Unrequited Love

“Oh my god, of course, of course,” British singer-songwriter Sam Smith says with genuine affection and honesty when asked about emulating the success of his pals, current dance kings Disclosure. The all-conquering Lawrence brothers had Smith feature on their 2012 breakthrough hit Latch, a collaboration that changed all of their lives.

“It changed everything you know. I was working in a bar when that song came out, so now that I'm not working in a bar, that's obviously a massive change,” Smith offers with a grin. “I got put in a session with them and it was during our first session that we did Latch. So the first time I met them, we did Latch, and the second time I met them we performed it at a festival.”

Smith's rise in the industry might sound meteoric, but his music – in particular, his debut album In The Lonely Hour, which recently came out ­– is the end result of a life's work, despite only taking a year to write and record.

“I did it very quickly, it felt very quick the way it came about but it feels like the subject matter, I've been making it for a lifetime,” Smith reveals.

The record is very emotional, filled with soulful ballads about hope and longing for love. “I've never been in a relationship before,” Smith reveals. “So it's about all the people I've loved in my life who haven't loved me back in the way that I wanted them to. It's about one-night stands and the hope of finding someone as a 21-year-old boy.”

There's a refreshing honesty about this young English fella from Cambridgeshire, who possesses an incredibly strong and classic voice beyond his years. This honesty is a quality Smith prides himself on in his music and one that shines through the sadness of In The Lonely Hour.

“It is 100 per cent risky, it's very risky,” Smith says of releasing a debut so revealing and in some ways, dark. “But it's also how I felt in the moment and I'm not here to be anyone else other than myself. And that's what I've done with this album; I was feeling lonely when I wrote this.”

Despite the heavy heart behind his music, Smith ultimately just wants to have fun on this new journey. “I had such an intense year last year and I really just want to enjoy myself, create some memories.”

He'll no doubt be doing just that when he returns to Australia this July for Splendour In The Grass, his debut performance here. “I want to make a statement with my first show in Australia,” he says with a quiet confidence. And fans can expect a little less heartache from Smith's Splendour set, since as he puts it, “you want people to drink and have fun”.

The rest of 2014 looks set to be centred around spreading the Sam Smith gospel to the world, with songwriting probably on the backburner until next year.

“I get the urge to write but I want to not write because when I go back to doing it, I want to have so much to say. Right now I don't have a lot to say.”