Sam Fender’s latest album was inspired by therapy sessions.
The 27-year-old singer released his second studio album ‘Seventeen Going Under’ in October and has opened up about how he was inspired to write the record following counselling sessions.
He said: “I did a bit of therapy or counselling or whatever you wanna call it for two years, and that’s when I started writing the song ‘Seventeen Going Under’. That was the driving force for the rest of the songs that went on the album. Most of it is about my life and my upbringing.”
The ‘Spit of You’ hitmaker then went on to explain that the rest of the album – which follows his chart-topping debut ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ was inspired by his early life and upbringing.
He added: “Most of it is about my life and my upbringing. This was stuff that I couldn’t have articulated when I was actually 17-years-old.”
While the singer claims to still be struggling when it comes to his mental health, Sam spoke of how it was an “honour” for the record to win NME’s Album of the Year – as voted for by the outlet’s journalists.
He told NME: “[My mental health] has not got any better – that’s the sad reality! But it’s been an honour to see how that’s connected. I wasn’t aware of that. I was just doing this album for my own catharsis, you know?”
The star seemed to be surprised at the accolade when he heard the news, labelling the decision to name his album as the standout offering of the year as “nuts.”
He said: “That’s amazing. That’s nuts. It means the world to me because this album means the world to me and the boys. We poured our hearts into it and worked our arses off for it. We wrote 50 songs for this record, so it took a lot of whittling down, man! I’m really happy what that [result] though. “