SG Lewis On Making An Album That 'Couldn't Be Less 2023'

Samuel George Lewis, aka SG Lewis, is known for his songwriting credits with LANY, on Hallucinate by Dua Lipa, Hot N Heavy by Jessie Ware, Let Them Know by Mabel, and Pineapple Slice by Swedish singer Tove Lo. 

"I've known her [Dua Lipa] for quite some time. Watching her explode... we all knew it was going to happen," Lewis shares with a smile. "But it was kind of crazy watching it happen in real-time. That was a really cool moment in pop culture because that album went on to become so much larger than the sum of its parts; it became a sort of shift in popular culture, which, looking back, it's really awesome to be involved in."

With the release of his second album, AudioLust & HigherLove, the renowned songwriter, producer and artist tones down some of the features - almost every song on his debut album, Times, had a guest vocalist. In contrast, only three songs out of 15 feature special guests on SG Lewis's double album (Tove Lo, Channel Tres, Lucky Daye, Charlotte Day Wilson and Ty Dolla $ign are the guests). It's a confident showing from Lewis and proof that he's destined for a career behind the mixing desk, as well as in front of it.

"I sort of felt like the last album was an album for everybody else. It was an album about the birth of disco and the time and place. This really feels like an album for me; it feels like a more selfish album," Lewis says on the eve of his second album's release. 

"Because, you know, a majority of the album was written in isolation, working with the same two or three people at the time in the pandemic, so I was kind of forced into introspection through the situation where collaboration wasn't so easy because instead of studio hopping and flying around that I would do to usually work with people, I was stuck in the English countryside."

Lewis adds, "It really forced me to turn the lens inward and to explore more of myself and my abilities as a singer, songwriter, and a producer. So in that sense, it felt like a completely different process than the last one."

The day before I catch up with Lewis, he's made his Late Night US television debut, performing the gorgeous Lifetime on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. "It was a really wonderful moment," Lewis smiles, recalling how much that performance meant to his entire team. 

"The crew, the tour managers, the band, the people that I've worked with for a very long time... I could see how much being a part of that moment meant to each of them individually for their career. It was a beautiful shared moment of this milestone that is very recognisable to people, both inside our industry and outside." And for people watching at home, Lifetime has become a song fans want played at their weddings.

"Since the day I wrote that song, it's held a special place for me," Lewis continues. "Lifetime was written about one of my cowriters, Ed Drewett, and his wife Daisy and how they met when they were kids and how he waited for 10, 15 years to tell her that he loved her.

"It was really nice to capture some of their story in the album because Ed was such an important part of the album. And it just is a song that kind of reminds me of the music that I might have heard growing up and some of the certain nostalgia to it. I'm just like, damn, if this song came out in the golden era of 2000s rom-coms, it would be game over. We need a rom-com resurgence in 2023 so that I can get movie scores, and then more people can hear it," Lewis laughs.

There's a song called Oh Laura on AudioLust & HigherLove, which Lewis believes will be divisive among listeners. "It's just not the most typical style of my music," he says, adding that it's "very catchy" with an '80s pop vibe. "People either love it or hate it, and I'm excited to see which one.

"This album, in many ways, couldn't be less 2023," Lewis comments about releasing a double album in a time of 24/7 content, algorithms, and sped-up versions of songs on TikTok. "It's an album devoid of TikTok thoughts - there's a nine-minute instrumental in the middle of the album. And a lot of the album is influenced by yacht rock, which isn't a particularly trendy genre online. 

"But I really wanted the album to stand the test of time. I want to be able to look back at it in 30 years, and you know, not for it to feel like an album that panders to what was popular at the time. And for better or worse, we'll see," Lewis confirms, seeking only to be an honest artist.

SG Lewis recently performed at Australia's Beyond The Valley festival on a line-up alongside Dom Dolla, Flight Facilities, Vera Blue, Tkay Maidza, Confidence Man and many others. Lewis was notably photographed with Maneater singer, Nelly Furtado, at the festival, a moment he calls "completely surreal." 

"I grew up on Nelly Furtado's music; her songs soundtracked so many moments in my life," Lewis says. "Add to that the work she did with Timberland, who is one of my idol producers... To receive the love from her and to get to connect with her on a friendship level, and then for her to share the platform that she had with me on that stage, it's just really, really awesome. And she's really cool."

AudioLust & HigherLove by SG Lewis is out now. You can stream it here.