September 23, 2024 • 21 mins
Celebrating his latest smash "Heart Like Mine", Sam Feldt joined us for the first time on America's Dance 30! He shared how it was born w Rosa Linn, how long ago they started working on it, how the Coldplay melody made it in, and how many different Vs there were of the song before its release.
He also gave us an update on how he has been and how the Kygo tour has been going!
We also got to know Sam a lot better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
He also gave us an update on how he has been and how the Kygo tour has been going!
We also got to know Sam a lot better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
- the first thing he wanted to be when he was growing up
- what his first ever job was
- where the name 'Sam Feldt' came from, and if it was his first choice for an artist project name
- the first song he produced
- the first dance song that made him fall in love w EDM
- the first time he performed for a crowd
- the first time he heard one of his songs on the radio
- how he first found out he was going to be a dad
- the first place he goes to clear his mind
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Honestly, I think this is the first time I'm starting
America's Dance thirty by apologizing to my guest.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
But Sam, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I need to apologize to you.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Dance counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
This is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We've known each other a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Besides that, you are an incredible producer, DJ, philanthropist, businessman,
label boss and all around human beings. So I apologize
that I've never had you as a guest on America's
Dance thirty before.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, I mean, we've known each other for such a
long time.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We've partied together, we've been to shows, and I don't know.
Sometimes stuff doesn't it doesn't happen should And now we're
finally making up for us.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes, please don't hold it against me, Sam Feld, Welcome
to America's Dance thirty for the first time.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Thank you, appreciate it. Happy to be here now.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
It has been a long time since we've properly caught up.
How have you been.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I've been good. I've been mostly on the Caigo tour
right now. We just did New York to show It
shows at the Barclay Center. I am now in Boston
and we're going to Canada, so let's running in Montreal
this weekend, so I'm about to hit hit the stage
again in the Big Stadium today.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
And how has Kaigo's tour been for you so far?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Very good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
We were with the premiere our brand new song hard
Like Mine with Rosalyn on the Friday, on sold out
night at the Barclays, so that was really really cool,
got lots of content and it was really cool to
meet her in person as well, and we've never met before.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So overall it's been really really nice.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
And I think, you know, the audience that Cayo pulls
to a shows is exactly the type of audio is
that also listens to my music, So I think.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It's a match kind of made in heaven.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
We're continuing to tour as well in Europe in Copenhagen
and Budapest, and I'm even going to the one in
Mexico next year, so there's lots coming up too.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, I saw the video you posted with you and
Rosa Linn performing the song. I can't wait to talk
about this smash because it is such an incredible song
and find out how it was born. But first let's
get to know Sam Feld a little better with Finkey's
first sounds good. So I always love finding out the
(02:36):
origin story of artists. I know you learned music at
a really young age, and then you started DJing and
producing at like thirteen, right.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Yeah, correct, Around the same time I discovered footy loops
and a friend of mine also discovered the same software,
and we were making all sorts of random stuff jump
style even it was my first jong that I really
produced and put out on the forums and stuff like
that to get feedback on. And at the same time,
I was saving up for things like a smoke machine
(03:05):
and amplifier to build my own drive into and play
you know, the parties at school, parties of my friends.
And that's kind of how I started both as a
DJ and a producer around the age of ten eleven.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But then you also even had your first e commerce
store at thirteen years old. Now, when you were growing up,
what was the first thing you wanted to do was music?
The first thing you wanted to get into, I.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Think anything with buttons, you know, computers. I was super
interested in building websites as you said. My first business
I launched officially when I was thirteen years old, and
I was an e commerce stores drop shipping cameras from
China to the Netherlands. So it's kind of what's popular now,
but then you know, fifteen years ago. Anyways, anything that
(03:54):
had you know, buttons and was blinking that you know,
kind of draw my interest. And that included of course, yeah,
that the CD players, you know, but also the visual
aspects of the show like I loved, you know, getting
getting a new smoke machine, like I said, or getting
like something cool like a laser for my drive in show.
So just a big nerd both you know, on the
(04:15):
software side and on the hardware side. And music is
always a big part of it. And I feel like,
you know, if you want to be successful as a producer,
you're going to need to be a nerd because she needs.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
To spend a lot of time behind the computer messing
with stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
As somebody that likes to have their hand in all aspects.
You know, you are so insanely busy. Now do you
have to let that go or do you still have
your hand in everything?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Well, I mean, if for every project that I have
right now, I've got a team in place that I
fully trust. So I've got a great management team at
Palm Tree that you do do their best, you know,
to get me new collabs and features and find the
right songs and heartsfelt. I go run with my wife Michelle,
and she also owns half of the label, so I've
(05:00):
trust her on that side.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So there's partners everywhere.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I mean, I'm still kind of at at the helmet
at the head of it all. I still make the
important decisions, but it's not like I micromanage on it
on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I hope not.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
At least that's good to hear. You'd probably drive yourself
and your team crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Yeah, I used to be pretty good at that, but
I kind of let it go now.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Now complete side note, but you got to share with
r A D thirty fam what your first job was.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
This was awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I volunteered in a dinosaur museum when I was around
eight years old, So that was my first.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Now, not a job.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I didn't get paid. I get paid maybe in an
ice cream at the end of the day. But I
used to do guided tours in a dinosaur museum and
just yeah, guide groups around basically when I was eight
years old.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That is so awesome. Do you still have a passion
for dinosaurs?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I never had.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I had a passion for making people happy and a
passion for hospitality and showing them a good time, and
that's what I still do on a daily basis, and
dinosaurs didn't interest me at all. It was just the
fact that I could, you know, stand in front of
a group and I make them smile. And I think
that's what I still love to do and can luckily
do with my current job as well.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What a great way to get started. Now, do you
remember that first song that you produced when you were
in your teens?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, I mean there's obviously a lot of crap that
comes out fruity loops when you first started up, So yeah,
what is the first song? I don't know, Like I remember,
I did produce a lot of you know, heart style
jump style that back in the day is like that
type of genre, and I used to do always put
it on a forum called jump Force and you have
(06:39):
this demo drop section where you could drop your demo
and people would reply to it, and that's how kind
of get my first feedback. So my first song that
I released was probably like some heartstyle or jumpstyle track.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
It's so crazy to see how you've changed.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, melodies I've always been
at the heart of what I do instead of you know,
having well things like you have the hardcore genre as well,
where it's way more about you know, the kick drum
and precisely like tuning that. But for me, it's always
been about melodies, just like in Hostyle at a tropical house.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It's it's very similar in that sense.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Well, speaking to melodies, one of your biggest songs that
completely changed your life was your remake of Show Me Love,
which so many people were in love with. But do
you remember the first dance song that made you fall
in love with d M.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, it's quite funny, but I think it was the
original version of Show Me Love because I was I
still remember.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was somewhere buying new secondhand.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Speakers for my drive in show and the guy that
sold them to me wanted to, you know, show if
they were good or not. He wanted to test them out,
and the song he played was Robiness Showed Me Love.
So I bought the speakers, but I also fell in
love with the genre and started researching what type of
music it was because you know, you have to remember
(08:11):
I was around eleven twelve years old. I had no
idea about musical genres. I just played whatever was popular
back then in school. And then I realized, oh, there's
this whole genre called house music and subgenres, and that's
how I kind of dove in for the first time.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
That's so awesome. Now, Sam Feld, isn't your real name.
You had another name when you were originally DJing as well,
But when you were trying to rebrand yourself, was Sam
Felt the first name you decided on or were there
other names you were first considering?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, I wasn't really rebranding myself.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I was just creating a SoundCloud account to put the
stuff on that I was mixing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I was.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I was completely absorbed by this new genre called tropical
and melodical house. And you know, with guys like Baker,
Matt and Caygo coming up, and I started making mixed
versus songs in the beginning, and I just needed a
new moniker, a new name to release these mixtapes under.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
And my real name is Sam.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
And back then, you know, if you looked at melodic house,
a lot of the German guys are doing really well,
like Robin Childs and Colg Brenner. So I thought, hey,
I need a German last name. So I talked in
German last names on in Google and I found Felt,
which sounds great in.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
English, in Dutch and in German. So yeah, I took
my first name and it felt to it.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
And then I needed the logo, so I went to
a website called thefund dot com where you can now
free funds, taught Sam Felt put it on the side
and that has been my logo for ten years probably
and I was made in photoshop by myself in five minutes,
so that was my rebranding. I've got a proper logo
hour since like one year, but that has been like
(09:50):
the logo Off toured with for years, which was just
me creating it in photoshop.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Now we were talking about the Caigo tour.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Your show is that you're the drive in shows that
got you started. Do you remember the first time performing
for a crowd.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
In front of a crowd of I think thirteen year
old girls that were having like a party in our
youth youth center in the village where I was born.
Book Still in the south of the Netherlands, and I
was so so honest, and I brought my own my
own DJ controller, and I was even so scared to
(10:28):
play it. I brought a friend to do it back
to back with me, and the girls had fun. In
the end, they didn't really care about my music. But
that was my first proper performance and I got paid
for it too.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I think I got like fifty euros for it.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So that was my first professional DJ performance and I
must have been around thirteen or twelve something like that.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That's so incredible that you've been doing it this long.
That's so awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Now almost going twenty years now.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Besides your new smash Heart Like Mine, you've had so
many songs that on the radio. Do you remember the
first time hearing one of your songs on the radio?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, one hundred percent. It was.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It was a song that I released on Spinning and
the track itself was very Netherlands oriented. It was a
collaboration with a very famous singer from the Netherlands called
Hank vest Blouk. The track never really made it out
of the Netherlands because of that, but when they premiered it,
I was on the biggest radio station in Holland and
(11:26):
they gave me a call, and I was so nervous,
and it was so crazy to actually talk to the
guy on the on the other end of the radio
that you've been listening to for really your whole life
and have them talk about your music and play your music.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, that's such an amazing feeling. It's got to be.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Even when I hear myself on the radio still I'm like, oh,
that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I have the heart for the radio show every every week,
and still when I hear it back, it's like, that
sounds pretty nice.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Now I congratulated you in DM back in April, but
officially congratulations on the birth of your son. That is
so amazing for you guys. When was the first time
you found out you were going to be a father?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Oh, I just came back from a show in Berlin
and it was in the week of my birthday. So
my wife had multiple gifts planned for me and they
were like kind of spread out throughout the week.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So she had been giving me like small.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Gifts every day, and now she gave me this box
for the pregnancy test and it was full of them.
I was like, oh, I'm getting it. I'm gonna a
kid like that's that's the biggest gifts basically. So yeah,
and then we had to We wanted to keep it
a secret for a while, but that same night I
had my birthday dinner and she couldn't drink obviously, and
(12:47):
she couldn't have like half of the menu. So all
my friends knew straight away. So even before my father knew,
we had to tell.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Them, well, congratulations again. That is so amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Now finally in honor of heart like mine, it's got
the lyrics. I wasn't looking for open arms, just a
place where I could clear my mind. Where's the first
place Sam feltkos to clear his mind?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Oh, I go.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Inside, I close my eyes and I meditate. I do
that quite a lot every night before I fall asleep.
That's how I kind of zone out of whatever is
happening or has happened at the show before, and just.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Feel what's happening inside of my body.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That's awesome, because a lot of times when I chat
with performers, you know, there's so much Even with me
doing a radio show, You're adrenaline gets so high, and
then when the show's done it crashes so much. I
remember driving home and just calling my mom just to
talk to somebody.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
So that's great that you do that.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah, it's I mean, it's always the same, Like you're
on the stage, high on adrenaline, jumping up and down,
and then five minutes later you can be in the
car by yourself, in the room by yourself, and it's
it's a big switch. So you need to find a
way to kind of go back down, going back down
on that level. Uh and and you know, get in
(14:09):
touch with yourself again instead of what's happening around you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Absolutely, Well let's talk about this smash. You know, the
first time I heard Rosalind was on Galants's One Cry.
She is so incredible. How was this song born? I
(14:32):
saw once again that the amazing Sophie Simmons had something
to do with this.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah, correctly.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I had a song with her called Magnets back in
the day, so it was on the epeat. It also
included Post Malone as a bonus trek, which was my
biggest trick ever. So you never know, but yeah, she
wrote she wrote a ton or at least, you know,
one song I came out. But she's been involved with
many projects as a writer, and this one was was
the same as it was. It was her voice on it.
(15:00):
Originally Rosa ended up cutting it, but I think Rosa
sounded perfect from the very first take, so I knew
immediately I wanted to have her on the song.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And I've been in love with her ever.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Since she released Snap and obviously the Glens track that
just came out. So yeah, overall, I met her. I
just met her last weekend. That's very crazy after the
song already came out, but it was a great celebration.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
She's an amazing live singer too.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Sometimes people can sing really well in the studio, but
then on stage it sounds like definitely wasn't the case.
So she really kneeled the performance. And I'm very happy
that she's on the track.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And how long ago did you guys start working on
it track.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
It's been in the works for quite quite a while.
I think a half a year ago. It's when I
first got like the original idea and from Sophie with
just the lyrics and a little bit of the vocals
and the Coldplay sample which now kind of is the drop,
was not in the demo. It was the idea to
make it interpolation, which is different than for example, when
(16:04):
we did Crying on the Dance Floor, which was you know,
it was an interpolation from the start. You know, it's
based on that that that that iconic melody. But here
it kind of just came into my mind as I
was working in working on the drop melody, and I thought, oh, now,
well that's that sucks. We're never going to be able
to clear that, but it sounds amazing. So I just
(16:26):
sent it to my publisher and thought I'd never heard
back again. But the Coldplayer actually liked it and cleared
the track within within a week, so fast too, so
I was very excited when they they gave me the
news about that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That is insane because normally when you're trying to clear
a sample, it could take like years for it to
get cleared.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
You know, I'm waiting on a lot of I'm waiting
on a lot of samples to get clear just just
to be able to continue with the project. And obviously
right now there's a there's a big hype around around
using samples and doing interpilations and stuff like that, and
in a career, I always try to make sure that
the new song, whatever it is, if it's crying on
a dance floor like mine stands on itself. And then
(17:08):
the sample kind of gets reintroduced to a new younger
audience where we where we kind of take You know,
everybody our generation knows clocks by Cold Py, but you know,
a ten year old that's on TikTok might not know
that sample yet, so we now have the honor to
introduce it to them.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's what's so incredible about these turpulations, is it truly
is like a generation gap.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I love finding out how many different v's there are
of songs from when you start working on it, all
the tweaking that goes on when you finally master it
and put it out.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Do you remember what the final v was of Heart
like Mine?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Uh? Yeahoo?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
I know just from the master makes a Master's side
a bit about ten ten variations, ten versions, But that
was when the track was already finished, so it was
just tweaking to make a master. So there must have
been thirty versions and then you know fifteen with Rosa.
But it wasn't that we needed to tweak as much.
(18:10):
It was just little things like in the mix down
and stuff like that. You always want to have it
perfect things a lot of people won't even notice. But
when I now listen to the track, I'm like, oh nice,
that baseline really fits in well with the kick.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Just the technical stuff and how different was the original
from when you sampled in the coldplay?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Was it a completely different sound?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
It was?
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I mean I always wanted to take this track into
a certain direction, which you know, I wanted to be
a dance smash. Basically. The tempo was very good for it.
Of course, the vocals itself like, they're powerful, they're uplifting,
so I knew what direction I was going to take
it in, but obviously the sample wasn't in there. I
(18:51):
also have a version of the drop with a different
melody in case we weren't able to clear it, and
that was always my kind of V one. And then
the V one point one was the goalpoay one, which
you know I always threw in the trash, but luckily
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
That's so amazing. Well, congratulations on it. It is such
a smash. I can't wait to see it start climbing
the charts.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
You, of course are on tour with Kigo. You've got
your huge event coming up in Amsterdam. Besides that, is
there anything else Sam Felt would like to share with us.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, of course. I mean, if you're you're at Ade,
definitely come by. My party is seventeenth of October at
Hotel Arena.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
I'm gonna have a lot of pretty cool guests like
laid Back Lucas can be announced soon. Bass checkers will
be there, Martin Jensen. So yeah, Ade Mode kind of
from from next month onwards. And yeah, of course I've
got a lot of new songs in the works as well,
when it's a little bit more country pop that we're
(19:52):
finalizing right now, and that I've been loving you from
the very very beginning. And we have a track coming
up as well well with a couple of other big artists.
But I don't know if I can tell that you
tell you that, yeah, but I'll send it to you.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I can't wait to hear all of it. And I
got to ask a favor. This is going to be
my first ever ad, So when I see you over there,
please take it easy on me.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Yeah, you've never been to Ade. You're presenting the show
and you've never been.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I've actually never left this country. Besides being born in Canada,
I've only been in the United States. So this is
going to be my first international trip.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I'm very honored that you your first trip is going
to be to Amsterdam, to my hometown, and I'm looking forward.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
To welcoming you.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
And you have also chosen the exact right time to
come doing AD So I'll see you at the show.
I'll see you there. Like the whole city gets transformed
into like the dance capital of the world. There's flags,
there's people from all over the world in my backyard basically,
so that's that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I can't wait to experience it. Sam Feld, it
is always great catching up with you. Thank you so
much for your time with us on America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Thank you thanks for having me and I appreciate the support.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
And I'll see you at ADE America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Am America's Dance thirty.
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Honestly, I think this is the first time I'm starting
America's Dance thirty by apologizing to my guest.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
But Sam, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I need to apologize to you.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Dance counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
This is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We've known each other a long time.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Besides that, you are an incredible producer, DJ, philanthropist, businessman,
label boss and all around human beings. So I apologize
that I've never had you as a guest on America's
Dance thirty before.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, I mean, we've known each other for such a
long time.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
We've partied together, we've been to shows, and I don't know.
Sometimes stuff doesn't it doesn't happen should And now we're
finally making up for us.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes, please don't hold it against me, Sam Feld, Welcome
to America's Dance thirty for the first time.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Thank you, appreciate it. Happy to be here now.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
It has been a long time since we've properly caught up.
How have you been.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I've been good. I've been mostly on the Caigo tour
right now. We just did New York to show It
shows at the Barclay Center. I am now in Boston
and we're going to Canada, so let's running in Montreal
this weekend, so I'm about to hit hit the stage
again in the Big Stadium today.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
And how has Kaigo's tour been for you so far?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Very good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
We were with the premiere our brand new song hard
Like Mine with Rosalyn on the Friday, on sold out
night at the Barclays, so that was really really cool,
got lots of content and it was really cool to
meet her in person as well, and we've never met before.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So overall it's been really really nice.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
And I think, you know, the audience that Cayo pulls
to a shows is exactly the type of audio is
that also listens to my music, So I think.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
It's a match kind of made in heaven.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
We're continuing to tour as well in Europe in Copenhagen
and Budapest, and I'm even going to the one in
Mexico next year, so there's lots coming up too.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, I saw the video you posted with you and
Rosa Linn performing the song. I can't wait to talk
about this smash because it is such an incredible song
and find out how it was born. But first let's
get to know Sam Feld a little better with Finkey's
first sounds good. So I always love finding out the
(02:36):
origin story of artists. I know you learned music at
a really young age, and then you started DJing and
producing at like thirteen, right.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Yeah, correct, Around the same time I discovered footy loops
and a friend of mine also discovered the same software,
and we were making all sorts of random stuff jump
style even it was my first jong that I really
produced and put out on the forums and stuff like
that to get feedback on. And at the same time,
I was saving up for things like a smoke machine
(03:05):
and amplifier to build my own drive into and play
you know, the parties at school, parties of my friends.
And that's kind of how I started both as a
DJ and a producer around the age of ten eleven.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But then you also even had your first e commerce
store at thirteen years old. Now, when you were growing up,
what was the first thing you wanted to do was music?
The first thing you wanted to get into, I.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Think anything with buttons, you know, computers. I was super
interested in building websites as you said. My first business
I launched officially when I was thirteen years old, and
I was an e commerce stores drop shipping cameras from
China to the Netherlands. So it's kind of what's popular now,
but then you know, fifteen years ago. Anyways, anything that
(03:54):
had you know, buttons and was blinking that you know,
kind of draw my interest. And that included of course, yeah,
that the CD players, you know, but also the visual
aspects of the show like I loved, you know, getting
getting a new smoke machine, like I said, or getting
like something cool like a laser for my drive in show.
So just a big nerd both you know, on the
(04:15):
software side and on the hardware side. And music is
always a big part of it. And I feel like,
you know, if you want to be successful as a producer,
you're going to need to be a nerd because she needs.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
To spend a lot of time behind the computer messing
with stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
As somebody that likes to have their hand in all aspects.
You know, you are so insanely busy. Now do you
have to let that go or do you still have
your hand in everything?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Well, I mean, if for every project that I have
right now, I've got a team in place that I
fully trust. So I've got a great management team at
Palm Tree that you do do their best, you know,
to get me new collabs and features and find the
right songs and heartsfelt. I go run with my wife Michelle,
and she also owns half of the label, so I've
(05:00):
trust her on that side.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So there's partners everywhere.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I mean, I'm still kind of at at the helmet
at the head of it all. I still make the
important decisions, but it's not like I micromanage on it
on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I hope not.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
At least that's good to hear. You'd probably drive yourself
and your team crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Yeah, I used to be pretty good at that, but
I kind of let it go now.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Now complete side note, but you got to share with
r A D thirty fam what your first job was.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
This was awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I volunteered in a dinosaur museum when I was around
eight years old, So that was my first.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Now, not a job.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I didn't get paid. I get paid maybe in an
ice cream at the end of the day. But I
used to do guided tours in a dinosaur museum and
just yeah, guide groups around basically when I was eight
years old.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That is so awesome. Do you still have a passion
for dinosaurs?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I never had.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I had a passion for making people happy and a
passion for hospitality and showing them a good time, and
that's what I still do on a daily basis, and
dinosaurs didn't interest me at all. It was just the
fact that I could, you know, stand in front of
a group and I make them smile. And I think
that's what I still love to do and can luckily
do with my current job as well.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What a great way to get started. Now, do you
remember that first song that you produced when you were
in your teens?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, I mean there's obviously a lot of crap that
comes out fruity loops when you first started up, So yeah,
what is the first song? I don't know, Like I remember,
I did produce a lot of you know, heart style
jump style that back in the day is like that
type of genre, and I used to do always put
it on a forum called jump Force and you have
(06:39):
this demo drop section where you could drop your demo
and people would reply to it, and that's how kind
of get my first feedback. So my first song that
I released was probably like some heartstyle or jumpstyle track.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
It's so crazy to see how you've changed.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, melodies I've always been
at the heart of what I do instead of you know,
having well things like you have the hardcore genre as well,
where it's way more about you know, the kick drum
and precisely like tuning that. But for me, it's always
been about melodies, just like in Hostyle at a tropical house.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It's it's very similar in that sense.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Well, speaking to melodies, one of your biggest songs that
completely changed your life was your remake of Show Me Love,
which so many people were in love with. But do
you remember the first dance song that made you fall
in love with d M.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, it's quite funny, but I think it was the
original version of Show Me Love because I was I
still remember.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was somewhere buying new secondhand.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Speakers for my drive in show and the guy that
sold them to me wanted to, you know, show if
they were good or not. He wanted to test them out,
and the song he played was Robiness Showed Me Love.
So I bought the speakers, but I also fell in
love with the genre and started researching what type of
music it was because you know, you have to remember
(08:11):
I was around eleven twelve years old. I had no
idea about musical genres. I just played whatever was popular
back then in school. And then I realized, oh, there's
this whole genre called house music and subgenres, and that's
how I kind of dove in for the first time.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
That's so awesome. Now, Sam Feld, isn't your real name.
You had another name when you were originally DJing as well,
But when you were trying to rebrand yourself, was Sam
Felt the first name you decided on or were there
other names you were first considering?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, I wasn't really rebranding myself.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I was just creating a SoundCloud account to put the
stuff on that I was mixing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I was.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I was completely absorbed by this new genre called tropical
and melodical house. And you know, with guys like Baker,
Matt and Caygo coming up, and I started making mixed
versus songs in the beginning, and I just needed a
new moniker, a new name to release these mixtapes under.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
And my real name is Sam.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
And back then, you know, if you looked at melodic house,
a lot of the German guys are doing really well,
like Robin Childs and Colg Brenner. So I thought, hey,
I need a German last name. So I talked in
German last names on in Google and I found Felt,
which sounds great in.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
English, in Dutch and in German. So yeah, I took
my first name and it felt to it.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
And then I needed the logo, so I went to
a website called thefund dot com where you can now
free funds, taught Sam Felt put it on the side
and that has been my logo for ten years probably
and I was made in photoshop by myself in five minutes,
so that was my rebranding. I've got a proper logo
hour since like one year, but that has been like
(09:50):
the logo Off toured with for years, which was just
me creating it in photoshop.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Now we were talking about the Caigo tour.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Your show is that you're the drive in shows that
got you started. Do you remember the first time performing
for a crowd.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
In front of a crowd of I think thirteen year
old girls that were having like a party in our
youth youth center in the village where I was born.
Book Still in the south of the Netherlands, and I
was so so honest, and I brought my own my
own DJ controller, and I was even so scared to
(10:28):
play it. I brought a friend to do it back
to back with me, and the girls had fun. In
the end, they didn't really care about my music. But
that was my first proper performance and I got paid
for it too.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I think I got like fifty euros for it.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So that was my first professional DJ performance and I
must have been around thirteen or twelve something like that.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
That's so incredible that you've been doing it this long.
That's so awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Now almost going twenty years now.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Besides your new smash Heart Like Mine, you've had so
many songs that on the radio. Do you remember the
first time hearing one of your songs on the radio?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, one hundred percent. It was.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It was a song that I released on Spinning and
the track itself was very Netherlands oriented. It was a
collaboration with a very famous singer from the Netherlands called
Hank vest Blouk. The track never really made it out
of the Netherlands because of that, but when they premiered it,
I was on the biggest radio station in Holland and
(11:26):
they gave me a call, and I was so nervous,
and it was so crazy to actually talk to the
guy on the on the other end of the radio
that you've been listening to for really your whole life
and have them talk about your music and play your music.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, that's such an amazing feeling. It's got to be.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Even when I hear myself on the radio still I'm like, oh,
that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I have the heart for the radio show every every week,
and still when I hear it back, it's like, that
sounds pretty nice.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Now I congratulated you in DM back in April, but
officially congratulations on the birth of your son. That is
so amazing for you guys. When was the first time
you found out you were going to be a father?
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Oh, I just came back from a show in Berlin
and it was in the week of my birthday. So
my wife had multiple gifts planned for me and they
were like kind of spread out throughout the week.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
So she had been giving me like small.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Gifts every day, and now she gave me this box
for the pregnancy test and it was full of them.
I was like, oh, I'm getting it. I'm gonna a
kid like that's that's the biggest gifts basically. So yeah,
and then we had to We wanted to keep it
a secret for a while, but that same night I
had my birthday dinner and she couldn't drink obviously, and
(12:47):
she couldn't have like half of the menu. So all
my friends knew straight away. So even before my father knew,
we had to tell.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Them, well, congratulations again. That is so amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Now finally in honor of heart like mine, it's got
the lyrics. I wasn't looking for open arms, just a
place where I could clear my mind. Where's the first
place Sam feltkos to clear his mind?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Oh, I go.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Inside, I close my eyes and I meditate. I do
that quite a lot every night before I fall asleep.
That's how I kind of zone out of whatever is
happening or has happened at the show before, and just.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Feel what's happening inside of my body.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That's awesome, because a lot of times when I chat
with performers, you know, there's so much Even with me
doing a radio show, You're adrenaline gets so high, and
then when the show's done it crashes so much. I
remember driving home and just calling my mom just to
talk to somebody.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
So that's great that you do that.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yeah, it's I mean, it's always the same, Like you're
on the stage, high on adrenaline, jumping up and down,
and then five minutes later you can be in the
car by yourself, in the room by yourself, and it's
it's a big switch. So you need to find a
way to kind of go back down, going back down
on that level. Uh and and you know, get in
(14:09):
touch with yourself again instead of what's happening around you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Absolutely, Well let's talk about this smash. You know, the
first time I heard Rosalind was on Galants's One Cry.
She is so incredible. How was this song born? I
(14:32):
saw once again that the amazing Sophie Simmons had something
to do with this.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah, correctly.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I had a song with her called Magnets back in
the day, so it was on the epeat. It also
included Post Malone as a bonus trek, which was my
biggest trick ever. So you never know, but yeah, she
wrote she wrote a ton or at least, you know,
one song I came out. But she's been involved with
many projects as a writer, and this one was was
the same as it was. It was her voice on it.
(15:00):
Originally Rosa ended up cutting it, but I think Rosa
sounded perfect from the very first take, so I knew
immediately I wanted to have her on the song.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And I've been in love with her ever.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Since she released Snap and obviously the Glens track that
just came out. So yeah, overall, I met her. I
just met her last weekend. That's very crazy after the
song already came out, but it was a great celebration.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
She's an amazing live singer too.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Sometimes people can sing really well in the studio, but
then on stage it sounds like definitely wasn't the case.
So she really kneeled the performance. And I'm very happy
that she's on the track.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And how long ago did you guys start working on
it track.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
It's been in the works for quite quite a while.
I think a half a year ago. It's when I
first got like the original idea and from Sophie with
just the lyrics and a little bit of the vocals
and the Coldplay sample which now kind of is the drop,
was not in the demo. It was the idea to
make it interpolation, which is different than for example, when
(16:04):
we did Crying on the Dance Floor, which was you know,
it was an interpolation from the start. You know, it's
based on that that that that iconic melody. But here
it kind of just came into my mind as I
was working in working on the drop melody, and I thought, oh, now,
well that's that sucks. We're never going to be able
to clear that, but it sounds amazing. So I just
(16:26):
sent it to my publisher and thought I'd never heard
back again. But the Coldplayer actually liked it and cleared
the track within within a week, so fast too, so
I was very excited when they they gave me the
news about that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That is insane because normally when you're trying to clear
a sample, it could take like years for it to
get cleared.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
You know, I'm waiting on a lot of I'm waiting
on a lot of samples to get clear just just
to be able to continue with the project. And obviously
right now there's a there's a big hype around around
using samples and doing interpilations and stuff like that, and
in a career, I always try to make sure that
the new song, whatever it is, if it's crying on
a dance floor like mine stands on itself. And then
(17:08):
the sample kind of gets reintroduced to a new younger
audience where we where we kind of take You know,
everybody our generation knows clocks by Cold Py, but you know,
a ten year old that's on TikTok might not know
that sample yet, so we now have the honor to
introduce it to them.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's what's so incredible about these turpulations, is it truly
is like a generation gap.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I love finding out how many different v's there are
of songs from when you start working on it, all
the tweaking that goes on when you finally master it
and put it out.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Do you remember what the final v was of Heart
like Mine?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Uh? Yeahoo?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
I know just from the master makes a Master's side
a bit about ten ten variations, ten versions, But that
was when the track was already finished, so it was
just tweaking to make a master. So there must have
been thirty versions and then you know fifteen with Rosa.
But it wasn't that we needed to tweak as much.
(18:10):
It was just little things like in the mix down
and stuff like that. You always want to have it
perfect things a lot of people won't even notice. But
when I now listen to the track, I'm like, oh nice,
that baseline really fits in well with the kick.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Just the technical stuff and how different was the original
from when you sampled in the coldplay?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Was it a completely different sound?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
It was?
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I mean I always wanted to take this track into
a certain direction, which you know, I wanted to be
a dance smash. Basically. The tempo was very good for it.
Of course, the vocals itself like, they're powerful, they're uplifting,
so I knew what direction I was going to take
it in, but obviously the sample wasn't in there. I
(18:51):
also have a version of the drop with a different
melody in case we weren't able to clear it, and
that was always my kind of V one. And then
the V one point one was the goalpoay one, which
you know I always threw in the trash, but luckily
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
That's so amazing. Well, congratulations on it. It is such
a smash. I can't wait to see it start climbing
the charts.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
You, of course are on tour with Kigo. You've got
your huge event coming up in Amsterdam. Besides that, is
there anything else Sam Felt would like to share with us.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, of course. I mean, if you're you're at Ade,
definitely come by. My party is seventeenth of October at
Hotel Arena.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
I'm gonna have a lot of pretty cool guests like
laid Back Lucas can be announced soon. Bass checkers will
be there, Martin Jensen. So yeah, Ade Mode kind of
from from next month onwards. And yeah, of course I've
got a lot of new songs in the works as well,
when it's a little bit more country pop that we're
(19:52):
finalizing right now, and that I've been loving you from
the very very beginning. And we have a track coming
up as well well with a couple of other big artists.
But I don't know if I can tell that you
tell you that, yeah, but I'll send it to you.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I can't wait to hear all of it. And I
got to ask a favor. This is going to be
my first ever ad, So when I see you over there,
please take it easy on me.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Yeah, you've never been to Ade. You're presenting the show
and you've never been.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I've actually never left this country. Besides being born in Canada,
I've only been in the United States. So this is
going to be my first international trip.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I'm very honored that you your first trip is going
to be to Amsterdam, to my hometown, and I'm looking forward.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
To welcoming you.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
And you have also chosen the exact right time to
come doing AD So I'll see you at the show.
I'll see you there. Like the whole city gets transformed
into like the dance capital of the world. There's flags,
there's people from all over the world in my backyard basically,
so that's that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I can't wait to experience it. Sam Feld, it
is always great catching up with you. Thank you so
much for your time with us on America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Thank you thanks for having me and I appreciate the support.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
And I'll see you at ADE America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Am America's Dance thirty.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!