Sam Vance-Law

Born in Edmonton, Canada, Vance-Law moved, at the age of five, to Oxford, England, where he soon joined the renowned New College Choir, juggling five services a week with violin lessons, having first begun playing the viola when he was four. “It’s hard to separate interest from inescapability,” he smiles, “but I learned there a love of music that, though it’s changed, hasn’t left me yet.” After three years at one of the UK’s most distinguished boarding schools – “I honestly think any school would have been difficult for me at that age,” he says – the family returned to Canada when he was 16. It was here that, especially once he’d begun studying English Literature at university, he began, slowly, to broaden his horizons. When he was 23, he returned to Europe, and – having first settled in Paris – visited Berlin, a decision that would prove momentous. “Within 24 hours, I’d decided to move here,” he explains. “The city afforded me the space to figure out what the hell I wanted to do next.” He completed the arrangements, before scraping together the Euros to record the first three songs, then unhurriedly repeating the process until the album was done. “The record was really supposed to be for me,” he notes. “I really hadn’t intended this to be anything bigger than my own very enjoyable pet project. Then people started telling me they liked it.” Amongst them, conveniently, was producer Konstantin Gropper aka Get Well Soon, who ended up helping to co-produce the album.