Sam Brookes
Sam Brookes + Christof van der Ven + Henry Bateman
Entry Requirements: 16+
London based songsmith and former Sunday Times ‘Breaking Act’ Sam Brookes is still one of the UK alt-folk’s best kept secrets. His acclaimed 2014 album Kairos was tipped by The Independent for a Mercury Prize nomination, received support from the likes of Dermot O’Leary on BBC Radio 2. With over 5 million plays on Spotify, it is fair to say that those who know his music, love his music….and those who don’t, are about to.
Brookes’ new single My Girls Drinks Coffee, his first for over two years, marks an exciting shift in the Sam Brookes sound. Already well known as an idiosyncratic singer-songwriter, Sam challenged himself to expand his sonic pallet, spending a few years out the game gigging and experimenting with new material. The end result is an immediate and ethereal work of chic melancholy, built on synthesised textures that devilishly underpin his soaring signature vocal. Now Sam’s new soundworld is as evocative of Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem or Grimes as it is the obvious titans of influence for any British troubadour. Check out Sam’s Inspiration playlist on Spotify here.
This is a song inspired by the break-up of a relationship. Beautiful in its simplicity, the hypnotic repetition of the eponymous chorus lyrics ‘My girl drinks coffee without me’ aches on the absence of simple habits as ordinary as sharing a morning coffee with a loved one. Sam admits “after a break-up it’s easy to feel like you are missing a part of yourself. On top of that you are left thinking ‘who might that person be sharing a coffee with instead of me?!”.
Jointly produced by Grammy nominated Dom Monks (Ray Lamontagne, Laura Marling & Katie Melua) and Berlin based ex-pat Greg Freeman (Goldfrapp, Portico, Mumford & Sons), the track was arranged and recorded on a trip to a remote boathouse on the Isle of Skye and completed at Guy Chamber’s Sleeper Sounds studio in London, where the production duo truly realised Sam’s dark but dancey vision.