Sydney-born and raised, Sam Fischer, the pop prince known for his breakout hit single This City, is finally coming home.
Following the release of his debut album, I Love You, Please Don’t Hate Me last December, Sam Fischer will soon hit Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, keeping it short and sweet and performing in intimate venues for one night only. His tour will also take him internationally for the first time and fans all over the world can expect to hear some of his earlier songs and brand new music too.
In Virginia, over 15 thousand kilometres away from home, Sam tells me he’s stoked to return to Australia to perform. “The Oxford Arts Factory is somewhere I feel like I grew up so it’s going to be really special”.
Sam Fischer 2024 Australia Tour
- May 9 – The Zoo, Brisbane
- May 10 – Oxford Art Gallery, Sydney
- May 11 – Howler, Melbourne
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“I’m so sad it’s so short. I had so many people being like ‘What about LA? What about Perth?’ and you know, being real, if I could afford it, I would do the whole country and it would be fucking amazing.”
He says there’s just something about playing where he grew up that hits different. “Hometown shows are more special than any other show anywhere,” he says.
“The setlist, the arrangements, the lighting, the flow, the energy… it’s everything I’ve wanted to give you for so long now.”
After being dropped by a major recording label, Sam could only describe being an artist as “something that was just only going to bring pain”. But that didn’t stop him. He independently released the soul-crushing ballad This City inspired by the challenges he faced upon moving to LA. The song marked the beginning of a remarkable chapter in his musical journey.
“What happened with This City blew my mind,” Sam says. The track, with heartfelt vocals that were recorded in his kitchen, sat unrecognised for a year. Then suddenly it was everywhere. In 2019, it blew up on Tiktok, used mostly as the soundtrack for wholesome, heartwarming videos.
During the Covid-19 pandemic when it hit the top radio charts, Sam legally wasn’t allowed to fly back home to Australia. “It killed me that I wasn’t able to be in the country that really lifted me up and that was my own country,” he says.
“The pandemic kind of ruined the moment but it was still pretty cool. Australian crowds are just better than anywhere else. I just feel like myself when I’m home.”
Now, The City has 750 million worldwide streams and 4 million worldwide sales. It’s double platinum in Australia and the UK and gold in the US, New Zealand and Switzerland. “I didn’t have TikTok downloaded when it was going viral. I had no idea what the fuck TikTok was,” says Sam.
“It was a song that people come to my shows and before it was out and they’d be like ‘What’s that song? Is it out?’ Then they’d come back to a show and they’d be singing along and I knew it was special, but the people that I had around me at the time didn’t care for it”. Sam tells me originally it wasn’t on the EP and he faced some hardships along the way.
“I put it on because I didn’t think that I was going to be an artist after I got dropped from my first label and I wasn’t allowed to put anything out. I got abused and I just looked at being an artist as something that was just going to bring pain”, he tells me. “Then the world kind of said ‘No bitch, you’re gonna come back into the game.’”
He definitely did return to the game. He’s since collaborated with A-list artists such as Meghan Trainor, Demi Lovato, Keith Urban and Andy Grammer, and he’s just released his latest single, Antidote with Australia’s beloved, Guy Sebastian.
Written back in September 2022, the first collaboration from the pair showcases their impressive vocal ranges, with Guy taking over the powerhouse choruses to match Sam’s beautiful falsetto.
Accompanied by the piano, atmospheric guitars and complex drum loops, the track is a power ballad about an all-consuming love – something Sam explains is rare to hear from two male artists.
“I was just home promoting Antidote with Guy Sebastian and these past few years I’ve been able to spend so much time home and it just reminded me what I’m missing out on and being in the States,” Fischer tells me.
The song is about finding the kind of love that saves you. Whether that love comes in the form of a person or a passion like music or even self-love, it’s rare to find and once you do it’s life-changing.
It’s no secret his music is deeply personal and emotionally transparent. Sam’s goal is to remind his fans that that lonely feeling is only temporary and “though it might feel lonely now, you’ll get through it and time does really heal everything. That’s a lesson that I learned that people should take away”.
Full of heartfelt lyrics and touching vocal performances, it’s no secret that Sam’s music is a form of an undeniable healing power. Training at one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, the Berklee College of Music, taught him the science of songwriting.
“I’ve learned through writing and putting out songs and receiving messages from fans about what the songs mean to them,” he says. “Whenever you feel alone in something, just know that nothing you’ve ever felt is unique and there are so many people out there going through the same thing.”
He tells me his musical inspiration can come from any aspect of his life experiences. Featured on his new album, the track Secondhand Happiness was inspired by a night out with a mate at a bar in London and a conversation about the connection of a mutual friend.
“It turned out to be my ex and I was like, holy crap I’ve been hearing about this person’s success and I was genuinely happy,” he says. “So secondhand happiness is just about being happy for someone’s happiness – someone you never thought you’d be happy for again.”
Sam says he will be dropping one of the most heartbreakingly personal songs that he’s ever written which has been teased on his TikTok – maybe we can expect another viral hit. “There’s actually going to be quite a lot of music this year. The plan for me is to drop new music before every start of a leg of a tour so people can expect that.”
Among the plans for new releases, the international shows and the hustle and bustle of being one of pop’s most fast-rising stars, there’s nothing like the simple comforts of home: “A midnight kebab on Oxford Street after the show is going to hit really hard.”
Grab tickets to Sam Fischer’s upcoming Australian shows here.
