Sheffield’s Samuel Virgo has continued to captivate audiences with his lyrics, storytelling, and mellow tone at various live shows since moving to London, including Birmingham’s Made Festival, The Alternative Escape Festival 2024, Camden Assembly, Notting Hill Arts Club, Next Door Records, The Finsbury, Off The Cuff, BARE (Norway, Kristiansand), to name a few. With only a handful of releases under his belt, Virgo is slowly carving out a lane where his lofty visions are free to branch off into colorful and wondrous directions, leaving listeners mesmerized by his undeniable prowess and singular sound.
Post-punk has always been a genre that happily welcomes new interpretations, and the genre is opening the doors wide open for Virgo. On “Seventeen,” the artist introduces his sleek yet gravely vocals as they levitate above soaring guitars that give the hard-hitting drums an atmospheric undertone. There is a spoken word aesthetic to “Seventeen” that allows Virgo’s storytelling to pull the listener into his imaginative imagery and raw emotions. Throughout the performance, the artist details the fear that comes with growing, even when that growth is necessary. Virgo accomplishes this immersive narrative by bluntly toying with the concept of escapism and delivering his findings with monotone charisma, bursting with subdued personality. Virgo is slowly becoming an undeniable presence in a burgeoning post-punk scene, and “Seventeen” captures a young artist finding his creative footing.
“With ‘Seventeen’ I wanted to capture the energy of my teenage youth, even the time that I spent in lockdown, I was listening to a lot of indie rock and post-punk, so I really wanted to recapture that while I was writing this,” explains Virgo when asked about his new single. “I was listening to Hills End (DMA’s), The 1975 & Skinty Fia (Fontaines D.C.). It’s definitely a coming-of-age track, and I wanted it lyrically to represent that.”
