Acclaimed musician and actor, Sam Palladio has announced his debut album, The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost The Light out Friday 13th September and is available to pre-order now here.
Sam raises the curtain on the record with the release of new single, Meanwhile In London. It opens the album with a showcase for his warm earthy vocals, highlighted alongside harmonies which shine among grand strings and horns, while his knack for an earworm melody beam through with its propulsive chorus.
As the Cornish singer and multi-instrumentalist originally shot to fame in America playing the character of Gunnar Scott in the American TV series, Nashville, the new song Meanwhile In London reflects on the whirlwind path his transatlantic career has carved.
Regarding the single, Sam says: “I wanted to make a record opener that spoke to who I am. This is my experience of being a British guy who spent a long period in the States and fell in love. I was travelling so much, missing home and wondering what that person was doing and getting all those intrusive thoughts.”
The album title, The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost The Light is a lyric taken from the achingly touching pop ballad Something On My Mind. The single was released at the end of last year and is inspired by the passing of Sam’s mother Sally.
“I wanted to dedicate the album to mum,” Palladio says. “I took the chorus lyric, “there’s something on my mind, it haunts me every night, the perfect summer’s day, before we lost the light”, to create the title. It symbolises mum being the light of our lives, and the darkness once it fades. I liked the joy and beauty of the line on its face value, as it reminds me of youthful summer days on Cornish beaches. But I also liked the dichotomy it created when put into the context of loss. Ultimately, I felt that it allows her to live forever through song.”
The opening trombones in Something On My Mind provide a fanfare celebration of Sally’s life at her musical ceremony which erupts with a grand anthemic chorus from Sam and his band reflecting the cherished memories shared through life in this heartfelt tribute.
The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost The Light also speaks to Sam’s lifelong experience in and around music, and to his deep immersion in heartland Americana, while also retaining his obsessive fandom for rock and the likes of Incubus, Rage Against The Machine and Biffy Clyro.
During his time in Music City, Sam found himself rubbing shoulders with his heroes. Discovering that the arena-sized Biffy Clyro were appearing at Nashville’s Mercy Lounge, a 250-capacity club that he himself had played – he excitedly tweeted the band. Next thing he knows, he’s backstage with Simon Neil and the James twins all of them huge Nashville fans.
“Cut to the following year. It was the final season in ‘Nashville’. I was always pitching my own songs for the show,” Sam Palladio reflects. “My character had his final song in the show, where he goes from the country thing to, fuck it, he’s going to be a rock star. So I said to Simon: Would you be up for trying to write a song for my character’s final song? He said: It would be an honour!”
A strong relationship blossomed and in 2023 Neil joined Sam onstage at his headline show at Hammersmith Apollo for a duet of the Biffy hit Many Of Horror. In 2024 the pair once again join musical forces on Sam’s debut album with Spill Your Heart. It is a laid-back anthem for late night bars, rich with the smooth and slick vocals from Sam and Neil alongside lush acoustic guitars which break out into hair-raising crescendos of mighty riffs.
Digging back into the southern rock he’d been hearing in situ for the best part of a decade is Tennessee. The recent single is a rollicking bar-room anthem which boasts scorching riffs and soloing from Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett, another close friend of Sam.
“What Chris did was a perfect blend of his crunchy Foos thing with a little bit of his chicken-picking country guitar, because his sensibilities are country, and he loves that world,” notes Sam. “Again, I was so thrilled that he was happy to put his name to this project.”
Born in Nashville, with some judicious nods back to the UK, The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost The Light was finished in Los Angeles. Working in the iconic Prince Room in the legendary Sunset Sound studios in LA, Grammy-winning producer Dave Sardy (Noel Gallagher, Band Of Horses, Royal Blood) applied additional production, and called in some musician friends. Sam was only too happy to have Matt Chamberlain (Stevie Nicks, David Bowie) replace his own drum work, while ex-Jellyfish man Jason Faulkner (St Vincent, Beck) came in and “replayed a load of guitars and put in some beautiful organs and keys,” he says. “We had done a lot of the groundwork in Nashville, and then this little bit of California stardust was sprinkled through.”
It was a wonderful end to a serendipitous story of magical debut album. After a handful of years in the acting spotlight, a career that certainly isn’t going away, having just hit the big screens playing The Clash frontman Joe Strummer in the hugely acclaimed new biopic Bob Marley: One Love – Sam Palladio is now ready for his rock’n’roll close-up with The Perfect Summer’s Day, Before We Lost The Light.
It’s a record that captures the best side of Sam offering clarity and transparency into the life, thoughts and feelings of the extremely talented Brit.
To celebrate the album announcement and release of Meanwhile In London, Sam has announced a last minute intimate headline show in London at the 100 Club on Wednesday 19th June. Tickets are on sale now via Dice here.
THE PERFECT SUMMER’S DAY, BEFORE WE LOST THE LIGHT
- Meanwhile In London
- Tennessee (feat. Chris Shiflett)
- Tears In A Carpark
- Something On My Mind
- Spill Your Heart (feat. Simon Neil)
- Gone Like The Summer
- SMF
- B.O.A.T
- Bullet for Your Love
- Jenni
- Wake Me Up In Nashville
Country Music in the UK 
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