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Sam Ewens | The Brass Shed

@samewens

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🎺 | Horn arr:
Labrinth, Noah Kahan, Primal Scream, Ed Sheeran, James Arthur, Suki Waterhouse, Louis Tomlinson, Jungle, Haircut100, a few TV Themes etc

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

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Today, the final track from my single is out: Faithful. Unwound. Healing.

This one's different. I sing it myself.

Last time I sang on my own tunes, I was half this age. I had hair like a Lego cavalier, wore a paisley cowboy neck scarf, suede moccasins with tassels, and sang about the collapse of human character, forbidden desires, the misery of work, walking into the sea and never coming back.

Starting TYTHE was a deliberate commitment to cut that person off and embrace pure electronic music. It was the right choice, to be honest. Yet here I am in 2026, letting matey back into the party.

Why?

Because despite so many voices in my head chastising me daily for the things I might think, feel, and hope, I’ve also learned a contrasting POV on life: by being ourselves in the fullest, we are potentially fulfilling one of our greatest roles on Earth.

So, this is me being me and this song is about a totally unexpected awakening of a kind that I never saw coming.

Imagine being introduced to some materials that frame life, existence, consciousness, religion, the universe, the past and the future in a tableau so compelling and connected that you can no longer see things differently. Imagine being shown a path towards a kind of peace you have long dreamed of. Then imagine desiring the destination so deeply, but not feeling sure you could ever get there…

Lyrically, the song captures that pain of learning what you need but observing it just out of reach through a pane of glass, or light years away through a giant telescope.

Whilst making the tune, I read the words Faithful. Unwound. Healing. on a top I was wearing in a dream. I couldn't stop thinking about them the next day. I wrote them down on my phone. Eventually I realised they were the invitation to write the lyrics I had been waiting to arrive.

Whilst the track is a brief and fleeting 3 mins, the vision evolved over many years as an ever-expanding circle of long-time friends and collaborators joined the project. Biggest love to @susannahaustin @mrchrispeck @morning_star_music_club and @thefantasyorchestra for their BVs, @tupi_tupo (Strings), @samewens (Horns) @redshankmusic (Mix).

Link in bio. X

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I’m relieved to finally share this heady reimagining of Footsteps by the beautifully unpredictable and avant-garde Dutch electronic producer, Kratos Himself. His mix is now available everywhere. We give thanks. 🙏

I've followed Jethro's music ever since hearing Nimbus back in 2020, around the same time the first sketches of Footsteps were emerging. I remember thinking his music sounded like a psychedelic virtual Brainfeeder jam in a Moroccan souk; filled with rare spectral artefacts, exotic rhythms and dusty golden ornaments.

I had no idea our paths might one day cross on a shared release. Back then, I marvelled at how he combined unusual textures, strange details and drama… but it’s not until someone pulls your own music apart that you start to understand the extent of their creative process.

When I asked Jethro if he’d remix Footsteps, he disappeared into his own galaxy and came back with something that felt well alien. He had built an entirely new planet from my raw materials.

There’s so much going on in his remix. While tenderly including Matt’s vocals and incorporating warm musical elements from the original, he brought over a hundred layers of his own electronic and orchestral instrumentation.

He opened the track into this vast sonic landscape, where you move through layered textures, rough and delicate counterpoints, and surges of raw emotion, as if you are a bird swooping, ducking and weaving. I find it such an immersive headphone experience.

He introduced visceral panoramic drama that rattles the outer boundaries of the stereo field, alongside tiny batsh** details that probably only I will recognise: the ticky drumloop from Matt’s headphone bleed, the unexpected jarring piano note, a sneaky distant bongo fill, and the abrupt fade at the end.

A huge thank you to @kratosu for bringing his unique perspective to the track. I much prefer other people’s music to my own, so every chance to collaborate like this helps me accept myself a bit more.

That's probably my favourite thing about remixes. Each one can reveal potential that may have been hidden in a song all along; I just needed a different set of hearing aids to recognise it.

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Very happy to share the latest Footsteps remix, courtesy of Berlin-based producer @_nathaniel.s._

I've been a fan of Nathaniel's music ever since hearing his track, Us 3, a few years ago. His productions have this rare ability to feel vast and intimate at the same time, finding beauty in muted tones, unexpected spaces and patient arrangements.

It’s hard not to call some of his music “Garagey” (in a good way), but there’s always a measured, techy depth to it all that goes deeper than that.

His rework of Footsteps is no different. He starts by exposing the @mtt.wst vocal over this sparse warehouse atmosphere, then takes the track on a dreamy, dubby breaks journey that melts any agginess into spine-tingling atmosphere. Swirling @ricelsworth vibraphone loops get folded like asymmetric origami, whilst @samewens horns surge in and out like waves on the shoreline.

For me, it would work as brilliantly on a 2am dancefloor as on a train journey.

The breakdown around 1’22” is one of those moments for shutting your eyes with headphones in and making space for something to reach inside of you and forcibly let you know, ‘Hello. You are now capturing a glimpse at the majesty of whatever beyond the physical realm.’ (It's the music playing behind this post, but it's best heard in context with the full tune.)

With both @_nathaniel.s._ and @tor_music growing up in British Columbia, Canada, I find myself wondering if there’s something provided by those epic landscapes that permeates into the DNA of their music. What natural majesty has been seen and felt, being transmuted in sound. Who knows?

It’s been lush to have Nat involved, luring my mind away to far off climes, and making the streets of Thanet feel temporarily more multidimensional.

Please check out his remix in the bio.

Thank youuuu x Jules

#zolablood #futuregarage #breakbeat

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@sukiwaterhouse tells the story of how she made her song “Back in Love” with her longtime collaborators @findlaymusic and @julesapollinaire. It’s very cool to hear how their collaborative relationship works (with voice memos to illustrate) – how they’re inspired by each other, bounce off each other, argue and debate with each other, all in service of the final song. Special cameo by Otto the dog! Listen now on the Song Exploder podcast feed or at songexploder.net/suki.
· · ·
[ illustration by @thatlerms ]

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V boring post for most of you, feel free to hop over.

@samewens and I have probably written horn arrangements together numbering in the hundreds at this stage - arrangements playing in stadiums around the world and weird personal stuff that will probably never see the light of day.

We rarely discuss an aim, we just send things to each other, and add our own parts to whatever the previous of us recorded in a way that seems cool.

Lately, we seem to have landed on doing stuff in an almost big-band format - Sam records trumpets and trombones, then I throw on a five-piece woodwind section; in this case two tenor saxophones, one alto, one baritone and flute (an instrument I am very non amazing at playing.)

We don’t write anything down, and write the parts ‘to tape’, in a process of trial and error, or just following our noses. I think over the years we’ve put less of a premium on supernatural tightness or tuning, but more what feels good.

In this arrangement, we kind of wanted it to have a little of the spirit of a unison pop thing, à la Jerry Hey or something, but also to have a little ebb-and-flow around the edges of the phrases, never going too far from home, but having a little bit of life and evolution to it.

Fun in any case. If we lived in the same country, we’d be invincible!

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Hi friends.
My new TYTHE single, Footsteps ft. Matt West, is out today.

The track took six years finish.
[Link in bio.]

If you're interested in the creative process behind making the track, take a few minutes to watch this video.

So, going back to when it all started: it's 2020.

The first lockdown hit the UK and I suddenly found I had time and I had the curiosity again to open up Ableton and see what happened.

I started a rough sketch called ‘The Prince’. It was a deliberately naive tune. I was playing around with dopey choir sounds and put in some sort of over-the-top drop.

There was something there. So I sent it to a long-time collaborator, @ricelsworth . I asked him if he'd pull the track apart and add his own slant on it.

So he took the simple loops, and he added his lush vibraphone, his atmospheric pads, and bags of his own wonky character.

The track started to feel promising at this point, but it now needed a voice, so I started to search around for words or a theme.

[Early Lyric Idea: "This has got out of control"]

Not really being a vocalist. I sent over these initial ideas to my friend @mtt.wst, singer of @zola_blood.

He quietly recorded a sleepy vocal that would come to define the yearning identity of the track.

So suddenly. It wasn't just a groove anymore. It had a story emerging.

I dialled in my old pal @samewens, to see if he could add some of his unique, eccentric horns to the track. He absolutely delivered, even dropping in his proprietary “Batsh**” horn technique.

Sam's orchestral sensibilities transformed the track even further out of the box and into something feeling more organic.

But, even then, the mix wasn't quite there. It was lacking some kind of warmth or depth I couldn't put my finger on.

I reached out to @redshankmusic and he helped me find the sound.

Sat in his studio one night mixing the track, he played a simple pad part that filled the space that I felt the track had been missing all along, and finally all the pieces were in place.

So after six years, this is where the track has finally arrived.

The A-side is available now on all streaming services,

So get amongst it!

#zola_blood #bbcintroducing

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Fenway x4 ⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️

Boston you will always be a home away from home, thanks for showing up in such an unfathomable way.

Also a couple shots from two amazing shows in Cinci and Pittsburgh. This fan base cannot be understated, y’all make every show feel like the center of the universe ❤️

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HAWWWNS 🎺🎺🎺 ohhhhh we’re cooking now! @samewens you are a magician. Sneak peak of the song at the end 👀 #explore #newmusic #horns #reaction #singersongwriter

written with my brother @benlythe

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Fantastic day at Radio 4! Good vibrations all round. We did a stripped down version of our new single Come Back To Me. Thank you 📻

Listen again on BBC iPlayer

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Mad honour for @labrinth to ask me to contribute a little bit of production to some of Cosmic Opera Act I
❤️❤️❤️❤️

This guy is so inspiring and generous it blows my head up a little bit. Once in a generation talent to me

I Keep My Promises - composed and produced by Labrinth
Co Prod - @thes1a0 @jameilaossey and me
Horns by my school bud @samewens ❤️
Mix : @rob_kleiner

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Come Back to Me 🛒 link in bio to stream. It’s the third single from our new album Boxing the Compass out on 19 June. 🎥 by @hodahs_art

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