Eastbourne musician with over 1 million followers goes on tour

SussexWorld

Sam Tompkins is a singer-songwriter from Eastbourne, West Sussex. He recently went on tour and spoke to Henry Bryant when he performed at the Brighton Dome.

Transcript

00:00How have you been? How's the tour been so far? You've been in the UK, you've got this

00:16one, stop in Brighton, your hometown, one more in Bournemouth, then you're off to do

00:21your European stuff. So how's it been so far?

00:23Yeah, it's been amazing, man. Travelling in the UK is not something I take lightly. It's

00:29a city, so I've been travelling around Europe and the world. It's really special, so I'm

00:34really happy to be doing it.

00:36In terms of this album, you raise up so many points about men's mental health, also letting

00:43go and break-ups. I know that you've had a lot going on in your life this year. How has

00:48that process been, creating that album with that stuff going on?

00:53Since my old man passed last year, I haven't really written anything, all this stuff. The

01:00album was all written before he passed, so I think it's definitely hindered my creative

01:06space, but I'm sort of getting back into it now. I think stuff like that just knocks you

01:09for six, right, and you just can't really figure it out. But I'm super proud of the

01:13album, for sure.

01:14Making music from the heart has always been, well, at least for the last seven or so years,

01:21felt like a necessity for me, and all my music is basically just a diary entry, and I think

01:29that's the best way to convey emotions in music, is to talk from real personal experience,

01:36and I think people really connect with it.

01:38I'm just being honest, you know what I mean? That's what people crave, I think, in this

01:41world of deceit and lies a lot of the time, you know what I mean? I think people really

01:46do want just a little bit of vulnerability, a bit of honesty.

01:50Your vulnerability, that comes with the unique point that people listen to your music for,

01:56to relate. Now for you, letting all those emotions out, all that vulnerability, it comes

02:00with positives, but does it ever come with any slight negatives as well, when you're

02:05sharing so much with your audience?

02:07I think, yes. I think, honestly, I've always loved being open and vulnerable. I do find

02:14the bigger it's gotten, in the nicest way, because everyone always means well. I think

02:18people, when they come up to me in the street, perhaps, they'll, I mean, maybe they'll bring

02:24up my dad on a day I didn't really feel like talking about it, or stuff like that, and

02:28I think it's a level of like, it's both a symptom of fame, is that people assume that

02:38they can talk to you about everything that you've talked about in songs, or on socials

02:43and stuff, but really, you know, I am just a normal person that's trying to navigate

02:48life and particularly tragic situations in recent times. But on the whole, I'm just grateful

02:58that people actually notice me and want to talk to me in the first place. For me, that's

03:03the only drawback from being so vulnerable, but I think that's sort of like, that's never

03:09going to, I'm not going to be able to get rid of that. And I sort of, I've sort of accepted

03:14that, I don't know, it's, as you said, it comes with its positives, it comes with its

03:17negatives, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

03:20Absolutely. I'm talking about the positives. I'm speaking to you here because we're playing

03:24in your hometown. Did you ever expect this when you started busking sort of on the streets

03:29of Brighton?

03:30Um, no. I mean, I mean, there was a level of naivety to me as a child, and as a youngster

03:37who was busking, like 16 years old, that I think potentially thought that this was possible.

03:44But like, I don't know, like it never really, it always felt like, oh, it's 10 years away.

03:50It's like, it's five years away. It's like, it's a time away. But now that it's actually

03:54happening, it's kind of crazy. I'm just, I'm just grateful I'm here, man.

03:58And in terms of these upcoming musicians that are popping up, you walk past Brighton, there's

04:03always a few buskers. What's the best advice that you could give to them now? And what's

04:07changed since you've been busking on the streets? Is it more the social media side?

04:11I mean, first of all, I mean, this is a very deep question for me, because I think life

04:17and the world has moved on so much from like even five years ago when I was doing the busking

04:22stuff last, like properly. I mean, when I was, when I was there, there was no card machines.

04:29People weren't forced to use card machines, which I think makes busking feel quite transactional

04:33now. And I think it makes people less inclined to go pay, which is a shame. I wish people

04:39used cash a little bit more. And I feel like we're moving into more of a cashless society.

04:43So that makes me fear for the art of busking. Because I do think, and also people have like

04:48the tripods now, right? And they're TikTok live streaming the whole time with their busking.

04:52And that's how they make money as well. And it really boggles my mind. Like, I don't know

04:56if I would have been able to do that. So I have so much more power to everyone who's

05:00doing it. It was back before TikTok. And it was like a little story on Instagram. That

05:05was it. Come full up. We'll see. You know what I mean? That was it.

05:08And it's changed your life. You were there. I was there for those. And I used to see you

05:12guys doing it. It would appear on YouTube as well. Yeah. And I would get a lot of views.

05:16But it's not quite the same. It's not the same. And scroll, that's good. Yeah. It's

05:20not. I say YouTube, you watch the whole video, you know, you're just like, oh, who are these

05:23guys? It's cool. I don't know. It makes me sad sometimes because I think that I love

05:28social media in a lot of ways, but also like equally really fucking hate it, bro. And I

05:35really, really hate it because I feel like it really pigeonholes people and makes them

05:40feel like they have to do certain things to get certain reactions. I think I'd love to

05:46move away from that and go back to how it was about five years ago. I feel like we were

05:50prime back then. Social media as a whole itself, like it just sort of makes me a bit anxious

05:55That's fair. You know, I think I think everyone would agree. Any artist would agree with that,

05:59to be honest, because we weren't. But we went our whole lives like thinking that we just

06:05needed to make the music. Now we have to make videos just as good as the music. I'm not

06:09trained to do that. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? No, completely.

06:12And I'm one of the lucky ones. I have a team of people that work with me alongside me and

06:17we figure out stuff together. But there's a lot of artists out there just doing it on

06:21their own. And as I say, more power to them. My advice for them would all be please,

06:27please, please just do not underestimate the power of word of mouth.

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