Why Music Is A Private Experience For Andrew Samuel

Writing an EP is often a terrifying venture. For Andrew Samuel, it took him from the time he began as a solo artist at age 12, graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and releasing "a highly produced studio recording" of a single in 2015 before undertaking the creation of his debut Hissing Bitterness.

"These songs weren't really written to be performed live. Music for me has always been a private experience and that was the intention with this," Samuel explains. The EP was recorded in the hallways of Andrew's sharehouse in Newtown. "Ryan Brennan (Phantastic Furniture) and [I] produced the EP together, with the intention of creating a raw and honest EP... It is at times a very dark set of songs, that has been called 'unnerving in its bleakness'. It's a kind of ode to loneliness, fear and murky secrets. It's the most honest thing I've ever produced that says nothing honest at all," he laughs. "There isn't one loss, or one sadness, that you can tie the lyrics too. It's walking around Newtown late at night, pretty drunk and turning on yourself and laughing about it.

"I think the first song I Still Feel Blue sticks out for me. People see it as a dark track, but I think it has a great mood and pulses along. Lyrically it captures all the contractions within my personality. It's sad, but hopeful."