Sam Fender Announces Debut Album 'Hypersonic Missiles'

Sam Fender is pleased to announce details of his debut album, Hypersonic Missilesdue out August 9, 2019 on Interscope Records. Hypersonic Missiles was written, recorded and produced at Fender's own self-built warehouse studio in North Shields, UK and recorded alongside long-standing friend and producer, Bramwell Bronte. Album pre-order available HERE.

Today's news comes on the heels of Sam's recent US trip where he played to sold-out audiences in both Los Angeles, NYC and SXSW. Fender also made his late-night TV debut on Jimmy Kimme Live! where he performed the album's title track. In addition, Fender was featured on CBS This Morning - Saturday where he spoke with CBS anchor Anthony Mason about his sudden rise in notoriety and performed "Hypersonic Missiles" as well as "Play God" and breakout single "Dead Boys". In addition to his own mostly sold-out headlining shows in Europe and the UK, Fender will also support Bob Dylan and Neil Young in London's Hyde Park and return to the US this August for a festival performance at Lollapalooza.

Sam Fender won the BRITs Critics' Choice award at the tail end of 2018, his name added to a list of previous winners that includes the likes of Adele, Florence & The Machine, Sam Smith, and Ellie Goulding. It's a veritable hall of fame that feels a million miles away from the guitar-fueled indie rock that Sam writes. Fender is a rare talent. A 24-year-old working-class musician from the North of England who plays every gig as though it might well be his last, armed with this huge, cavernous vocal, guitar strapped on (a Fender, obviously), and fueled by that seemingly old-school belief that great guitar music still has the power to change lives and influence people.

After leaving school, Fender found work behind the bar in a local Shields pub ("a drinking town with a fishing problem" he's joked on more than one occasion). He was discovered by his eventual manager when the pub's landlord, recognizing him, nudged Sam to go fetch his guitar and play something. Fender, usually castigated for musing on a guitar during work hours, picked it up and belted out two or three songs of his own. The pair have worked with each other ever since.

There's a loose thread that has run through all of Sam's songs to date and that's in the focus of his lyrics. Observational, questioning and socially engaged, Sam has an innate gift for simplifying matters of the newsworthy and topical. About his lyrics, Fender says "I don't have answers only questions". "Dead Boys" tackles the taboo of male suicide and "Hypersonic Missiles, the album's title-track, is named for newly developed Russian missile that travels at nine times the speed of sound.

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