Sam Himself’s full-length debut album follows last year’s acclaimed EP Slow Drugs. Power Ballads marks the latest collaboration between Sam and his longtime producer, mixing engineer and ‘Second Beatle’ Daniel Schlett (The War On Drugs; Iggy Pop), as well as mastering legend Greg Calbi (Bruce Springsteen; David Bowie).
Early last year, “Switzerland’s King of Tears” Sam Himself was in Europe kicking off his spring tour, when the pandemic foiled all live music plans – and Sam’s planned return to Brooklyn, NY, his chosen home of the past decade. Dangerously low on socks, musical equipment and any real sense of when he’d be able to get back to the United States, Sam ended up staying in his native Switzerland for the remainder of 2020. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, exiled at home, spent those months in limbo writing and recording what would become his debut album, Power Ballads, wherever he could (including the attic of his mom’s house). When he made it back to New York in early 2021, Sam (after a period of self-quarantine) went straight to producer Daniel Schlett’s Strange Weather Studio in Brooklyn to finalize his new material, building on the recordings he had originally prepared as demos for his album.
Two songs on Power Ballads once again feature Sam’s Slow Drugs bandmates Josh Werner (bass – Ghostface Killah; CocoRosie) and Parker Kindred (drums – Jeff Buckley; Elliott Smith), among them the LP’s focus track The Missing. The work of Benjamin Noti (guitar – Steff La Cheffe) and Georg Dillier (bass – Anna Rossinelli), both members of Sam’s touring band, can also be heard on several tracks.
Get the vinyl or CD via Taxi Gauche Records
Buy it on bandcamp
