Interview with Sam Scherdel: ‘The Beatles and Bowie are my bread and butter’

Hook-laden, energetic and soulful Sheffield-based singer-songwriter Sam Scherdel is gearing up to release his single ‘Balloon’ next month.

It promises to be his most ambitious track to date: ‘The music has such a joyous feel,’ he said. ‘The brass section was recorded over in Nashville. All the music is recorded between my home and my producer in Nashville. Aidan Thompson the producer moved from Sheffield where I first met him, in Steelworks Studios in 2017, so we managed to find some awesome musicians to collaborate with me and the band on the records. It’s a proper anthem. It’s Springsteen-esque stadium rock. My ‘Born To Run’, if you will.’

The uplifting, soaring melody gathers momentum throughout the song. He’s right: it’s a real anthem designed for stadium gigs, and sits in sharp contrast to the more introspective, tormented lyrics, something that Scherdel was keen to do: ‘It’s more interesting that way,’ he said. ‘I was coming to the end of a bad, toxic relationship and went to Glastonbury. I came back and it all hit me and that song came out of me. There’s a line in it “Let me float away”, it’s quite dark, make of that what you will.’

As the song opens: ‘You burnt our ties. Ex-lovers lie, in wait, no peaceful lullabies can save me, from me. My head’s in two. Purple balloon, that floats and flies with the grace that I just crave.”

Earlier this month, he released his haunting single ‘Boy Who Fell To Earth’, a beautifully moving tribute to his young son. The piano-led ballad track could be a classic, with echoes of Bowie, with Scherdel’s gravelly voice giving the song real gravitas: ‘It were wrote in 2016, I looked back at my demos, when my son was one,’ he said. ‘The early demo had a band feel, a Coldplay vibe. We didn’t have enough songs in our set to do 30 minutes and that’s how it started. It didn’t take me long to write it at all, two to three hours to compose. I had the title and wrote to that. The melody came on the piano, there’s a strange chord, the pianist who also played on our cover of ‘Fairytale Of New York’ said he couldn’t play it (laughs). I did attempt to get it off the ground, behind the scenes, in 2017.’

As the track kicks off: “I heard you call, in a clear night sky. How could you be lost, with nothing out of sight. Then the heavens called and opened, through a turbulent grey sky, came perfect you.”

‘I always liked it, I wanted my son to live by that motto’

The day prior to the song’s release, Scherdel tweeted out a photo of his baby son with the caption “Be young, be foolish, be happy” and I ask him where it comes from: ‘There’s a tune by The Tams with that line in it, I always liked it, I wanted my son to live by that motto.’

In December, Scherdel and singer Harri Larkin released a beautiful cover of The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale Of New York’: ‘When we recorded it last November, me, Sarah, the violin player, and Luke, who plays guitar, we’d never played it together before that day,’ he said. ‘I’d known of Harri but never met her before that day but ‘Bonfire Toffee’ by her was one of my favourite songs last year. I reached out to a few female vocalists but I wanted someone with enthusiasm and determination and she had that right away. I said to Richard who did the filming “I want to do something for Christmas” and it naturally evolved from there. When we did it on the day, it took Richard around two hours to set everything up and we rehearsed it five or six times and did five takes it get it how we wanted.’

Fascinatingly, he didn’t give Larkin strict instructions, he just let her roll with it: ‘She just did it, she changed some of the harmonies. She was actually ill on that day but she kept going. She’s got a great voice. Me and Harri spoke the other day, we might choose to re-release it. I think If we did a new version, it would have to have the full studio treatment, this was done so slapdash and while it sounds great, I can tell it’s live, I’d want to keep the organic feel though. We’ve become good friends. If I write another one for a female vocalist, I’ll definitely turn to her first.’

Scherdel has been writing music since his early teens. Having begun releasing his own music in 2022 following a partnership working with Aidan Thomspon, he went on to release three new singles. Recent live performances include some coveted festival slots across the UK, sharing bills with Anne Marie, Stereophonics and Jake Bugg.

‘It comes from experiences with people who had addictions’

Last year, he released a single ‘The Answer’, a poppier, almost 90’s era song that builds, with strings underpinning the whole track: ‘It comes from experiences with people who had addictions,’ he said. ‘When we perform it live, it has an extremely big crescendo. There’s a Bowie song, ‘I Can’t Give Everything Away’ and Elbow tunes with big strings – they were my reference points. It’s written from the first person, you can’t get out of it. I’m sat on a lot of songs but the reason I chose this one was that I wanted to show people there was more thought behind it, not just 3 minute 30 singles and rock songs (laughs).’

When it comes to songwriting, he is very much melody driven: ‘I’ve never started with the lyrics, it’s always the chords,’ he said. ‘The Beatles and Bowie are my bread and butter. We cover Fleetwood Mac and Springsteen. We’ll do ‘Dream’ or ‘I’m On Fire’ (both Springsteen tracks). ‘I’m On Fire’ is a brilliant one, I’ll come on stage and do it as a solo before the encore.’

Touchingly. if he could go to any gig tonight, he picks Larkin: ‘I’d be going to see Harri, I can’t praise her enough,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Cruz are really cool, The Rosadocs are very cool, so are Matilda Shakes and The Reytons (all local indie rock bands). One of them, Joe, the guitarist, lives over the road.’ He has only praise for his local music scene: ‘We’re more the Doncaster side of Sheffield. It’s probably the strongest time I’ve ever known a music scene in my immediate vicinity. Everyone’s really happy for each other when it goes well, they celebrate it, that’s really nice.’

‘He’s been a massive inspiration on the piano’

His own musical influences over the years are incredibly diverse: ‘I was obsessed with nu metal like Slipknot, like an angsty teenager (laughs). Then I got into Nirvana and from them to Oasis to The Beatles. I really got into Billy Joel, he’s been a massive inspiration on the piano.’ Interestingly, he didn’t come to the piano first: ‘I started bashing around on some drums (laughs) when I was eight or nine then the guitar when I was 11 or 12. I had an old keyboard that I got when I was 10 for Christmas and pulled it out of the back of my wardrobe. I can play by ear, all self-taught, I’ve got some music theory without being able to read music. I just learned by playing, I put the hours in.’

Musical talent clearly runs in the family: ‘My nan was a club singer in the 60’s and my uncle played drums in the 80’s,’ he said. ‘My mum used to play a lot of Springsteen and Bowie but the passion came from within. My dad pushed me onto Frank Sinatra, it was a big melting pot. Sinatra’s like the family anthem!’

Sadly, they’ve seen first hand that meet your idols does not always go to plan: ‘On the way down to play a festival last year, our guitarist Luke was buzzing that he noticed that Simon Pegg was DJing on a small stage,’ Scherdel recounted. ‘He was talking about meeting him literally all the way down. We arrived about 3 p.m. and went through security and started unloading our van. The first person to walk by us was Simon and he wasn’t very pleasant when we went for a photo opp; Luke missed him completely as he marched by our van backstage not wanting to talk to anyone: “Not today, lads”. He ended up sharing us – without realising – on his Instagram story, though!’

If he could go for a pint with anyone, he is quick to say Bowie: ‘He always came across as such a brilliant human being, the way he conducted himself,’ he said. ‘He was a proper pioneer. I’d ask him how it was always possible to move with the times the way he did, ahead of the time. He always had so much grace in his interviews.’

Scherdel’s dream line up would be glorious: ‘The Beatles and Bowie,’ he grinned. ‘Gang of Youths (a Sydney-based rock band). I’m obsessed with Stevie Wonder, he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen live. And Billy Joel in the afternoon to get everyone going!’