The start of 2022 has been different all-round, but for Samm Henshaw this year has promised to be one filled with triumph. We are only a short time into the release of the 27-year-old’s debut album, Untidy Soul, an anticipated project as Samm enters his seventh year making music. Born and raised in South East London, from a young age the arts were subconsciously building into the character he is today, from gospel music at church or his dad’s love for film, Samm is determined to lean into his creativity, always.
‘Untidy Soul’ is a project spanning 16 tracks, beginning with ‘Thoughts & Prayers’, a social commentary by Samm providing a spirited form of meditation touching on themes of love and loss. It offers a glimpse into Samm’s creative freedom alongside features from Maverick Sabre, Tobe Nwigwe, and Keyon Harrold. This past year, the narrative of an ‘Untidy Soul’ has been unfolding before us with music videos inspired by Childish Gambino’s Atlanta, using the satire of a TV-style series to tap into Samm’s love for acting. While he doesn’t consider himself an ‘actor’ per se, the character of Sonny played by Samm was coined for this release and he also featured in the A-List film, Godfather Of Harlem.
Finding his love for music almost a decade ago with his housemates while studying popular music in university, Samm is now finding inspiration and a passion in every nook and cranny of the industry. Launching his own label, Dorm7, promising to be a structure in helping musicians navigate a career, the mistakes and triumphs along the way, it is one built on a love for what he does. It is fair to say that the album has had a fair amount of attention these past few weeks, and rightly so, picking up reviews from various platforms, securing a performance on The Late Show With James Corden, is the stepping stone to larger audiences.
Clash got the chance to catch up with Samm Henshaw over Zoom, as he was entering the start of a busy week. The release of Untidy soul and more personally, finding time to move into a new house, his character was all you expected it to be. While we had the typical Zoom connecting issues, we got the chance to delve into his childhood, love for the arts, the album and so much more!
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Samm! Happy New Year, how’s 2022 been treating you so far?
I’m feeling quite good about it, which is weird, I never really enter the new year feeling excited so I’m liking it.
What’s exciting to you about this new year? You’ve got a lot going on right now!
I think that’s been the part that has made entering this year better. Last year was just a bad ending for me, there wasn’t a single bad thing that I don’t think happened. So, it’s nice to know that there are new things coming, I’m excited about the album being out, I performed on James Corden…
You know when you’re just like ‘damn, that’s really cool that I’m doing that’, I don’t really know how to process it. There’s so much going on, I’ve even moved to a new house during this, like so much crap happened last year that has also rolled into this year, but I feel good – it’s just manic. I feel overwhelmed but I kind of like it, it’s not a bad feeling.
How have you been preparing, with the album roll-out and your tour this month?
It can be manic and messy sometimes, honestly. The James Corden performance was pre-recorded, but it was manic because we found out a few days before we had to shoot it, I remember getting really excited about finding out I was doing that so now it’s done and out there, it’s weird. But in regard to stuff like that, just trying to be on the ball creatively.
You’ve been in this industry since 2015, do you find time to reflect and watch the things you have achieved?
I used to always look for the next thing when I was younger like I got to keep going, I got to do this. And I think the older I got the more I realised you may never get an opportunity to do this again, by God’s grace maybe I’ll be able to do more of this, but this particular moment will not happen like this again. Like the same first excitement will never happen again, and I think there’s a lot of ego wrapped in always wanting the next thing. Now it’s more like, I’m getting older and these moments don’t come often or may never come again so I want to embrace it and enjoy it and then keep going.
What made you want to begin embracing those moments? Because in a past interview you said one of the most important things to you is growth, so how do the two come together?
I think it was conversations I had with my mum and a few other people in my life. my mum always says ‘there’s a season for everything’, and that’s something she’s always said to me and it makes me realise that all these moments we have a prime and a moment that is great for them. And the more she said it to me the more I began taking in things around me. because I’ve gotten older a lot of the experiences I had when I was younger, it’s crazy to me that I was doing some of those things at the age I was doing them. It’s not regret but it made me question why I didn’t embrace those moments.
When you were young, what influences of music and film did you have that you can see reflecting in the work you do today?
My dad used to be an actor, director, writer, and all of that sort of stuff, so growing up my dad would just watch films. When I was younger I didn’t think too much of it, but as I grew up I realised how much I liked the art of film, telling stories, etc. he played a big part in finding my love for visuals and two of my cousins lived with us when we were really young. So, stuff that was out at the time, like bashment, So Solid Crew, was a big part of my life at the time hearing those types of things.
I think those kinds of things became a part of my subconscious and I’ve taken it in with the work I’ve done today.
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What kind of kid were you in school? You strike me as the one in all the school plays, music band…
I was the opposite! I was a bad kid. I was the kid that would do his own thing, I’ve calmed down of course. But if I ever did join those sorts of things [school plays] there was always an ulterior motive, I remember I joined choir once and that was to meet girls, I didn’t meet any so I dipped. It was weird as well, it wasn’t cool music in the choir, it wasn’t lit like gospel Choir’s; big songs and voices, it was boring.
When did you start taking music as something you could turn into a full-time career?
I was old, to be honest; I didn’t do it until I was in uni, at maybe 20 years old when I actually saw it as a path I could take. I was always doing music because I grew up in a church, I was always excited by it but never saw it as a career. Growing up for us, we’d watch MTV and you had no idea how an artist got on the screen. There were no told or advice, it’s very easy now to be what you want to be, but growing up it was like good for them they’re doing that, but I never had any intention of doing it because I didn’t know the path to getting there.
And then in my first year of uni, I lived in halls with my mates and we were doing music production, so I did a lot of stuff with them, we would record all day and night, not for anything just for the sake of it. So, we just kept doing it and it became this thing we would do and we came up with decent songs. Then by second year all we did was make music, even missing lectures for it and I think at that point I realised this could be the thing I want to do. Then we started doing shows and it felt good, so I took it seriously.
Did you graduate?
I graduated with a degree in Popular Music but if I could do it again, I don’t know if I would choose that course. It’s like a double-edged sword because on one side I wouldn’t have met my uni mates and started recording but then I didn’t leave or learn anything from the actual course. I was already excited about music and what I was doing, seeking them out myself off the course but the course itself wasn’t the one.
You do so many different things, how important is it for your team to completely understand your vision?
I’ll give you a little back story because I think it’s important for artists to know this as well. I remember when I first started my career with the label – got signed to Columbia Records at 21, and I remember doing stuff for music videos and having ideas of what I wanted to do, they put me in a position of, ‘you need to trust us because we’re the professionals’ and ‘we know what we’re doing’ sort of thing. The music industry has changed so much since then, but I think the mentality of people that think they’re above what you want is very real and relevant. I remember having to bite my tongue a lot and my managers were basically telling me to play the game to put myself in a position to do what I want to do eventually. That silenced my ideas and what I wanted to do, it was all up to them.
As time started progressing in the label I started becoming more vocal and I started to realise that it was my face on everything I was doing so firstly; why would I continue to present a false narrative of myself and secondly; all these people came to me, meaning there was something that I did initially that showed I had the potential. My mentality then changed, and I started fighting for what I wanted. I wasn’t being difficult, I had to be okay with my vision. Now I’m in a weirder position because when something is getting done everyone goes ‘Samm what are we doing?’ And I don’t know sometimes but it’s now a team thing. I also like being in a position where I can fail to learn.
With the album roll-out, what did you learn from that?
I made a lot of mistakes with the build-up of this album but I’m also grateful for it because I left with more knowledge of what works for me. Before it was a bunch of people making decisions for me on my behalf, and now I am in a position of creative control where I am solely responsible for the mistakes I make and can learn from them. I can’t learn from the mistakes of people whose ideas I initially hated, either way, I am the face of that mistake but I can now learn from those.
Next time I do this, it will be a lot slicker. This is my debut album, I’m doing it independently, I have a great team of people behind me but it is a very different thing to having a major label backing, stuff like promo, merch, and artwork I learned a lot about because I do most of it myself. I’m also learning I can’t do it on my own as I am growing, so my approach will be different for the next one. I have no regrets, it’s all a part of my story.
You’ve come so far from where you started, you started your own label now too. I feel like a lot of people do start-ups like this to help the industry. What set’s your label and why did you want to do this?
I can’t remember where the idea came from, but I remember my boy, who was my drummer in an old band, and now and A&R, we spoke about how we would do it and why we want to do it. I’m about to turn 28 so doing this from about 20, the experience that we have now to where we started to the knowledge and insight, we have now contributed to this idea of wanting to help where we can. When we were younger, we were always made to feel really young, we’re still early into it but we’re trying to figure out how we can build it and help in any way we can.
So, what does the future look like for you? you’re a musician, an actor –
Haha, I wouldn’t say I’m an actor!
But you’ve been in Godfather Of Harlem, done a few stints, you’re an actor!
I’ve never considered myself an actor, my acting makes me cringe but I enjoy it so I’m trying to get over that. I wanted to test myself and see if I could, honestly, I’m getting interested in it, it’s not written off or set in stone.
What does the rest of your year look like?
I want to dive deeper into everything I’m doing – film, music, the label, just more creating. I won’t get too deep into it but there is a thing I am working on where I will be doing some creative direction, so I’ll see how I do at that. I want to do different things, have many focuses.
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Samm Henshaw’s debut album ‘Untidy Soul’ is out now.
Words: Hiba Hassan
Photo Credit: Edward Cooke
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