Acclaimed singer, songwriter and recording artiste, I Used To Be Sam is here with her newest single dubbed “Gentle”.
There was a time before Annie Goodchild when there was Sam. After taking an Ancestry DNA test, the celebrated singer, songwriter, and recording artist discovered that she used to go by the name Samantha before she was adopted.
This discovery serves as the catalyst for their new single, ‘Gentle, and is the first single off Goodchild’s upcoming EP of the same name, an exploratory new collection of cinematic, left-field pop that will be released under their new artistic identity I Used To Be Sam.
Goodchild grew up in the suburbs of Boston, in “a full-on Irish home,” listening to ’90s hip-hop and R’nB and singing in church choirs, idolizing “the great female vocalists” Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, and Janis Joplin.
Annie founded Melou with a diverse and brilliant group of musicians after taking an impulsive journey to Guatemala at the age of 18 and performed around Western Europe and the United States for five years.
Following international success as a featured performer for Scott Bradlee’s musical collaboration Postmodern Jukebox, Goodchild started their solo career six years ago with the glittering vintage sounds of their debut EP ‘A Random Physical Sensation.’
Encouraged to go more, Goodchild struck up chats with other transracial adoptees (TRAs), and their shared experiences shaped I Used To Be Sam’s first EP’s highly intimate nature.
She hopes to utilize this new music as a vehicle to bring individuals with similar experiences together and to change the narrative around transracial adoption.
The release of the EP’s title track is the first of many chapters for I Used To Be Sam; it represents the artist’s boldest, freest, and most confronting music in their illustrious career.
With snappy rhythms, sampled physiological noises reworked as percussion, and cyclical snatches of recorded vocals that provide a lyrical pulse, the music soars and skitters; Goodchild’s voice quivering and yelling with a rawness that comes right from the pit of their stomach.
The songwriting is as adventurous as the author’s journey while composing their most ambitious and honest release to date. Watch the full video below.
