Sam Himself is een alt. indie rocker (zegt hij zelf). Woonachtig in New York, maar sinds de pandemie weer bivakkerend in Zwitserland, waar hij vandaan komt. Liedje La Paz is een National-achtige slow burner. Vol melancholie en een prachtige bariton.
In Oktober komt Sam met zijn debuutplaat, Power Ballads. Tot die tijd doen we het maar even met La Paz.
“During lockdown, my mind wandered a lot, looking for exits. I got really nostalgic for past travels and times when I could move freely wherever I wanted to go. Peru, for example. I took a road trip there a few years ago. One night, I was driving through the desert with about two fingers of water left in the car and the aftermath of some recent chemical calamity playing out in my bloodstream; I was exhausted but stopping by the side of the road didn’t really feel like an option, so I kept going. I’m pretty sure I was heading for the Bolivian border, and I remember staring at my GPS and thinking, if I can just get to La Paz – the Bolivian city – I’ll be ok. (I can be a little melodramatic when I’m hungover.) I never made it there but La Paz nevertheless became a sort of mantra on that trip, a name for the light at the end of the tunnel. Probably not the most laid back trip I ever took. Still, at the height of quarantine cabin fever last year, I would have given a lot to be back in that stuffy rental car in the desert, waiting for the sun to rise.”
