Q&A: Sam Appleby
PILOT Editor-in-Chief, Dagny, had the opportunity in the spring to talk to up-and-coming Edinburgh-based artist, Sam Appleby.
Read along to learn about the talented musician’s early experiences with music, newfound TikTok fame, his release ‘One Word for Love’, and even a favorite midnight snack.
Tell me about the start of your journey with music.
I first started making music when I was six, seven years old when my parents got me into piano lessons because they both did a bit of music and were like “piano is a good instrument, we want you to be able to make music if you want to, so we are going to get you some piano lessons.”
So I was quite young when I started doing that and that was like classical piano and I did that quite for a long time until the end of school and I sort of fell out of exams. I did music exams for piano and I just didn’t like them at all, so I stopped taking piano lessons because of that.
Then when I was about twelve my dad played a bit of guitar and I just wanted to learn a bit so I’d ask him to teach me. So I picked up his guitar and played on his guitar and stuff like that. I was really enjoying it so I got a guitar for my thirteenth birthday and I just picked it up really quickly. I also played the bagpipes when I was ten so having had two instruments already; people always say it’s like language, once you pick one up you always pick the other ones much quicker. So I sort of taught myself really. My dad taught a little and I just went on YouTube and learnt songs I wanted to play and jam to.
When I was about fourteen a couple of my friends asked - one of them played drums, another one played base - if I would like to jam with them sometime and I was like “yes sure, why not?!”. We made a band and it kind of went from there. But singing was interesting because I didn’t really sing. I could hold a note but I hit puberty and my voice stroke about four octaves and I just wasn’t a confident singer at all.
When I was sixteen, that band we started needed a singer and we could not find anyone so I thought “I can hold a tune, I will start singing” and it gave me the opportunity to write my own songs. I enjoyed writing my own lyrics and I was never a lyricist before and from there I became more and more a songwriter and began to write my own songs.
What was the name of your first band?
I think at our first gig we were called the “Loons” which is a horrendous name. Then for ages we were called - it sounds like a weird old heavy metal band - we were called “Hollow Whisper”. Two of us were so against that name but we were like “Guys we need a Facebook page to get booked. We are just going to put any name”, and that was the only any of us wanted but we were like “Okay that can be the name of the Facebook page but we are not called that”. Of course, we could never agree on anything so we ended up being called by that name for two years. I think we eventually settled on “Chalamain” which is where we are from; we are from the highlands and in between us there is this gap in the county so we went for that and it lasted for the three years when we played together.
How do you describe the music you typically create?
I cringe every time I say it because I just don’t like to be called a singer and songwriter. I feel my direction is going for more of an artist and producer than a singer and songwriter.
What is your creative process like?
For me it was always when I had something cool on the guitar or on the piano when I had cool chords that I wanted to play around with and then I’d write some lyrics to be a good substance to it. But it has changed a lot, now I write songs in a very different way but for all of them the thread that always comes first is always an inspiration but I always make some inspiration out of melody lines or chords like lyrical ideas on my phone. I have even started songs that are made of certain pieces that I like in other songs and put them together.
What was the process for ‘One Word For Love’ like?
I had this chord progression for ages and I think it was like - *plays the piano beautifully*
And I just had that for ages and one of the things that I do when I don’t have any ideas for something is I just change the keys, and then I thought “What happens if I change the keys or just try some melodies?”.
I think I was just sitting by my piano at home and did a different key - *plays the piano again* which was that one; and then melody just came pretty naturally. In regards to the lyrics, I have always felt like it is almost an inadequate way of expressing so many different things just using one word to talk about books, music, friends and family, so I brooded about “What is love? What actually is that?”. Some of it (lyrics) was from personal experience and just talking metaphorically about what I had thought, have gone through and felt. Once I’d written it on the piano and I had these lyrics, I wanted to give it a little bit more so when I went to produce it I did it all at home and on headphones and I wanted to create a whole soundscape with this one, I wanted it to be more than just the song so I added the thunder, the rain and spent hours adding tracks upon tracks, which are barely heard in the final track. I think it showed that even though you say things you don’t really hear there are things you feel a lot of the time and I think that on sound is the best thing I’ve done and having done that I was like “okay this is what I need to do for every song now, even though is a lot of effort I know I can do it. I know the difference that it makes.”
How do you feel the music scene in Edinburgh has lifted you up at times or impacted your experience with making music?
I feel I was just getting my teeth into the Edinburgh music scene when lockdown happened, which was kind of frustrating but it gave me a lot of time to work on things like TikTok and putting more time on social media.
But I liked the Edinburgh music scene; as a singer and songwriter it is easy to fit into it, there’s a lot of great things that have come out of it, but I see it as a kind of small niche closed scene and to do my own thing I’ll have to go a little bit further afield.
But I actually like that, the local music scene. Because if it’s too diverse it can become convoluted and it becomes impossible for one to make a noise.
I did a few gigs in some places and it was great! People would always turn up, especially for being in the music course at university, people were always supportive. I’m interested to see what happens and how it goes when the venues can open again.
What has the music scene been like for you on TikTok?
About March, last year, a lot of guitarists were coming up on my feed playing and I thought “That is easy, I have a guitar, I could probably do that as well.” So I set up my phone, played three or four riffs on the guitar and uploaded it and it instantly had thousands of views and I thought it was easy and decided to do that again. For some reason playing the guitar seemed to do so well, but the hard thing to do was to get people interested in my music.
So for several times, I tried to change the focus of my audience but it was so hard to do. It took a long time; I built up quite a good following just by playing the guitar but when I’d sing nobody would seem to like and thought I should just stop it, but actually it was just the crowd that I had. It was people who just liked to listen to the guitar.
It was sort of frustrating but I feel, especially towards the end of 2020, I was starting to learn how I could get people to listen and be interest in my music and it was really then that I started to see people coming over from TikTok; seeing my post and then looking me up on Spotify through the links on my bio. Like any social media platform, it’s so difficult to get people engaged.
I think the TikTok music scene is great because if people like something, loads of others will see it. Essentially all you have to do is make something people really like, but that is a lot easier said than done. But it is a good barometer of what people like.
Is it weird having such a following on there? Do you ever get nervous or creeped out?
It always just feels like me looking into a camera when I’m doing it. And it is different from doing a live show and having people watching even online if it’s online, I would be very nervous. But when the thing is done (the TikTok video) you don’t have to do anything more, just upload it and I feel it kind of separates you from the audience. For me anyways is very easy to do.
What is one message you would give to your fans?
The one thing I’d like people to know is— if you are invested in me now, I’m going to return that investment. I’m not just doing this for a couple of years to see if it works; I’ve already invested too much and sacrificed too much. I’m so committed to doing music that it isn’t going to be a simple give up.
What is the most beautiful place you have ever been to?
I did a volunteering trip, playing music actually, in 2019 with a friend and a small team. We went to this lake in Hungary and it was so shallow and sandy that you could go 200 metres into the lake and still stand up. And there were low hills all around and the sunset in the back and the water was beautifully European warmed.
The best midnight snack?
I love yoghurt! Eating it before I go to bed is so good.
Where do you not mind waiting?
I’m both a patient and impatient person. Sometimes I feel so frantic about something that I can’t just wait for anything and sometimes I’m just chilled out and could wait all day.
But I think anywhere with my friends I could wait.
What is the weirdest thing about love?
I find love a weird concept. What actually is it? That is the thing that I wonder about love. I’m a quite literal and logical person.
So much of life revolves around it but actually is it?
If you had the world’s attention for 30 seconds what would you say?
I probably wouldn’t pass the chance to advertise my music for 15 seconds. For the remaining time, I would say that we are all in the same team, that everyone is against things against us humans, not humans against humans.
