From outsider folk to underground Australian punk rock, Sam Johnson’s music takes influence from a wide variety of genres.
The 23-year-old singer/songwriter is self-taught on the guitar and crafted his signature sound taking influence from records lying around his house.
His debut single ‘Perfect Circle’, released in January, quickly gained attention making it BBC Introducing Shropshire’s ‘Track of the Month’ before being picked up by Radio 1 and Amazing Radio.
His soulful singles flow with meaningful lyrics with his releases landing him slots on festival stages this summer including Live at Leeds and Hit The North.
To celebrate the single’s release, Sam Johnson has shared the artists and singles that influenced ‘Way Back Home’.
MGMT – Kids
This song definitely played a big part in the making of ‘Way Back Home’. I wanted to bring in a left-field pop dynamic similar to that used in a lot of ‘Oracular Spectacular’. It’s one of my favourite albums and I think the hooky electronic riffs throughout are sublime.
Ben Howard
Folk has always been a massive love and Ben Howard is certainly an artist that I have always admired. His sophomore record ‘I Forget Where We Were’ was a life-changing album to me and something that I think will always influence the emotional direction of my music.
Broken Bells
I love the way they manipulate organs and vocals into catchy moments within their music and it was something I attempted to touch on when building the soundscape of ‘Way Back Home’.
Bon Iver
I have always been a huge fan of his work and ‘Flume’ is probably the main reason I started writing songs. I love the way he produces vocals and the harmonies and double tracking of my vocals has become a lynch point when producing my songs.
Bob Dylan
Being a song born out of political sentiment I have to mention Bob. It may appear a cliché for songwriters to refer to as an influence, but I don’t care, he’s great and was certainly in the back of my mind when crafting the lyrics in ‘Way Back Home’.
You can listen to ‘Way Back Home’ below:
https://soundcloud.com/samcartwrightjohnson/way-back-home-1