#146 Samantha Sharpe
Samantha Sharpe is an independent Australian artist in the pop/indie genre disrupting the music scene. With her new EP recently released, Sharpe makes her debut with thought-provoking, heartfelt lyrics and tunes. The solo artist is best known for her stunning vocals that depict the rawest emotion.
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Transcript
Sam Sharpe
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter tryst with Samantha Sharpe how are you?
Sam Sharpe: I'm well, thank you? How are you?
Rae Leigh: I'm good. I love technology and I love that we get to have this chat, even though you're in Melbourne, Victoria in lockdown, a number, what is it exactly.
Sam Sharpe: Uh, where on six at the moment? Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I think I lost count after three.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, no, we keep a running tally.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, well, I mean, what else you got to do, right.
Welcome to the show. I like to start by getting you to share with us a little bit about who you are and where you come from.
Sam Sharpe: Great. So as you mentioned, I'm in Melbourne, Victoria. I'm a singer songwriter. I'm from the south Eastern suburbs, so nice and quiet. I'm excited to do this. I love songwriting.
Rae Leigh: Awesome. So when did songwriting. start? You.
Where's the journey begin.
Sam Sharpe: It actually started when I was in primary school. I think I was about 11 and I just, I dunno what happened. I just had this song coming to my head and I remember, racing to my older sister had been, you know, moody teenager. She must have realized that I was actually quite serious when I said I needed her to type something out because she did it.
Rae Leigh: Oh, that's so sweet. So you, you weren't quite at the typing
Sam Sharpe: She was the only one with the computer thing. She was in high school. So
Rae Leigh: of course. Yep. Whereas now everyone has an iPad
as I'm discovering.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, exactly.
Rae Leigh: Okay, cool. So what happened in level? Like what, what happened in this experience? When the song came to you? Where were you? What, like, what do you think triggered it?
Sam Sharpe: I was actually in the shower.
Rae Leigh: Oh my gosh, that happens. So many people.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, I was in the shower and I remember getting out of the shower, just being like, I don't know what I've just done, but I've done something. and something is in my head and it's going in a loop and I need to get it out. So, got my sisters to type it up, sag it a million times so I could remember it.
I think I got out the old, like cassette recorder to, to capture it forever. But the main thing was that I actually took it to my music teacher at school and she put in the arrangement behind it and made me sing it for everyone.
Rae Leigh: Ah, no way.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: That's a really encouraging teacher. So what was the song called? Can you sing us a little bit? Like,
Sam Sharpe: Oh, look it's it's so childish. It was so like, I was clearly 11.
Um, and I think some of the topics and themes, like the things that I just didn't even, I didn't even know what I was writing about. It was called, um, play.
And it was like, there were, there was elements about, you know, dating about going out and dancing things that just, I guess in my, adolescent mind where, you know, things that adults did.
So I remember yeah. Teachers being like, why did, where did this come from? Why did you write this?
Rae Leigh: So it was like your preteen, um, view of the world at that stage before you'd really, I guess probably would've experienced most of that, but you, you are aware of what's happening around you when you're a kid, you know, everyone wants, like, my daughter is six and she wants an iPhone, you know?
I'm like, why does she and I for no one else, who's six has got an iPhone. Right.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: you see the parents with it and you want one.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, well, we all want to grow up, you know, when we're young. So I think that, yeah, that started something. I took it to the music teacher thinking like, well, you know, I've heard a song. Can you imagine I wrote something? And she actually, she really ran with it. She, she got on the piano and figured out the chords for it.
And I w I ended up playing. Like, oh, singing it at a shopping center,
Rae Leigh: Um, what ha so, so you went from your shower, your sister heard it down, your music teacher composed it for you. How did you go from there to singing in a shopping center?
Sam Sharpe: I was the, uh, the only child in that school, I believe to have brought her, something like that. So she really, uh, she really. Latched onto that idea. And got me to sing it at assembly. She assembled a bunch of kids who were in other classes to play instruments so that, I had a backing band of other students
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Sam Sharpe: like xylophones and cloudy and yeah, one, one day we were, we were set to do like a.
The school, quiet to the local shops and sing for the community. And I ended up with a, a spot there and they put it over the loudspeakers and it's very strange for me cause I still shop at that shopping center.
Rae Leigh: Has it changed your shopping experience forever. Now you go there and you're like, oh, remember that time I saying here,
Sam Sharpe: I mean that if that whole shopping center has changed anyway, but there's this one part of it that every time I walked through, I'm like, oh, that happened.
Rae Leigh: which shopping center is it?
Sam Sharpe: It's called the Waverley gardens shopping center in Mulgrave. Yes. Yes.
We call it
Rae Leigh: I come from east Gibsland, but my, I have a lot of family in the Ringwood area. So I was like, I wonder if it's Ringwood, cause that's changed a lot as well.
Sam Sharpe: yeah. Wow.
Rae Leigh: okay. So, this is your high school experience and that's an amazing encouragement.
I'm really. Hi Primary school. Okay. So you, did you stop playing an instrument or did you, what was your next steps from singing in a shopping center at 11 or 12 years old?
Sam Sharpe: I did not know how to play any instruments. And I remember vaguely trying to learn like keys, um, while in school and not really putting that much effort into it. My. Upbringing. We were sort of given the freedom to choose, you know, if we wanted to do a sport, if we wanted to do a, uh, an instrument or anything like that.
And my sister and I ultimately did nothing.
Rae Leigh: Because you couldn't choose
Sam Sharpe: We couldn't, well, we couldn't choose and you know, nothing, you know, we'd rather be at home, hanging out together. I guess my sister I'm very close, so yeah. So I didn't learn any instruments and, it, honestly, it took until. Oh, I was probably 25 when I actually started learning it.
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow. Okay. That's cool. it. doesn't matter when you start, you can pick it up at any time.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah. I mean, I always hear that. It's easier when you're young, but ah, I think if you're determined enough, it's, it's fine.
Rae Leigh: yeah, absolutely. Okay. So, um, you w what was your next journey? Like, how did you go from writing a song when you were 11? To saying, well, I actually want to try and make a career of this. I want to record and release my music.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah. So, um, I, I didn't really know that that was what I wanted to do. I, um, I've always had a great passion for music. Um, growing up with a lot of music around, um, and listening to the lyrics. I remember really strongly the idea of, you know, getting a little lyric booklet in the say day and, um, and reading like line philosophy and trying to figure out which bit goes where, and, and if it didn't have a lyric booklet, I was, you know, writing them, myself, writing them down, posing it and writing it and pausing it and writing it, um, because I wanted to be able to sing along.
I think I actually taught myself to sing from copying CDs like that from trying to imitate the artists that I was listening to? Um,
Rae Leigh: who were you listening to?
Sam Sharpe: uh, so a lot of different stuff. So there's a bit of an age gap between my parents. So, um, mum was really into country and she likes, should I have Twain?
But my dad, he's a bit older. So we did, the beach boys, the platters Del Shannon,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: much, much older sort of, you know, focus on harmonies. Yeah. Yes. So
a bit of, a bit of a mix. And then having an older sister, you know, she wanted me to get into metal. So I, I had this thing where, you know, I, I wrote this song and then I felt even as, as a twelve-year-old pressure to write more, because you know, how do you follow that up? You've just sung at a shopping center. , and from that point, though, I just didn't feel like everything I was writing was as good as that first one, because it came to me.
I wasn't something that I tried to do and yeah, I don't know. So I, I actually gave it up for a very long time once I reached high school and no one knew that I'd done that, it was like, I could make that part of myself a bit of a secret.
Yeah.
Rae Leigh: So you didn't do it during high school. what's your relationship with music now? How did it come back into your life?
Sam Sharpe: So during high school, I tried to do a few like talent shows, things like that, that the school put on, and none of them really went my way. One of them, I actually sustained an injury from someone standing on my foot during, during hosting. So it sort of was
like, okay, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do This
Rae Leigh: High school is
meant
for humbling experiences.
Sam Sharpe: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I, I've recently did another podcast called out the worst gig of my life and I told them about a story, more recently, but I had someone who knew me in high school say, I can't believe you didn't tell the story about the talent show when they closed the curtains on you.
Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Oh, they closed the curtains on you.
Sam Sharpe: Oh, yeah. They, this is the thing you say, humbling experiences. I was, gosh, it must have been the first time. I'd actually tried to sing in front of people after that, , that shopping center experience. And I got up and I plan to sing a Delta good drum song, and I gave them a CD that had the original track and the backing track on it. I was meant to be, halfway through the night with my turn. And, , right before I was meant to go up, someone stood on my foot in high heels and in her stilettos, she, , she cut my toe. So me being like 13, I'm bawling my eyes out. My parents tell me later, they thought that the reason my set was pushed back was just because I was so nervous, but it was really because I was getting first aid.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: So when I finally get up. They don't turn my microphone on and they played the original version of the song. And when they realize what they've done, they closed the curtain.
Rae Leigh: Oh, that's so weird.
Sam Sharpe: So then, but then the and reopens and the correct version plays in the microphone. So I just have to
go,
Rae Leigh: Okay. Okay. So they're like they fix it all. It'd be you just standing there going like what's going on guys.
Sam Sharpe: there in the cut and closes and it's pitch black. And then all of a sudden the curtain reopened and I'm standing there like, oh my gosh,
Rae Leigh: Yes, this was meant to happen. The show you must go on. Okay.
Sam Sharpe: on. So after that point, I was like, okay, well, something's telling me to just not like, this is not working for me. This is, that's not a pleasant experience, especially in those formative years. So, it wasn't until I was probably towards the end of high school that I started to realize, like I wanted to play guitar and I wanted to learn about music and I invited.
Okay. Convinced friends to go with me to like music, like conventions and things like that. You know, the aim and. Expos for people that play music. And I tried to play guitar there, you know, they had pop-up lessons and the guitar teachers were all, what are you doing? That's not what you do. How was this so hard for you?
Rae Leigh: Oh
Sam Sharpe: I just didn't like, I think I've convinced myself that I just didn't know what I was doing. Anyway, I ended up giving it up for another year or two and yeah. Deciding to, to, oh my goodness. This is, oh, it takes me back. I decided to go to, to LA to study music, to study pop performance. Again, people were trying to teach me guitar there and I could not do it.
Rae Leigh: Yep. Okay.
Sam Sharpe: And, I did a year there and gave it up again. And then I, , I put a. I put an application in, when I saw someone advertising to be in a band to be their singer. And it ended up being like a punk band. And I thought like, yeah, I've got to get my foot in the door. I've just got to get in there. You know?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: And, so I got my foot in the door and I realized the thing that was missing was that they'd already written all their songs. They just wanted me to sing.
Rae Leigh: Rush.
Sam Sharpe: I had no creative control and it just sort of felt like not quite the right way for me, being so you know, interested in lyrics my whole life. So I, I quit that too. There's a, there's a lot of stories of me trying things and failing and trying something new. So resilient. Resilience, you know? Yeah. Gotta keep
trying. Yeah. So, again, sorta gave it up just that I was a personal trainer for a while. I was a baker. I was, you know, I've done all these different things and won all these different hats.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: I came back to it. I used to, when I was going to uni, I used to go past this singing school every single day on the train. And I finally put a call in and actually was like, can I come and sing here? And they will like show yo, you know, you, you can audition and that's it like you you'll be in. So I actually, I met a mentor and she said, you got to run.
And I still didn't and then eventually I left that place and, I stayed friends with my mental luckily. But I sort of had this, okay. I've got to, I've got to do it on my own now. I've gone through all these stages and I've really got to just put, you know, put my heart into it because it's the only thing that I've ever come back to this lunch.
so I started, trying to learn guitar little by little, and I started to do cover gigs with, with a guitarist.
Rae Leigh: Yup.
Sam Sharpe: And then I started to get sick of paying someone else to play guitar. For me, I'm thinking I'm a strong, independent woman. I can do this myself. So I taught myself to play.
Rae Leigh: You eventually did it well done.
Sam Sharpe: I eventually it took a long time.
I eventually got there and taught myself. So now I, I mean, not at the moment lockdown happening, but I play like three hour COVID gigs. I write my own songs on the guitar, so, and then, you know, locked down happening. I taught myself piano as well.
Rae Leigh: Oh, well
Sam Sharpe: Thank you. So now, yeah, I, I actually I'm doing it, which is crazy to me
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: after all that.
Rae Leigh: That's insane. So what are you writing about now that you've started writing you doing yourself? What's your, like when you want to have creative control and you're writing a song, what do you think about, what's your goal in your music? What are you trying to communicate?
Sam Sharpe: One of the main things I think is just self-expression that I want to be able to. Connect with others, with the feelings that I have, because I'm sure that others have felt them. And one of the songs that I've written most recently, that's going to be my next single that I release. It's really just about the need to pivot at the moment that the world is changing so much.
Um, and I think having that, , That connection to others who also have that problem, gives us a little bit more sense of belonging, which I think we
need right now.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, it's, it's, a, there's a lot of soccer, segregation and division, especially. I know in Victoria, there's
been a lot of loud people,
um, with opinions around the whole world, actually about this pandemic and things like that. Um, And it's, it's hard to know what to do. I mean, the reality is we never really know what to do.
We never did. I think we just, we lived in a world where we pretended that we did know what to do next. Um, and all of a sudden things, something has come along and shaken us up and we all have to think outside the
box all of a sudden,
Sam Sharpe: Yes, exactly. There's a lot of.
To pivot to go online, to change, you know, some people are changing whole careers. It's, I think it's important that we listen to ourselves at the moment. You know, one of the big things that came up when I was writing for, for these, I've got, uh, three songs that I've just come out of the studio for.
And, um, one of the main things that I sort of realized was how much I need to trust myself. And trust that what I'm doing is. It is valuable and is going to be helpful, not just to me, but to other people, as an art form, because some of what I've brought in this time was so different to what I've written in the past.
And, a friend of mine actually said, you know, cause I was, I was really worried about it. I was sitting in the studio and I started to feel. Like nauseous thinking, like, what have I done? I can't believe I've written this and no one's going to like it. And I had this moment where I just doubted all of what I was doing, because it was so different to my past work.
And I sent it, I, well, I didn't send a song to her, but I said, you know, that sort of critique of it to a friend of mine. And she said, well, you know, to use a very extreme example, you know, people love. Slipknot for the heavy stuff, but they also love songs like snuff because you know, the guy who, who sings them, it means something to him.
So even though it's the medically different, it still matters to people and they still consume it and they still
connect to it because of the emotion behind it. So. I had to learn to, to trust myself and, and to just, you know, and I ended up with, you know, the, the track that I'm going to be putting out. I can't believe that I wrote it. It's my favorite. It's my favorite.
Rae Leigh: That's so good. I think that I'm noticing more and more, that what I love about music is that that it's their connection to the artist. And when, when the song is connected to the artist, I think it really shows. And for me, that's what I love. It's like this person is being so vulnerable. And yet sharing such a beautiful part of something that they love, and that is beautiful in itself.
That action. And, I think that's what we should all be seeking is that, that song that we connect
to ourselves.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, exactly. You know, I, the, the work I've done in the past, I've remember being just excited to, I finish something and to, and to put it out. And now I look back on it and I, you know, I know that. Experience and time we're always improving on what we do, but I feel a lot more connected to my more, my more recent work.
And even, even though it's different, even though, you know, thematically, it may not match up with what I've done before. Um, I just think, you know, it's, it's just more real and authentic.
Rae Leigh: absolutely. So what, what are your future goals with songwriting? Have you done much, I guess, crafting and education around songwriting and collaborating with other people
Sam Sharpe: I think I've only done two co-writes in as many years. It's always been quite a personal thing for me that I really like to just sit down and do it on my own. Um, so I mean, I I've attempted to, and I I've, I've created songs with others in that way. But I think. I learnt about some writing from listening and from really studying in, you know, really young years, what makes a song and what makes it great.
And now. Yeah, I I've thought about, you know, studying it and wanting to, really hone in on the technical side of it. But I think that what makes a song great sometimes can be the feeling it gives you not necessarily the structure that it's in. So, I've written quite a bit and it tends to be the songs that, that I put out the songs that I really love.
That they're very good. They're they're very few. The more you write, the better you get. Some of them, they just have something different to them. And that's just about the feeling
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And you know, don't, you
Sam Sharpe: you just know.
Rae Leigh: ha I don't know how, you know. like for me, I know the songs that stick because I remember the words really easily.
Sam Sharpe: Yes. That's the thing. I think if you, if you are trying to force the foster, the rive or Forster the syllables or anything like that, you know, it becomes. Harder to connect to, because it's just not coming out the way that you would speak. It's not the way that you would think. Yeah. You don't want clunky, clunky, it's too hard.
Rae Leigh: All right. Tell me what's the best and worst advice you've ever received.
Sam Sharpe: You know, any advice is, it's more valuable if I actually listened to. I'm really, I'm really bad at taking advice.
Rae Leigh: That's a very self-aware statement. Well
done.
Sam Sharpe: you. I'm an artist and a writer. I can't help it. I have to, I have to be self-aware. Geez. I know, at almost every gig I do almost every time I bust or anything like that, there's always
some person that comes up and says keep going,
Rae Leigh: Yeah, well, that's nice.
Sam Sharpe: nice. And I remember when I was first starting out, I was quite what's the word?
Not condescending. No, I was just a little bit cynical about that statement. That of course I'm going to keep going. Why would you tell me that? Do you expect me to stop, but I've grown to sort of think, well, every time someone says that, you know, that's their way of saying that what I'm doing matters
Rae Leigh: That's
Sam Sharpe: is meaningful.
Rae Leigh: They're
trying to try to be encouraging.
Sam Sharpe: they're trying to be encouraging and, and I probably was being snarky and unnecessary.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: But yeah, just to, to keep going really, worst advice. I there's been a few times that. Brought in a song to work on with the producer and they've just wanted to take it in a completely different direction. And I've, it's not that they've given bad advice it's that I've led them.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Sam Sharpe: those don't end up being released. Because they're just not,
Rae Leigh: it's not you
Sam Sharpe: it's not me anymore, but yeah, whatever they say in that situation, it's like, it's not bad career advice. It's just
taking away a little too much of that creative.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And we have to learn as artists when we need to fight for something and when to let someone else it's okay to give advice. But when you have to know when to take it and when to choose to stick to our guts.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah.
exactly. And I think, you know, um, with songs being so like intrinsically linked to the way that we feel, I think if someone gives you constructive feedback, that can be really helpful. But if, if they're just giving advice for the sake of advice, that can feel a bit icky.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. You don't know where it's really coming from and it, sometimes it's not actually personal. It's just a reflection on that particular person.
Sam Sharpe: exactly.
Rae Leigh: If he could co-write with anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and why?
Sam Sharpe: Hmm. You know, I, I actually, I heard this question. I was listening one of the other episodes of this podcast and I was trying to think of someone, the only person I could come up with, which. I think is interesting was actually a lady Gaga.
Rae Leigh: Okay. I would love to write a song with her. What would you like to write a song with her?
Sam Sharpe: I just think that she has a really interesting mindset, really creative sort of genius brain, that some of the, , some of the works that she had the out, you know, in her early years, some of the wordplay in some of the, the references she made were just really out.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Sam Sharpe: really, no one else was doing that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I think she's a leader in, in what she
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, that girl can sing so whatever, whatever, we would come up with, she could take it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I mean, she turns everything into gold. Doesn't
Sam Sharpe: she? does.
Rae Leigh: So what's, what's happening for you now? I know you're in lockdown. I don't know what is happening with the lockdown situation in Victoria, but do you have any plans to release anything soon or shows? What do you know? What, do you know what your future has planned?
Sam Sharpe: I have three songs sitting, waiting to be released, working on my strategy at the moment. With the lockdowns, it can be a bit tricky to know the right timing. And getting mastering done. I actually had one of the tracks, mosted, overseas, lucky with tight technology. I sent it to Abbey road studios.
Yeah. So, that took a little bit of time. So.
Look, I'm hoping to release really soon but I know that I want to give these songs the best chance at reaching more people and giving them that feeling that they give me. So, I don't want to brush it. I don't want to rush it. yeah.
Rae Leigh: Now take your time. I think, I believe in divine timing and I think whenever something is released, that's when it's meant to be released. And then, you know, we move on to the next thing, but you never know. As long as it's going to do in the world. And hopefully, it reaches people and you'll probably never know about it.
And you have to have faith in that.
Sam Sharpe: Yeah, that's, what's just so amazing to me, you know, not just with technology, but with music, you know, it's, it's like a language, that we all speak a little and some are more fluent than others, but it can reach people so far away. It's just amazing.
Rae Leigh: That's beautiful. Cool. Well, I'm going to put all of your links to your music and your social so everyone can follow you and get in contact and get to know you a bit better and, um, keep an eye out for these new songs, especially the one that went to Abbey road. That's sounds pretty cool. And yeah. Is there anything else you would like to say?
Well, you're on the podcast.
Sam Sharpe: Oh, just, you know, thank you for having me. I don't want to be that person, but you should also keep going
Rae Leigh: Yeah, thanks. I'll stop when I'm dead. So
Sam Sharpe: Amazing. Love
Rae Leigh: this, is my retirement job.
Sam Sharpe: Fantastic. Fantastic. No, this is brilliant. So thank you very much. Thank you
Rae Leigh: No, I appreciate that. No, thank you. I, I love doing it too. It's it's my life now. And I think, you know, when you're doing. something you love, when you never gonna stop, like you don't get tired or sick of it, you just having fun. I realized recently that I don't usually stick to things for over a year, if it's not something I really love.
So we've hit the one year mark and, it's all up with from here, but Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Sam Sharpe: Thank you so much for having me. It's been wonderful. Thank you.
Rae Leigh: Anytime. I can't wait to hear you. new stuff.
Sam Sharpe: Thank you. I'm so excited.
