Sam Smith ‘very excited’ about first PH trip

“I AM WAY more inspired when I am unhappy,” confesses the British singer. Photos by Ruben V. Nepales

(First of two parts)

LOS ANGELES—“It will be my first time in the Philippines. I am very excited!” exclaimed Sam Smith, dapper in a black Jaeger suit and Grenson shoes, one recent Sunday afternoon at the Stardust, the rooftop penthouse of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Smiling, with his blue eyes sparkling, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter said, “I heard the food there (in the Philippines) is amazing. So other than the show, that is what I am excited about.”

The British talent, whose hits include “Stay with Me” and “I’m Not the Only One,” is performing in a sold-out concert on Nov. 21 at the Mall of Asia Arena. “This is one of the last shows that I am doing for this album (‘In the Lonely Hour’), so it’s the last time people are going to see me perform just this material. These last few shows are going to be really special.”

“I am going to treat it as a little celebration, just to celebrate what has happened and stuff,” he added about the show promoted by Live Nation and MMI and co-promoted by Ovation Productions. “I am very excited to be there.”

“And I will be fine,” he promised. He was supposed to sing “Writing’s on the Wall,” the theme song from Daniel Craig’s latest successful outing as James Bond, “Spectre,” to members of the international media before the interview.

But Sam wasn’t feeling well so he had to cancel the performance. The night before, Sam also had to cancel his appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s annual Art + Film Gala.

“Just to clarify, I am very ill at the moment,” explained the artist who won four Grammy Awards last February. “I had vocal surgery early on in the year so whenever I have been feeling ill, I have been told that I just can’t sing because it could damage it.”

Fortunately for us, he was allowed by his doctor to talk but not to sing. And what a disarming, candid talker he was. “Because I was unhappy that I couldn’t sing last night and I can’t sing today, I came up with what I think could be the title of my next album,” he revealed.

“I am way more inspired when I am unhappy.  Definitely, being unhappy, you feel everything more.  But it’s not necessarily unhappiness. I try to make that clear with music. I feel like when I am being sad through my music, I am being brave. So it’s almost like when I am being sad with my music, it’s in a way like getting happy again.”

Unrequited love

Take it from the openly gay man whose compositions in “In the Lonely Hour” arose from unrequited love—he is vocal about the fact that he was never loved back by any of his romantic interests.

“My voice—it’s a tough one,” he said. “I have been at it now for the last three years. The music world is really not catered to singers, with the traveling and with the amount of work I have done over the last few years. With my songs, I have shot myself in the foot. My songs are not really easy to sing. They are challenging and they are high, especially this song (‘Writing’s…’), which is good. It sounds nice on CD but to replicate it live is difficult and challenging.”

“I had vocal surgery,” he said of his medical treatment last May. “It wasn’t too serious but my vocal cord kept hemorrhaging in the same place earlier on in the year. So I had to have it lasered. It was just from sheer workload. So now, I am just trying to be as cautious and careful as I can. But I have things I do every day.”

Grinning, he said, “I shouldn’t scream too much, don’t do drugs, don’t drink all the time.”

On how he joined the stellar list of singers who sang iconic Bond songs over the years, the London native said, “It’s strange for me—I always thought that if I was going to do a James Bond song, then I would feel the pressure. I would be insanely scared and I was, but it was a delayed reaction. When I first learned that I was going to have the opportunity to attempt to write one, it was just pure excitement for me. It’s been a dream of mine since I was a little boy to do this song and to be involved.

“They asked me about a year and a half ago. Barbara (Broccoli, producer), Sam (Mendes, director) and I were asked to go to Pinewood Studios. They gave me the script and I read it. I attempted a song. I had the song and had to send it to them but it was just in the works. For me, it was pure happiness to begin with, and full of excitement. But on the week of the song’s release, that was when I started to feel the pressure a little bit and get a bit scared.”

“I TRIED to make James Bond seem a little more vulnerable,” says the London native.

Main challenges

“There are two main challenges—one is that a James Bond song has a certain sound,” he replied when asked about how different it was to pen a song for an 007 movie. “Everyone knows when they hear a James Bond theme song. So you need to capture that and figure out what it is. I feel like it’s the ‘epicness’ of the production and the orchestration.

“We felt like we got away with things in this song that I would never be able to get away with in my own personal music. So that was one of the main things—just the scale of it and the orchestration. I really wouldn’t have gotten away with that in my own album.

“And the other thing, the lyrics. I was really passionate about this song being in sync with the film. It had to be. It’s very hard as well when you release a song a few weeks before the film. Because the song makes more sense when you see the film. It was a massive collaboration between Jimmy Napes (co-composer), Sam Mendes and me, making sure the lyrics and everything fit perfectly with the story.

Laughing, Sam volunteered, “Sam Mendes changed some lyrics when we sent the demo. The original lyrics were, ‘I always shoot to miss.’ We were trying to be clever about it and Sam replied with, ‘Bond would never shoot to miss.’ So we had to change that.”

“My music is my diary,” said the singer-composer whose soulful tunes about his frustrations as a lover resonated with the world. “It’s how I write. I am currently trying to write music for my next album, which is becoming even more personal than the first. It’s just the way I am as a person. I have a melancholy side to me and I get it out with my music. I get my sadness and personal feelings out in my music.

“So when we went to write this song, I asked myself, why would I change the way I write my music? I wanted this to be a Sam Smith Bond song so I tried to basically make James Bond seem a little bit more vulnerable, which links into the way Daniel Craig is. You see Bond bleed and you see him bruised and failing sometimes.”

He cited “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey as one of the most memorable Bond songs. “Shirley Bassey is the sound of Bond.”

Asked if his successful collaboration with Jimmy was like the Elton John-Bernie Taupin working partnership (Elton composed the music; Bernie wrote the lyrics), Sam answered: “Jimmy writes the chords. I don’t play. The best way for me to describe Jimmy is he is my therapist, basically (laughs). I come to Jimmy with a suitcase of emotions and baggage, problems and issues. He sits down with me and he helps me organize everything in the most beautiful way.

“And on top of that, he is my friend. I am the godfather of his son. I am very lucky to have, as you said, [a bond similar to] Elton and Bernie’s, to have someone who is working with you and understands your creative vision from the beginning. No matter what happens, I have hit the jackpot.”

(To be concluded on Sunday)

(E-mail the columnist at [email protected]. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.)