CoolTop20’s New Release – Nod My Head by Sam Lambeth and the Four Chords

by Lean at CoolTop20

https://cooltop20.com

Sam Lambeth is a singer-songwriter from Wolverhampton (UK). Over the years, his music has been heard on BBC Radio One and Kerrang. He has performed in front of 25,000 people at Molineux football stadium, and had press coverage in NME and Louder than War. 

After releasing his debut solo record ‘Love & Exile’ last year, his career has gone from strength to strength. He picked up Best Newcomer at last year’s Radar Awards, has received acclaim from Robert Carlyle and This Feeling, and performed sold-out gigs across the UK. This year, he is set to go from strength to strength again with the release of ‘Nod My Head’ on 11th February.

“Here’s the interesting thing ‘Nod My Head’ first came to life around 12, 13 years ago. In my head, I imagined it to be acoustic ditty with some Afrobeat vibes – I was listening to a lot of Vampire Weekend, as was the style at the time.”

“I always believed it was a fairly catchy song and I did believe in it, and I took it to the first ever rehearsal for my first ever band, The MonoBloggers. I was nervous about showing a song I’d wrote, as would any young lad. Luckily for me, the lads loved it and we started working on it as our first original track. Being young and in our first band, we wanted to make it more of a rock song – big riffs, faster pace and brawny drums. I went along with it as I was totally lost in that whole rockstar thing, as again most young lads were.”

“We recorded the song and released it in 2009 and it became our staple, our closer, our most recognised song. As the years progressed, though, I was never totally blown away by what we had made. We were young and we kind of rushed it, I still yearned for that acoustic sound I’d originally made and I never really knew how to promote the song back then.”

“So, flash forward a decade or so later, and I was rehearsing with my new band, The Four Chords, for our first headline gig. I wanted to dust off some old songs and ‘Nod My Head’ was first on that list. However, I wanted to do it like how I’d always envisioned it. I loved what came out of it and it became a totally different song. It felt like all the pieces fit. So, after the gig, we were keen to hit the recording studio and I asked the guys if they fancied putting this new version to tape. Luckily, they did. However, I thought it would be neat to also reflect upon and change the lyrics – after all, they were written when I was a spotty 16-year-old! I wanted the lyrics to be more about the power of music, about growing up and losing yourself in the magic of the radio.”

“So, yep, the song was originally written back in 2009 but since then has had new lyrics and a new sound – a Trigger’s broom of music!”

“I’d like to think that ‘Nod My Head’ is a catchy tune with a good melody. I really wanted it to be like Paul Simon, in terms of that up-tempo acoustic vibe with some subtle African influences. Like my previous album ‘Love & Exile’ I wanted it to be quite expansive, so there’s mandolin, harmonica and keyboards on there.”

“When you hear a song, it should change you. You shouldn’t feel the same after you’ve heard it. That’s what I try to do when I make songs. It’s a tough task but I won’t release anything unless I feel it offers something different from what I’ve previously done. So, for me, I’m hoping people find resonance in it. I hope that the lyrics mean something to them. That’s always another hope for me – that people will hear the lyrics and find that it relates to them. For a songwriter, that’s the ultimate reward. Another hope of mine is that people will find that they can’t get the song out of their head and they spend my days cursing me for it!”

(This article first appeared on https://cooltop20.com on 8 February 2022.)