= DLD ;8; 8I< CFFB@E> ;FNE%%%
ists, including SBTRKT Ware. ame to be better known a than on our shores, the world and working merican artists. ls appeared on tracks Beyoncé’s Mine, Kanye’s o, Solange’s Don’t Touch nd Drake’s Too Much. 14, things changed when lled back home to outh London, to s mum. iagnosed er in remission in 2012, before the disease returned two years later. While previously he was primarily known as a guest musician and vocalist for other artists, this prompted Sampha to start his solo efforts. And the tracks reflect the tough time he was going through – particularly (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano. On its release in January this year, he wrote on Twitter: “This song is dedicated to my mother B i n t y Piiccttuurere: :PPAAUUL Sisay. The more time that passes, the more I see the extent of her love for me.”
And he says: “I had moved out briefly to make music and, when she was diagnosed, I moved back home. Literally, I was just sitting on the sofa.
“We were watching TV and my mum was there. The line, ‘No one knows me like the piano in my mother’s home’ just kind of came to me from thin air. And it’s just something that stuck with me.
Granted
“I think it obviously is an ode to my piano, but it’s really an ode to my mother. “It was something that I sort of took for granted, you know, coming back home, being at mum’s house and my mum being there.” Despite the record being so personal, Sampha says he can feel almost like someone else listening to it. He explains: “I give a lot in some respects, but there’s a whole other aspect to myself that I haven’t learnt to express yet. “Like when I listen to the album, sometimes I think if I could step outside myself I could give myself like a pat on my back, or hug or something.
“I’ve had those moments where I’m listening outside of myself and I’m actually empathising with myself. Which is very weird.”
Since writing Process, Sampha has been carving out a name for himself and working with other artists.
He contributed to Frank Ocean’s album Endless last year and got up on stage with Alicia Keys for her Apple Music Festival performance at The Roundhouse in London.
And collabs like that have helped the shy star gain more confidence.
He explains: “I’ve had quite a lot of friends or people who know me – because I was always quite a quiet person and not really that vocal or talkative – who are like: ‘Oh wow, Sampha, I never thought you would be making music, or doing all these things.’
“The times I feel unusual are the times I realise that music is the way of expressing or showing people I have this perspective on things. I guess that’s the beautiful thing about human beings.”
And the prize money? “I want to build a studio so it might go towards that,” he says. “Saving is always good too.”