Samantha Fish: Songwriting is Storytelling
As seen in Guitar Girl Magazine Issue 17 – Fall 2021
The Bells & Whistles
Editor’s Note: This interview was originally conducted in 2021
around the release of Samantha Fish’s album Faster.
We’re republishing it as part of the
Guitar Girl Magazine interview archive.
By Vanessa Izabella and Cece Gair
Samantha Fish is known as a contemporary blues guitarist, but she is so much more than that. Her seventh album, Faster, released September 10 [2021], speaks to a new era for the Kansas City-born musician. In her interview, Fish talks about everything going on in her life right now, which is quite busy. She gets into everything from the new album, collaborations, guitars, an upcoming tour, and her experience as a woman in this industry.
Faster was written largely during the pandemic. We asked her about this process and how her collaboration with Martin Kierszenbaum, who produced the record, came about. “When [the COVID-19 pandemic] started, and we realized we were going to have loads and loads of time off, I just started writing. It was the first time I’ve ever started writing a record when I wasn’t on the road a hundred percent of the time. So, it wasn’t like I was just trying to find time between shows and the hotel rooms to write songs.”
On her collaboration with Kierszenbaum, Fish notes that it was born out of a friendship. “He reached out to me in early summertime, and we just cultivated a friendship. We started talking about music, what my goals were, and what he wanted to do. We became friends, and we just decided at some point, like, hey, let’s do this next record together. So, we started co-writing. Honestly, I feel like this record was like it sounds. It’s so much fun. It really is. I was writing from a place of where I wanted to be when at the time, I wasn’t feeling very empowered or confident or energetic about things.”
As described by Fish, fans can anticipate this album to have a very distinct sound. “I feel like the album has a real positive, just rock and roll, I don’t-give-a-crap kind of feeling to it. It’s probably my most edgy album, but also my most energetic and self-confident sounding album. I attribute a lot of that to working with Martin—he’s a real positive spirit and just got a great energy and a great vibe to work with. We had a lot of fun writing these songs.”
I feel like solid songwriting is the most important thing. It’s the thing that’s going to be your legacy. Songs have staying power.
In talking about the development of her new album, we asked Fish about her approach to songwriting. “[my process] is kind of all over the place, to be honest. You know, sometimes you have an entire page of lyrics and no melody, no song structure to go with it. Especially for this last record, though, I’d have a melody come to me, and I’d sing it to my recorder and be like, okay, let’s start from here. I don’t know if this is a vocal hook or a guitar hook—this could be a bass or a piano part for all I know, but you got something to start with that’s catchy and stays with you. And then I would build off of that.”
However, even on this album, Fish admits that there are “so many different ways to [climb] that mountain. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what the process is, especially when you’re working with collaborators. Sometimes I bring an idea to the table like, I really want to write a song about this. Specifically, when I was collaborating with Martin, I’d bring in something like, I got this cool guitar riff, let’s try to build something off of this, and then we’d sit there and go, okay, like, all right, let’s feel sexy. Let’s come at it from this perspective. So, you’re kind of building this story out of just a guitar riff. That’s awesome.”
Fish also told us about her development as a songwriter, from feeling a song to telling a story. “I think early on when I was writing songs, I was writing more for feels, wanting to have a song that has this kind of a feel, and then you execute that, and you have a cool guitar solo. As I started to develop more and more, I got into storytelling. When I started collaborating with other songwriters, I realized just how important it is to write a story that can connect with everybody’s lives. Not just some, not just a story that’s about you and yours. You want it to be about them.”
“I feel like solid songwriting is the most important thing. It’s the thing that’s going to be your legacy. Songs have staying power. Being a great vocalist or a great guitar player is awesome, but I feel like you have to have the songs as that vehicle to really push you forward. I want to write something that stays with people, that they want to listen to over and over again, that they want to come to the show and that’s the song they want to hear. To me, that’s powerful, and that’s your legacy. It’s the whole point, to connect with people. You want to give them something that they can connect to and use to tell their story.”
As much as guitar and songwriting have played massively foundational roles in her career, Fish did not initially get into music as a guitarist. In her early teens, Fish’s form of rebellion was picking up the drums in a family full of guitar-based musicians. “I started when I was 13, and I think I did it just because it was the one thing that nobody else in my family was doing. I came up in a family of guitar players and singers, so I was rebelling against that.”
That said, Fish’s love for drums was far more than just a teenage phase, and she says they helped her become the fantastic musician she is. “I still love playing the drums. I never really stopped doing it. It’s just what I do professionally is play the guitar. You don’t want to hear me play drums professionally. I started gravitating towards the guitar when I was 15 because I always wanted to express myself by singing and playing. I’m grateful for the fact that I started on the drums, though, because it’s helped me establish that sense of timing and rhythm. I think everybody should play drums.”
While unable to tour due to the pandemic, Fish picked up “like 15” new hobbies, even while trying to keep busy with her music and working on a new album. “I’m not a stick with a hobby-type chick. I didn’t ever stop working—me and my team. We kept trying to find things to do. I kept pretty busy, whether it was in the studio or sneaking out and doing COVID-safe, socially distant shows. We did these shows in October, but it was still kind of weird and freaky.”
She did stick with a few of her new pandemic-born hobbies for at least some time. “I did buy a sewing machine. I told myself I was going to start making all my stage clothes, and I was going to make these really cool outfits. I got through one, and I was like, this looks terrible. It’s an incredible skill to be able to put together clothes. So that was one failed hobby. I started cooking a lot, which I feel like I’m pretty good at. I started smoking ribs cause I’m from Kansas City. I started really getting good with the smoker, and you know, having my small group COVID bubble come over and we’d do our little Kansas City barbecue thing.”
With case numbers slowly dropping and restrictions easing, Fish is finally able to start thinking about getting back on the road. “I’ve got my fingers crossed. We have a really great looking fall. We have a European tour scheduled to start early next year, and I’m so, so cautiously optimistic. The calendar has been like the calendar of lives the last year and a half or so, but it feels so good to be coming back to this normalcy thing. I hope we get to do it. I feel like with this new record, this new show that I’m putting on, it’s like a new era for me, and that’s really exciting.”
Find what’s unique about you and then sell it. Don’t try to sound like somebody because you think that’s the way to get you to where you need to be. You need to sound like you.
On the notion of performing again, we asked Fish about what equipment she’s been using these days. The first guitars she mentions are all part of Gibson’s SG collection. “I’ve always loved the SG. I think it was kind of my little present to myself (from being inspired by) Angus Young and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. And then, you know, of course, like Derek Trucks is one of the best contemporary SG guys. I loved the monochromatic color scheme, which fit with what I had kind of going on at the time.”
Fish also speaks highly of Delaney Guitars, called “playable art” on their website. “I do have a Delaney on the road with me right now. It’s a 512, which is kind of like a—I hate to compare other guitars with boutique stuff—but kind of like a 339-style Gibson. I use that for a lot of open tunings. I’ve got a [Gibson] Firebird that I’m obsessed with and my Taylor acoustic for the acoustic numbers. And then, of course, the cigar box guitar.”
Fish got her cigar box after years of fascination with the instrument, first seeing it played by street performers during the first music festival she had ever been to—King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas. “I kept seeing people on the street playing these little cigar box guitars, and they just sounded so mean. Years later, we got hired to come in and play the show ourselves, and I saw somebody selling them. I just was like, I’m going to just buy this guitar, and I’ll throw it in the shows randomly, but it became so popular with our fans. Like we couldn’t go through a show without pulling it out. So, I mean, here I am, five, six, seven years later, still trying to figure out what to do with it. It’s a pretty aggressive little guy.”
This affinity for cigar box guitars led Fish to partner with an existing cigar box festival and come up with the Samantha Fish Cigar Box Guitar Festival in New Orleans. “I mean, it’s just incredible the craftsmanship that goes into [these guitars] and you can make them as simple or as intricate and complicated as you want to.”
As far as pedals and amps, Fish prefers a Category Five amp whenever possible, followed by a Fender super-deluxe. For pedals, she experiments. “I’ve got the JHS Mini Foot Fuzz, which I’m in love with. It’s tiny, it’s mean, and it’s easy to work with.”
When it comes to getting on stage, performing solo is not all that Fish has been thinking about. She’s recently been involved in several all-guitar performances with some killer performers. “I love having a conversation with another player on stage. It’s one thing to go up there and be like, okay, now we’re cutting heads, but it’s like, no, we’re not doing that work. We’re having a conversation. I think the best person at that in our world that I got to sit in with was Buddy Guy, wow. He is an expert at having a conversation.”
When asked what artists she’d like to collaborate with in the future, Fish says, “I’d love to go and do a show with the Stones or something. I mean, a lot of the people that I want to collaborate with are gone, but there’s always people that come around that I’m like, oh my God, I love them. I just love working with somebody that I can have chemistry with. Sometimes you don’t know who those people are until you find them.”
Of course, working in music doesn’t just mean collaborating with other musicians. Fish has a whole team of people on this journey along with her. “I have a really great team. It starts with a good personal manager. I’ve always said it was the goal when I was in my bedroom playing guitar is to get out and do this thing. Now, the goal is to get back and just play guitar in my bedroom and not have to worry about this full circle of things. It’s a circle, but you have to go through all this stuff. I know people who do it without a personal manager, but it does help to have somebody who can help you because there’s just not enough hours in the day to do whatever you need to do.”
Currently, she is quite happy with her arrangement. “I found the sweet spot. I’ve got a really great personal manager and a booking agency that’s incredible, and I’m with a good label. So, there’s like this trifecta of everybody that’s working.”
Nearing the end of our interview, we asked Fish if she sees any positive, exciting elements about being a woman in the music industry, often highlighted as a difficult career to choose. “I love being a woman. I love bringing the female perspective to what I do. I feel like people want to hear what women have to say. I think we’ve been kind of brainwashed over the years to think that they don’t. But if you look at the Grammys, there’s such a want for women in the industry. I love having that perspective, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
One of her favorite female-led things that she sees in the industry right now is more women picking up instruments. “I think it’s great to see young women picking up instruments, not just fronting the band. The thing is, I grew up feeling the same way. There was a time period where I wanted to play lead guitar, but no, I didn’t really see any girls shredding, like, you know, like Stevie Ray Vaughan or something. So, I thought, oh, well, girls don’t do that. That happens to a lot of girls. We don’t even know it just because we don’t see it. We feel like we can’t do it. But gender has no effect on whether or not you can do this. I think people want to hear your voice because it is different, you know, you come from a different place, a different walk, a different kind of angst.”
We asked Fish what advice she has for young women in this industry, as well as what she’d like to say to our readers who are already fans of hers. For women hoping to make it in this industry, Fish says, “together, go out there and just start performing. You see people who’ve never played a gig getting attention and notoriety through mediums like TikTok and Instagram. Just use the tools at your disposal to get people to look at you. I always tell people it’s a competitive industry, so find what’s unique about you and then sell it. Don’t try to sound like somebody because you think that’s the way to get you to where you need to be. You need to sound like you.”
For her fans reading Guitar Girl Magazine, Fish has a profound thank-you. “I love you, I appreciate you, and thank you for supporting me through all the phases of this. I’m looking forward to bringing on this new era and this new show. I hope it’s as empowering for you as it’s been for me. I’ll see you out there.”
Over the next few months, particularly after her album release in September, Fish hopes to hit the road (in the States as well as Europe) and continue making music. “I’m already working on songs for whatever’s to come next. Now, it’s not so much an album-based industry. You can release a track digitally, which is what a lot of people do. I think the key to fielding success in this new world is to try and do both. I love an album. I love the story an album tells. So, you know, just writing songs for whatever’s next, an album or singles, just getting out there and focusing on putting on the best show possible.”
Faster Tracklist:
- Faster
2. All Ice No Whiskey
3. Twisted Ambition
4. Hypnotic
5. Forever Together
6. Crowd Control
7. Imaginary War
8. Loud featuring Tech N9ne
9. Better Be Lonely
10. So Called Lover
11. Like a Classic
12. All the Words
