- Hi GQ, this is Sam Smith here,
and today we're gonna go undercover on the internet.
Let's do it.
You may not believe it, but it's actually me.
I have no idea what the anchor means, but I love you.
I love you too Lilli, thank you very much.
When I was 18, I wrote a song called Little Sailor.
That song was a catalyst for my career, really.
So I thought it was cool to call my fans little sailors,
and also I was a little monster for Gaga.
And also, an anchor really is a symbol of grounding.
It means love.
Sam, have you ever tried fries with ice cream?
Yes, I have.
I was in LA a few months ago, and I went to Wendy's,
and there's a burger called the Baconator.
And the guy who took me there was like,
you need to dip the fries in the milkshake, so good.
The double Baconator, Jesus.
I've woken up many mornings
with Baconator cheese on my chest.
Next, from Hadari.
Sam, question, how many tattoos do you have?
That is a very good question.
I'm just gonna count really quickly.
I think I probably have nearing 30 now
because I'm enjoying the coverage.
I never planned to be a tattoo person actually.
I got these two when I was 17
and then I got another one on my ankle
with a really weird tattoo.
I got a Spitfire plane, dunno why,
when I was drunk in Malia.
I wanna look a bit scary.
I like when the tattoos look a bit like masc,
but they actually have nice friendly undertones.
Time to fact check Wikipedia.
It says before entering musical theater,
they had been in jazz bands.
This whole quote is talking about
a musical I did in Belfast when I was 15.
I was really focused on being in musical theater,
but I would never get the parts cause I was too camp.
So decided to almost go back to my roots
which was singing jazz and covers.
I just love this idea that you just travel around
and play piano and sing beautiful songs
that you've written in other people's music.
Smith is the third cousin
of singer Lily Allen and actor Alfie Allen.
So I've never had an opportunity to set this straight
cause every time I see Lily out and about it's so funny.
She's like hey cause cause I think she thinks I'm nuts.
It's like a claim to fame
that the Allens are within our family.
But now I've done my research
and really like grilled my nan.
I still think that they are my cousins,
but like a lot further.
Never Christmas with Lily Allen even though I'd love that.
Let's check Twitter.
What does Sam Smith put in their songs like God damn.
I put blood into my songs, no.
I think my music is 100% me.
I really do love songwriting and I've really
tried to work hard at my songwriting being a weapon
like my voice, replied.
At OptimusGrind, it's time for a new Sam Smith album.
I couldn't agree more.
I'm so excited.
And this album as well, like I'm telling you, it's amazing.
I feel like I've pushed the door down
because now I feel limitless in the music
that I could make, replied.
Now onto Quora.
How does Sam Smith sing so high?
I punched myself in the balls, I'm joking.
So basically when I was younger and my voice broke,
I was petrified
that I wouldn't be able to hit the Whitney notes
and so I kind of sang really heavily
all through my voice breaking,
which kind of made my voice not break weirdly.
That sound changed,
but I was able to sing these belt notes really high.
I'm not gonna have that forever cause my voice
will get older like a fine wine.
How was Sam Smith discovered?
If you wanna go back to the real moment,
it was a man called Elvin.
He took a chance on me and he changed my life.
But I would say the moment I got discovered fully was Latch
because there's still magic in that song.
I think you can hear me and Disclosure
and Jimmy's hunger in that song.
There's just a wild energy that we captured that day.
- [Interviewer] Do you remember the first time
that somebody listened to you sing and said you got talent?
- Yeah, the first time someone like told me
I was a good singer, it was quite funny actually.
I was really overweight as a kid.
The school that I was at
had won an award for the healthiest eating school
in the county and they put loads of names in a hat.
They took two names out and the two kids' names
they took out had to go and collect
this healthy eating award
and they took my name out, which is so funny.
And there's a picture of me
holding this healthy eating award
like the best healthy eating
when I couldn't do up my top button.
It's actually my picture on my Instagram.
It's like a picture of me in my school photo.
The head teacher drove me to this award thing
and she was playing Tracy Chapman's album
in the car and I was singing along
and she told my music teacher that I could sing
and then I got a main part in the school play.
So that was kind of the first time
I got discovered I guess.
Who broke Sam Smith's heart and made them a star.
It was a straight man who inspired in The Lonely Hour.
I used to be in love with loads of straight guys as a kid,
but I didn't get the opportunity to have boyfriends
or partners in school.
My first memories of love was just this crazy longing
for straight guys, which is pretty depressing, Reddit.
Someone made them work with Jessie Ware.
She's making the music they need to be making.
Imagine Sam singing Save a Kiss.
I love Jessie Ware's music.
Jessie Ware is incredible and I'll never forget it.
I'm working in a bar, just did Latch,
never performed to a crowd bigger than 20 people
and I'm at best of all with Disclosure in this huge tent.
I was so scared, like petrified and something was wrong
with my sound and I was panicking
and I looked to my right and Jessie Ware was standing
on the side of the stage and she ran around the back
of the stage into the sound booth
and she basically helped me mix my sound
in my ears whilst I was performing.
I was nobody at that time and Jessie was sensational.
First friendly face I think I ever really experienced
in the music industry and to this day,
such an incredible force for good.
It would be lovely to be on a song together.
It really would be beautiful, posted, Instagram.
I know this person, this is one of my fans, _Sam_fan.
How does it feel to sing it like the old days?
So this was about performing Latch the other day
with Disclosure and I didn't realize
that it being just over four years
since I performed with the boys.
It was a wild experience I've gotta say.
I kind of cried when I came off stage
cause the adrenaline crash was really intense.
It's kind of beautiful how some things don't change
and I'm really, really thankful that me
and their relationship is still so precious.
Hannah_heart, What's something you'd love to experience
for the first time again, great question.
Oh my God, my first McDonald's fry.
I remember that changed my life
the day I had my first nugget.
My dad took me and I bet he regrets that day
because I couldn't stop eating
the bloody nuggets after that.
But then also I did my first performance
of Stay With Me on SNL.
Now I look back on it,
it's like my entire life changed overnight
cause the next morning I woke up and people started
to recognize me and I think I was so like
in the midst of work worrying about the next thing
that if I could relive that experience, I think I would.
I'd really like open my eyes and look around
cause that was kind of the day that changed everything.
Let's see some YouTube comments.
Reasons to watch this video.
One, Sam cites their dad and Pharrell's inspiration.
Two, Sam keeps it undeniably adorable and real.
Oh, that's very sweet.
Every morning my dad puts freezing cold water
on his face and I always wondered as a kid, I was like
is that why his skin's so good?
And then I heard Pharrell talking about it
in the interview and it's a natural thing.
So I do it now all the time.
But I also use like 20 products, replied.
I'm sorry to say,
but Stay With Me is not a happy breakup song.
It's about yearning for the person to stay
even though they're already set on leaving.
Huge Sam Smith fan here, I couldn't hold my tongue.
Yeah, do you know what, it's very interesting.
I've had people play that song at weddings.
I've heard people play that song at funerals.
I mean the song, it's not even about relationship.
The song is about me being 19, 20,
going out in Vauxhall, having a one night stand
and waking up the next morning
and kind of feeling a bit empty.
I think that's the beauty of music is that the music
in general can just take you to the place it takes you.
Next, I've written so many happy songs
and they're just awful.
I feel you Sam.
I'm the same with poetry lol.
I guess this is like a response
to me saying that I find it hard to write happy songs
and it's crazy cause four years ago, I found it so hard
to the point where I would preach
like I have here obviously and would say
that the best art is the art that comes from heartbreak.
But I've had a huge breakthrough on my last record
and I've managed to write songs that have joy in them.
There's joy and confidence and I'm feeling confident
in my body, in my skin, in my opinions.
Even an emotion like anger, there's a joyfulness to that
cause I'm getting something off my chest.
It's joyful, but it's not like Teletubbies,
do you know what I mean?
And so I think the key
to writing a happy song is being happy
and then it's honest and then it's real, replied.
Harry Styles is better looking in real life?
do you think they'll ever collaborate
together on a song, angel face.
Oh, this is when I said Harry was fit.
I mean, come on.
He really is.
He's beautiful on the inside and the outside.
I'm always down to collaborate with anyone.
It's just important that collaborations
come from an organic place.
I think in pop music,
the feature is a thing and just have people jump
on verses without meeting them and chatting to them
and I find that so weird.
I'd love to collaborate with Harry,
but it would have to just be natural
and the song should tell us who sings with us, I think.
George Burt, hello George.
This video reminds me of Stay With Me.
Do you think they're linked in some way
or Sam really likes to go on walks in their music videos?
Oh my God, that's so funny.
Honestly, I love to go on walks in my music videos
because when I walk and listen to music,
I strut and I can just become anyone I want to,
but Love Me More and Stay With Me,
I purposefully did that because Stay With Me
was a huge moment for me
and probably the way that people know me the most visually
in a music video.
And I think I confused people
over the last three years with everything,
gender expression and the places I've gone as a human.
So Love Me More was my final chance to open up my hand
and ask you to come along with me
and experience the artist I've become and wanna be.
I wanted to basically talk to the old fans and say look,
I'm still walking down a street.
I don't look that different.
Everything's changed, but also nothing has changed.
So come with me and let's spice things up.
Thank you for this GQ.
That was so fun.
I hope you enjoyed it, whoever's watching this.
Have a good day.