Ep. 68: Sam Nelson Harris (X Ambassadors)

And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan

And The Writer Is

Unknown, Music Interviews, Songwriting, Music, Songwriters, Education, Interviews, Music Creation, Artists

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2019

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week our guest is a songwriter and the lead singer of the band, X Ambassadors. X Ambassadors’ debut platinum-selling album ‘VHS’ saw the band transition from Ithaca alt-rockers and Brooklyn indie scene outsiders, to Billboard stalwarts. The album was an intimate insight into our guest and his brothers’ youth, studded with audio snippets from home movies, and early recording sessions and sound checks. With it, came the genre-defining, multi-platinum hits “Unsteady” and “Renegades,” a three-year global touring odyssey and a string of high-profile festival performances. His songwriting became increasingly personal resulting in the shattering, shimmering 2018 singles “JOYFUL” and “Don’t Stay” followed by a North American headline tour. With X Ambassadors our guest has co-written and featured on songs such as “Home” from the Bright Soundtrack with Machine Gun Kelly and Bebe Rexha, “Transmission” with Zedd and Logic, and the 3x multi-platinum song, “Sucker for Pain” from the Suicide Squad Soundtrack with Imagine Dragons, Lil Wayne, Logic, Ty Dolla $ign & Wiz Khalifa. He has also co-written songs for other artists and projects including, “American Oxygen” by Rihanna, “Bad Husband” by Eminem, “Jerome,” “Cuz I Love You,” and “Heaven Help Me” by Lizzo. Additionally, he co-wrote 8 songs on the 2019 album, ‘For The Throne (Music Inspired by the HBO Series Game of Thrones)’ which featured artists such as Maren Morris, X Ambassadors, SZA, The Weeknd and Travis Scott. Always looking to give back to the community that raised them, X Ambassadors returned to Ithaca for the second annual Cayuga Sound Festival this past September creating and curating two days of musical performances and raising money for local charities. In 2019 X Ambassadors released “BOOM,” a quick-fire anthem for emphatic recovery and personal revolutions from their new album, ‘ORION’. This episode features two parts; an intimate discussion with Ross and the other a live audience interview held at the Deutsch agency in Los Angeles. And The Writer Is… Sam Nelson Harris!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	May I have your attention please you can now book your train tickets on Uber and get
0:08.0	10% back in credits to spend on your next Uber ride so you don't have to walk home in the brain again.
0:16.5	Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. Welcome to Season 5 of And the Writer is with your host Ross Golan.
0:38.8	Before I give my spiel, I want to acknowledge the Music army that listens to this podcast every week.
0:45.0	Since starting this, the And the Writer Is community has literally changed the
0:50.0	history of the music business by helping pass the Music Modernization Act, gotten songwriters
0:55.8	added to album of the year for the grammys, and still is advocating for positive changes
1:01.7	for our industry on a daily basis. So thank you and
1:05.5	Congrats. Now as you know I've written with hundreds of artists and writers over the
1:11.6	years and my favorite part of each session is the first
1:14.0	hour when we catch up about life the industry politics composition whatever.
1:19.4	So this is a journey of learning why people write songs, how people write songs, and most importantly, who the people are who write the songs.
1:27.0	I'm producing this with the Great Joe London, Big Deal Music Publishing, and Mega House Music Management. If you want to listen to the songs we
1:35.8	discuss in this podcast follow us on our socials find out about special live
1:40.0	events or buy that merch aka that hat I always wear go to our website
1:45.8	www dot and the writer is dot com today's podcast is brought to you by our friends at Banzougal.
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	...

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