Four time GRAMMY winner Sam Smith has officially returned from his much-needed hiatus away from writing and releasing music.
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“It was important for me to go away for a year and a half to be with my mum and be with my sisters,” the singer said this past Monday when her took the stage at the Troubadour. It was his first appearance at the iconic L.A. club venue since 2015. “I promise you the music has benefited from it,” he added.
Smith’s new single hints that the time away was indeed worth the wait. The singer sat down with GRAMMY Legend, GRAMMY Hall Of Fame inductee and five-time GRAMMY Award winner Sir Elton John for an exclusive interview with Britain’s Attitude magazine this week to discuss the process of birthing his most recent musical endeavor, as well as the struggles he dealt with during his time away.
“There was a period, when making the record, that I was in a really bad place,” Smith revealed in the interview, referencing how he’d found himself in severe personal darkness fallowing a disintegrating relationship. “I just couldn’t write for about two months … My team had to force me to get into the studio, because I almost felt as if I didn’t want to do it anymore. So, there were moments on there where it got a bit intense and I started to lose myself.”
Smith also referenced the controversy following his 2016 Oscars acceptance speech for his Best Original Song-winning “Writing’s On The Wall,” from the James Bond film Spectre.
“Basically, I just f****d up. I was so nervous,” Smith Tells John in the interview. “It made me really said for a few weeks afterwards, I was really upset. But my intentions were good. I met [Sir Ian McKellan] afterwards and we had a laugh about it. I’m at peace with it now.”
It’s clear Smith’s off-stage experiences have definitely informed some of the music from his forthcoming, as yet unnamed, record, but as he told the audience during his Monday night set, “I tried to challenge myself to not make it about myself all the time,” in regards to writing material for the new album.
That said, Smith also admitted that there will be, “three or four songs [about] me,” introducing the still-unreleased album track “Burning,” by calling it, “one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written in my life.”
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