Sam Ryder On His Past Fronting A Metal Band
Sam Ryder has talked about his early musical outings in a new interview with NME, revealing that he once fronted a metal band in Texas.
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Ryder talks about his first proper band The Morning After, formed when he was 16. He describes their sound to NME as “Iron Maiden wannabe… not as good”, before continuing, “It was really fun. I have such fond memories of, like, thinking I was writing these songs that were going to change the world but [which] really weren’t. But that’s an important part of being in a band. I think when you’re that young, you’ve got to have that belief that you’re doing something good.”
The Morning After even played Download Festival, though Ryder says it was “on the smallest stage [and] right at the start of the day”. Ryder later spent two or three years as a member of Canadian rock band Blessed by a Broken Heart and then went on to a stint as the frontman of Texan outfit Close Your Eyes. “I was a singer, songwriter [and] really part of those guys,” he says. “And it was a hardcore punk band, which was something totally new for me.”
“I heard they needed a singer so I sent them a clip of me singing. In that scene, there are so many singers who are really great at screaming – you know, the hardcore punk vocals. I wasn’t necessarily great at that, but I was good at clean singing… there weren’t as many strong clean singers on the scene. And I just thought, ‘I’ll deal with the screaming thing as and when it comes!’”
Ryder recently hit No 1 on the UK chart with his debut album, There’s Nothing But Space Man.