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I like to put the cream on my scone before the jam”) hasn’t gone down the rap route. It’s probably for the best. After all, Way’s trying to establish himself as a model of substance, or more specifically, as a throaty torch singer who specialises in songs of love lost. “I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve,” he confesses. “Yes, my stuff is personal. Friends tell me they find it difficult to listen to, but I’ve written these songs and someone else may as well hear them too.” Way’s a welcome antidote to the idea that male models are vacuous, superficial clothes horses. He quotes Michael Cunningham and Eric Fromm on his blog. He writes free-associative verse (quote: “I come
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“When I was young I wanted to be a dragon, a marine biologist and then a ninja,” Sam Way muses. Instead, he got scouted in Topman and found himself being photographed by Bruce Weber for Vogue Hommes alongside Kate Moss. Now 24, he’s become one of Britain’s best-known male models – not that he’s letting that get in the way of his music career. “Other models are like, ‘Dude, where did that come from, I didn’t know you could sing?’” Way laughs. “I made a bad-ass poetry/rap mixtape with my cousin when I was 12, but this is all very new. I’ve only been playing guitar for six months.” The Devon-born auteur (“you can tell because
not to bury poetry/ but to blow it up”). Hey - he even wears black-rimmed glasses on his Twitter profile. So: he’s a Beat-era intellectual, reborn in the 21st century, with a smile that just happens to be made for magazine centrefolds. “Let’s get deep, man, let’s not dick about,” he says, turning serious. “I’m an old-fashioned romantic. Sometimes I don’t think that’s a good thing. My last romantic relationship,“ insert wry pause here, “…Well, if you keep your ears tuned in, you’ll be able to decipher some of the story.” What happened? “Losing a love’s a many-headed beast,” Way says, skillfully dodging the question. “To really understand something like that you must come to know every side, even hers.” Pretty damn magnanimous, especially considering this is a guy who can induce almost fanatical amounts of lust in any woman. It’s not for nothing that there are entire internet sites dedicated to him. “I do find it weird,” he acknowledges. “I have ten fake me’s on Facebook, and a fake Twitter profile that says I’m afraid of the dark.“ Not to mention a ‘Fuck Yeah, Sam Way’ Tumblr that specialises in pictures of his naked chest (and abs, and bum...) “...run by god knows who,” he quips. At the very least, there’ll be an audience for his music – as long as it comes with topless photos, right? So here’s the dreaded million-dollar question: is he scared of being labelled with the “model turned musician’”cliché? Way meets the idea head-on. “There’s no point in being scared,” he says. “If other people want to label you then they will. If you’re creating, especially from a vulnerable, truthful place, then you’ll be shown respect.” It’s not like he’s lacking in bravery. After all, he did abandon the provincial shires for London on the cusp of his 16th birthday to break into an industry he knew nothing about. “Here I am, talking to you,” he says. “I can’t be a dragon, I don’t think I want to be a marine biologist anymore, so I’d definitely be a ninja… Or maybe, if someone’s willing to trust me, a musician.”
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