May 27, 2020
Since being discovered in a pub by Ben Howard's manager, Sam Fender’s career has exploded – he won the Critics’ Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards, while his debut album Hypersonic Missiles landed at Number 1 in the UK when it was released in late 2019.
It might sound like a scenario plucked from a Hollywood movie – struggling musician gets spotted by a manager and goes on to become famous. But Sam’s upbringing was about as far from Hollywood as you could get.
Raised in the working class Northern England town of North Shields, he grew up in a broken home where money was tight, and from a young age saw family members struggle with mental health. Not surprisingly, the rush of success was a lot to take in. We talk about that and more in this interview, which took place just before the release of Hypersonic Missiles, when Sam was still getting used to his new life.