Sam Holmes is a budding solo artist from the North West of England, UK. I had the pleasure of interviewing him in preparation for the release of his debut EP, Vain.
TT: What genre would you classify yourself as?
SH: That’s a tough one... I’d personally say my EP is primarily rock, however there’s quite a wide spectrum of sub genres sort of intertwined in there.
TT: How did you get started musically?
SH: I’ve always been obsessed with music and collecting it. I’d also want to know trivia surrounding artists from gone-by eras to sort of enrich the music with context which I think is often misunderstood with “old” music. However one Christmas, I think maybe 7 years or so ago now, my older brother who I’ve always been super close with and so he has always been a role model for me, decided he wanted an electric guitar for Christmas, and so it occurred to me that I could actually make a go of this. So I also asked for one and we learnt together and I really have him to thank for getting me started. Now more recently I’ve tried my hand at several other instruments, some of which made it onto the EP.
TT: What is your recording process like?
SH: Usually a song begins with a lyric in my head or a melody which I then try to fit it to a riff and writing usually progresses from there. So usually guitars are the first and most prominent thing recorded, I’ll then spend I’d say a month recording or even longer in a few instances, for example I’ve got two songs on the EP, Bliss and Chest Ache, those two songs are nearly two years old now and have gone through so many demos and iterations until I am finally just about happy with the song it ends up being.
TT: What bands or artists are your biggest influences?
SH: Where to begin... Prince is like a god to me and so any music I make is with him in mind whether I’m aware of it or not. My influences are from quite a broad spectrum, whether it influences my music sonically or just in admiration of the artist so I’d say Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Brian Eno, Stevie Wonder, and pretty much any classic song you’d expect to be on Kerrang! if you turned on the telly. Definitely still an emo kid at heart haha, so more specifically I’d say bands like My Chemical Romance, Escape The Fate and Linkin Park. This EP in particular came from just wanting to make massive, bold riffs that just make you want to move and hooks so catchy you couldn’t shake them out of your ears in a f***ing jet engine haha.
TT: Are you part of a label? If not, what are the pros and cons of being independent?
SH: I’m not currently being part of a label, however I run a multi-media business Eclipse Entertainment, so I just put it all through that. The pros would definitely be being able to do everything my own way and make exactly what I want from my music to my promo. Having said that though the cons would be trying to gain traction online and being your own marketing team which takes a fair amount of commitment, time and money, so when people support and believe in what you’re trying to do it really means the world to me.
TT: Have you toured at all?
SH: I haven’t, though if things go well in the future it would be really cool to be able to tour.
TT: What are your goals going forward?
SH: I’d love to make more music that naturally evolves from Vain EP that has a different genre, sound, vibe and overall aesthetic. I have about 5 songs written that were all wrote for this EP but didn’t make it onto it so I’d love to give them songs the light of the day. But for now it’s gearing up for the Vain EP to drop!
The Vain EP releases on all major streaming services May 11th and can be pre-ordered on digital and on vinyl at samholmes.bandcamp.com
