Sam Fender’s five ultimate indie anthems
Geordie singer-songwriter Sam Fender has become beloved in British indie rock scenes for his sincere lyrical storytelling and classic guitar sound. Growing up around soul and rock, Fender was heavily inspired by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jeff Buckley and Steely Dan. With icons ringing in his ears, Fender first combined his love for guitar music with songwriting in his early teens after a teacher worked with him to improve his writing.
A working-class kid from the terraced streets of North Shields, Fender also developed an interest in Americana and heartland rock. Despite the oceans between the two musicians, Bruce Springsteen and Fender both had difficult upbringings marked by parental mental health issues and education dropouts. The singer was even moved to tears when he met ‘The Boss’.
By his teens, Fender was playing in bands and had picked up an interest in indie music. He spent his late teens juggling gigs at restaurants, working multiple jobs, and supporting his mother through her struggles with fibromyalgia and mental illness. The latter, combined with his love of music, caused him to drop out of college.
Fender’s love for indie music during this time was particularly formative for his taste and his own music, which is clearly influenced by the indie he grew up with. The singer-songwriter even once paid homage to Oasis with a cover of the 1995 indie classic, ‘Morning Glory’. But it was 2000s indie that was really formative for Fender. During an interview with BBC Radio 1, he picked out his five favourite indie anthems of all time, most of which were released during his teens.
Arctic Monkeys are an essential pick on any indie anthems list, and Fender picks out ‘Teddy Picker’ as his first song. Released as the third single to their second studio album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, in 2007, he was just 13 when the indie anthem hit the UK charts. He recalls how the song came out just as he was starting a band: “I absolutely loved Favourite Worst Nightmare, we used to cover it in my barn when I was like 14, and I just love the intro.”
Fender also names a couple of songs from beloved indie bands operating around the same time – Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club. Though neither ever reached the worldwide acclaim of Alex Turner’s Arctic Monkeys, both bands were essential in the British indie scene of the 2000s and 2010s. He cites the powerful ‘What Went Down’ from Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘What If’. On the latter, he reminisces, “It was a tune that I proper loved when I was in high school.”
Leaving British indie behind, Fender names Arcade Fire’s 2010 track ‘The Suburbs’ as his fourth pick. He dubs it, “The song that I used to listen to when I was 17 going under… when I was 17, and I was in college, this record was my favourite record at the time.”
Fender rounds out the list with an English rock classic turned football anthem, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve. The track, which samples Andrew Oldham Orchestra’s version of the Rolling Stones’ ‘The Last Time’, is one of the most well-loved Britpop songs of all time. He recalls that it was “pretty much the first big indie track I ever heard when I was a kid.”
His selections combine classic rock influences with innovative, modern indie, much like his own musical output. Since his teen years, he’s come as far as to share bills with his indie icons, set to headline Reading and Leeds alongside Foals this year.
Sam Fender’s five ultimate indie anthems:
- Arctic Monkeys – ‘Teddy Picker’
- Foals – ‘What Went Down’
- Bombay Bicycle Club – ‘What If’
- Arcade Fire – ‘The Suburbs’
- The Verve – ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’
