Samuel Flynn Scott: Blues, Roots & Groove On Show
Samuel Flynn Scott: Blues, Roots & Groove On Show
Samuel Flynn Scott‘s musical output is prodigious, more than a dozen albums between his solo work, The Phoenix Foundation, Fly My Pretties, and then those he has produced for other acclaimed Kiwi acts. Along with being a songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player, as a composer he’s been responsible for the soundtracks to top-performing Kiwi films and TV shows that include Eagle vs Shark, Boy, Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Wellington Paranormal.
Currently working towards completion of his fourth solo album, Scott is a feature artist at this year’s New Zealand Blues, Roots & Groove Festival taking place in Palmerston North, over the weekend of September 5-7, at the city’s Globe Theatre. NZM took the opportunity to quiz the versatile Wellington musician, who shares the Friday night headline slot with the Kevin Downing Guitar School Lab Band, a 17-piece guitar orchestra!
The festival title ‘Blues, Roots & Groove’ provides plenty of artistic leeway – to what degree will your set fit those definitions do you reckon?
Oh man, that is maybe a tough question for me. I definitely fit into roots if you think of that as folk music. Roots can mean so many things though! All music grooves if it’s good! And blues is obviously the foundation of all rock music. I am 100% and 0% on all of them!
It’s your name on the bill, but will any of your familiar bandmates be part of it as well?
Yeah, my show will just be me and Tom Callwood (The Phoenix Foundation, Little Bushman) on double bass. Most of my solo stuff involves Tom. We were playing together before he joined The Phoenix Foundation and I always feel very safe when he is on a show. He is both a very creative musician and a very reliable one.
And tickets to your performance include the 17-piece guitar orchestra as well?
Definitely two different acts performing, but I look forward to getting up and jamming with the guitar orchestra.
What appeals to you about performing in the NZBRG festival?
Well I am just getting back into doing solo stuff after quite the hiatus, and Julie Lamb who books the festival is a friend. The Globe in Palmerston North is a wonderful theatre. I’ve worked there in the past doing sound and music for my dad’s play, The Daylight Atheist, but I’ve never performed there per se. I do have deep roots in the Manawatu though, so it’s always nice to get back there!
You have a great and broad history as a songwriter and film score composer as well. Is there a central core that your writing stems from do you think?
I think most of what I do comes out of a love for the people I see as being deep in the music. Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, John Lennon, to name a few. They don’t just write great melodies or words, they perform like nothing exists outside of that moment. I think connecting with music in that spaced out, lucid way is the closest I’ll ever get to religion or spirituality. But these performers are also aloof, and kind’a sarcastic. It’s a tight rope balance and I try to walk that no matter what music I’m making.
Will you be performing songs from your own / Bunnies On Ponies catalogue, or have you got something else planned?
Yep, I’ll be playing mostly solo stuff, but some Phoenix Foundation for sure. And maybe a few sweet covers thrown in for fun too.
The festival notes reveal you’re close to releasing another solo album, with some heavy weight friends included. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
I can’t give away too much yet as it’s an ever changing beast, but I am very excited about it. It has a lot of guitars and noise and cutting loose. It’s exciting to me, hopefully that will translate to listeners too, but music and how it’s received it always a mystery!
Photo by Ebony Lamb