G: You don’t drink, right?
S: No, not anywhere near perfoming. A good two weeks before a show, I stop drinking.
S: Well yeah because my voice is really sensitive. Some people can drink and smoke and sound like an angel but I wouldn’t. I’d sound like a crocodile…
G: Your voice is so unique and soulful, I put it in the same line as Marvin Curtis. There’s not been a British singer who’s got such personality in his voice for a long time. Did you grow up listening to those old soul sounds?
S: I didn’t – the oldest thing was Stevie Wonder and then I got into Donny Hathaway. But now I am going back and listening to Otis Redding and Sam Cook, and really appreciating what they did.
“It took me a while to get to that place,not to feel like you have to be a certain thing”or you have to be super strong.”
G: With a lot of those guys, there was a certain political awareness that was resonating in their music.
With the world where it's at now, where does the artist fit? How do you straddle being an artist singing personal songs and being someone who is maybe representing a certain voice for what is going on around them?
S: I don’t wanna ever box myself in. This album, I was going through such heavy personal things, that it ended up being about those things rather than a political and social commentary.
It took me a while to get to that place, not to feel like you have to be a certain thing or you have to be super strong.
In that way, me being a black man and singing about the things I sing about and being that vulnerable, I feel like I am maybe saying something. Not necessarily something overtly political, but more so by just being me.
G: For your live shows, how hard is it to be at the front now? I have you down as quite a shy guy...
S: I definitely enjoy it. Talking to the crowds is quite difficult, but I am finding my stride I think. It feels nice that people coming to the shows aren't like, “Yo Where’s Kanye?” Because I feel like people are actually coming to see me, and it’s nice to have that physical relationship.
S: I do. It’s weird because you go places, but not for that long. You don’t necessarily get to take things in so much, but I feel good when I come back and reflect on it. And there are certain places I always love going to, like Japan.
“It’s such an extravagantly beautiful country.That’s maybe a light that’s not shoneon Sierra Leone very often.”
G: What is it about Japan that gets you?
S: Everything feels like it has been thought about. Your chewing gum comes with a bit of paper to throw it away in. Every train station has its own departure melody.
There is a juxtaposition between things feeling very technologically advanced, but entrenched in a culture that is really old.
G: And you went back to Sierra Leone too?
S: Yeah, it was an amazing thing to do. It’s such an extravagantly beautiful country. That’s maybe a light that’s not shone on Sierra Leone very often.