Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Queer vocalist Samantha Sidley wins with “I Like Girls” music video; Song is from debut recorded in L.A.-raised artist’s childhood bedroom.

“Interior Person” album arrives Sept. 13th; Currently on US tour with The Bird and The Bee; Hometown record release show set for Sept. 14th 

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Samantha Sidley as photographed by Logan White

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See the video for “I Like Girls” and read an interview with Samantha Sidley at Refinery29 or check out the song at Grimy Goods or the links below!



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Samantha Sidley | On Tour | * = w/ The Bird and The Bee

08/21/2019: Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5 (TIX)*
08/22/2019: Birmingham, AL @ The Saturn (TIX) *
08/24/2019: Dallas, TX @ Trees (TIX) *
08/25/2019: Austin, TX @ Parish (TIX) *
08/28/2019: Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom (TIX) *
08/29/2019: San Diego, CA @ Casbah (TIX) *
08/30/2919: San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop (TIX) *
09/14/2019: Los Angeles, CA @ Gardenia Restaurant & Lounge (Record Release Show)

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Samantha Sidley
Interior Person
Sept. 13th, 2019
(Release Me Records)
  

Track Listing:

01. I Like Girls (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
02. Only You Can Break My Heart
03. Naked To Love
04. Butterfly In My Ass
05. I Can’t Listen
06. Listen!! (STREAM | MP3)
07. Rose Without Thorns
08. Busy Doin’ Nothin’ (STREAM | MP3)
09. Easy To Be True
10. Interior Person

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“We really wanted a song with a ‘refrain,’ a rubato intro that I could play with, like a classic early jazz song,” explains Samantha Sidley of the latest single from her upcoming debut album.

‘Listen!!’ is what came out! I think originally when I was performing this song, I was thinking about all the mansplaining I’ve had to endure over the years, or just turning on the radio and having the unfortunate experience of hearing our current president, but now when I sing it, I’m often just talking to myself, telling my brain to quiet down.”

Hear Samantha Sidley singing “Listen!!” at All About Jazz or at the link above!

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Cover Me says Samantha Sidley “digs deep for this Beach Boys tribute, eschewing the oft-covered classics for a true deep cut... It seems impossible to record a version that betters Brian Wilson’s... I’d argue Sidley’s jazzy version surpasses the original.”

“This song is from one of my favorite Beach Boys records, Friends,” Sidley says. “I was on a leisurely walk in my neighborhood listening to it and realized that the song is a story I pretty much live every day. I knew it especially when Brian Wilson says, ‘I get a lot of thoughts in the morning, I write them all down, if it wasn’t for that, I’d forget them in a while.’

Listen to Samantha Sidley covering “Busy Doin’ Nothin’” by The Beach Boys at Cover Me or at the link above!

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Samantha Sidley | About

Samantha Sidley is a jazz vocalist, born-and-raised in Los Angeles, and she likes girls.

The words “I like girls” are the first thing you’ll hear when Sidley’s debut album Interior Person (Sept. 13th, Release Me Records) opens. The song is an unassuming anthem, a future standard for an evolving culture. It’s also a fun and funny ice-breaker that you’ll sing along with.

“I Like Girls” is a peek into what plays out as a meticulously crafted debut album featuring Sidley’s beautifully trained voice taking confident ownership of songs written for her to sing by some of the most important women in her life.

These other “girls” include fellow musicians Inara George, Alex Lilly, and Sidley’s “Top One” favorite musician of all-time, her wife, Barbara Gruska.

Inara and Alex and Barbara wrote songs that are all very personal to my story – they literally are my story – and from my lesbian perspective, which I appreciate so much,” Sidley says. In addition to co-writing many of the songs here, and playing drums (masterfully) on many of the tracks, Gruska also produced Interior Person in a studio constructed in Sidley’s childhood bedroom.

“My whole life was a song,” Sidley says of her childhood. “If I looked at a tree, it was a song. If I felt happy, sad, joy, it was a song. When I first heard Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ I remember thinking: ‘I understand.’ I’ve always considered myself an interpreter, which is sort of an undervalued art form. I like to take a song and make the story true for me.”

Sidley soon discovered Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, soul music in general, and her own personal “soulfulness” itself. You know, like all seven-year-olds do. Later, considering how annoyed 11-year-old Sidley was when her vocal instructor wouldn’t allow her to sing Holiday’s “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)” at her first recital, it all made perfect sense.

A decade later, Sidley got to sing whatever she wanted, performing at NYC’s legendary Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, where she lived in Dorothy Parker’s room, listened to a lot of Anita O’Day and Ella Fitzgerald, and landed a rave review in The New York Times.

“She knows exactly how I express myself and what my intentions are,” Sidley says of her working relationship with Gruska. “Collaborating on this record has actually been a much longer collaboration of us getting to know each other.”

Interior Person, the debut album from Samantha Sidley, arrives Sept. 13th, preceded by the single “I Like Girls,” out now.  Samantha Sidley is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Samantha Sidley | Links


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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact


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