Sam Fender claims he “rushed” second album and provides fresh update on new music
The tricky second album is a hurdle that plenty of artists have spoken about struggling with as the pressure from a strong debut mounts, and the worrying about maintaining a level of hype often leads to panic. Sam Fender knows the feeling well, as he’s admitted to feeling “rushed” when it came to his sophomore release despite the immense success of the project.
After his 2019 debut album Hypersonic Missiles and the huge success of its title track, Fender was shot from one-to-watch status to a certified star. By the time his second album, Seventeen Going Under, came in 2021, he was already playing the arenas and stadiums as one of the fastest-rising stars in recent history. However, that excitement comes with a lot of expectations.
“For the second one we rushed to get that out,” Fender told Sky Arts on Johnson & Knopfler’s Music Legends, according to The Sun. However, he’s adamant about not making that mistake again as he added, “[For] the third one we started rushing and I thought, ‘No, we have got to take the time.’”
Providing an update on how album three is coming along and when the world might hear it, he said he’s been working away on it in the studio. “We have been recording and recording and making loads of stuff but it got to the point where I thought, ‘We don’t need to get this out yet. We need to get it right’”, he said.
Learning from the mistakes made last time, Fender continued, “I want to do the best I possibly can. I’d rather it be late and great than early and shite.”
However, plenty of people would contest that his sophomore album was “shite”. Housing the massive hit, ‘Seventeen Going Under’, the record’s consideration of masculinity, austerity and mental health earned him a Mercury Prize nomination.
Judging from his comments, Fender is gearing up for bigger and better things as he said of the upcoming album, “What we have got so far I am absolutely over the moon with, but I want to give it that bit more time and more thought.”
In a recent interview with Far Out Magazine, two major North East heroes, Dire Strait’s Mark Knopfler and AC/DC’s Brian Johnson bestowed their praise on the young musician. “Sam [Fender] is just going to be huge,” Knopfler said.
Providing further insight on the album, he revealed, “I think Sam’s halted that a while back. He made another turn. And he went off to America to do some recording. He suddenly changed his producer. So, he’s restless, you know, and always looking for something. That’s fine. It’s good that he’s looking, but it’s early days, and we’ll just have to hope that everything hangs together, because it’s quite a precarious game.”
As a musician and a person, both of the Geordie legends praised Fender. Knopfler said, “Sam’s wonderful. Brian and I both think he’s great, and he’s gonna go a long way, if he takes care of himself.”
It seems that part of taking care of himself is allowing himself the time and space to create album three in the process he wishes, so the world will simply have to be patient.
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