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Sam Jordan & The Dead Boys is the work of Brighton singer Sam Jordan and a collective of musician friends (The Dead Boys). Their music will surprise then haunt with its folk-tinged elegance and Sam’s startling vocal, at times a baritone boom of a voice with South-East swagger and at others, such as on E.P. teaser track Waiting Rooms, a graceful falsetto.
It’s a sound that encompasses both the vulnerability of Anthony Hegarty and the raw talent and gruffness of Tom Waits, wrapped up in dark, dramatic and emotively melancholic soundscapes.
On 6th May Sam Jordan & The Dead Boys release their digital debut E.P. When Golden Morning Comes. All songs were tracked, mixed and mastered live using solely analogue equipment at Toe Rag Studios (The White Stripes, Madness and The Wytches) and will be released on Sam Jordan’s label Dead Good Records and published by Cooking Vinyl Publishing.
Track listing: 1. Corpse | 2. Oceans Post | 3. Sister | 4. Waiting Rooms
Live: 16 March: Servant Jazz Quarters, London [Free Entry] | 24 April: The Shacklewell Arms, London [w/ Jingo]
Biog.:
Sam Jordan is heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, The Doors, Leadbelly, John Jacob Niles, Alan Lomax, Charles Bukowski, George Orwell, Hofesh Shechter, Pina Bausch, building (guttering and concreting foundations), dogs, getting on the bus with drunkards and the belief in angels. His life path, like his influences and his sound, has been equally as layered and transgressed.
As a son of a carpenter Sam’s early life was spent working in his Dad’s building company before enrolling in London’s famous Trinity Laban Dance School. It was here where his future not as a dancer, but as a singer was set, as Sam explains:
“While in my second year, the German Choreographer Reinhild Hoffman walked in on me singing at the piano during a break. She had been reconstructing her 1984 choreography ‘Dido and Aeneus’ using us dance students. In our appraisals at the end of the project she told me ‘you are heavy bodied and you should be a singing actor on the stage.’ I still haven’t forgiven her to this day.”
After this realisation Sam spent a year back in the building game digging holes and drinking large cups of black tea. At the same time he started busking in the streets of Brighton where he was noticed by a smelly man posing as a promoter.
“I was desperate to play my first gig [when] I was approached by a man who said he was a promoter. He didn’t have a phone and he smelled a lot of the time but he booked loads of shows for me. I still see him around but last time we spoke he was living in the woods near my house with a book about foraging and a pair of wellies tucked into harem trousers, he constantly changes his name….”
The meeting spawned a run of interesting shows, in an empty shop in Eastbourne, a Neon pub in Worthing, a sex club posing as an art gallery in Brighton. From this Sam worked his way up to venues with a license such as St Pancras Old Church, The Brighton Dome and Camden Dingwalls. He has recently supported Rhodes, Raleigh Richie, Luke Sital-Singh and The Mispers.
Sam Jordan is also currently collaborating on a record with Bella Union’s country-noir singer Holly Macve, to be released later in the year.
Connect with Sam Jordan & The Dead Boys via: officialsamjordan.com facebook.com/samjordanmusic @samjordanmusic