Photo Credit: Gafkjen
Throughout much of her career, Samantha Fish has mostly been known for playing the blues. But on her recently released sixth studio album, Kill or Be Kind, she’s further expanded into new sonic territory.
“I wanted to do an album that I felt crossed some genre lines,” Fish says. “I probably co-wrote more on this record than I have on anything in the past. I felt a great amount of personal growth emotionally and musically as I was writing this, and I wanted to cross beyond the blues. I felt like my music has always fallen into the realm of rock and roll, R&B, soul, blues, and I feel like this album has even some pop leanings with the hooks and the melodies.
“I think that’s something that artists work on and fight against every time they make a project, is how do you keep from being labeled as one thing when you feel like you’re not?” she continues.
“But that’s sort of the artistic journey, and you’re supposed to be able to evolve and to change and challenge yourself and grow, and hopefully you have an audience that’s willing to take that trip with you. I’ve been very fortunate to where they’ve stuck with me so far. I think they like this one, too. So, it’s been a positive forward journey, not only for me but with the fans.”
For the album, she brought in a variety of songwriters—including Jim McCormick, Kate Pearlman, Patrick Sweeney, Parker Millsap and Eric McFadden—to co-write some songs. It gave her the chance to further get out of her comfort zone.
“Everybody brings something unique to the table,” Fish says. “Kind of the cool thing about working with that many different songwriters is you have to go into the room and assess our strengths and then play to those strengths.”
She cites Kate Pearlman as a pop writer. “She writes really incredible hooks. Jim McCormick is an incredible lyricist all the way through. They call him the lyric doctor. And then Eric McFadden; great lyricist but also a killer guitar player. So, we approached a song from a guitar riff perspective rather than telling a story. So much we started with the guitar,” she says.
Since this was her first album as the sole guitarist, she wanted the guitar to be at the forefront of the songs. “It was a little intimidating, but at the same time, I really wanted to showcase my abilities on a guitar,” Fish says. “But also utilize the instrument in unique ways that maybe weren’t just solo driven or rift driven but textures and ambiance, and I feel like that was something I definitely tried to accomplish with this record.”
A More Produced Effort
The album also marks her first use of a synthesizer on an album. “Bringing in a synth player was something of a stretch for me and an exciting one, too,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to have synth on an album. It just never felt like the right time.”
The songwriting on the album has more of a “concise nature” and feels like “more of a produced” effort compared to prior albums. Lyrically, many of the songs explore the fickle nature of love and self-empowerment.
“I think a lot of it, even through the heartbreak songs, there’s a thread of empowerment throughout, even on the songs that are addressing that kind of duality in love,” Fish says. “There’s kind of an ownership that you’re taking of it. Whoever’s singing or applying it to their life, there’s an empowerment thread throughout. Even if I’m writing about sad material, I try to have a shred of optimism, or hope even, sometimes in these dire, tough situations.”
For example, the title track directly explores that duality. “Say somebody really loves something about you,” she says. “It’s like, ‘I love this quality in you,’ and then when the relationship starts to sour, it’s amazing how quickly that good quality can turn into something so negative. I felt like that was kind of an interesting thing that we all kind of deal with.”
The title also poses the question: “Are you going to take the high road, or are you going to take the low road?”
“I think having choices is empowering, and sometimes making the right choice, it might seem easy,” she says. “It’s not always the right thing. So, I just felt like it was kind of a good album for the time period that we live in.”
“‘Bulletproof,’” meanwhile, is a song about feeling you have to “put on a façade, to be stronger than you truly are.”
“The expectation is that people just aren’t affected by certain things,” she continues. “You’re bulletproof, so to speak, and I feel like that is an expectation we hold for each other in society. Even within the music industry a lot, but I feel like that probably applies to a lot of people. Different scenarios in their jobs or home life or whatever. So, it’s kind of a middle finger to that, to be honest.”
Samantha Fish performs at Shank Hall, 1434 N. Farwell Ave., on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m.
