August 5, 2025 • 34 mins
Step into the world of music with Sam Ryder on this special episode of Takin’ a Walk. Join host Buzz Knight as he chats with Sam, diving deep into the creative journey behind his brand-new album, Heartland. From songwriting sessions and unexpected inspirations to the emotions woven throughout his latest tracks, Sam shares candid stories about crafting music that resonates with fans worldwide. Whether you’re discovering Sam’s music for the first time or following his evolution from viral sensation to chart-topping artist, this episode promises heartfelt insights, laughter, and a first listen to the sounds defining the next chapter of Sam Ryder’s remarkable career.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I think you'd be a fool to think that you
know everything about what's actually going on, the magic happening
beneath the hood.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Essentially, there's a magnetic energy in the air when music
transcends the stage and pours into the streets, connecting people
in the most unexpected moments. On Buzznight and today, I'm
taking a walk, We're not just walking, We're soaring thanks
to the unmistakable voice and spirit of Sam Ryder. From
(00:32):
humble beginnings and viral covers to commanding the world's biggest stages.
Sam's journey is a testament to the power of passion, grit.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And gratitude.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Join us as we step into Sam's world, discovering the
stories behind the music and the moments that have truly
defined his extraordinary rise.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We'll be back at a bit after these messages.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Taking a walk.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
We are in rarefy. I'm taking a walk. We've got
Sam Righter on. Hello, Sam, what's up mate?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
How are you doing you?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Okay, I'm doing terrific. I'm talking to you so how
bad could I be doing it? I'm talking to you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We're not doing so bad, man. We're above ground. That's
what counts.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
That's right, We're doing great, So thanks for being on
taking a walk. I want to let you kind of
twist your imagination around a little bit. I want to
ask you if you could take a walk with somebody
living or deceased, preference being a musical wish, but it
(01:39):
doesn't have to be.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, who would you pick to take that walk with?
And where would you take that walk?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's a great question, I think stud So many names
are rushing to me right now, and then if I've
got to keep it in the musical sphere, would love
to take a walk with Freddie Mercury, you know. I mean,
I bet you've had that answer a lot. Have you
had that before?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I have had Freddy has has come up for sure?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, well let's see if we can Let's
see if we can find someone else.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
In that's all right?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, we want to like, yeah, I don't want to.
I don't want to steal someone else's answer. So I'm
just trying to think some of my absolute favorite bands.
Pavarotti would be amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Right, that would be amazing. And I must tell you
Sam that one is the first.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Okay, good, Yeah, let's let's yeah that would be sick.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Where do you think you would take that walk with him? Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know what, It'd be in some vineyard in Tuscany somewhere.
It'd be just late in the afternoon, kind of the
airs cooled off, and there's maybe I know we're seeing
little cars in the distance past, but a little feats,
do you know what I mean? Very like of the area,
(03:05):
people just speeding about in those sitting down having some lunch,
having something nice to drink. He's probably got a show
or something like that. I'm just stoked to beat there
about watch him sing. Yeah, it sounds like a lovely
day to me.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I would like to be a fly on the wall
if I could. Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. Perfect. Well, congratulations
on the new single.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
We're going to talk about that feeling never went away,
and you know the album coming later on towards the
Fall certainly, and big stuff going on always with you
headlining Wembley, which we'll talk about in November, and you
just played Glastonbury as well.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
But I do want to ask.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You what's the earliest musical memory that you have and
who are what first inspired you to pick up a
guitar or start singing?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
All right, so we're going to go back to Freddie
Mercury here, so it's like he's like a magnet right
to all of us. But I remember sitting in the
backseat and my mum and dad's car would have been
like an old red Volvo at the time. I can't
remember how old I was, but I was very young,
like first memory sort of age, you know. And I
remember singing along to Living on my Own by Freddie
(04:23):
Mercury when it was on the radio, specifically the I
Ain't gone the time, Where's mugg and busy? You know
that bit, but apparently used to drive my mum up
the wall singing that section the THEO and yeah, that
was my first memory of singing and also annoying someone
(04:45):
and they kind of go hand and have which is.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, I have to confess something, though I've confessed this
previously on the podcast. One of my favorite things that
happens on the podcast is when someone of inter national stardoms,
such as yourself, actually sings a bit on the podcast
that puts so much joy into my body I can't
(05:10):
even describe it.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So, what's one of your favorite songs?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
One of my favorite songs, Well, let me think okay,
for let's go back to Queen and Freddie Mercury for
a second.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
You're my best friend, I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh oh ah, yeah, yeah, you make me live.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yeah, it's amazing, my god, yeah, yea yeah yeah, but
there's so many my god? What is it about music?
Can you define? If someone was just.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Planted on a planet Earth and knew nothing about what
music is, what would you describe it as to them?
Because it's something we can't live without.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, well it's not, isn't that? You stop the facts, right,
And it's just it's vibrating atoms in the air that
our ear drums make sense of, or certainly they they register,
and then our brains make sense of the chaos and
bring order to it, and we turn it into music.
(06:20):
It's crazy, that's mental, isn't it when you like boil
it down to what it actually is? Just this movement
in the air, and who knows, man, who knows why
we can out live about it? Well, it's true, right
because anyone booked, if anyone's making any sort of event,
It doesn't matter if you're selling shampoo somewhere or you're
(06:41):
kind of you're hosting this massive like yacht party. The
first thing, which I've never done, by the way, I
don't know if you have a buzz but not yet, man,
not yet. But the first thing people are going to do,
or like any charity organization or anything like that, first
thing people do. They get a venue, they get a date,
and they're like, right, who are we going to get
to play? Every single time? So it's this universal truth
(07:03):
that music is something that we all want, you know,
first thing you do, if you're at a wedding, you'll
be like stoke to dance later.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, And the fact is it's been proven over and
over again. I have this other podcast I produce that's
called Music Save Me, and it talks about the fact
that music has therapeutic healing power as well. Do you
subscribe to that thinkingly?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I wouldn't rule it out. I think you'd be a
fool to think that you know everything about what's actually
going on, like the magic happening beneath the hood essentially
of all this stuff like I've done. I've done a
fair bit you know of like the singing bowls and
mantra as well in the past, which is all just
music essentially, it's just sound. And I've found that to
(07:51):
be fascinating. Actually, I don't know if you know much
about like mantra workshops and things like that, but like
an old friend of mine he ran one, and I
just thought, you know, why the hell not, you know,
life's too short, go see this thing. And spent a
few days in Portugal sat in this room with maybe
(08:13):
thirty people in total, and you're just singing sanscrit and
everyone's sort of moving as one being. So you take
a breath in and you sing, and then you breathe
out and then you move forward and it's kind of
like you know that bit in Avatar when they're around
the massive tree up it ends up looking like that,
but you sat on lamin up flooring and uh and yeah,
(08:34):
you're just sort of you're one organism and one breath
and one being like with everyone in the room, and
you're you're singing. And it's funny because it's not about
singing well, because you've got to sing through your nose.
It's like going on bother like this, like through kind
of really pushing everything nasally. But yeah, it's really fascinating,
and it's kind of like this free, substance less high
(08:58):
that you get because you kind of I call it
fizzing up. You finish it and then you hold your
breath at the very end of the like of one
of the what would I call it, I guess like
sessions when you're you're singing like a mantra and you
finish it and then you hold your breath at the
end and you literally feel like a rocket launching into
(09:18):
the atmosphere. Is crazy.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I just I just feel like I went through the
atmosphere just now, just took you took me there.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I certainly recommend it to anyone that has sort of
heard of it and be like, oh, I might give
that a go, and yeah, it's it's the cool thing
for me was like to to understand this. You're you're
kind of part of this spiritual choir when you do that,
do you know what I mean? It's not about like
having the lead singer or anything like that, or even
(09:46):
being good at singing in any way. In fact, it
actually takes your voice into a place where you're more
like sounding vowels and not trying to sing with a
brato or like any technique. It's just you're part of
the the collective being in the room and fascinating, like
a very spiritual experience.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Actually, what was it like suddenly having your covers noticed
by you know, these these folks like Elton John and
Justin Bieber and I'm sure others.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
What feeling was that?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Like?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Ah, man, hard to express it because you know what, dude, Like,
Before that happened, I just turned thirty one years old
and I was living it was lockdown at the time,
so I was me and my partner Lois had actually
just bought our first house, but it was in such
a state it needed to be totally renovated. And thank god,
(10:41):
myself and my dad are carpenters. That's where I sort
of learned a trade growing up, was with my dad.
So we'd be renovating this house, but it wasn't fit
to live in at the time. Like we had is
an old Victorian property that actually used to belong to
an old ship captain and like that in America, that
sounds fancy, right, like wow, that building's so old, but
(11:03):
that's kind of like part of the course. Over here
in the UK everything used to belong to someone like that.
But yeah, it took us a while to do it.
So in that time I was living at home. Just
turned thirty, and I was getting to a place in
my mind and like making peaceful the fact that I
might not make it, you know, I like certainly in
(11:25):
music is what I'm what I mean, like, I've been
following this dream and trying everything leave being no stone
unturned since I was fourteen years old. I've been on
the road, been writing, been hoping, praying and scheming for
like any sort of crumbs of success. And I was
getting some every now and then, but never like the
big one, never the big loaf, just the crumbs. And
(11:47):
then I just started singing for fun, just into my phone,
being and kind of like free from the shackles of
that burdened you with the weight of immense pressure. Does
that make sense, Yeah, complex, I've finally sort of like
being like, you know what, I don't need that anymore
because this is just me now, just I'm a singer
(12:09):
that's going to be singing in his mum and dad
shed before I moved to my house, and maybe that's
where the magic was, like, and all I know is
I thank god it happened, man, and it truly changed
my life. I know that that is a phrase that
gets banded and thrown around incredibly liberally now and maybe
(12:30):
it's just because a lot of people's lives are changing,
but I can say from my experience that it truly
did change my life.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
It's wonderful and it's I would almost bet I know
the answer to this question. So as you were forging
ahead back, you know when you were fourteen fifteen, were
you thinking, well, maybe I need a Plan B, or
were you just so steadfast in your dream that there
was no plan B.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Plan B was weddings. Well, I'd never not sing in
this life, Like I feel like, if God's put me
here to do anything, He's put all of us here
to do something. And if, like I believe that for me,
it's singing, Like I've known that since I was a kid,
since singing in my mum and Dad's guy, you know,
(13:18):
like that that was what I was following. And I'm
so lucky man that I found my purpose young. Some
people go through their whole life not finding what it
is that is their life's work and their sort of
their pursuit and their spark that kind of ignites whatever's
(13:39):
in the spirit. But I found that very early on.
And I think maybe the price everything has every action
has a reaction right in this universe, and maybe the
price I paid was that finding it so early just
set me on a long path. I think, you know,
you're never given anything you can't handle, but for it
to take as long as it did, I've got the
(14:02):
thickest skin I think in the game. I've been through
every sort of failure. Could imagine every setback, every knock back,
every like I've been through it now, So to again
stand in that shed singing into my phone, at peace
with the fact that that might not happen, and it's
okay because I won't stop singing, And really, who cares
(14:25):
other than that if I can sing, it just so
happens to be right that we all live in a
time of the Earth where there's a music industry. Rewind
the clock or fast forward it. Who knows what it's
going to be fast forward. But if we rewind like
one hundred years and you were singing, there's no music
industry back then at all. It's just singing. Rewind it
(14:46):
even further. Singing is a behavior, Dancing is a behavior.
Creating art is a behavior, not a pursuit, not a craft,
not a job. They're just behaviors. So yeah, I count
myself incredibly fortunate that I knew what it is I
wanted to do, and also I found the magic in
it man like that that can't be defined by any metric,
(15:06):
any sort of follow account number or chart placing or
streaming amount.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know, we'll be right back with more of the
Taking a Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a
Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Well, your gratitude is an important piece that comes through
for sure, and it certainly indicates how grounded you are
in the midst of a very difficult business.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
How do you practice gratitude daily?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Brah, empathy, kindness, trying to surround myself with people that
bring out the best qualities in me and hopefully I
can help do the same. I mean, that's what life's about.
And it's like, no one wants to be surrounded by
people that dim their spirit or take away from you.
You again, Also, I kind of haven't got any interest
(16:05):
in being around things that are overly cool as well
or living my life in constant fear of what my
perceived identity is again because it took me so long
to get here. But I know who I am, I
know my identity, I know what it is that lights
(16:25):
me up. I know what it is I value. I
know that any failure I've been through can't define me.
And I'm incredibly lucky to be here. So optimism and
hope and faith knowing that I've got a purpose and
knowing that I will live out the rest of my
life hopefully it's a long one, like aiming to fulfill
(16:49):
that purpose, you know, That's what keeps me grounded.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So if someone does not understand the term that you've
created in the genre that you've created called frontiers, saw
describe it.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, man, frontis soul. So my granddad and I used
to watch and still do a lot old Westerns. It's
kind of our like favorite thing, you know. And I've
always been really enamored and fascinated with the old scores
in those films, and not just Westerns. Actually, if you
go back to like those that Golden era of Hollywood,
(17:28):
like Cleopatra and Jason and the Argonaut, so like stuff
like that, that the scores in those movies really enjoyed,
and even like the way they were shot and filmed,
and the colors in them, like super saturated blue skies,
and everyone's got the mad amount of fake tan on
and stuff like that. Just those movies I really enjoy,
(17:49):
like where the kind of credits are obviously hand painted
on a projector or something like that, and when they
come up, the orchestra kicks in and then you know,
if you're chatting about Lawrence of Arabia, there's like a
big intermission in the middle of it where it literally
comes up and says intermission, and the orchestra come in
and played the theme like that. For me is the
frontier aspect, like these very lush soundscapey strings that you
(18:15):
can almost see the vista in front of your eyes,
and soul it goes about saying it's soul music. It's
just from the heart, it's from the spirit itself. You know.
It's anything sung with passion, with meaning and with truth.
So for me, that's what singing is all about. So
soul music doesn't just have to be whether it's like
genre defined as soul music. It's about the feeling like
(18:39):
anyone can have song. In fact, we all have soul.
We just we choose to express it or by avoiding
it through being inauthentic, we fail to express it. So
that's what frontier soul is is. Mixing a little bit
of the desert, a little bit of that dust, a
little bit of those twenty Tarantino guitars, in with passion,
with feeling and with truth.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Take us inside the creation of feeling Never Went Away,
which is absolutely tremendous.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Man, Thank you so much, dude. So Feeling Never Went
Away was a song I wrote with my friends John
Green and Mickey Echo, and it was very like I
had this idea of this phrase was in my head
for a while, just the feeling never went away. And
I find that's quite an interesting concept to me, Like
(19:28):
what does that mean? Is that good thing? Is it
a bad thing? Is it a longing? Is it sort
of like a resentment? And then I had sort of
attributed to what was going on in my life at
the time. So I was just sat there with a
bass guitar and then we're just mumbling around. I think
John was on the piano and Mickey's just humming these
(19:50):
melodies and he's amazing at it, and I was something
came to me and I wasn't the feeling nevel well,
and we were just like, that's the light bulb moment, right,
that's our song, and now, just don't mess it up,
just nurse it home land a plane. At that point,
let's see what we can get. And it's about well
(20:10):
for me, when you write with other people, there's a
bunch of stories going in. A lot of people's baggage
gets thrown in on the same trolley, you know, when
you're writing, and so with other people.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
So.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
The cocktail becomes this heavy mix. But for me, it's
about understanding and making peace with the fact that you
might not have exercised all your demons, yet they're still there.
They still kind of bubble up and show their faces
every now and then. But that doesn't define you as
(20:43):
someone that hasn't managed to relinquish yourself of their grip.
Because I think all of us have angst in us,
we just the same as all of us have kindness
in it doesn't mean we show it all the time,
you know, because these these are choices, and they're based
on so many factors, whether it's the environment around us,
(21:03):
the people that we're in contact with, the day we're having,
you know, all those things. So and for a long
time over the last year, I felt a lot of
doubt and a lot of I guess beating myself up
and I've really been I guess, given myself a hard time.
So I'm like hitting myself twice because one, I've got
(21:24):
the feeling, so I see your first punch. And then
two is I'm annoyed at myself for letting myself have
the feeling. You know, I feel like I've let myself
down by letting this sort of self doubt and self
criticism make its way through the force field of my gratitude,
you know, and my peace and my presence, because I
(21:46):
was raised to have those things. And I think it
was just the understanding of just because you're something a
lot of the time, which in my heart, I hope
to be kind most of the time. I hope to
be present, I hope to be patient. I'm definitely not,
you know, patience is a hard thing actually for me.
But you're also going to always come into contact with
the full spectrum of emotions, and when you do, the
(22:11):
important thing, buzz, I think is to say that I'm
feeling angry, I'm feeling upset, rather than saying I am angry,
I am upset, I am doubting myself because I am
is more of like you're identifying you are that person,
but rather you should just say I'm currently I'm fit.
It's like the weather. Currently I am feeling foggy with
(22:34):
a chance of rain, but I'm not going to really
it up forever. You know. Yeah, well foot no feelings
ever go away?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
There you go. Well, it's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
What can we expect from the album later on down
the road? I know it's a little early to be
talking about it, but what can you share about what's
going to be happening album wise?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So the album comes out later in the year, and
we've got a massive shark Wembley Arena around just after
it gets released, So it's kind of like there's a
big road to Wembley happening at the moment, which I'm
sure we'll talk about later. But I think it's you
know what part of me is like, I want to
set goals and have ambitions and stuff like that. For
(23:21):
the record, of course I do. That's a normal thing.
But at the same time, I don't want to pin
I don't want to fence things in because I want
to try and go into that space I was when
I was singing into my phone. I didn't have any
like boundary lines set for that that was just for fun,
and I let life do its thing with those videos,
(23:42):
and there's this way more magic than I could ever
think up. So I hope the same for this. I
know the album is the best work I could have made.
I went through I guess mental hell and back to
make it. I there were times I didn't think I
was ever going to finish it, that I wouldn't be
(24:03):
sat here chatting about music so openly with yourself or
anyone else for that matter. But I think that that's
what making stuff takes out of you. It shouldn't ever
be easy, because it should be, you know, holding a
mirror up to the darkest parts of yourself and confronting
(24:24):
it and trying to put it into words in the
hope that you connect with someone out there that's listening
to it, that's going through the same.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
You just played Glastonbury and then of course the road
to Wembley that you mentioned in November, which is unbelievable.
Explain to somebody who's never experienced the massive community that
you'll be in front of at those shows and what
that feels like that you're making so many people connected
(24:53):
and so happy.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, first of all, I just want to say, this
is my first podcast in the US, by the way, Hi,
five high five. And I guess a bunch of your
listeners some of them might have been to Glastonbury once
or twice. Oh yeah, but there's probably a lot of
people listening that have never been. Because I live in
the UK, I'm not far from Glastonbury really in the
big scheme of things. But this year was the first
(25:18):
year I'd ever been to play or just to be
there in general. I've never been. And it's hard to
explain how big that place is. They say two hundred
and fifty thousand people are in that area, so essentially
it's like the city of Bristol in a field for
four days. How crazy is that?
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Man?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
So it's crazy, think of and it never stops. It's
just going and going and going. There's always someone to see,
someone playing. I mean obviously, like in the early hours,
it's dance tents that are just absolutely popping off. But yeah,
it's crazy. We did. And also no one just goes
there to play their show. That I did like five
(26:00):
secret sets throughout the time, and yeah, just really rung
out the Glastonbury flannel for everything it had in it.
And I wanted to experience as much of it as
I could. You know, it was so sick.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
How do you prepare yourself for Wembley?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, we're going through that right now. Actually. You know,
when you play a venue like Wembley as an independent
artist or someone on a major label, it doesn't matter.
You turn up there and that place is empty. There's
you got. You got to bring the stage, you've got
to bring the PA, you've got to bring the crew
that are going to rig up the PA, and obviously
all the normal things like your team, your sound, your monitors,
(26:38):
band like all that stuff. But I bet that some
people didn't know that. You know, like those venues are shells,
they're just warehouses until a band comes in and fits
all the speakers around like it's a It's a massive
undertaking and makes you realize why. You know, those tours
are grueling in the best way. You know, it's a
(27:01):
legendary spot like that patch of land in London has
played host to some of the most amazing artists and
creatives the world's ever seen. And to be there no
on November sixth is going to be not just a
dream come true. That's way too simple to print. It
(27:23):
like that, but it's it's going to be monumental for
me in my life. I'm so excited. And you know what,
it was the first place I ever saw a band
play as well, and who might keep ever be two?
It was Some forty one. Let me show you something
right now. Actually, I've got it here all right. This
is the ticket, oh wow, from playing Wembley see that, Yes,
(27:48):
Some forty one. And the reason I'm awkwardly covering up
some of the numbers in it. In fact, let me
do that one if you share anything online is that
it is because the seat number that I was in.
And I'm gonna leave some in fun under that seat
for whoever gets it this time, because that night was
so special and so like life changing for me. I
(28:09):
was just a kid, probably fifteen years old, maybe me
and my friend Dan. Funnily enough, Dan is the guy
that gave me the scar on my head. He had
one too. We ran into each other when we were kids.
So me and him went to go and see Some
forty one together. First time seeing a gig. Had no
idea what to expect. I literally thought it'd be kind
of just like a small hall and everyone would sit
(28:31):
on the floor and watch a band as they came in.
That was it. When I got there and it's this massive,
like just almost church of rock and roll, you know,
and this band like miles away. Yeah, it changed my life.
I left that room knowing what I wanted to do,
and I can only hope that people come and see
(28:51):
us play on November sixth and leave feeling the same way,
because that was kind of like a for me, getting
a compass heading from the universe. I left, you know,
those doors, headed home and I was like, oh cool,
I know what I want to do with my time
on this earth.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Oh man, it's wonderful. I want to close with this.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Sam, you've you've spoken very candidly about panic attacks and
dealing with pressure. What helps you get through tough moments
and what advice would you give to others who might
be struggling with you know, similar challenges.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
A man, I think for me, I say it all
the times as sorry for the deja vous, but it's
it has to be gratitude. It's just like the I
feel like the answer to everything, because to put yourself
in a space of gratitude, for me, is a space
of trust. And more importantly than that, like the relinquishment
(29:53):
of control because you don't have control of what's coming,
you know, whether it's in your health or just in
your environment around you. Seldom do any of us have
the control that we think we do. You know, we
only are kind of able to change something within our
(30:14):
small orbit. But that doesn't make it insufficient. You know,
that is incredibly substantial, because I think you realize that
with the right people around you, you can do amazing things.
And for me, that's just what I always try to
come back to if I ever like I'm in a
(30:35):
dark place and I'm feeling I don't know, like to
be candid man. Over the last year I say about gratitude,
I needed to take my own advice so many times
because I was off the routes. I was falling and
spiraling into a darkness I've never experienced in my life before,
and I had no idea where it came from, because
(30:57):
I'd always been this person that was like, I'll find
and the optimistic way of looking at it, you know,
I will see the silver line in the clouds. I
will find my resilience and the center of myself and
my self worth to move through anything that life froze me.
I was always that guy, and then in all of
a sudden, I am just like bedrock, you know, And
(31:20):
to claw out of that, I can't express like how
when you're in that space, life feels meaningless. Everything around
you feels meaningless. It is the epitome of an existential crisis.
And you're like, where did this come from? What did
I let in to make me feel like this? And
(31:41):
sometimes you don't know the answer, and that's hard because
I'm terrified that could happen again. You know, in my life,
I've never had it as bad as that before. The
part of me that wants to control something wants to
understand why, so I can almost I can figure out
how to build the fences so it can never get
in again. But I can't, and knocking you and knocking
(32:03):
anyone else listening. You know that, And that is making
peace with that and knowing that you don't have the control.
I think is it brings out the necessity for hope
and faith and gratitude, because it's accepting that if I
ever go down in those depths again, in those fathoms,
(32:24):
I know someone's going to be looking out for me.
I know that I can turn to I can turn
to prayer, I can turn to my loved ones, I
can turn to my gratitude and sense of purpose. Does
that make any sense? I just tried to know.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
It makes a thousand percent sense.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
And you know I have tremendous gratitude for this moment,
speaking with you, connecting with you, And I know if
you did go down that path you justscribe, you'd have
a lot of people that you've made happy and continue
to make happy. That would be sending the energy your
(33:10):
way to lift you out of that.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
I truly believe that, and I'm so grateful to have
this opportunity to speak with you. It's been wonderful and
I'm so grateful that you came on the Taking a
Walk podcast.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Sam Right, I'm.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Grateful you gave me a seat on the spaceship known
as the Sam Ryder Spaceship, which is on its way
to places unknown but big places.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
So thank you so much, God bless bus.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
You take care of yourself. Man. Thanks for having me
on your podcast, and hopefully I'll see you when I
come to the US next because I live in Nushville. Now,
I'm like Halftime in the UK and Nushville so maybe
we'll bump into each other at a show.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And I love Nashville too, so as Tom. Thank you,
Sam Blessing.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I think you'd be a fool to think that you
know everything about what's actually going on, the magic happening
beneath the hood.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Essentially, there's a magnetic energy in the air when music
transcends the stage and pours into the streets, connecting people
in the most unexpected moments. On Buzznight and today, I'm
taking a walk, We're not just walking, We're soaring thanks
to the unmistakable voice and spirit of Sam Ryder. From
(00:32):
humble beginnings and viral covers to commanding the world's biggest stages.
Sam's journey is a testament to the power of passion, grit.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And gratitude.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Join us as we step into Sam's world, discovering the
stories behind the music and the moments that have truly
defined his extraordinary rise.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We'll be back at a bit after these messages.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Taking a walk.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
We are in rarefy. I'm taking a walk. We've got
Sam Righter on. Hello, Sam, what's up mate?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
How are you doing you?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Okay, I'm doing terrific. I'm talking to you so how
bad could I be doing it? I'm talking to you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We're not doing so bad, man. We're above ground. That's
what counts.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
That's right, We're doing great, So thanks for being on
taking a walk. I want to let you kind of
twist your imagination around a little bit. I want to
ask you if you could take a walk with somebody
living or deceased, preference being a musical wish, but it
(01:39):
doesn't have to be.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, who would you pick to take that walk with?
And where would you take that walk?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's a great question, I think stud So many names
are rushing to me right now, and then if I've
got to keep it in the musical sphere, would love
to take a walk with Freddie Mercury, you know. I mean,
I bet you've had that answer a lot. Have you
had that before?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I have had Freddy has has come up for sure?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, well let's see if we can Let's
see if we can find someone else.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
In that's all right?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, we want to like, yeah, I don't want to.
I don't want to steal someone else's answer. So I'm
just trying to think some of my absolute favorite bands.
Pavarotti would be amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Right, that would be amazing. And I must tell you
Sam that one is the first.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Okay, good, Yeah, let's let's yeah that would be sick.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Where do you think you would take that walk with him? Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know what, It'd be in some vineyard in Tuscany somewhere.
It'd be just late in the afternoon, kind of the
airs cooled off, and there's maybe I know we're seeing
little cars in the distance past, but a little feats,
do you know what I mean? Very like of the area,
(03:05):
people just speeding about in those sitting down having some lunch,
having something nice to drink. He's probably got a show
or something like that. I'm just stoked to beat there
about watch him sing. Yeah, it sounds like a lovely
day to me.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I would like to be a fly on the wall
if I could. Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. Perfect. Well, congratulations
on the new single.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
We're going to talk about that feeling never went away,
and you know the album coming later on towards the
Fall certainly, and big stuff going on always with you
headlining Wembley, which we'll talk about in November, and you
just played Glastonbury as well.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
But I do want to ask.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You what's the earliest musical memory that you have and
who are what first inspired you to pick up a
guitar or start singing?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
All right, so we're going to go back to Freddie
Mercury here, so it's like he's like a magnet right
to all of us. But I remember sitting in the
backseat and my mum and dad's car would have been
like an old red Volvo at the time. I can't
remember how old I was, but I was very young,
like first memory sort of age, you know. And I
remember singing along to Living on my Own by Freddie
(04:23):
Mercury when it was on the radio, specifically the I
Ain't gone the time, Where's mugg and busy? You know
that bit, but apparently used to drive my mum up
the wall singing that section the THEO and yeah, that
was my first memory of singing and also annoying someone
(04:45):
and they kind of go hand and have which is.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, I have to confess something, though I've confessed this
previously on the podcast. One of my favorite things that
happens on the podcast is when someone of inter national stardoms,
such as yourself, actually sings a bit on the podcast
that puts so much joy into my body I can't
(05:10):
even describe it.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So, what's one of your favorite songs?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
One of my favorite songs, Well, let me think okay,
for let's go back to Queen and Freddie Mercury for
a second.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
You're my best friend, I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh oh ah, yeah, yeah, you make me live.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Yeah, it's amazing, my god, yeah, yea yeah yeah, but
there's so many my god? What is it about music?
Can you define? If someone was just.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Planted on a planet Earth and knew nothing about what
music is, what would you describe it as to them?
Because it's something we can't live without.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, well it's not, isn't that? You stop the facts, right,
And it's just it's vibrating atoms in the air that
our ear drums make sense of, or certainly they they register,
and then our brains make sense of the chaos and
bring order to it, and we turn it into music.
(06:20):
It's crazy, that's mental, isn't it when you like boil
it down to what it actually is? Just this movement
in the air, and who knows, man, who knows why
we can out live about it? Well, it's true, right
because anyone booked, if anyone's making any sort of event,
It doesn't matter if you're selling shampoo somewhere or you're
(06:41):
kind of you're hosting this massive like yacht party. The
first thing, which I've never done, by the way, I
don't know if you have a buzz but not yet, man,
not yet. But the first thing people are going to do,
or like any charity organization or anything like that, first
thing people do. They get a venue, they get a date,
and they're like, right, who are we going to get
to play? Every single time? So it's this universal truth
(07:03):
that music is something that we all want, you know,
first thing you do, if you're at a wedding, you'll
be like stoke to dance later.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, And the fact is it's been proven over and
over again. I have this other podcast I produce that's
called Music Save Me, and it talks about the fact
that music has therapeutic healing power as well. Do you
subscribe to that thinkingly?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I wouldn't rule it out. I think you'd be a
fool to think that you know everything about what's actually
going on, like the magic happening beneath the hood essentially
of all this stuff like I've done. I've done a
fair bit you know of like the singing bowls and
mantra as well in the past, which is all just
music essentially, it's just sound. And I've found that to
(07:51):
be fascinating. Actually, I don't know if you know much
about like mantra workshops and things like that, but like
an old friend of mine he ran one, and I
just thought, you know, why the hell not, you know,
life's too short, go see this thing. And spent a
few days in Portugal sat in this room with maybe
(08:13):
thirty people in total, and you're just singing sanscrit and
everyone's sort of moving as one being. So you take
a breath in and you sing, and then you breathe
out and then you move forward and it's kind of
like you know that bit in Avatar when they're around
the massive tree up it ends up looking like that,
but you sat on lamin up flooring and uh and yeah,
(08:34):
you're just sort of you're one organism and one breath
and one being like with everyone in the room, and
you're you're singing. And it's funny because it's not about
singing well, because you've got to sing through your nose.
It's like going on bother like this, like through kind
of really pushing everything nasally. But yeah, it's really fascinating,
and it's kind of like this free, substance less high
(08:58):
that you get because you kind of I call it
fizzing up. You finish it and then you hold your
breath at the very end of the like of one
of the what would I call it, I guess like
sessions when you're you're singing like a mantra and you
finish it and then you hold your breath at the
end and you literally feel like a rocket launching into
(09:18):
the atmosphere. Is crazy.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I just I just feel like I went through the
atmosphere just now, just took you took me there.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I certainly recommend it to anyone that has sort of
heard of it and be like, oh, I might give
that a go, and yeah, it's it's the cool thing
for me was like to to understand this. You're you're
kind of part of this spiritual choir when you do that,
do you know what I mean? It's not about like
having the lead singer or anything like that, or even
(09:46):
being good at singing in any way. In fact, it
actually takes your voice into a place where you're more
like sounding vowels and not trying to sing with a
brato or like any technique. It's just you're part of
the the collective being in the room and fascinating, like
a very spiritual experience.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Actually, what was it like suddenly having your covers noticed
by you know, these these folks like Elton John and
Justin Bieber and I'm sure others.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
What feeling was that?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Like?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Ah, man, hard to express it because you know what, dude, Like,
Before that happened, I just turned thirty one years old
and I was living it was lockdown at the time,
so I was me and my partner Lois had actually
just bought our first house, but it was in such
a state it needed to be totally renovated. And thank god,
(10:41):
myself and my dad are carpenters. That's where I sort
of learned a trade growing up, was with my dad.
So we'd be renovating this house, but it wasn't fit
to live in at the time. Like we had is
an old Victorian property that actually used to belong to
an old ship captain and like that in America, that
sounds fancy, right, like wow, that building's so old, but
(11:03):
that's kind of like part of the course. Over here
in the UK everything used to belong to someone like that.
But yeah, it took us a while to do it.
So in that time I was living at home. Just
turned thirty, and I was getting to a place in
my mind and like making peaceful the fact that I
might not make it, you know, I like certainly in
(11:25):
music is what I'm what I mean, like, I've been
following this dream and trying everything leave being no stone
unturned since I was fourteen years old. I've been on
the road, been writing, been hoping, praying and scheming for
like any sort of crumbs of success. And I was
getting some every now and then, but never like the
big one, never the big loaf, just the crumbs. And
(11:47):
then I just started singing for fun, just into my phone,
being and kind of like free from the shackles of
that burdened you with the weight of immense pressure. Does
that make sense, Yeah, complex, I've finally sort of like
being like, you know what, I don't need that anymore
because this is just me now, just I'm a singer
(12:09):
that's going to be singing in his mum and dad
shed before I moved to my house, and maybe that's
where the magic was, like, and all I know is
I thank god it happened, man, and it truly changed
my life. I know that that is a phrase that
gets banded and thrown around incredibly liberally now and maybe
(12:30):
it's just because a lot of people's lives are changing,
but I can say from my experience that it truly
did change my life.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
It's wonderful and it's I would almost bet I know
the answer to this question. So as you were forging
ahead back, you know when you were fourteen fifteen, were
you thinking, well, maybe I need a Plan B, or
were you just so steadfast in your dream that there
was no plan B.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Plan B was weddings. Well, I'd never not sing in
this life, Like I feel like, if God's put me
here to do anything, He's put all of us here
to do something. And if, like I believe that for me,
it's singing, Like I've known that since I was a kid,
since singing in my mum and Dad's guy, you know,
(13:18):
like that that was what I was following. And I'm
so lucky man that I found my purpose young. Some
people go through their whole life not finding what it
is that is their life's work and their sort of
their pursuit and their spark that kind of ignites whatever's
(13:39):
in the spirit. But I found that very early on.
And I think maybe the price everything has every action
has a reaction right in this universe, and maybe the
price I paid was that finding it so early just
set me on a long path. I think, you know,
you're never given anything you can't handle, but for it
to take as long as it did, I've got the
(14:02):
thickest skin I think in the game. I've been through
every sort of failure. Could imagine every setback, every knock back,
every like I've been through it now, So to again
stand in that shed singing into my phone, at peace
with the fact that that might not happen, and it's
okay because I won't stop singing, And really, who cares
(14:25):
other than that if I can sing, it just so
happens to be right that we all live in a
time of the Earth where there's a music industry. Rewind
the clock or fast forward it. Who knows what it's
going to be fast forward. But if we rewind like
one hundred years and you were singing, there's no music
industry back then at all. It's just singing. Rewind it
(14:46):
even further. Singing is a behavior, Dancing is a behavior.
Creating art is a behavior, not a pursuit, not a craft,
not a job. They're just behaviors. So yeah, I count
myself incredibly fortunate that I knew what it is I
wanted to do, and also I found the magic in
it man like that that can't be defined by any metric,
(15:06):
any sort of follow account number or chart placing or
streaming amount.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know, we'll be right back with more of the
Taking a Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a
Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Well, your gratitude is an important piece that comes through
for sure, and it certainly indicates how grounded you are
in the midst of a very difficult business.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
How do you practice gratitude daily?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Brah, empathy, kindness, trying to surround myself with people that
bring out the best qualities in me and hopefully I
can help do the same. I mean, that's what life's about.
And it's like, no one wants to be surrounded by
people that dim their spirit or take away from you.
You again, Also, I kind of haven't got any interest
(16:05):
in being around things that are overly cool as well
or living my life in constant fear of what my
perceived identity is again because it took me so long
to get here. But I know who I am, I
know my identity, I know what it is that lights
(16:25):
me up. I know what it is I value. I
know that any failure I've been through can't define me.
And I'm incredibly lucky to be here. So optimism and
hope and faith knowing that I've got a purpose and
knowing that I will live out the rest of my
life hopefully it's a long one, like aiming to fulfill
(16:49):
that purpose, you know, That's what keeps me grounded.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So if someone does not understand the term that you've
created in the genre that you've created called frontiers, saw
describe it.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, man, frontis soul. So my granddad and I used
to watch and still do a lot old Westerns. It's
kind of our like favorite thing, you know. And I've
always been really enamored and fascinated with the old scores
in those films, and not just Westerns. Actually, if you
go back to like those that Golden era of Hollywood,
(17:28):
like Cleopatra and Jason and the Argonaut, so like stuff
like that, that the scores in those movies really enjoyed,
and even like the way they were shot and filmed,
and the colors in them, like super saturated blue skies,
and everyone's got the mad amount of fake tan on
and stuff like that. Just those movies I really enjoy,
(17:49):
like where the kind of credits are obviously hand painted
on a projector or something like that, and when they
come up, the orchestra kicks in and then you know,
if you're chatting about Lawrence of Arabia, there's like a
big intermission in the middle of it where it literally
comes up and says intermission, and the orchestra come in
and played the theme like that. For me is the
frontier aspect, like these very lush soundscapey strings that you
(18:15):
can almost see the vista in front of your eyes,
and soul it goes about saying it's soul music. It's
just from the heart, it's from the spirit itself. You know.
It's anything sung with passion, with meaning and with truth.
So for me, that's what singing is all about. So
soul music doesn't just have to be whether it's like
genre defined as soul music. It's about the feeling like
(18:39):
anyone can have song. In fact, we all have soul.
We just we choose to express it or by avoiding
it through being inauthentic, we fail to express it. So
that's what frontier soul is is. Mixing a little bit
of the desert, a little bit of that dust, a
little bit of those twenty Tarantino guitars, in with passion,
with feeling and with truth.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Take us inside the creation of feeling Never Went Away,
which is absolutely tremendous.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Man, Thank you so much, dude. So Feeling Never Went
Away was a song I wrote with my friends John
Green and Mickey Echo, and it was very like I
had this idea of this phrase was in my head
for a while, just the feeling never went away. And
I find that's quite an interesting concept to me, Like
(19:28):
what does that mean? Is that good thing? Is it
a bad thing? Is it a longing? Is it sort
of like a resentment? And then I had sort of
attributed to what was going on in my life at
the time. So I was just sat there with a
bass guitar and then we're just mumbling around. I think
John was on the piano and Mickey's just humming these
(19:50):
melodies and he's amazing at it, and I was something
came to me and I wasn't the feeling nevel well,
and we were just like, that's the light bulb moment, right,
that's our song, and now, just don't mess it up,
just nurse it home land a plane. At that point,
let's see what we can get. And it's about well
(20:10):
for me, when you write with other people, there's a
bunch of stories going in. A lot of people's baggage
gets thrown in on the same trolley, you know, when
you're writing, and so with other people.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
So.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
The cocktail becomes this heavy mix. But for me, it's
about understanding and making peace with the fact that you
might not have exercised all your demons, yet they're still there.
They still kind of bubble up and show their faces
every now and then. But that doesn't define you as
(20:43):
someone that hasn't managed to relinquish yourself of their grip.
Because I think all of us have angst in us,
we just the same as all of us have kindness
in it doesn't mean we show it all the time,
you know, because these these are choices, and they're based
on so many factors, whether it's the environment around us,
(21:03):
the people that we're in contact with, the day we're having,
you know, all those things. So and for a long
time over the last year, I felt a lot of
doubt and a lot of I guess beating myself up
and I've really been I guess, given myself a hard time.
So I'm like hitting myself twice because one, I've got
(21:24):
the feeling, so I see your first punch. And then
two is I'm annoyed at myself for letting myself have
the feeling. You know, I feel like I've let myself
down by letting this sort of self doubt and self
criticism make its way through the force field of my gratitude,
you know, and my peace and my presence, because I
(21:46):
was raised to have those things. And I think it
was just the understanding of just because you're something a
lot of the time, which in my heart, I hope
to be kind most of the time. I hope to
be present, I hope to be patient. I'm definitely not,
you know, patience is a hard thing actually for me.
But you're also going to always come into contact with
the full spectrum of emotions, and when you do, the
(22:11):
important thing, buzz, I think is to say that I'm
feeling angry, I'm feeling upset, rather than saying I am angry,
I am upset, I am doubting myself because I am
is more of like you're identifying you are that person,
but rather you should just say I'm currently I'm fit.
It's like the weather. Currently I am feeling foggy with
(22:34):
a chance of rain, but I'm not going to really
it up forever. You know. Yeah, well foot no feelings
ever go away?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
There you go. Well, it's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
What can we expect from the album later on down
the road? I know it's a little early to be
talking about it, but what can you share about what's
going to be happening album wise?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So the album comes out later in the year, and
we've got a massive shark Wembley Arena around just after
it gets released, So it's kind of like there's a
big road to Wembley happening at the moment, which I'm
sure we'll talk about later. But I think it's you
know what part of me is like, I want to
set goals and have ambitions and stuff like that. For
(23:21):
the record, of course I do. That's a normal thing.
But at the same time, I don't want to pin
I don't want to fence things in because I want
to try and go into that space I was when
I was singing into my phone. I didn't have any
like boundary lines set for that that was just for fun,
and I let life do its thing with those videos,
(23:42):
and there's this way more magic than I could ever
think up. So I hope the same for this. I
know the album is the best work I could have made.
I went through I guess mental hell and back to
make it. I there were times I didn't think I
was ever going to finish it, that I wouldn't be
(24:03):
sat here chatting about music so openly with yourself or
anyone else for that matter. But I think that that's
what making stuff takes out of you. It shouldn't ever
be easy, because it should be, you know, holding a
mirror up to the darkest parts of yourself and confronting
(24:24):
it and trying to put it into words in the
hope that you connect with someone out there that's listening
to it, that's going through the same.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
You just played Glastonbury and then of course the road
to Wembley that you mentioned in November, which is unbelievable.
Explain to somebody who's never experienced the massive community that
you'll be in front of at those shows and what
that feels like that you're making so many people connected
(24:53):
and so happy.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, first of all, I just want to say, this
is my first podcast in the US, by the way, Hi,
five high five. And I guess a bunch of your
listeners some of them might have been to Glastonbury once
or twice. Oh yeah, but there's probably a lot of
people listening that have never been. Because I live in
the UK, I'm not far from Glastonbury really in the
big scheme of things. But this year was the first
(25:18):
year I'd ever been to play or just to be
there in general. I've never been. And it's hard to
explain how big that place is. They say two hundred
and fifty thousand people are in that area, so essentially
it's like the city of Bristol in a field for
four days. How crazy is that?
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Man?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
So it's crazy, think of and it never stops. It's
just going and going and going. There's always someone to see,
someone playing. I mean obviously, like in the early hours,
it's dance tents that are just absolutely popping off. But yeah,
it's crazy. We did. And also no one just goes
there to play their show. That I did like five
(26:00):
secret sets throughout the time, and yeah, just really rung
out the Glastonbury flannel for everything it had in it.
And I wanted to experience as much of it as
I could. You know, it was so sick.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
How do you prepare yourself for Wembley?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, we're going through that right now. Actually. You know,
when you play a venue like Wembley as an independent
artist or someone on a major label, it doesn't matter.
You turn up there and that place is empty. There's
you got. You got to bring the stage, you've got
to bring the PA, you've got to bring the crew
that are going to rig up the PA, and obviously
all the normal things like your team, your sound, your monitors,
(26:38):
band like all that stuff. But I bet that some
people didn't know that. You know, like those venues are shells,
they're just warehouses until a band comes in and fits
all the speakers around like it's a It's a massive
undertaking and makes you realize why. You know, those tours
are grueling in the best way. You know, it's a
(27:01):
legendary spot like that patch of land in London has
played host to some of the most amazing artists and
creatives the world's ever seen. And to be there no
on November sixth is going to be not just a
dream come true. That's way too simple to print. It
(27:23):
like that, but it's it's going to be monumental for
me in my life. I'm so excited. And you know what,
it was the first place I ever saw a band
play as well, and who might keep ever be two?
It was Some forty one. Let me show you something
right now. Actually, I've got it here all right. This
is the ticket, oh wow, from playing Wembley see that, Yes,
(27:48):
Some forty one. And the reason I'm awkwardly covering up
some of the numbers in it. In fact, let me
do that one if you share anything online is that
it is because the seat number that I was in.
And I'm gonna leave some in fun under that seat
for whoever gets it this time, because that night was
so special and so like life changing for me. I
(28:09):
was just a kid, probably fifteen years old, maybe me
and my friend Dan. Funnily enough, Dan is the guy
that gave me the scar on my head. He had
one too. We ran into each other when we were kids.
So me and him went to go and see Some
forty one together. First time seeing a gig. Had no
idea what to expect. I literally thought it'd be kind
of just like a small hall and everyone would sit
(28:31):
on the floor and watch a band as they came in.
That was it. When I got there and it's this massive,
like just almost church of rock and roll, you know,
and this band like miles away. Yeah, it changed my life.
I left that room knowing what I wanted to do,
and I can only hope that people come and see
(28:51):
us play on November sixth and leave feeling the same way,
because that was kind of like a for me, getting
a compass heading from the universe. I left, you know,
those doors, headed home and I was like, oh cool,
I know what I want to do with my time
on this earth.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Oh man, it's wonderful. I want to close with this.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Sam, you've you've spoken very candidly about panic attacks and
dealing with pressure. What helps you get through tough moments
and what advice would you give to others who might
be struggling with you know, similar challenges.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
A man, I think for me, I say it all
the times as sorry for the deja vous, but it's
it has to be gratitude. It's just like the I
feel like the answer to everything, because to put yourself
in a space of gratitude, for me, is a space
of trust. And more importantly than that, like the relinquishment
(29:53):
of control because you don't have control of what's coming,
you know, whether it's in your health or just in
your environment around you. Seldom do any of us have
the control that we think we do. You know, we
only are kind of able to change something within our
(30:14):
small orbit. But that doesn't make it insufficient. You know,
that is incredibly substantial, because I think you realize that
with the right people around you, you can do amazing things.
And for me, that's just what I always try to
come back to if I ever like I'm in a
(30:35):
dark place and I'm feeling I don't know, like to
be candid man. Over the last year I say about gratitude,
I needed to take my own advice so many times
because I was off the routes. I was falling and
spiraling into a darkness I've never experienced in my life before,
and I had no idea where it came from, because
(30:57):
I'd always been this person that was like, I'll find
and the optimistic way of looking at it, you know,
I will see the silver line in the clouds. I
will find my resilience and the center of myself and
my self worth to move through anything that life froze me.
I was always that guy, and then in all of
a sudden, I am just like bedrock, you know, And
(31:20):
to claw out of that, I can't express like how
when you're in that space, life feels meaningless. Everything around
you feels meaningless. It is the epitome of an existential crisis.
And you're like, where did this come from? What did
I let in to make me feel like this? And
(31:41):
sometimes you don't know the answer, and that's hard because
I'm terrified that could happen again. You know, in my life,
I've never had it as bad as that before. The
part of me that wants to control something wants to
understand why, so I can almost I can figure out
how to build the fences so it can never get
in again. But I can't, and knocking you and knocking
(32:03):
anyone else listening. You know that, And that is making
peace with that and knowing that you don't have the control.
I think is it brings out the necessity for hope
and faith and gratitude, because it's accepting that if I
ever go down in those depths again, in those fathoms,
(32:24):
I know someone's going to be looking out for me.
I know that I can turn to I can turn
to prayer, I can turn to my loved ones, I
can turn to my gratitude and sense of purpose. Does
that make any sense? I just tried to know.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
It makes a thousand percent sense.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
And you know I have tremendous gratitude for this moment,
speaking with you, connecting with you, And I know if
you did go down that path you justscribe, you'd have
a lot of people that you've made happy and continue
to make happy. That would be sending the energy your
(33:10):
way to lift you out of that.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
I truly believe that, and I'm so grateful to have
this opportunity to speak with you. It's been wonderful and
I'm so grateful that you came on the Taking a
Walk podcast.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Sam Right, I'm.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Grateful you gave me a seat on the spaceship known
as the Sam Ryder Spaceship, which is on its way
to places unknown but big places.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
So thank you so much, God bless bus.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
You take care of yourself. Man. Thanks for having me
on your podcast, and hopefully I'll see you when I
come to the US next because I live in Nushville. Now,
I'm like Halftime in the UK and Nushville so maybe
we'll bump into each other at a show.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
And I love Nashville too, so as Tom. Thank you,
Sam Blessing.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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