Edinburgh’s Samuel Nicholson Reveals New Single ‘Black Dog Funeral’ Out Now
“I saw [Samuel Nicholson] at the Shacklewell Arms and was absolutely blown away” - Deb Grant, BBC 6music
“It won't be long until more people fall in love with Samuel Nicholson's works of art” - It’s All Indie
“Odd deliciousness…makes us melancholy enthusiasts feel strangely elevated” - Podcart
“Will leave a mark on your day with its exquisite nature” - CLOUT
Edinburgh’s Samuel Nicholson Reveals New Single ‘Black Dog Funeral’ Out Now
Stream and share - https://samuelnicholson.ffm.to/blackdogfuneral
Private listen on Soundcloud - HERE
New Album Birthday Suit Exploring Neurodivergence & Love Released 9th June 2023
Single + Album Launch Shows On Sale Now
With the recent World Autism Acceptance Week still fresh in thoughts, neurodivergent Edinburgh songwriter, musician, and composer Samuel Nicholson is proud to reveal his new single ‘Black Dog Funeral’ which is released on 5th April 2023.
Fresh from a first play on BBC 6music with Deb Grant, the track is the latest to be taken from his forthcoming new album Birthday Suit, which will be released on 9th June 2023.
The new cut follows on from lead single ‘West Coast Feeling’ released last month to a flurry of early support from Fresh on The Net, For The Rabbits, Tenement TV, Rave Child and a host of Hype Machine influencers.
Showing a meatier, distorted side to his sound following the tender lead single, Nicholson says of the track: “‘Black Dog Funeral’ documents the journey from who I was when I wrote my last record, Missing Persons Report (2020), and who I became after that process had reached an end. It feels like a signpost in my writing that the terrain is changing; that what was the case may not be any longer.”
“The song is about the seismic loyalty shift that occurs at a relationship's end. The validation one carries knowing that you stayed until the bitter end, even if the other has been gone for a long time; the sensation of realising who you truly are once more and the joyous eruption that meets it; and the solemn oath that your spirit will never be crippled again.”
Samuel Nicholson will be appearing live at Biddle Bros, London on 7th April 2023 to celebrate the launch of the ‘Black Dog Funeral’ single, with a Scottish album launch show newly announced for 14th July 2023 at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh.
Tickets are on sale now, with further headline tour dates and new music to be revealed over the coming months.
New album Birthday Suit is released 9th June 2023
Live Dates:
07.04.23 - London - Biddle Bros (Black Dog Funeral single launch)
05.05.23 - Manchester - R-Fest @ Retro
14.07.23 - Edinburgh - Sneaky Pete’s (Scottish album launch) - tickets
Samuel Nicholson online:
https://www.instagram.com/samuelnicholsonmusic/
https://www.facebook.com/samuellikesmusic
https://samuelnicholson.bandcamp.com/
https://www.samuelnicholsonmusic.com/
More about Birthday Suit:
With his love of music set alight by listening to Motown records in the car with his mother, corrupted by hard rock records handed down by his father, and finally formed by his own forays into jazz, folk and experimental Music of decades past, Nicholson is a cathartic songwriter, an impassioned singer, and a gifted guitarist.
A regular on the London music scene, Nicholson has enjoyed tours around the UK and Europe both under his own projects and others, including stints in live bands with Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something, Frankie Morrow and Jeremy Tuplin.
He has released two previous solo albums—his debut, If You Be My (2015), and follow-up Missing Persons Report (2020)— and have received early radio support from Amazing Radio and KCRW.
Recorded live in the songwriter’s own flat by Caradog Jones, Nicholson’s forthcoming new album, Birthday Suit, comes after years of searching and longing. It serves as a dysfunctional self-portrait and a love letter in equal parts, dancing from electrifying guitar solos to naked vulnerability, as it brings the listener into the world of someone who has recently been diagnosed with autism.
“The record is a dysfunctional self-portrait of my life at a time when I was falling deeply in love,” says Nicholson of the album. “Having previously gathered that I am not easy to love, I began to write these songs as a way of warning this person about my nature, and a way of being realistic about my ability to love and support another human being at that time.”
Throughout the creation of the album and the beginning of his relationship, Nicholson began to experience severe and frequent panic attacks. In search for answers around the causes, and explanations for quirks to his nature, Nicholson discovered that he is autistic, and now has a medical diagnosis for the condition.
“The more I wrote, the more I found power in my mistakes, and the more I committed to making the record as honest as possible. I loved the idea of writing an album that rejected the odd ritual we adopt of disguising our flaws and malice when we’re trying to find a soulmate, and instead found power in honesty and candour.”
