coffee with Sam Cullen!
He’s a cappuccino with chocolate guy, in case you were wondering.
You know that feeling when a song hits and suddenly everything feels a little bit brighter, like the world is in sync for three and a half minutes at a time? That’s the feeling that Sam Cullen’s debut self-titled album evokes. It’s a stadium-ready, Kiwi classic in the making — full of life, love and a real sense of community. It’s pure joy, the kind that makes you want to roll the windows down and sing along to every word.
I can confidently say, there’s no one else in Aotearoa making music quite like Sam Cullen right now. He has carved out a real sweet spot — figuring out how to make music for everyone, commercial and alternative, without losing what makes it his own. Sam’s career so far has been remarkable, and he’s just getting started.
I sat down with Sam over a coffee to talk about everything that went into making this album. He’s a cappuccino with chocolate guy, in case you were wondering.
KAITLYN: I wanted to start at the beginning, because I know it has been a long journey for you in music. What are your first memories of music?
SAM: The first two people that played guitar in front of me were a teacher in Year 3 and a babysitter, kind of around the same time. So that was the kicker to start looking at picking up the guitar. I think I was, like, seven? Previous to that… The Wiggles.
KAITLYN: Hell yeah.
SAM: That was it, I reckon. I just loved The Wiggles. So I think between that early on, and then picking a guitar up, when I was seven, and then some other little seminal moments along the way before I started playing gigs in Invercargill when I was fifteen. There’s a few bit spaces leading up to it, but those would be the main ones.
KAITLYN: I love how much of an influence kids’ music has on people. I remember my first concert was The Hooley Dooleys <laughs>
SAM: Fuck yeah!
KAITLYN: I wanted to talk about growing up and making music in small town South Island with you. I know you grew up in Invercargill, I grew up mainly half on a small farm in Duntroon and half in Timaru.
SAM: Fuck yeah. That’s cool!
KAITLYN: In terms of the accessibility of music, when I was growing up I feel like I had a lot more time to discover more music, and listen to more music, because I was sort of surrounded by… well… not much in both places. Growing up in Invercargill, how did you discover music?
SAM: Maybe easier than a lot of people would expect. I ended up seeing music at the pub all the time. Not that I was in the pub, like, on the piss when I was fourteen, but you know, regional New Zealand, you go to the pub with your parents… Mum and Dad were really heavily involved in the rugby club. There are always covers musicians at those places, and I started doing the same circuits that they were doing by the time I was old enough to have a set list. So I was seeing music quite often. Not that it was pop-rock or anything too out there. It was, like, covers, country, pub rock, shit like that.
KAITLYN: How was the gig scene down there?
SAM: Existent, but also... kind of just covers at that time. There’s a musician’s club down there that are real supportive of everyone. But I guess it’s kind of the same as everywhere in New Zealand. You can’t really do heaps of originals gigs in one short period of time at the same place. Because there’s just not enough people. So there were a couple of gigs like that, but yeah, heaps of pub covers, basically.
KAITLYN: How did you find that transition from going from covers to performing your original music and writing your original music? Were you always writing around that time as well, or?
SAM: It took me a few years. I probably started writing when I was fourteen or fifteen. I’d been playing covers for maybe a year leading up to that, so it was kind of a natural progression. Rockquest was a big kicker as well. I was like, okay, I’ve learned other people’s songs for ages. Let’s give it a shot. I was terrible when I started!
KAITLYN: Everyone is, everyone is! I mean, unless you’re really, really lucky with it.
SAM: I just kept doing it. And still playing those covers gigs on the side as well. Yeah, writing was cool.
KAITLYN: Obviously, you’re at the point now where you’re releasing your self-titled debut album. Which, as I’ve said to you before this, I adore. I think it’s very earnest, and... if I’m honest, Sam, it made me weep.
SAM: No way? Straight up?!
KAITLYN: Straight up. ‘Better Than Anything’ especially, really made me weep.
SAM: Oh, sick. I’m so stoked that you dig it!
KAITLYN: That song is a really beautiful account of love. Where were you in your life, writing that song?
SAM: I wrote that six years ago in my first year of uni in my dorm room. And it must have been like... April or something. But I’d met my partner, who I’m still with now. I met her on the first night of uni.
KAITLYN: Oh my god — that’s so cute! <laughs>
SAM: Just fucking ridiculous! <laughs>
KAITLYN: That’s just so gorgeous.
SAM: But it’s like, fuck’s sake! <laughs>
KAITLYN: It’s classic!
SAM: Yeah, that was it. Around that time, it was like, you know, partying heaps, Sunday mornings… the first line, “Falling into Sunday morning”, it was just basically that kind of moment of time of waking up real dusty with the one you love, you know?
KAITLYN: It’s like, good, old-fashioned uni romance!
SAM: Pretty rare, you know. I’m pretty proud of it.
KAITLYN: You should be! That’s incredible to meet on the first day of uni. Does she love the song?
SAM: She does, yeah! I played it to her six years ago. It’s kind of been in the bank for those six years, and she’s probably, like, ‘finally, it’s coming out.’ <laughs>
KAITLYN: Oh Sam, that is literally so beautiful. I won’t weep again, but wow!
SAM: <laughs> Thank you!
(Sam Cullen / Photo: Kaitlyn Ratcliff)
KAITLYN: What did you bring with you in making this album? You produced it as well… how does it all come together?
SAM: I’m pretty good at giving myself time to do it. I’ll very rarely feel an instant, like, ‘oh, shit, I need to, like, get a guitar immediately’. I kind of more just stumble across it if I give myself enough time to enter that state, I suppose. With the whole album it’s less of a let’s sit down and write an album, but more of six years of songs, you know? All of which have come from that kind of ability to just sit down and give myself time to do it. The production side of it — because of the songs are quite old, there’s been a lot of iterations of every song, you know? I just have had to know when to call it and say a song is done.
KAITLYN: Sometimes you’ve got to just lock it in and go, whatever happens, happens.
SAM: Yeah, yeah! I guess maybe it’s a strange approach to putting an album together, but I think it’s a good first one, you know?
KAITLYN: It’s a great first one! Performing live, which you’re obviously quite accustomed to now, not just with local shows growing up, but with touring the country, you performed at Rhythm & Vines every night last year… how does that feed into the final product? Did you change it as you went along performing these songs?
SAM: The answer is yes. And the reason for it is that I play with a band now. So I’ve kind of got them to rely on a little bit too. My bass player wrote a few basslines for the album and my drummer plays on the record. So, it’s quite collaborative. I love bands that play gigs where they might play like three songs at the start before they say anything. They [the songs] all kind of bleed together and shit like that. Yeah. So, I’m kind of thinking a little bit like that, maybe, like, extending sections of... outros or intros, if it needs to make sense, you know?
KAITLYN: You do have an incredible band of key players… who makes up this superstar band?
SAM: Bass player, vocalist, collaborator, Nepia Ruwhiu — also fellow Southlander!
KAITLYN: Shout out!
SAM: Me and Nepia grew up together pretty much, so it’s awesome to have him up here! Jessie Booth, she’s our guitar player. One of the busiest musicians in the country, and I was so excited when she said she was keen because she’s definitely got way better things to do. Jamie Hannah on drums, one of the coolest heads I’ve ever met in my life. That’s the team!
KAITLYN: That’s the team!
SAM: The core crew!
KAITLYN: How has it been building this world with them?
SAM: Good, because they’re all so supportive. They’re just keen to be involved. It’s been nice because my friends growing up weren’t really musicians. I love them, but no one was like playing instruments or whatever, so now to have this up here is quite nice!
KAITLYN: ‘The Clubrooms’ is an incredible retelling of playing those gigs you mentioned earlier in a small town. The Clubrooms — how do they back you now in your music? I know in Timaru, there isn’t really a big music scene there, so it’s a bit harder to get public support, but I feel like in the clubrooms, those communities are be incredibly supportive.
SAM: Yeah. I’ve been I have been pretty lucky in that regard, because I can still go home and play in Invercargill and get some pretty solid support. That’s kind of why I fly home when I do. The support from home has always been great. The rugby sort of community in itself has been always really good, as well, ‘cause Dad was president of my rugby club growing up, and Mum was part of another rugby club, when she was growing up.
KAITLYN: That’s so lovely!
SAM: Not to sound like rugby, rugby, rugby mad, but yeah, it’s been cool! It’s probably inspired me quite a bit with the record.
KAITLYN: It’s a really beautiful ode to that community. It’s a very joyous track about nights in the Clubroom, which can get so crazy…
SAM: Pretty messy, man. Not that it was, like, real out of hand, but I remember one of the first times playing in this rugby club down at home... And it was after the team had won the shield or whatever it was. And it was like, packed. We had to set up probably, like, three metres of tables around me so that no one would ruin all the gear and stuff. <laughs>
KAITLYN: To a degree, this album… it’s very Springsteen coded.
SAM: The Boss!
KAITLYN: I love the boss, and ‘Easy Like That’ feels like something that Bruce Springsteen would sing on Triple J Like A Version… Tell me more about your relationship with Bruce Springsteen’s music and I guess more so as well, about the artists that have influenced this album.
SAM: I didn’t discover The Boss until my first year of uni. Do you know, actually, who it was? Rory [Rory Johns: my coworker, who also happens to be a friend of Sam’s]. I was playing gigs and writing songs and people would always say, like, ‘Oh, you’ve got a bit of Bruce in you’. And I’d always be, like, thanks, but... the only thing that I knew about him was ‘Born In The USA’. Like a lot of other people who didn’t really dig deep enough I just thought it was patriotic rock and roll. And then Rory came into my dorm room at uni, must have been around the same time, April of first year, with Bruce’s autobiography. Rory was like, ‘you need to read this because like, I reckon you’d absolutely fuck with it’. I read that whole book without even really listening to any of his catalogue, and I was like, ‘oh, fuck, okay. I get it’. The Boss is a big inspiration, but also, my first kind of exposure to song writing was Sir Dave Dobbyn as well. So those two are kind of the main ones.
I can’t help but marvel at what Sam has created. Every track on this album feels alive — pulsing with driving rhythms, fearless energy, and a kind of craftsmanship that’s both deliberate and electric. It’s bold in all the right ways, polished without ever losing its edge. There’s a confidence to it that pulls you in and keeps you moving, even after the last note fades. In short, it’s a record built for turning up loud, letting go, and feeling utterly, wonderfully alive.
KAITLYN: When you look back on all of these tracks on the album, are you proud?
SAM: Yeah, I am. I’m proud of the ones that have been around for ages that I’ve kind of like stuck with and I put out eventually, you know? Two of the tracks that tie everything together, ‘That Somebody’s You’ and ‘The Clubrooms’ came within like a week of each other, a year ago. So, we kind of had an album there, but if it wasn’t for that week, it probably wouldn’t have like been the catalyst to put it out there. But they’re all very real. I’m really proud of it.
(Sam Cullen / Photo: Kaitlyn Ratcliff)
Thanks for taking the time to grab a coffee with me Sam — I am so excited to follow along with your journey.
SAM CULLEN, the self-titled debut album from the man, the myth, the legend Sam Cullen is out now wherever you find good music. Catch Sam Cullen & His Band live across the country in Arrowtown, Invercargill, Auckland, Mount Maunganui, Gisborne and Christchurch this summer.