New full band show at The Robin 2

Delighted to be heading back to The Robin 2 in Bilston for a full band show. Excellent support acts on too in Dominic Malin, Jess Silk and Raphaella Kornarskis!

It could well be my only full band show this year, and we are hoping to play some new material, so make sure you don't miss it!

Full Band Show at The Robin 2 in May!

Got an awesome show coming up in May with The Revolt at The Robin 2 in Bilston. Tickets are cheap, the supports are awesome and it's going to be a great night. Get your tickets here, now!

2018 - a review

The time has come for another yearly update. 2018 has been a crazy year both on and off stage, probably more off than on, which I suppose is reflected in my gig count of 76. Its down on previous years, but it's still much higher than I expected, and averages at about 1.46 per week.

On stage I hit some major highs this year, the pinnacle being the 3 gigs I played in Dublin in March. It was my first time playing in Ireland, and the friends I made there will stay with me for a long time. I can't wait to go back (and neither can Kayla!)

Other highlights include 2 gigs at The Robin with The Revolt backing me, a trip to Salford to support The Thought Police for their single launch, the incredible experience of playing The Treehouse ouse Sessions and my gig at The Wakes in Oakengates. Plus I made returns to old favourites in The Jamhouse, Katie Fitzgerald's, Hurcutt Pools and Llangollen's Faery and Red Dragon festivals. All in all its been a year of fewer, but dare I say cooler gigs, which if I'm honest is probably a more sustainable gigging model going forward, both in terms of growing and maintaining a fanbase and getting my work-life balance right. I've always felt like I gig too much, mainly for free entry, to really be able to move towards ticketed gigs. Maybe this is the start of a shift. Maybe.

It's off stage where big things have happened. It's been a year of love, heartbreak and change for my friends and family, and I won't go into everything as this isn't the place. I lost a good friend earlier in the year to cancer, though his legacy lives on not only in the work he did to raise awareness on a grand, even global scale, but personally in the friends I have made through him and people he brought into my life. It feels somewhat disingenuous to 'name drop' him (as he is much more 'famous' than me!), because this tribute isn't about building my own profile, but remembering him. He wouldn't care, as it goes, but I still can't bring myself to do it.

I was lucky enough to attend his wedding a few short weeks before he died, and those memories will be with me forever.

At the complete opposite end of the personal emotional spectrum, my son Ezra Alfred Draisey was born on the 12th of December. I am, obviously, completely in love with him, and find myself with a newfound love and respect for both Kayla and Buddy, who have slipped into their new lives as mother-of-two and big brother respectively with equal love and grace. They are my heroes, all three of them.

I look forward to a 2019 filled with exciting adventure both on and off stage. I already have another full band show lined up and a sniff at a pretty major festival, which is mega exciting. I hope to see you out there.

Sam.

New Live Video!

The gig at The Robin was great! And what's more, I remembered to take, set up and press record on my camera this time, so I've got some live videos for you! I put up a video of our encore cover of Billy Bragg's 'All You Fascists Bound to Lose' last week, which you can check out on YouTube and on my Facebook page. But now, here's an original.

I've been trying to get a full band video of Don't Forget for a while. I have a few acoustic ones, and I really like them, but it's great to finally get the whole band version up for you to see. I love the dynamic changes the song has with the full band.

Thanks to everyone who came to the gig and to the guys in The Revolt for playing. Hopefully we get to do it all again soon.

Tomorrow!

I can't believe the full band gig at The Robin 2 is tomorrow! It's going to be ace, don't miss out!

Live in Salford

Lats weekend I made my first road trip for a while to The Old Pint Pot in Salford to support fellow political musos The Thought Police for the launch of their new single 'Holy Man' (out now on various platforms. They were ace, the gig was ace and here is a live video of 'The Worst Lie of All' to prove it.

Another new live video!

I'm trying to make an effort to record and upload more 'content' (Christ I hate that word). I doubt anyone would want to see a video of me just talking about my day and pretending a million exciting things are happening right now with my music, so it's taking the form of more live videos from cool gigs I'm playing this summer. Here's another from Banstock, a festival quite literally a stones throw from my house (if my aim was better).

Hope you like it :)

(Disclaimer: It's not that I'm not doing anything with music, quite the opposite, I just get a bit jaded by supposed 'music industry experts' constantly pushing that you need to be doing Facebook Live videos every time you cook your tea or pack up your car for a gig. I'm busy with gigs, with merchandise making for myself and other people and general musical work. I post about it on various social media platforms on a semi regular basis. I'm just not going to video everything I do for the internet.)

New Live Video

Check out the new live video of 'Used to be my Hero' live from Lechlade festival  (25/5/18). It's a cool festival and you should check it out :)

Halfway through this song Buddy ran up to the stage and stole my drink! I'm being forever upstaged by him nowadays!

Another cool fact; because the headliner for the stage I was playing on never showed up, I technically headlined my first ever music festival stage on Friday night. It's a technicality, but it's still cool!

An interview with The Burning Blogger of Bedlam.

A few weeks ago I sat down for a chat (via email) with The Burning Blogger of Bedlam to talk about protest music's place in society, and my place in the world. Read the interview below.

BBB: Speaking from experience, it can be a massive uphill struggle to try to make a go of being a real musician, songwriter or performer. You can often be spending more money than you’re ever going to make and sometimes without much reward. What has your own experience been like…?

Sam: I think it’s a constant uphill struggle, and it’s important sometimes to look back and see how far you’ve come in order to not lose focus. It’s hard, it will continue to be hard if not harder, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come and I’ll continue to work hard for as long as I can.

I’m a very frugal guy, so spending money on my music always jars me a little. I have to weigh up every purchase and decide if I think it’s going to be worthwhile and if I’m going to make that money back. Whether it’s buying new instruments or PA equipment, or investing in getting merchandise manufactured, I always over-think it!

 

BBB: Is the underground or DIY music scene still thriving in the UK, in your opinion? And is there still a sense of community in it or is it more fragmented…?

Sam: Locally there is a real sense of community. Some of my best friends I’ve met on the local music scene, and you always seem to end up on a bill with at least one person you know. Further around the UK it’s a little more fragmented and can be a bit more cut-throat, but there are still loads of really good people out there willing to gig swap and help out when you’re booking a tour.

 

BBB: Who are your big influences as a songwriter…?

Sam: Like many songwriters, I have a large influence base. I would say that the main ones are Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, Billy Bragg and early Frank Turner. I’m also a massive Johnny Cash fan, so that tends to sneak into my music sometimes too.

 

BBB: Do you think of yourself as a protest singer…?

Sam: I do! I really believe that music has an important role to play in social change. Historically musical movements have ‘changed the world’, and while I’m not naïve enough to think that my music will do the same, I think to deny the importance of protest in music is to deny how important it has been in the past to things like social, racial and gender equality movements.

 

BBB: How much would you say your politics or political perspectives influences songwriting…?

Sam: My personal politics influence my songwriting (and my life) in a big way. I like to think I write music that is at it’s most simple an honest portrayal of who I am and what I stand for, so keeping my politics out of it would be disingenuous, as it’s such a big part of who I am.

 

BBB: Something I’ve written about here recently is the seeming absence of ‘protest music’ in the modern age. Is that something you’ve noticed too? If so, why do you think protest music or political music has gone out of fashion…?

Sam: I hear this a lot, and while it’s true that it’s pretty much gone from the mainstream, there is still a wealth of ‘protest singers’ out there for people who care to look. I think there is probably a direct link between the decline of the spotlight for protest music and the viewpoint of music being more and more of a business. As musicians are pushed to appeal to a wider and wider audience (and their music becomes more bland as a result) they are more likely to ‘play it safe’ with songs than express opinions that might turn some fans away.

There are many musicians who have been accused of ‘selling out’ like this, and though it’s their decision, I feel there may be a lot of pressure coming at them from labels to appeal to as wide a demographic as possible in order to sell as much as possible, rather than making the music that maybe feels more true to them.

 

BBB: Would you think of yourself as a folk singer…? I ask this, because I’ve noticed that folk singers seem to drift very naturally into protest music in a way that other types of performers don’t. I’ve always wondered why that is. Do you have any thought on that…?

Sam: Historically I think that might be true, though there is an argument that blues and more recently rap music can often contain a very political message (again if you look past the slim pickings the mainstream spotlight is cast on). A lot of the famous folk singers that influence today’s artists were big players in things like the civil rights movement and advocates for workers and human rights and used to sing a lot of songs about such things, so it’s there’s definitely a tradition there for folk artists a bit more than some other styles.

One of my favourite quotes is by Louis Armstrong where he says ‘All music is folk music. I aint never heard no horse sing a song’ and I think he might have something there, though in the more stylistic sense I do think of myself of a folk musician. My music can be quite varied, but folk is probably where it finds a more comfortable home most often.

 

BBB: My own experience of bands and musicians is that there are generally two types of attitude or motivation: those who want to ‘make it’ in the industry and those who just have the passion and don’t care if they make it or not. My own psychology was always a bit schizophrenic and ping-ponged back and forth between both those attitudes. What about you…? Are you already ‘living the dream’ or is the ‘dream’ still on the horizon…?

Sam: I have no interest in celebrity, the whole idea of it is just crazy to me. I’ve always said that my biggest aim would be able to do what I love to do for a living, and right now I’m doing ok with that. I went full time with music last summer and so far it’s working out alright. There is a certain level of ‘notoriety’ that you have to reach in order to sustain a career (people need to know about your music in order to listen to it, buy merch and come to gigs),but I think it’s a long way away from needing to be a famous megastar.

 

BBB: What’s the story behind the song ‘The Day I Was Meant to Die’…?

Sam: It’s a song about reflecting on life based on your own mortality, and maybe about regrets. I’ve lost a few people prematurely over the last couple of years and that definitely influenced me with this song.

 

BBB: What draws you to a particular song when it comes to performing covers? I noticed you do a version of ‘English Civil War’ by The Clash…

Sam: I learned that for a Strummerjam gig for the Joe Strummer Foundation. We all had to pick a Strummer song to cover, and I chose that one as I felt it was a really appropriate song for what society can be like at the moment.

I have loads of reasons why I might learn a new cover. It could be a request for a gig, or because I’m doing a cover gig and I feel like my set is missing a certain kind of song. Then I might learn something because it’s a project and learning it might force me to work on a certain technique or improve as a musician. Finally (as is the case with most of the more political covers I do), I might just learn it because I like it!

 

BBB: What’s the story behind the current album..? Is there an underlying theme..? And what’s the reaction to the album been like…?

Sam: I really feel like it’s a personal album. While there isn’t a certain theme per se, I do feel like it documents a certain point in my life and what I felt about a lot of different topics at that point in time. The reaction has been really positive, both from fans and the press.

I’ve had some really nice reviews in local and online press, and people who have spoken to me have been really gracious about what they think of it. It’s been really nice to get praise on the production of the record too, because I recorded, mixed and mastered it myself, and I think it’s my best work technically, as well as my best songs to date.

 

BBB: Do you have a favorite location or venue you’ve played at? Or, for that matter, a favorite gig you’ve played…? For me, it was my old band playing the 100 Club in London. What’s yours and why…?

Sam: One of my favourite local venues is The Robin 2 in Bilston, just because it’s a great place and really supports live music. Outside of that I love playing at Codfest, which is the music festival I have helped to put on for that past 8 years.

One of my all-time favourite gigs was at Paul Murphy’s house for his songwriter’s café a few years back. Paul was a well known and loved Birmingham musician who put gigs on in his garden through the summer in this fantastic wooden structure he built. There were two or three other acts on, we went down there, had dinner with him and his family then played to an invited audience in a tiny seated auditorium he had made, and the whole thing was live streamed around the world on his website.

It was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my musical life.

Check the whole thing out at https://theburningbloggerofbedlam.wordpress.com/2018/03/05/a-chat-with-protest-singer-folk-musician-sam-draisey/

Another new live video :)

Here it is, another new live video from Codfest last year. Check it out :)



Don't forget to get your tickets for the full band gig at The Robin 2 on the 22nd of February. It's going to be awesome!

Brand new live video.

Check out the live video of 'The Day That I Was Meant to Die' from Codfest 7. If you want to see the band in action, get your tickets for our upcoming show at The Robin 2 with The Arrangements, Alex Vann and Dominic Malin here.

2017 in review

So here it is, another year over, another end of year blog. But it has been a pretty good one, if I'm being totally honest.

I played 94 solo gigs this year. That's an average of 1.8 per week, which is a little off the pace for me compared to previous years *checks old blog posts*. There are a couple of possible reasons I can think of for this;

Firstly, For the first 9 months of this year I was working a school job. I know I've been working other jobs before while gigging more, but I can't say it doesn't have an impact on both having time to actually find and book gigs as well as being awake enough to play them!

Secondly, all of my recurring gigs have now stopped. I was running the songwriter's sessions at The Crown Joules for the first half of the year, but they decided to take their live music output in a 'different' direction. The gigs there were great while they lasted, but sadly, last they did not. I've also finished playing at Village Coffee in Codsall after many years. I'm not aware that they have any live music on there regularly now.

However, a lower gig output is somewhat outweighed by the fact that I finally finished and released my newest album, 'As I Live and Breathe' in 2017. It was a long time coming, and I'm incredibly proud of the way it came out. People seem to like it too! Massive thanks must be given to Dickie Davis, Dan Hart and my wife Kayla who all appeared on the album.

Stemming from the album launching, I've played my first ever gigs with a full and this year too, and they were great fun. I've got another one at The Robin 2 coming up in February, for which tickets are available here. It's going to be a great show, so come down and get involved :)

On to my highlights of 2017. Other than the obvious launching of the album, I also did a mini tour at the beginning on November which was a success. One of my favourite gigs was playing at Rough Trade Records in Nottingham for a multiple union event to talk about young people's pay. Tour aside, I also had a great time at Strummer Jam, as well as discovering cool new venues like The Windsor Theatre in Birmingham and Tom O' The Wood in Warwick.

Away from the stage, I've finally taken the plunge and gone full time with music as my solo job. It's going alright so far, but I'm sure I'm about to feel the January pinch!

In 2018 I hope to have a real go at making full time musicianhood work, as well as finding a new venue for the songwriter's sessions and generally looking to book more cool gigs. I've got some cool ideas for stuff to do at home too, but they need some refining yet so I'll keep them close to my chest for now.

See you out there,

Sam.

That's not what the world needs.

It struck me that at the top of this blog's homepage I introduce the blog as my thoughts and musings on the music industry, then proceed to only ever post when I'm advertising something. I never rant. At least not on here. I rant in my songs about all sorts of stuff, but somehow putting it in writing on the Internet is too much. Well, that should change...

Recently I've been seeing more and more 'promoters' on social media advertising for what I'd call 'Z list celebrities' to play at their venues. One even put out a call to see if anyone knew anyone who 'used to be famous.'

Is this really what people want to see? That guy who was in a 90's band or the girl who got knocked out of the x factor a couple of weeks in? Am I missing something here?

I'm not saying there isn't a place for those guys. There totally is. But I can't help but feel that it's an easy option for promoters to get a couple people in a venue (probably out of morbid curiosity) rather than attempt to curate an actual cohesive line up of acts that fit together well and might draw a crowd when placed together. A line up greater than the sum of it's parts, so to speak. It's a greater risk and probably harder work to promote, but isn't that why you wanted to be a promoter in the first place? To showcase new music? To put on great shows? To be the guy who put on act X 'before they made it big?' I defy you to find me someone who got into the promoting game to try to give former pop stars and reality TV wannabes a paycheck.

That's not what the world needs.

Nan's Song on Spotify

A few years ago I wrote this song for the charity christmas album. For the uninitiated, it was an album I released once a year with the musicians who played at my various open mic nights and sold for charity. I think this is probably my favourite of all the Christmas songs I've written.

This year seemed like a good time to release it online for stream and download. Check it out if you get a few minutes :)

Tour write up

So yesterday I finished my November tour. I've really enjoyed the whole experience and I thought I would write some of my thoughts and stats about the tour down here, just in case you're interested.

In total I travelled over 800 miles during the three weeks I was on tour. I played 10 gigs (11 if you count a private party) and sold 35 copies of my new album. Though I've not costed it exactly, I'm pretty sure I about broke even, which is cool for a first outing, especially as most of the gigs were unpaid.

As always, some gigs were more enjoyable than others, though I think I enjoyed all of them in their own ways. Heading into the tour I was least optimistic about the two nights that were open mic rather than booked shows, but they actually turned out to be some of the best of the tour. It helps that both Worley's in Stourport and The Market Vaults in Stafford are great venues that really try hard to support original music, and also that they have both promised me booked gigs going forward. Worley's also stream all of their gigs and open mic acts on Facebook Live, which is something I see a lot but hadn't experienced before. The video of my set there has been watched over 1100 times since then, which is crazy but really cool. I think the live streaming thing is something I definitely need to look into more in the future.

It was great to get the opportunity to play with some old friends too, and the beauty of booking your own tour through your friends is that they can come and play too! Massive thanks to Tone Tanner, Huffy, Dan Hartland, Bleeding Hearts, Dave Busby and The Pale Aliens for sorting gigs for me and playing. It's always a pleasure to see all of you play and spend some time with you. Thanks also to Roots Music, The Musician's Union and Pistol Pete Wearn for booking gigs for me too. I promise I'll come back to The Market Vaults when you're actually there to host Pete!

So to round up, I think the whole thing was a success. Yes I drove a lot (though the podcast 'I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats' has helped with that a lot), I did get woefully lost in Nottingham - huge thanks to Ben Benson from the MU for rescuing me - and I did only just break even, but as an exercise is playing to new people further afield I think it was worthwhile. After all, there are now 35 more people that have listened (I hope) to my new album, and if they tell all their friends about it then they will soon be flying out the door!

I wait patiently by the post box ;)

See you soon (like in Leicester next weekend, for a tour never really ends does it?)

Sam.

November tour!

I'm delighted to announce that in just over a week's time I'll be heading out on tour! Check out the dates below, it would be great to see some friendly faces :)

 

I'm really looking forward to getting out there :)

1000 shows!

So I just updated the past gigs page of my website and it seems I have passed the 1000 show mark! Part of me sort of wishes that I'd made a bigger deal of it, but I'm not really one for ceremony and it's still a nice achievement to look back at now. Plus it turns out the 1000th show was Strummerjam, which is really cool as it's a gig I really enjoyed, I really like everything that the gig and the charity stand for and I kinda hope that Joe would approve of what I'm doing.

Here's a video from that gig;

'So I take a breath and steel myself for the next one thousand shows...' Frank Turner - The Road.

New t-shirts available!

Check out my new t-shirts, as modelled here by my beautiful wife Kayla,

Click the picture to order yours today!

I screen print all of my t-shirts myself (proper DIY!) so order now for a trully handmade piece of merchandise!

New review

Here's another review of my new album. I think it's the first since the album actually came out! They did get a quote wrong, but I can forgive that seeing as they seemed to like the album! It's really nive to get a postive review not just from a more national entity like Folking.com, but also one that is so impartial. Check it out here or read it below :)

'“I’m the last of the protest song heroes” sings Sam Draisey in ‘Five Years Later’. That in itself is unusual because many writers of protest songs deny that’s what they are. Furthermore, ‘Five Years Later’ is a very good protest song and it comes on the back of ‘The Worst Lie Of All’, which you might consider to be even better. Sam is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Wolverhampton and As I Live And Breathe is something like his fifth album. Like others before him he’s turned his back on the first two and re-issued some of the songs on Anthology. This album has been a long time in the making and the polish that Sam acquired in recent years is self-evident.
As I Live And Breathe is, in many ways, autobiographical but often in an oblique way. ‘Used To Be My Hero’ is an attack on an un-named musician and my mind immediately turned to Bob Dylan but Sam is too young to have that sort of attachment to Bob. He says that “punk’s not dead” so that alters the time frame and opens up the field a bit. To confuse things further he follows that with ‘Let’s Not Grow Old’ heavily inspired by Johnny Cash.
Sam is a whole band all by himself but he has back-up from Dickie Davis on drums and Daniel Hart on second electric guitar plus his wife Kayla, who co-wrote some of the songs, providing vocals on ‘Turning You Down’. Sam has a distinctive voice that sounds younger than his years and he’s mixed himself well up front even when the band is rocking – oh yes, he did all the recording, mixing and mastering himself, too. And now I’ll tell you that Sam has only one arm and I discovered that fact only when I’d got to the end of the record which is when you learn it. Sam is someone who has proved what can be overcome.'
Dai Jeffries

NEW ALBUM

It's finally here! After years of stopping, starting, re-starting and stalling, I finally launched my new album 'As I Live and Breathe' last night at The Crown Joules in Codsall. The gig was ace, the supports (Brains for Breakfast and David Young & The Midnight Chorus) were brilliant as always and the guys that supported me in the band played a blinder! I couldn't be more happy with the way the night went.

So now's your chance to get the album! If CDs are you thing, you can order one from my online store by clicking the link here, or you can get it on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon Music (and probably more, who knows. Send me a message if you find it somewhere else!)

So that's it. It's been a long road, and now an even longer one begins. Good job I've got my walking boots on!