13 November 2022
Newsdesk
Sam Smith performed for BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room on Ken Bruce’s show. From Maida Vale Studios, Sam sang Stay With Me, Unholy – joined by Kim Petras, and a cover of Des’ree’s I’m Kissing You.
Here are some quotes from Sam Smith’s interview....
On making music after their quick success
Ken: You get all these fantastic accolades like Grammys and Brits and Golden Globes, an Oscar even, does that change your attitude to music-making?
Sam: I think when I got those awards originally in the first month afterwards you have a moment when you’re like, ‘oh wow, am I a bigshot now?’ And then you slowly realise that you’re not. And it has changed absolutely nothing. If anything, at first, it added pressure, so I had to get myself out of the pressure vault at points. But I’m feeling good now. I feel really settled. I’ve got a dog and I’m just loving making music for the sake of making music again. {…} Picking up some dog poo is the greatest grounding technique.
On their new album Gloria
Sam: One of my biggest tasks after my first three albums, for me, was to create an album that was full of joy, expressing happiness and joy, and hope. [That was] a really scary task for me musically so I really set myself that challenge because that’s how I was feeling at the time, I was feeling happy and I still am. And I really wanted to create a record that really started to talk about that inner voice that we all have inside of us that tells us to carry on and keep fighting and keep going. That’s what Gloria is.
On their first concert
Sam: My first concert was Tom Jones with my mum when I was about 13, I think, or 12. It was at Wembley Stadium and I remember just being blown away by Tom’s voice. It was one of my first concerts.
On writing the James Bond song
Sam: I was only 2 years into my career, about 22 years old. It was an opportunity that came to us that Barbara Broccoli and the Bond team were willing to talk to us. And we went and met them, I got given the script and then we went and we wrote the song. It was the most incredible feeling. The best part of that experience for me was that my uncle Terry is a huge James Bond fan and has dedicated his whole life to James Bond. So it was just mad to be part of the legacy of Bond. And making my uncle proud in that way was really special.
