One of the most compelling blues artists in the world, Samantha Fish is an undoubted star, her iconic 1950’s Hollywood star charisma and phenomenal playing have seen her become one of the leading lights of the scene.
From her nascent days playing on her local Kansas City, recording her first album at the age of twenty that caught the attention of Ruff Records who snapped her up and onto tours all over the globe, she’s never looked back. Mentored by Mike Zito and having blown away the legendary Buddy Guy with her playing, she’s quickly grown to be one of the most popular and respected figures on the scene, her nine studio albums having received both public and critical acclaim. Last year’s ‘Paper Doll’ saw her receive her second Grammy nomination, following a previous nod from the association for her collaboration with Jesse Dayton on ‘Death Wish Blues’ and with a UK tour starting tonight we caught up with her a few days ago to talk about her passion for blues and how it’s changed her life.
Firstly, congratulations on ‘Paper Doll’ getting so many great reviews. How important though for you is it to get such a warm critical response from both the press and the public?
“You want people to like the record. I don’t go into the studio thinking “I’m going to make an album to upset people”. The idea is that obviously everyone enjoys it…but there is an element that, as an artist, I need to get this thing out and across that is relevant and important and part of my journey. You have you finger crossed and think ‘well, this is important to me for me to say’ but also is this going to be important for people to enjoy it, to speak to them on another level. So, it is nice when there’s positive feedback when people like what you’re doing. I’ve still got to go in there every time and cross my fingers, but at the end of the day I make records that honestly express what I’m going through, my changes as an artist. It’s in the back of your mind that you hope people like this but when you’re doing it you’re more trying to lean in to ‘is this really what I want to say and is it true to me?’”
That’s the thing isn’t it. If you’re trying to catch the zeitgeist or guess the next trend then you’re not being true to yourself.
“That’s absolutely true, and I feel that when you’re chasing trends that it’s already been done. You can’t create the trend when you’re chasing them. I might never create any trend…or be trendy…but I will always be true to myself and I think that’s worth a lot as an artist.”
You worked again with Bobby Harlow on this album and that’s the first time you’ve collaborated since ‘Chills and Fever’. What brought you two back together again?
“It’s interesting who producers float in and out of your life. I’ve never sought anyone out, they just generally kind of appear in the atmosphere and it’s like ‘this is the perfect person for this moment, my art, my life and we’re going to do this together. I was coming around to writing I revisited songs that he wrote that I demo’ed out a long time ago and they were great. At the time I was young and felt that I was a little more rigid back then but now see things in hindsight that I thought ‘that would have been great for me if I’d have leaned in a little harder to this and that’. I reached out to him and was performing in Detroit so asked if he wanted to come along to a show. He came and saw us and it was the first time I’d seen him for years and he was really enamoured with the band. He said, “this band is really connecting with the people and you have to figure out a way to record whatever’s happening onstage”. So, he and I got together with the intention of writing songs and maybe do a demo or two. It was then evident that more we wrote and worked together that he was dedicated to the vision we both shared and was meant to be the producer of the record. I thought he did a great job.”
Absolutely. My favourite tracks are ‘Fortune Teller’ and ‘Sweet Southern Sounds’ as there’s so many layers. In fact, the whole album encapsulates so many strands that you bring together, everyone involved bringing their own magic.
“I agree and he has this deep-rooted rock ‘n’ roll sensibility. There’s something about Bobby that no-one is going to believe in you or your record more than when he’s in that producer’s chair, he is all in. he comes from a rock ‘n’ roll background, he’s been in various bands, is a writer himself and a performer and just really understands that era of rock ‘n’ roll, the urgency and the feeling. There’s not much talk about technique when you’re in the studio with him, it’s all about feelings and how to get that across. I find that production approach to be really inspiring. Who cares if you can hit that note up there or play this sick little flashy solo, it’s about the feeling and Bobby is a thousand per cent dedicated to that, as am I.”
Blues has always been about emotions though hasn’t it. Some of the rock music around tends to focus more on the technical but what I see with your playing is something soaked in soul.
“Thank you. I think the connecting factor is feeling it when you hear it and conveying an emotion that connects with another human being. That’s what I love about the blues, that’s what I love about rock ‘n’ roll. I think we hit a couple of good strides on this album.”
People must have agreed because you got a second Grammy nomination. That must have been a big thrill.
“It was amazing, thrilling and incredibly humbling. I didn’t expect it at all. I remember the day the call came through and I was like ‘really?’ and was just so shocked. It’s not that I didn’t think that the record was that good, we got that Grammy nomination with ‘Death Wish Blues’ and it felt like lightning striking, this is weird that this is even happening. To have that kind of recognition it means that the album spoke to enough people, that they heard the contemporary blues within it and recognised that it was good enough to counted amongst this pool of artists. It’s a high honour and always fun to go and just to be nominated really is a recognition of the arts so I feel really pleased with it.”
It’s funny isn’t it that your career could have taken a slightly different path as you started off as a drummer but then switched to guitar.
“I was a bad drummer” she says laughingly. “There was never a career at the end of that tunnel for me, but it got me a really innate sense of rhythm which only helped when I picked up the guitar and started singing. It gave me a real foundation to begin with and I now play with great drummers and it doesn’t give me any desire to get back there at all” she states with more laughter.
It’s interesting that you mentioned earlier the emotion of blues drawing you into it as you got into it at an early age. The perception is that young people getting into it is fairly unusual. Was that part of your upbringing at home?
“Not really in my younger years. My parents used to listen to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll and I think that was a gateway to finding out about blues music because every guitar hero I ever had, you could trace their influences back to blues. Part of growing up in Kansas City, when I had got proficient enough on guitar and wanted to go out and sit in with other musicians, the place has a long tradition in jazz and blues music. If you wanted to sit in with anyone you had to learn something within that tradition and having already started finding various blues artists, like getting into Freddie King and of course, hearing Stevie Ray Vaughn on the radio it takes you down this path and you start finding out about Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Skip James. When I got hip to the North Hill Country Blues stuff, that’s when I took a real hard turn into it and well in love with the sounds that were being married with North Hill and Mississippi. I was a big fan of R L Burnside and he did that song with Jon Spencer and that married my love of rock ‘n’ roll and blues and I just started to see all the possibilities, going into jam sessions and figuring out how to express myself, emoting with my guitar and my voice. All that was really informative and helped me create this foundation as a player and as a performer and I just built on top of it ever since.”
It’s great to see so many female artists who not only were inspired by the blues but are inspiring others. I was speaking to Ally Venable last year about the effect SRV had on her and I know that from Sister Rosetta Tharp onwards there’s been this great history of incredible female blues musicians, you yourself having been inspired by Bonnie Raitt. Having seen you several times in concert, there’s a great mix of both femininity and power that shows that you certainly can have both in blues.
“Sure. Honestly, there’s now more representation than ever before, even though things are not nearly equitable and there’s still a long way to go as far as women in the industry…and that is a long discussion…but there is that representation now and I think the internet had a lot to do with that. We’re no longer waiting for the gatekeepers at radio stations and record labels to tell you who to listen to. Now we’ve got this wide-open world where we’ve got these different pockets of performers all over the world.
“As far as how I like to present myself…it’s all my personality, it’s all me. I think there were a few years there where I was trying to figure out, especially early on, how I was going to present being a woman whilst playing music in a male dominated world and I remember when I first started trying to hide that part of myself. There’s no problem in it, I was just going on this personal journey trying to figure out who am I in this thing, how am I supposed to be and not feel unsure of myself. Now I’m just to the point where I love fashion, I love exploration, I love matching an aesthetic to my music from top to bottom. This is all showbusiness right. I create a whole world around the music. I love leaning into my feminine side and I also like leaning into my tough side to give some spectrum of my personality there, it’s important to me. If that inspires someone I go ‘hell yeah, more power to you, just go find who you are and do it’.”
That must become easier the more you establish yourself. Maybe initially there’s that need to conform but over time you can prove and assert yourself more, both as an artist and as an individual.
“Yes…and to totally frank, the older you get, the less you care” she laughs. “You stop caring thinking ‘oh, does this person think this is going to work or will they like this?’. You become more focussed because there’s too much stuff going on in the day and I can’t worry about what every person thinks about that jacket…if I like that jacket, I’ll wear it or whatever. I know I’m making it sound really small but it can be really broad too, the big picture thing. The further you go and the especially if people like what you’re doing, you feel more confident to keep on making choices like that but even if they don’t like what you’re doing you ask, ‘do I like it?’ and go okay. I have to please myself and hopefully people will dig it too to continue on this path” (laughing).
That keys into what we were saying about catching the zeitgeist too doesn’t it. At the end of the day, you have to be who you are, the music and the image are bundled together and you can’t separate them. You are who you are in all these aspects.
“Exactly, and I think at the end of the day you’re going to be happiest with yourself if you’re true to yourself. Even if it doesn’t take you to the top of the mountain that there’s something about authenticity and seeing yourself and liking what you see that’s rewarding.”
The UK of your tour starts any day.
“Yes, I’m really looking forward to it.”
Do you notice different audience reactions depending which country or region you’re playing?
You guys are a real mixed bag over there (laughing). It’s funny that in the UK it’s taken me a few years to figure it out because I’m not from there, but we come over enough and I haven’t figured it all out yet as I’ve barely scratched the surface. The amount of culture that’s packed into such a small space and the fact that you can drive thirty minutes and the accent and how people are is totally different is a lot to get used to in the UK. I’ve definitely noticed, depending on the region and is it a city or is it more country. Some parts are more rowdy and others are more polite and reserved but they’re all engaged. We’re not going to go somewhere where people are on Facebook while you’re up there trying to put on a show (more laughter), but they’re engaged and dedicated to the music in the UK. I have a great appreciation for that so I can handle the disparity between a crowd being rowdy, literally pounding on the floor and screaming and another crowd sitting on their hands a bit but they’re engaged. I can deal with that and we’re all trying to put on an experience. I try to cater to that, depending on the mood of the crowd.
As far as differences between the UK and the States and mainland Europe it’s pretty finite. In the US I would say there’s not a general mood and New York City is going to be a different show to Dayton, Ohio and that’s going to be different from Birmingham, Alabama as we have that kind of mixed-up thing too.
Blues, similarly to folk, speaks to so many people because we’ve all been through those experiences.
I do think it’s something that everyone can relate to in their lives. I think people hit a certain age and it clicks for them and they want to go and feel something at a show. They start to appreciate that emotive quality that comes along with the blues and there’s something really healing about going to a blues show. It gives you the sense of community and connectivity that is special and why it’s one of the longest standing genres there is.
I think that with blues, possibly more than any other genre, there can such a wide range of musical styles and emotions. It can be joyful, it can be mournful and everything in between.
Absolutely and it’s all about the feelings you’re putting into it. Typically, and historically it’s not been the most difficult chord changes, it’s not like jazz in that way and I love jazz, no disparaging there. It’s not complicated to play the chords, what is complicated is having to connect your heart to your fingertips and somehow make that make sense and connect with other people. There’s something in being able to connect that heart and soul thing over something that’s pretty simple. People love the simplicity of the changes and what you can within that is very special.
It’s more than just background music. It reaches out. It’s storytelling and maybe something we may have hear when we were younger appealed to us musically but hearing it again now we have a different perspective as you may have lived some of those things that we heard so many years ago.
“Yes, and I feel that it’s consistently relevant and comes back around generation to generation. People find new things to relate to within the genre and there’s contemporary folks driving it forward, pulling in modern influences that might hook a new listener to bring them in and hopefully they learn about the tradition. That’s kind of the goal. There is such a tradition in blues music to where it’s oration and a historical thing that’s it’s really important to share and for people to know where it comes from.”
It’s a gateway to such a rich world and so much can be discovered old and new. So, what are your plans for the future?
“The next thing for me is diving into that introspective, creative thing and I’m writing right now. It’s like putting little building blocks to decide which way you are going to go next and that’s kind of the way I’ve always done it. People always ask, “what’s the next one going to sound like?” and I tell them “I’ll know when it’s done”. Right now, I’m building pieces that I need to go in whatever direct I’m going in, trying to honour the truth of truth of who I am right now and also playing a lot of shows in the meantime.”
So, really the question as to what the next album is going to sound like is that it’s going to sound like a Samantha Fish album.
“Yes…for better or worse” she laughs.
Tickets are available from www.samanthafish.com/tour
