| SAM HIMSELF SHARES SECOND ALBUM NEVER LET ME GO >>> Listen to the album here <<<>>> Watch video for focus track “Heartland” here <<< |
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| Credit: Stefan Tschumi © 2022 Sam Himself /// Press kit here /// Photos here The ten-track LP marks the latest collaboration of Swiss-born, Gotham-bred indie rocker Sam Koechlin with his longtime producer / “Second Beatle” Daniel Schlett (Iggy Pop; The War on Drugs) and mastering engineer Greg Calbi (David Bowie; Bruce Springsteen), and features Chris Egan (Solange; Blood Orange) on drums and Josh “JD” Werner (Ghostface Killah; CocoRosie) on bass. Never Let Me Go beams with the promise of a reopening world whose studios, stages and dance floors we will finally get to share again — or lose once more at any moment. Of the album, Koechlin says, “Suspended between faith and fear, hope and its opposite, Never Let Me Go is equal parts plea and reckoning in more than name.” |
 Alongside the album premieres a music video for the track “Heartland” featuring collaged footage from the road emblematic of this joyful, anxious return to togetherness.Previously, singles Mr. Rocknroll (Nov 11), Golden Days (Sept 16) and Never Let Me Go (July 22), the album’s title track, offered a taste of what to expect from the “King of Tears’” (Radiotélévision Suisse) sophomore effort: a soundtrack for the first day after what looked like the last — fueled by the bliss of newfound personal connections and the thrill of going back on the road with his band — and a stark contrast to his somber debut album, Power Ballads, a largely home-recorded yet “well-crafted set of atmospheric post-punk” (KEXP). Released in 2021, the two-time Swiss Music Award nominee’s first LP dealt with the bleak, lonely time during which it was written. To promote his second LP, Sam recently announced the first leg of his European Tour in early 2023, confirming stops in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Zurich, with more to follow (incl. a string of US dates this spring and several European festival shows in the summer) after closing out a busy 2022 with his second collaboration with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. |