Skip to main content
 
 
1
1

Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton – Death Wish Blues – NEW album available NOW!

“The first-ever collaborative album from Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton, Death Wish Blues is a body of work born from a shared passion for pushing the limits of blues music. As one of the most dynamic forces in the blues world today, Fish has made her name as a multi-award-winning festival headliner who captivates crowds with her explosive yet elegant guitar work, delivering an unbridled form of blues-rock that defies all genre boundaries. Dayton, meanwhile, boasts an extraordinary background that includes recording with the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, touring as a guitarist for seminal punk band X, working with Rob Zombie on the soundtracks for his iconic horror films, and releasing a series of acclaimed solo albums. Produced by the legendary Jon Spencer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Death Wish Blues ultimately melds their eclectic sensibilities into a batch of songs both emotionally potent and wildly combustible.

As Fish reveals, the making of Death Wish Blues marked the culmination of a musical connection forged in her hometown of Kansas City over a decade ago. “It was always a big deal when Jesse came through town to a play a show—we first met when I was 20, and I kept up with him through the years,” Fish says of the Beaumont, Texas-bred musician. “I’d been wanting to do a collaborative project for a while and went to see Jesse perform in New Orleans, and right away I knew he was the guy. We got together and had this vision of making something of an alt-blues record, but it turned out to be so much more exciting and layered than I ever imagined.”

The follow-up to Fish and Dayton’s 2022 EP Stardust Sessions—a three-song effort featuring covers of classic tracks like Townes Van Zandt’s “I’ll Be Here In The Morning”—Death Wish Blues took shape at Applehead Recording & Production in Woodstock, a studio situated on a 17-acre farm once home to The Band’s Rick Danko. Over the course of 10 frenetic days, the two musicians joined forces with bassist Kendall Wind, keyboardist Mickey Finn, and drummer Aaron Johnston, cutting most of the album live and unleashing a bold collision of blues, soul, punk, funk, and fantastically greasy rock-and-roll. With Fish and Dayton sharing vocal and guitar duties, the sonic power of each track is exponentially magnified by Spencer’s production work, endlessly tapping into the rule-breaking ingenuity that’s made him a cult hero. “Jon’s indie-rock royalty and he’s always been ahead of the game as far as moving the blues forward,” says Dayton. “For this album we wanted to keep everything blues-based, with a lot of inspiration from people like Albert King and Magic Sam on the lead-guitar parts, but we also wanted to have fun with that and take it somewhere new and different and way outside our wheelhouse.”

One of the first songs that Fish and Dayton wrote together, the album-opening “Death Wish” immediately established the free-flowing nature of their collaboration. “Samantha sent me that melody and I went into my writing room and started coming up with some lyrics inspired by all these true-crime documentaries I’d been watching,” Dayton recalls. “It turned into a song about men taking advantage of women, and I knew that Samantha could really chew on those lyrics and sing them with a lot of attitude.” Anchored by a hot-tempered vocal performance from Fish, the result is a prime introduction to Death Wish Blues’ incendiary sound, at turns gritty, exhilarating, and indelibly hypnotic. Later, on “Riders,” Fish and Dayton offer up a ferociously groove-heavy track built on their fiery vocal back-and-forth, reaching a majestic frenzy in the song’s final moments. “‘Riders’ is about being musicians and troubadours and having one-night stands with whatever city you happen to be in,” says Fish. “Every city is personified as a love interest or partner, and in the end you just move on to whatever adventure is coming up next.” READ MORE…

Samantha Fish – Faster – NEW album available on NOW!

“Today, Samantha Fish has announced her new album Faster, set for release on September 10, 2021. The album (available for pre-order HERE) is the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Kill or Be Kind, and marks Fish’s first collaboration with producer Martin Kierszenbaum (Lady Gaga, Sting), who co-wrote eight of the album’s 12 new songs and helped the genre-defying guitarist, singer, and songwriter to refine her sound and strike out into bold new sonic territory.

Alongside the announcement, Fish unveiled the video for “Twisted Ambition,” the first single from the album, out today. Fish notes, “It’s about flipping the power structure, the power dynamic, in your life. The world or a personal figure might be putting you down; it’s about taking control and owning your life and owning the situation.” The delightfully anarchic and cathartic video sees Fish smashing things up – literally and metaphorically -as she asserts, “see me take your crown, don’t need you,” and declares, “twisted ambition, I’m in control.” Watch the video for “Twisted Ambition” HERE.

“The whole record has a theme of taking charge and taking the reins, in a relationship or in life in general,” explains Fish. “I really thought that after 2020 I’d end up with a really dismal, bleak album, but instead, we came up with something that’s fun and sexy and so empowering.”

Faster opens on its spellbinding title track, a fiercely stomping number whose vocal hook states her intentions to “make your heart beat faster.” Immediately making good on that promise, she follows it up with “All Ice No Whiskey,” a pop-perfect powerhouse she considers something of a dare. That defiant spirit also infuses “Better Be Lonely,” a fantastically freewheeling track graced with a frenetic guitar solo.

While Faster never fails to showcase the gritty vitality of Fish’s musicianship, much of the album journeys into elegantly eclectic sonic terrain. One of Faster‘s most vulnerable moments, “Crowd Control” unfolds in delicate beats and shimmering keyboard tones, forming a dreamy backdrop to Fish’s self-reflection.

Featuring a guest spot from rapper/singer/songwriter Tech N9ne (who, like Fish and Kierszenbaum, hails from Kansas City), “Loud” drifts from doo-wop reverie to guitar-fueled frenzy.”He was perfect for ‘Loud,’ which is a song about speaking your truth as loud as you can,” says Fish. And on “Hypnotic,” Fish lays down a mesmerizing piece of R&B-pop, telegraphing unfettered desire in her seductive vocal delivery and lushly textured grooves. The album closes on a poignant note, with the stark and slow-burning ballad called “All the Words.”

Kierszenbaum, who contributed guitar, piano, keyboards, and percussion to the recording in addition to his production duties, enlisted an A-list rhythm section comprising legendary drummer Josh Freese (Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails, The Replacements) and bassist Diego Navaira of The Last Bandoleros for the session. Hannah Brier contributed backing vocals while GRAMMY-award winners Tony Lake and Robert Orton engineered and mixed, respectively.

For Fish, one of the greatest joys of making music is the powerful exchange of energy at her incendiary live shows. “Anytime I play live, I just want to want to make people forget about everything else in the world and feel that same joy that I feel on stage,” she says. In the process of creating Faster, Fish experienced a similar exhilaration. “There’s such a transformation that can happen in the studio when you really own that freedom to be creative,” she says. “I feel so charged up in those moments, like I can be whoever I want to be. It’s just me and these incredible musicians trying to make a piece of art that speaks for itself and contributes something new to the world. It’s never hard to feel inspired or empowered when that’s the mission.”

© 2023 The Official Website of Samantha Fish