Samantha Marais
- Website
- www.samanthamarais.com
- Myspace
- www.myspace.com/samanthamarais
- Presspack Download
- Download presspack containing hi-res images and latest biography
- Booking Period
- July / Aug
- Booking Situation
- Support slots/Festivals
Biography
'Sam combines the innocence of the 60's Francoise Hardy with the depth of
Sandy Denny and Kate Bush' - Youth
On 10 December 2007 South African born Samantha Marais is to release her debut album, 'The Peppermint Conspiracy' for Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, Bad & The Queen) and Youth (Killing Joke, The Orb) 's Butterfly Recordings.
Influenced by her father’s passion for Bob Dylan and her brother’s love of the guitar, Samantha started playing guitar herself at the age of 8, and has been singing and writing songs ever since. Arriving in London in the late 90’s at the age of 20, Sam lost no time in forming her first band, Contraband, with her ex-boyfriend. After the band split she decided to pursue a solo career, returning to her folksy roots and favouring an acoustic guitar and simple, honest narrative songs.
Youth introduced Sam to Simon Tong, his partner in the fledgling Butterfly Recordings label and a fruitful writing partnership was formed. Both became strong and challenging influences on her, some of the results such as 'Falling Star' and the album’s title track can be seen on 'The Peppermint Conspiracy'.
As well as teaming up with Nick Hollywell-Walker (Killing Joke) and old Contraband member Benji Vaughan, Sam also continued writing on her own and in 2006 she was signed to Simon and Youth’s newly formed label, releasing her debut track 'Ordinary Man' on their 'Butterfly Acoustic Recordings Vol 1' compilation. 'Stunning', NME said of Sam's track, 'a sultry mix of alt. acoustics and ethereal vocals', whilst Q magazine described it as one of the stand out tracks of the compilation.
With many songs already complete, recording for ‘The Peppermint Conspiracy’ was finished in 2007, where it had all began - in Youth’s studio at the bottom of his garden.
In support of the album, Samantha's band, which includes David Knock / Paul May (Drums), Harry Escott (Cello), Daniel Orcese (Mandolin, Banjo), Simon Tong (Guitar / Banjo), and Nick Holywell-Walker (Harmonium/Melodica), will be playing a series of dates - to be announced - which will offer the UK the first chance to hear her music, which, as Youth says, "sends tingles up the spine".
By far the best album of the week. Marais is a South African folkie whose trembly bell-like voice has been described, not unaptly, as combining ‘the Innocence of Sixties Francoise Hardy with the depth of Sandy Denny and Kate Bush.’ The songs on her debut straddle both ends of folk, from marvellously authentic finger-in-the-ear trad to strange and wonderful ‘nu weird’. It’s beguiling, melodic, imaginative, different and well worth a punt.
Sunday Telegraph
An eccentric young woman with an early morning voice who you’d be happy to play host to.
Samantha Marais’ gentle debut is littered with musical eccentricities. She drops Suwannee whistles, flutes, and pedal harmonium solos magpie-like into her simple folk songs, but even in The Peppermint Conspiracy’s more indulgent moments (like Hourglass, where she accompanies sounds of bathing with a reading of Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poem The Wreck Of The Deutschland) the album plays with barely a hint of affectation. Kicking off with a passage spoken in Zulu – Marais grew up in South Africa – and then merging into ‘60s-flavoured pastoral folk with First Days Of June, her early-morning voice rings clear and true in the same way that Joanna Newsom and Jolie Holland’s do. The Peppermint Conspiracy sometimes sacrifices consistency in favour of experimentation – the bulk of the songs were produced by The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s Simon Tong and Youth. But still, it’s a set of beautiful songs and ideas that sound ancient and fresh in the same breath.
John Innes / Word
When Future Of The Left spit “And suddenly folk songs are part of our future”, they think it’s bad news. What they need is a slice of Samantha Marais’ fat-free debut to massage their bitter brains. Lighter than a Malteser in a flotation tank, Marais’ ethereal vocals fill rooms here with weightless, simple beauty. FOTL, folk off! SS 7/10
NME
Forthcoming Tour Dates
April 2008
June 2008