Meet SG Lewis, The "Weird Kid" Who Ended Up Signed Alongside Disclosure & Jessie Ware

The next Brand New For 2016 nominee we're throwing the spotlight on gives us the shivers...in a good way...

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 09:44

Creating club music for the more chilled-out dance heads out there, SG Lewis - real name Sam Lewis - is another producer to get excited about for 2016.

Just one listen of 'Shivers' Ft. JP Cooper takes us to our happy place and to return the favour, we made him one of our Brand New For 2016 nominees. Wanna know more? Read on...

"I was that weird kid that spent too long in his room playing guitar instead of going out and doing stuff," he admitted, "but as I got older and was able to start DJ-ing in clubs, house music and electronic music in general became more of an influence I think.

"A lot of the stuff I make is influenced by club music but it's brought down in tempo by the influence of singer/songwriter genres and stuff like so it ends up being slightly slowed down and not designed just for DJ sets."

The magical moment when he was signed by PMR Records was a 'dream' he said: "It's been about a year since I signed to PMR so at the time I was just a student in Liverpool.

"It's been amazing. Before I signed to PMR, they were definitely one of my favourite labels anyway. They had the likes of Disclosure, Jessie Ware, Julio Bashmore who are all acts that, even today, are massive influences on what I do, so just to get the opportunity to work with the same team to be able to interact with them and even work with some of them, it's been like, just a dream really."

View the lyrics

I've been watching the man at the bar
With his head in his hands
And I think to myself
I was just like you
I can see there were times in your life
When it's way too much for you
The battles you had or the armor you chose

When I first fell in love in the morning
I tried to remember to say
A quiet thank you
And if our eyes were the weight in my heart
Then I could play myself
A sweet little song

And I feel those cool rivers
Washing all over me
And I know these smooth rhythms
Make me move my feet
Oh you give me those soul shivers
Taking me back to the days
When music was a life giver
Make a bad man change ways

Cool rivers, soul shiver
I can feel those smooth rhythms
Make a bad man change
A bad man change his way

I've seen men who sleep
On the side of the road
With a smile upon their face
I heard old men sing with youth in their voice
When their old time record plays
I seen young boys learning their first steps
To the sound of those drum breaks
And I heard the sound that accompanied
So many fresh mistakes

And I feel those cool rivers
Washing all over me
And I know these smooth rhythms
Make me move my feet
Oh you give me those soul shivers
Taking me back to the days
When music was a life giver
Make a bad man change ways

Cool rivers, soul shiver
I can feel those smooth rhythms
Make a bad man change
A bad man change his way

Writer(s): Sam Lewis, John Paul Cooper Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

The experiences didn't stop there. "2015's been crazy," Sam added, "I got to meet Pharrell and I completely lost my cool like, 'Oh my god you're Pharrell!'

"Him and a guy called Scott Venner have a show on Beats1 that's called OTHERtone and they were just playing my music on there so that's how I ended up getting to meet him. He just said some really nice things about the music so I was really choked and like, 'Oh, hi, I love you!'"

As for the next 12 months Lewis revealed: "In 2016 I'm gonna be releasing my full length album which will be in the summer. It's just really exciting to be able to put together a piece of work that represents everything I do and perhaps show different sides that people wouldn't expect me to come out with."

To vote for SG Lewis, tweet "#MTVBrandNew SG Lewis", post a pic on Instagram with #MTVBrandNew SG Lewis" in the description or comment the same on this Facebook post here.

By Michael Pell

MTV Brand New For 2016 is presented by Emporio Armani Diamonds.

11 Things You Need To Know About SG Lewis

1. He's 21 years old.

1 of 11
2. He's an electronic music producer.

2 of 11
3. He is performing at this year's Coachella festival.

3 of 11
4. His track 'Warm' featured on the TV show, 'Ballers'.

4 of 11
5. He recently signed a publishing deal with Calvin Harris' FlyEye Publishing (SonyATUK).

5 of 11
6. His Snapchat username is samlewis1994.

6 of 11
7. He remixed 'Magnets', Diclosure's collaboration with Lorde, & she was quite the fan.

7 of 11
8. A self-proclaimed 'weird kid' at school, he used to spend time in his room playing guitar.

8 of 11
9. When he was old enough, he started DJ-ing in clubs.

9 of 11
10. DJs such as Annie Mac, Pete Tong, DJ Target, Mistajam and Toddla T are already big fans of SG Lewis.

10 of 11
11. He's also one of our Brand New For 2016 nominees.

11 of 11