Something about Sam Windley
Sam Windley, a young bright-eyed singer, song-writer from the Central Coast of NSW with a knack for making music that sounds like sunshine. She’s been groovin’ her way through the Aussie music scene for a little while now, supporting bands like Babe Rainbow and hopping on board the Isolaid tour last year. Since then we’ve come to loooove her work, it’s refreshing and warm and captures the beauty of youth coming into adulthood really nicely. So we thought we’d find out a little bit more about Sam to share with you guys over ten quick questions:
WANDERER: What has your path been like with music, when did you start learning and what has helped you develop the most?
SAM: My musical path has mainly been forged by the fact that I want to live a fun and vibrant life. I like the idea of being on tour all the time and playing lots of shows so I’m very driven to achieve that. I have been learning about music forever just by my immersion in it, I think 90% of the time I spend awake I am listening to some sort of music.
Do you have many passions outside of your music, if so what are they and what is it you love about them?
My deepest passion besides music is people, I love forming relationships and watching them grow because it’s equal parts fun and sentimental.
Who are your top three fave artists?
At the moment: Grimes, Tim Minchin, Alabaster DePlume / All time: Laura Marling, Feist, Nick Drake
What is something about your style that you think is unique or distinctive to you?
I struggle to pigeonhole my music into any particular genre, especially when songs are in their beginning stages. I’m influenced by so many different types of artists and never specifically try to imitate anyone which as a happy accident gives me a lot of freedom when creating music and I hope this is reflected in the way it sounds.
What's your favourite thing about yourself?
My favourite thing about myself is probably just my capacity as a human being to feel nice things like love and joy.
What do you want people to take away from your work/ what is it you most want to convey to others?
I’m not really trying to convey anything, obviously my songs have meaning but they’re more of a personal diary to me and a way for me to connect with what I’m feeling at the time. For other people to find meaning or some other takeaway in my songs would just be a pleasant side effect.
Last year you were one of the Triple J Unearthed High Finalists, which is a pretty awesome achievement. Were you expecting to get into that, how did it come about?
Unearthed High was very cool, I got a lot of exposure on the radio and on social media and I think a lot more people heard my music because of it. It’s very motivating to have the support of Triple J and their encouragement is always a very welcome surprise.
You also did some work with Alex Lahey and Billy Otto last year, what was that process like?
Co-writing with Alex Lahey was great because she helped a lot of abstract things I had been thinking about become actualised into words. She also had a cool synth which was way outside of my usual realm of instruments and that was fun to write with. I’ve known Billy for a few years and he is very much a friend to me, whenever we work on songs together my mind becomes very flowy and I feel totally inspired. I like the way our creativity bounces off each other.
Can you tell us your favourite gig story/experience yet?
All of them, but the funniest was when I opened for John Floreani at the Basement in Canberra and my guitarist and I played a song we wrote in the green room half an hour before our set about how it’s legal to get stoned in the ACT.
What is one thing you would tell your future self, say in ten years time, something you hope you’ll never forget?
I would tell my future self to make friends with lots of successful comedians and go to their parties because I think that would be a lot of fun.
