Sam Fender

DIY in deep DIY In Deep is our monthly, online-centric chance to dig into a longer profile on some of the most exciting artists in the world right now. And having released one of 2021’s most celebrated albums, there are few people currently turning more heads than Sam Fender.

I" t’s a very special moment for a songwriter,” Sam Fender told his followers on TikTok in a video posted to his account back in November. “I’m honoured that ‘Seventeen [Going Under]’ has resonated with people in that way.”

The video in question came in response to a groundswell of posts from thousands of children, teenagers and young adults, co-opting a line from the title track of the North Shields singer-songwriter’s second album to spark long-overdue conversations around abuse, depression and hardship. “I was far too scared to hit him, but I’d hit him in a heartbeat now,” he sings, reflecting on the teenage years where he didn’t have the capabilities to fight back against those who wronged him and his loved ones, or the capacity to truly understand himself.

Online, the lyric has been used by people telling stories of being unable to exit abusive or toxic relationships, and of family troubles and teenage traumas that have stayed with them. In many of the videos, the subjects filmed themselves crying (“I was far too scared to hit him”), and then again, more composed, from the other side of the trauma (“But I would hit him in a heartbeat now”). In a lot of ways, it’s a reflection of Sam’s own journey from pain to acceptance. In the comments of his video, he points fans towards helplines, resources and information surrounding domestic abuse.

Speaking two months after the release of ‘Seventeen Going Under’, he says the response has been “bizarre and incredibly heartwarming,” and has made him feel very vulnerable. His songs have undeniably elicited a fierce reaction, and are creating tangible change; if Sam is feeling exposed, it’s because there’s nothing within the brutal honesty of this game-changing album to hide behind.

“I was writing about my mother, who's worked for forty years of her life, who fell on hard times and got fibromyalgia, and had mental health struggles,” he says. “She was forced by the DWP [Department of Work and Pensions] to prove that she was fit enough to work even though she wasn’t, which subsequently made her more ill. That was my struggle as a teenager because I was understandably not old enough to be able to do anything about it, which is where a lot of my frustration and anger comes from and why I'm such a fierce hater of the Tory party.

“A lot of kids on TikTok that are sharing the song, some of their stories are about domestic violence or overcoming other traumas, and I think a lot of these traumas have been born out of the struggles and hardships that have come from the last 10 years of austerity and the pandemic,” he continues. “What I’m talking about in my songs are very, very normal issues for normal people in this country. More often than not, a lot of kids will hear the lyrics and be like, ‘Oh, that kinda reminds me of what's going on in my house right now’.”

Reflecting on the line that has become the lynchpin of the song’s success online and otherwise, Sam says: “The vast majority of people who've had bullying throughout their life have got that feeling. That never leaves you - a feeling that you weren't tough enough or you weren't man enough. They’re toxic ideas, but that’s what we’re led to believe, isn’t it? I’m not singing or writing anything particularly complicated or intelligent, it’s just honest, and spoken like someone who isn’t a fucking scholar, do you know what I mean?” he says before an extended pause. “I’m from North Shields.”

Since emerging with debut album ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ in 2019, Sam Fender has always been a songwriter who sings unapologetically from the heart. On early single ‘Dead Boys’, he reflected on the spate of male suicides in his local area that “nobody ever could explain” and gained the nickname of the Geordie Springsteen for his saxophone-boosted instrumentals and lyrics that dreamt of breaking out of small-town misery.

As with many debut albums, ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ featured songs from across the first period of Sam’s life as a musician, some from many years ago. As such, the album felt like an unfinished portrait of him as an adult songwriter, with glimpses of greatness but a lack of cohesion. “I knew the [reaction to the] first one was going to be mixed anyway,” he reflects now, “because all the songs on there were written when I was 19, and I wasn't even into them. There are some tracks on the back end of ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ which I really, really could have done without. I was naive and young, and I was convinced otherwise that would be a good idea for the moment. So that's just the way it was.”

However, coming into ‘Seventeen Going Under’ - a more interconnected, dynamic collection written over the last two years - he says he was more forthright with his choices, and able to “put [his] foot down” after the success of his debut. The writing of this second record also coincided with Sam going to therapy for the first time, and the self-acceptance and understanding gleaned from the process helped him look backwards to his childhood and find out how he got here, why he is the way he is, and what he can do to banish the old ghosts and keep moving forwards positively. “‘Seventeen Going Under’ the track was the first one that I wrote, and became like a key that opened Pandora's box,” he says.