- Music
- 28 Sep 21
Sam Fender has debuted another new track from Seventeen Going Under in the form of ‘Spit Of You’.
It’s the fourth single from the Newcastle singer-songwriter's second album, following on from the already revealed ‘Get You Down’, ‘Aye’, and the record’s opening title track.
Seventeen Going Under, the follow-up to Fender's 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles, is set for release on October 8th via Polydor Records.
Sam explains of 'Spit Of You': “It’s based around my own relationship with my old man, and how we both struggle as blokes to communicate the way we feel to each other without it becoming a stand off. It’s about how the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as I get further in to my twenties i see so much of myself in him, especially when it comes to being stubborn. The second half of the song talks about seeing him with my grandma when she passed away, and how I saw him as a son, and how that moment reminded me to make the most of my time with him. If anything, it is a declaration of love for him.”
Speaking to Hot Press earlier this month, Fender described his relationship with his father.
"Me and my dad had a five-year period where we didn’t really get on," he notes. "He lived in a different country. And then we came together and as things have progressed in my career, I've started hanging out with him a lot more. The song’s essentially about the father and son relationship, and the inability to talk about anything other than DIY, music or alcohol. If anything, it’s just a declaration of love for my old man. Funnily enough it’s his favourite song. It’s a pretty special one and now we’re closer than ever, which is great."
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Like his debut LP, Seventeen Going Under finds Fender embracing an incendiary, guitar-heavy sound that will once again earn comparisons to the best of Bruce Springsteen. Unlike Hypersonic Missiles, however, the new album finds the 27-year-old artist taking his songwriting in an increasingly personal direction – as evidenced by the release of the title track earlier this year.
"I'm really proud of it," he says of his forthcoming album. "I’m actually more proud of it than I am of my first one. Normally I write about things that are going on in the world – and as we all know, not much has been going on in the world for the last two years... But nobody wants to hear about Covid-19 ever again – so I wasn’t going to write a song about Covid! The whole album became very personal. A lot of it’s about growing up and about the self-esteem issues that we carry through to adulthood, and how it affects our lives as adults. But it’s more of a triumph over that, and a coming of age story.
"I think I’ve got better at writing songs," he reflects. "With Hypersonic Missiles, I was still figuring things out, and I was quite terrified to write about my own life. The only time I ever did that was a song called ‘The Borders’ from the first album, and that became my favourite song off that record. And it became a fan favourite. ‘The Borders’ sort of unlocked the door for that kind of writing style and that’s where it all started. And I think I’ve been a lot more confident. I’ve learnt a lot more and my team has learned a lot more. My producer is a better producer now. We’re all better musicians."
Check out the lyric video for 'Spit Of You' below: