind this? Can we expect future release in a similar form?
SL: Well it's a bit of a running joke between friends and me that I'm chinese (I'm like 25% Malaysian) and that my parents own every chinese restaurant in the world. So I thought I'd play on the joke and do something like the fortune cookie release. For a little while, I was gonna send out my shirts in chinese takeaway boxes but I never got around to it. Maybe one day. Everyone I've spoke to thinks it's a really good gimmick, but it's more just a little injoke that I wanted to get the world in on. I don't know how I'm gonna top it.. but I'll tr

ATP: This isn’t your first musical venture, how valuable do you think your experiences with Fleeing From Finales and Clarkson have been?
SL: FFF had some brilliant experiences and I grew a lot through that band. The thing that people seem to forget is I was only 15/16 in that band and we were touring with Gym Class Heroes, Zebrahead, Mc Lars. It was daunting, but you've just gotta try and do your best and I think we did a pretty good effort at that. Clarkson though, was more of a hobby for the rest of the guys and I think that's why I decided to go solo. Music's my life and I don't ever wanna do anything else to be honest! And well, here I am. So I think both had their fair share of being beneficial to 'Sam Little'.

ATP: You used to perform as Eat Sleep Attack, why the decision to switch to Sam Little?
SL: More pop, more personal, more like Bon Jovi haha. With the Eat Sleep Attack moniker, I was getting a lot of confusion as to whether I was a band or just a solo guy and a lot of comparisons to Get Cape (which isn't a bad thing, but I'm not as good looking and we can't have people let down) so I decided to take the plunge and just be called by my name. Which is still kinda weird, caus it's my name on shirts and cds and it makes me feel arrogant without actually being arrogant haha. But I've gotten around it by having really tongue in cheek shirt designs and just having fun with it. I think that's what it's all about.

ATP: Who do you cite as the bands and artists that inspired you to try your luck in the world of music?
SL: People like Dallas Green, Craig David, 5ive.. they're all really big inspirations to me now. I used to be really into post hardcore and I remember watching a video of Buddy Neilsen (Senses Fail) and being like 'I NEED TO MIC SWING AND SCREAM' hahaha it's pretty funny looking back at that. I've got a lot of love for Bon Jovi, I think it's amazing how they're still pushing through everyone and completely owning the music scene still.

ATP: You’ll recently shot the video for ‘She’s Just Not That Into You’, how was that?
SL: Awkward. Anyone that's ever shot a video will know that you've just gotta keep repeating sections, getting a million different shots, and we had to do some shots where there's some tension between me and the girl. Just so happens her boyfriend was on 'set' and he's a really good friend of mine so that was fun. But yeah, the shots are nice.There's dancing, flowers, a really pretty girl, me.. what more could you wanna see haha. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product, whenever that'll be!

ATP: Are you expecting a busy summer?
SL: Fingerscrossed! I wanna get back out there, touring's what I love so I wanna see how much I can cram in for the summer. I'm also writing and recording some new stuff soon, which I'm really excited for and it's just seeing how things go really. But yeah, big plans!

ATP: What are your plans for the rest of 2010?
SL: I'm a big advocate of seeing how things go. I've got big plans and even bigger dreams but just being able to keep doing this is more than I expected so anything else is just a bonus for now. I'm hoping to get on some big things but I can't say too much. Just be ready to see my name a hell of a lot more.

'Trust Me, Something Beautiful Will Happen' by Sam Little is available now and can be purchased here.

Sam Little on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

'Fallin' (Northie Remix)' is included on the Alter The Press! 2010.02 Compilation, which can be downloaded here.

Liam McGarry