Artist Profile – Sammie Hall – (UK)

There is a good selection of what you might call time served female vocalists out there now, history has seen to that. Sammie Hall is one of these artists. She’s been around the scene and honed her skills with some of the best DNB producers out there. She also plays several instruments and performs live acoustic sets, but the thing that really caught my attention (and ignited the inspiration for this interview) was a Facebook group she runs that caters for instrumentalists, vocalists, MC’s and producers who are looking for genuine musical collaborations, and it isn’t just DNB related either.

There are Hip-Hop producers looking for rappers, Dubstep producers looking for vocalists, in fact, to a degree almost anything goes on there. It is an amazing space allowing those without major connections to hook up and make music, as well as for better established individuals on both side of the mixing desk to connect, create and release.

After such a long time in the DNB game, Sammie clearly wishes to give back what she’s gained, and grow her own craft in the process. We spoke to Sammie about this, as well as her latest release with Tobax and her recent vocal pack and more.

So Sammie, you have been delivering vocals for artists and producers for a while now. Tell us a bit about the way you work. Do you expand a vocal over a riff you might get sent, or fit your own lyrics into a set amount of bars? How does it work? 

It really depends on the project, however usually the producer will send me an instrumental and then I will record a few rough ideas and play around with different melodies. Usually something will stand out from the rest and then I will expand on that idea. I always want to make it a collaborative process so will send as much to the producer as possible to get their feedback. It’s sometimes hard to be completely subjective listening to your own lyrics, and the person I’m working with may have their own ideas about how to get the best from the rough takes I have provided. 

Talk us through your home set up. What kind of equipment are you using and where do you record? 

Unfortunately I haven’t quite got to the stage where I can build a whole home studio (yet!) so I use a fairly simple setup. The one thing that I obviously need to have is a good quality condenser mic, I’ve experimented with a few and have recently upgraded to a Neumann mic. Along with this I use a Focusrite interface, Macbook Pro and Ableton for my arrangements and to export the raw vocals.   

You run an amazing Facebook group centred around vocalist and producer collaborations. Where did the idea for that come from? 

As a result of building my social media profiles I had connected with hundreds, if not thousands of artists, and I was always noticing people creating posts looking for collabs. Whenever I could I would always try and recommend someone, so the idea grew from there really. I had a quick search and couldn’t really find any pages dedicated to DNB collaborations and originally that was the main idea behind the group, however I didn’t want to limit it to just one genre so made it open to all.   

There is a huge variety of people on there, from DNB heads right through to folk singers and everything in between. Are you surprised that you’ve managed to reach such a wide spectrum of musicians? 

I’m definitely surprised at how big the group has already become and I’m really happy that it has attracted such a wide range of musicians. The variety of artists is probably the thing I’m happiest about as it has connected people who are involved with different genres that might otherwise never have discovered one another and I think that’s really cool. Although it has grown organically I have also spent a lot of time actively promoting it so it’s really rewarding to see it grow every day.  

The group is truly Global in terms of membership. 

Yes, definitely and to me this has to be the main positive of the modern digital/social media based world we live in. I could rant for hours on the impact the digital revolution of the last 20 years has had on music in general (feed me a few gins and I definitely will!) but you have to look for the positives in things and the ability to connect instantly with other artists anywhere on the planet is amazing and something that we should never take for granted.  

So, you’re always looking for new members to the group? 

Yes of course! 

If you were going to create a short intro to explain the benefits of being a part of the crew, what would you say? 

I hope I’ve already covered the benefits in my previous answers but if you would like the opportunity to advertise for a collaboration with musicians from a variety of genres on a global scale then this group may be for you. Especially if you’re a D&B producer/vocalist haha! 

You’re a musician as well as a vocalist. What instruments do you play? 

I play the guitar and that was my entry into song writing, and I’ve dabbled with the piano but I couldn’t claim to be a professional in either. It has definitely helped with my understanding of music theory and structure though!  

You enjoy being out in front of a crowd as well as behind a mic then? 

Yes 100%, as much as I love writing and creating music the buzz you get from performing those songs to a room full of people is hard to beat. It’s a bitter sweet thing for me because I was starting to build a bit of momentum with my live bookings and performances just around the start of 2020 (no need to tell you what happened next). The upside of that though is that I now have a lot more material to incorporate into live shows so roll on summer 2022! 

Where do you find the inspiration for your lyrics?  

Absolutely anywhere! The main inspiration for a project will normally be the track itself but I’m always making notes on my phone whenever something pops into my head. Some of my lyrics have come from collaborative sessions with other song writers as well, as I said before having someone else to bounce ideas off can help get the best out of a project especially when it’s someone who you feel comfortable working with.   

I’m guessing that singing was something you started pretty early in life? 

Yes definitely, some of my earliest memories are putting on shows for my parents and grandparents, I’m not sure they enjoyed it as much as I did but it was a sign of things to come! I would always enter the talent shows when we went on family holidays as well but probably wasn’t doing DNB covers at that point.  

You have recently released a vocal pack. That must be quite a tough project to work on? How do you come up with so many different parts? 

It was without a doubt the most intense and time consuming project I’ve worked on so far! Some of the ideas came from previous ideas I’d had for projects that had never made it past the rough draft stage, but a lot of it was also original material. There is no way I could have done it alone though and a lot of the credit for the project has to go to my friend James from Sola.  We have worked together on so many projects in the last couple of years so we already had a really good working relationship, and he was the obvious choice for the project. He has the patience of a saint when it comes to working with me and I can’t thank him enough for helping to make the project the success it was.   

So, tell us a bit about your latest venture with Alex Tobax.  

I had wanted to work with Tobax for a while, as I have always been a fan of his music since discovering him. After hearing the breathe instrumental I knew it was a perfect fit and it really inspired me to write something. Meditation has been a huge part of my life in recent times, so the underlying theme of the lyrics were influenced by that as well as the positive influence of friends and loved ones.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXKtoUKoA_E

What genres might we find tucked away in your record collection then? What does Sammie Hall listen to away from DNB? 

It’s quite DNB heavy I can’t lie! A lot of other electronic music as well though, my husband is a DJ so I have a massive collection of old house/techno/jungle vinyl to rummage through. Growing up my Mum and Dad were both huge fans of early Blues & Rock n Roll music, so that also features heavily in my music collection. I also love to listen to acoustic singer songwriters, it was a big part of my early musical performances (doing open mic nights etc)  

Finally then, what have you got planned for the next few months? Tell us about your up and coming projects. 

I’m working on some really exciting projects at the moment with artists such as Dub Elements, Smooth, DJ Hybrid, Sola and more. Some I can’t mention just yet but I am absolutely buzzing for the year ahead. I’m also determined to start creating my own tunes from scratch, so will be putting a lot of my energy into learning production techniques this year.

Insta @sammiehallmusic