AUTISM AND THE ARTIST
"In recent years, I’ve strongly believed that the best thing one can contribute as an artist is oneself. In the making of my record, I’ve taken great care to make sure that these songs are my own in their very character and composition; I am proud to say that this record is as honest as it could be."
Throughout the creation of this record and the beginning of my relationship, I began to experience severe and frequent panic attacks. In a search for answers around this and the other kinks to my nature, I discovered that I am autistic, and have now been medically diagnosed . In hindsight, the record was a very crucial piece in that journey and there are several nods to this theme throughout the album.
'Birthday Suit' is a dysfunctional self-portrait of my life at a time when I was falling deeply in love. Having previously gathered that I am not easy to love, I began to write these songs as a way of warning this person about my nature and a way of being realistic about my ability to love and support another human being at that time.
The more I wrote, the more I found power in my mistakes and the more I committed to making the record as honest as possible. I loved the idea of writing an album that rejected the odd ritual we adopt of disguising our flaws and malice when we’re trying to find a soul mate, and that instead found power in honesty and candour.
As a final touch, I decided to stitch the album together with small instrumental interludes that I’ve recorded at various places and times on loop pedals and laptops over the course of making the album. I’ve made abstract guitar music with my loop pedal as a meditational exercise for 15 years now, and I’m very glad that I was able to include some of these moments on the album alongside the songs as they are equally important to who I am.
Samuel Nicholson’s ‘Birthday Suit’ is out now on vinyl and streaming. Nicholson will be touring across the UK this Autumn.
