Sam McCarthy

Sam McCarthy (born 1988) is a New Zealand songwriter, pop vocalist and member (with Jordan Arts) of the duo Kids of 88. He is also a member of Goodnight Nurse.

Early life

McCarthy was brought up in Auckland in the suburb of Weymouth. He was educated at Weymouth Primary School and St Peter's College. McCarthy and Arts met at St Peter's and quickly realised that they were on the same wavelength. They were in the same English class. McCarthy has said: "As an icebreaking exercise we were told to bring in our favourite song. Everyone brought in Limp Bizkit, but the thing that linked Jordan and myself is that we were wanky enough to bring in Jimi Hendrix songs. We were both trying to be as cool as possible so we rummaged through our parents' CD collection as opposed to our own".[1] With Jordan Arts, David Wong, Graham Scherer and Michael Pomare, McCarthy was a member of "Incursa", a St Peter's College band which won the Smokefreerockquest in 2004.[2]

Career

Members from Incursa including McCarthy went on to form punk icons False Start and Goodnight Nurse, which McCarthy still belongs to as a guitarist. Arts and McCarthy then formed Kids of 88.[3] In releasing the first Kids of 88 album, Sugarpills, McCarthy said that the duo tried to produce a variety of material rather than just the familiarly slutty "My House" and "Just A Little Bit" (released earlier as singles).[3] Their style is broadly a fusion of electro-pop and 1980's style dance music. They describe it as "a cross between a late 80's police drama intro theme and a sophisticated super hussy".[1] A reviewer has said "while reminiscent of early 80s synthpop, they aren't a direct copy of their antecedents. There's also a touch of 2010 punk swagger and adrenaline, where dance can't ignore what's been achieved in R&B and hip-hop".[4] McCarthy and Arts produced the album themselves and worked with a simple technical set-up out of a bedroom.[5] At the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards, Kids of 88 won "Single of the Year" and (with Tim Van Dammen) "Music Video of the Year" for their single Just a Little Bit.[6]

In 2013, McCarthy wrote and recorded "Don't Let Me Go" with Harry Styles, from One Direction.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vicki Anderson, "Kids of 88", The Press, 13 August 2010, p. 14.
  2. ↑ Smokefreerockquest past winners
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tom Fitzsimons, "The kids are alright", Dominion Post, 12 Aug 2010, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Tom Cardy, "Album of the Week", Dominion Post, 26 August 2010, Edtn 2, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Jule Scherer, "Keeping it real", The Southland Times, 21 August 2010, p. 1.
  6. ↑ "Gin and Stan win big at NZ Music Awards". One News. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2011.