Los Angeles bass extraordinaire and songwriting ace Sam Wilkes has returned with a new single entitled “Driving,” the first track to be released from his forthcoming album of the same name. The lead single is built around lush, fingerpicked guitar, and Wilkes’ vocal palette lands somewhere between Sparklehorse and Sam Amidon.
Made alongside collaborators like Louis Cole, Craig Weinrib, Dylan Day, Thom Gill, Chris Fishman, and Daryl Johns, Driving is simultaneously a collaborative effort as well as the most singular project Wilkes has produced. The album is a roiling, confessional revue, brimming with nostalgia, pastoralism, gentleness of thought, and intensity of spirit.
Regarding the single, Wilkes explains, “I wrote this song in one sitting, chords, melody, and lyrics; all at once. I had been walking around one summer, mostly on the East Coast, listening to and thinking about story songs. The night I got back to LA, I picked up the guitar and an old memory that always made me wince came bursting out. Writing the song and distilling what I had learned—which can essentially be boiled down to the importance of focusing on process and not outcomes—was very liberating.
Check out the single below and pre-order Driving here.
