With the release of his new album, There’s Nothing But Space, Man, Sam Ryder, the winner of the British Song Contest, has appropriately capped off an incredible year! In a lengthy interview with Krone, the 33-year-old singer reveals that he hasn’t always been fortunate enough to have a lighter side to the profession.
If the difficult and painful year of 2022 brought a great winner, it is certainly the British Sam Ryder. At the Turin Song Contest, he only had to admit defeat to Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra with his rousing song “Space Man,” thus jolting the UK out of its longstanding insignificance. In early September, he wowed the audience at a London tribute concert for the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins with an impressive cover of Queen’s cult hit “Somebody To Love”, sharing the stage with Brian May and Roger Taylor. In autumn, the crown of success was an almost universally successful European tour (Vienna, unfortunately, was one of the few negative exceptions), and now the lively blonde star adds his album “There’s Nothing But Space, Man!” to our gift basket.
First came metal
“I can’t say which of these projects was the biggest highlight,” Sam Ryder https://znaki.fm/persons/sam-ryder/ explains to us in an interview with Krone. “It’s like I have to pick the brightest part of the sun. It’s absolutely impossible. My life has changed radically in all areas, and I’m just grateful to be where I am now.” The Briton’s relatively late career reads like a fairy tale. When Ryder attended a Sum 41 concert at the age of eleven, he was hooked, and his dream of becoming a musician replaced other interests. Inspired by Iron Maiden, whom he still loves, he founded the metalcore band The Morning After. He then worked as a guitarist in Blessed By A Broken Heart and then as a frontman in Close Your Eyes. With two of these three projects, he also performed at Vienna’s Viper Room in the 2010s.
“I’ve always loved music in all its forms and always wanted to express myself in different ways.” Ryder moved from metalcore to Nashville to record a solo album, which was never released. When he returned to England in 2016, he opened a vegan juice bar with a good friend, which he had to close again in 2019. He also worked as a wedding singer, which he still considers a “turning point” in his career. “I found pleasure in singing and sharing my feelings,” he says, his eyes shining brightly. “Brides need the right atmosphere, and I have to create it. During this time, I realised that I don’t need external confirmation to be happy, but rather to feel the pure joy of singing.”
A reward for hard work
It was the first lockdown of all time that gave his career a rocket launch. Tired of staying at home, he uploaded cover versions of various artists, from Sia to Justin Bieber and Alicia Keys, and became a TikTok star overnight. This led to a major label deal with Parlophone in 2021, an EP called “The Sun’s Gonna Rise” that has been streamed over 100 million times, and the incredible year of 2022 mentioned at the beginning. “I know very well from my own experience how much sweat and hard work goes into a career, so I will never take off. Music is hard work. I know so many friends and colleagues who have to give everything to be able to open the next door in their lives. I have nothing but respect for these people and will never forget where I come from.”