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Sam Sparro
Sam Sparro
He's the unlikeliest of new pop stars - part American, part Australian with a bit of a Brit in there somewhere with a huge number two hit under his be
"My stance with the record company on being gay was, 'This is me. Take it or leave it'"
You have a distinctive fashion sense all of you’re own – is that all you or do you have stylists?
Well my boyfriend is my stylist, we’re both kind of fashion victims and just and we live in quite a creative part of Los Angeles and we have friends who are designers so it’s just part of our life. We just love clothes and... we’re just a couple of gays.
You’ve got a boyfriend – how long have you two been together for?
Almost two years so we’re pretty serious.
So you won’t be out on the prowl while you’re in London?
No, not on the prowl – I will be going out, I do like to go out and have a good time but... I kind of came out when I was living in London just because I became a lot more comfortable with it being in a place like London. Well, I was living in Sydney, which is pretty gay-friendly before that but then before that I went to high school in L.A. and this area was really conservative where I lived so I was probably really insecure about it then.
What was it like – close friends only?
No, I was just denying it completely.
When did you tell your parents?
When I was about 20.
What made you choose to come back to the UK to record your album?
It wasn't really a choice it just worked out that way because I signed a deal over here, the label's here, so it made a lot of sense – also there's a lot of good producers here that we wanted to work with so it kind of made sense.
Tell us about the album.
It's really, really fun, it's pretty funky. There's some songs on there that are pretty reflective about the things I think about, you know; the way the world is today.
People talk about your lyrics being quite poetic in a way?
Lyrics are important to me, I mean I don't like to be too serious all the time but I definitely consider myself a thinker so I like to get those things out and put them down on paper but then sometimes I also just like to be really ridiculous and absurd and really cheeky and really fun so there's that side and I think the album is quite balance of thoughtful, intelligent and honest and frank songs and then really silly, fun songs.
Have you written songs about your relationship with your boyfriend?
Yeah, I'm trying to think if any of them are on the record though. I do write songs about what it's like to be...oh yeah, there's a song on the record about kind of, patching up a fight it's called 'Waiting for Time'.
What were you arguing about?
Umm... it's not important really...actually it's one of those things where you don't actually know what you're fighting about because you find yourself in an intense situation and my life has been a bit intense recently. You just get in arguments about nothing where you don't even know what you're fighting for- it was one of those things.
When you first signed with the record label was there a discussion about the gay thing or were they like, "You are what you are and we're taking you as you are"?
That was my stance on the whole thing was, "This is me." I was pretty set up with the direction I was taking it, the music I was doing and how I was presenting myself so it was kind of like, "Take it or leave it."
The album - dubbed 'a year-defining dancefloor killer' by the Sunday Times - is released on Monday.
