SAMANTHA FISH

Death Wish Blues is a brand-new collaborative album from Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton and will see the pair touring the UK later this year. We invited Samantha to our studios to hear the story behind the release

- David Mead

Samantha Fish was in the middle of a UK tour when she dropped by Guitarist's studios at the end of last year. She was eager to talk about the ominously titled Death Wish Blues, her newest project that sees her teaming up with US Americana guitarist Jesse Dayton. The album features some of Samantha's grittiest performances to date, replete with her Gibson SG-fuelled guitar playing and stunningly soulful vocals. The tour was going well, apart from her having to undertake some running repairs to her road-weary cigar-box guitar, but thankfully gaffer tape saved the day once again.

As we settled down to chat, she revealed the guitar wasn't her first instrument. In fact, she joins the ranks of players like Eddie Van Halen and Nuno Bettencourt who also started their journeys in music with the drums. We find out more...

What made you switch from drums to the guitar?

"In my house, when I was growing up, the drums were stationary and they were in the basement. To be honest, I was kind of scared of my basement - it was creepy. I don't know, it's just there was something about the guitar. I could pick it up and I could go outside and I could sit on the grass and I could be wherever. I started lessons on drums when I was 13 and I don't think I had the discipline at that point because, when you're going every week, they're giving you lesson plans and all of a sudden you have homework. I think, for me at that time, it stopped being fun and creative and it became just another part of my homework that I had to do.

"When I found the guitar, it was like a little bit of freedom. But I love the drums and I honestly encourage everybody to learn how to play drums if you're into music. If you pick up the drums first, it's going to instil a metronome within you and you're going to learn about groove. It's the building block of everything."