Sam Gellaitry is very much his own man.
Having signed to XL, home of Adele and The xx, at the age of 18, on the back of self-released SoundCloud tracks produced in his teenage bedroom, Sam has released a series of EPs showcasing his eclectic sound, mixing broody trap and razor sharp electronica with the jazzy organics of the likes of Flying Lotus and Madlib.
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Clash catches Sam from his flat in Stirling, the small city in central Scotland where he grew up, and which he still calls home. “Man, it was absolutely mad,” he says, reflecting on the digital whirlwind that saw him go from teenage bedroom producer to one of the most sought after musicians in the UK within a couple of life-changing months.
“I had just left school, no grades, and did an entry level college course in sound production. I was 17, had a few songs I was happy online, and one night I went on some guy’s Soundcloud, he had 2,000 followers, and I liked one of his songs. He saw I liked it, he reposted one of my songs – and it just hasn’t stopped since then. A month later, I had over a million plays on every song I had up. I knew it was going to insane after that; it went from nothing to everything so quickly.”
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His latest release, ‘IV’, sees Gellaitry incorporate his voice into his music for the first time; an extension of his sound that he feels has come naturally, especially under lockdown; “I always find music a very therapeutic thing, but lyrically, it’s even more so – you’re speaking your mind, which is essentially what therapy is”.
As with everything he does, it’s a perfectly produced and carefully considered piece of work. Open to collaboration, he also doesn’t want his development to be defined by other musicians. “I had the opportunity the work with big artists, but I didn’t want my career to revolve around ‘oh how was it working with this person’; I just wanted to have my own journey, especially because I was younger. If you get into that cycle, you’re just going to be everybody’s lapdog, getting chucked around the world, and I didn’t want that.”
‘IV’ marks an exciting point in Gellaitry’s journey so far, and one which will no doubt gain him even more admirers. It’s been quite a ride already; should we expect an album soon? “I’ve been making it for about five years! I am going to have to sit down one day and just decide what I want. I want a fusion of everything in one place; I want it to be a collage of craziness – I don’t want people to know what track is coming next. It’s in a gold chamber in my brain, but I know I’ll have to release it eventually!”
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Words: David Weaver
Photography: Vicky Grout
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