For Sydney’s Sam Fischer, it seems good things do indeed come to those who wait: Whether it takes ten years to become an overnight sensation and five more to release a debut album, time eventually pulls through and rewards patience.
‘I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me’ – Sam Fischer
Making his name as one of Australia’s own, musician extraordinaires is the wonderful Sam Fischer.
Does the name sound familiar? It should. Sam Fischer is a singer-songwriter, who has been in the business of making music for quite a few years now writing pieces for other artists, and touring or nearly touring with a couple of big names you might recognize, Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan, after his song “This City” went viral across the internet back around 2018.
Knowing all of this, one might be wondering, why is “This City” the only song I can name by him? Well, that would be because he hadn’t released an album until December 1, 2023. And you have no reason to fret or complain because the album is an immaculate curation of 15 songs all ranging in sound and influence.
Now to jump into our conversation, which seemed to fly by as we chatted away about all things business, inspiration, identity, etc, we’ll start at the beginning.
“It certainly has been a long time coming,” Sam Fischer remarks with a relieved sigh, as he opens up about the release of his debut album, I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me.
“I feel so good. I feel so proud of this record, all the songs on it – they’re fifteen of the best songs I’ve ever written. Each song in itself tells a story, and I think the coolest comment that I’ve been getting is that nothing sounds the same, and the cohesiveness is my writing style and my voice. And that is awesome because when it comes to identity and the perception of me, I never really know what people are thinking, and so to be able to kind of you know like a multifaceted human as well as an artist and represent that in the album that’s been really cool to hear.”
Jumping back in time a bit, before we get too ahead of ourselves in talking about all that comes with a debut album, Fischer takes a moment to reminisce on the massive success that “This City” had back in 2018. On this, he said with astonishment still glinting in his eyes and radiating off him, “My life, it felt like it changed overnight.”
As we chat about his life pre-“This City,” he recalls how he used to work a variety of odd jobs so he could make rent, and so from being a delivery boy for a meat pie shop and teaching rich kids how to play tennis, it’s quite clear that Fischer has done his time and deserves all the accolades and praise he is bound to get with and after the release of this debut album.
And though, as he stated, “It’s taken ten years to become an overnight sensation,” it must be true that good things come to those who wait.
All in all, over the course of 15 or so years, from having somewhat random, and well-deserved, insane success with “This City” to now having a full-wrapped album under his belt, Fischer admits that “It feels like a milestone that I was supposed to reach years ago, but all in its time. We’re here now.”
Getting into the nitty-gritty of all that is, or isn’t, the creative process, Fischer divulges with some soft chuckles and a clear look of relief, that for him the whole process of going from “This City” to creating a full album kind of sucked – and was “the most unromantic process” he could have pictured.
On this, he shares that, “There was no executive producer for the album, I was the executive producer of the album, and my team is totally different from when I started writing the album to now.”
“Sometimes your day ones don’t stay your day ones. I think the consistent thing for me has been the fans; they are the reason I have the life I have now.”
As we continue to discuss everything that went into the making of I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me, Fischer jumps straight into what everyone is probably wondering: What is the album about? What are each of the 15 songs on the record about?
“They’re about my life over the past five years,” he says in response. “There’s no one relationship they’re about, or one situation they’re about. It’s just, this is the state of my mind and the conversations that I kind of have with myself about what’s happening in my life, both good and bad.”
“I think the main thing I’ve learned through writing the album is that nothing I feel is unique and whenever I feel alone in something, I’m not. It’s kind of comforting that way, but I’m so proud of it. I really am. It’s my debut album! It’ll be my debut album for the rest of my life.”
Touching more on all that was so unromantic about actually piecing together the album, Fischer talks about how it came together in pieces.
As he looks back on each of the songs, he describes the album as a collection of “fragments of my life,” and proving this point, he shares a couple of stories about how some songs came to be.
He tells one story about the song “Landslide” and how it was written and tinkered around with in 2017 when he was drunk at 2 am with three other writers in a Beverly Hills mansion and his friend and fellow writer, Geoff Warburton, looked at him and said, “Bro, I hate this” to which Fischer agreed. From there the song got changed to “in a haze” within about 40 minutes from being a more, poppy fun song to a heartfelt song led with a gentle guitar and one-take vocals.
He also talks about “Afterglow,” which came about when Fischer was in a rut about “a year after I thought the album was done.” This song as Fischer explains, was different from the others on the album because he really had no ideas or clear picture of what he wanted to say or make with it. After taking a break and going for a walk around the neighborhood, Fischer says he asked himself, “What would Chris Martin do?” – because when you’re becoming one of the ‘greats,’ you obviously have to look at one of the top music gurus in the world today, for inspiration.
That’s when it clicked for him. “I just want to write a stadium pop song,” Fischer said, and voila! Out came “Afterglow,” which is certainly going to be one for the stadiums, arenas, etc.
Continuing with this train of thought of the stories around the album’s songs, but also a song that Fischer pointed to as one that sticks out to him, we have “Watching My World Fall Apart.” Here we get more intimate, as he shares that this is “the only song on the album that isn’t about my own personal experience.”
Elaborating on this he shares, “I was in the car on the way to the session and the driver got a phone call and I could see him talking, I could see him in the rearview mirror, I could see his eyes and he started talking in very hushed and tense tones. I saw him just sit up and his eyes got red and he goes ‘Have I been made redundant?’ and I was like, what is happening right now? Am I sitting in here just watching this dude’s world fall apart? And he was like okay, okay, and then he put down his phone and just grabs the steering wheel really tight, looks in the mirror and sees me looking and we make eye contact and I just said, ‘Are you okay?’ and he was like ‘uh huh.’ And I was just like did this dude just lose his job while on the job, like what’s happening?”
And so, once Fischer arrives at his destination, all these thoughts continue to race through his mind, and so from that experience in the car with the driver, “Watching My World Fall Apart” was born- a fictional and fully fabricated song based somewhat off of a real-life or a quasi-real-life experience.
If nothing else, these three very different stories and very different songs should implore you to give the album a listen. There is bound to be at least one track that would suit anyone’s fancy, whether you’re in the mood for something gentle and comforting, something to hit you in the gut, or something to jump and dance around to. I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me is sure to suit whatever your fancy is.
As we reach just beyond the halfway mark of our conversation, we transition to discussing how Fischer stays grounded throughout working in the music industry. Fischer makes an important note of separating his work life and social life, or at least some parts of his social life. He mentions how he has a group of friends who “don’t want to talk about my career.”
On the same note, but covering a different facet of how Fischer manages to stay grounded he also makes note of just being extremely grateful for everything, he says, “I have had everything handed to me, and I’ve worked my ass off, but I’ve had everything handed to me and then ripped away by the pandemic. I think going through that, having gotten the Niall Horan tour which was the dream, while having a hit, like are you kidding me? That was about to be the life-changer. And you know, having songs go well at the radio and having all these artists reach out, but I wasn’t able to meet them, I wasn’t able to play the festivals, I wasn’t able to do all the fun shit that comes along with finally making it. And so having everything get ripped away, I’ve kind of just learned to not get my hopes up as much and I think it keeps me grounded because when great stuff happens I don’t get over excited about it. And it kind of sucks, like I wish that I could celebrate super hard and I wish that I could be like unbelievably stoked about something, but I am just too afraid of shit getting ripped away again.”
On a more positive note, the bottom line that Sam Fischer hopes that fans and casual listeners alike gain from this debut album of his is that, he is more than just the “This City” guy. He says, “I’m a real artist with a boy of work that you can get lost in and I feel like there’s something for everyone on this album. I’m stoked to be the guy that sings “This City” and wrote it, but there’s more to me.”
And with that, we come to the end of our conversation, where we conclude with the exciting news of a 2024 Europe Tour and perhaps some other new dates and cities as the year progresses.
I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me is available for streaming everywhere, and tickets for his live shows are on sale now.
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