LA-based musician Sam MacPherson has a lyrical honesty that encompasses his songs, and now the New Jersey native is hoping that his candid and engrossing songwriting will connect with both listeners of his new EP Powerlines and the audiences attending his headline North American tour. 

On April 14, singer, songwriter, and music Sam MacPherson released the emotional EP Powerlines after signing with Elektra Records. The EP’s 8 tracks of vulnerability and real-life experiences weren’t difficult for MacPherson to be honest about, but how to convey those feelings to listeners was the real challenge. 

“I don’t really have a problem, at least now, [with] being vulnerable. It’s usually the starting place a lot of times when I’m writing,” MacPherson explains. “Whether I think they’re vulnerable or not is one thing, and whether or not they feel vulnerable is another.” An emotional relatability to the music is not only a powerful tool for his songwriting, but for fans as well. “I think one of the most wonderful gifts you can give someone is letting them know that they’re not alone in how they feel.”

Vulnerability is on full display throughout Powerlines. The single “Stretch” expresses the surprise of being blindsided by feelings of love that he previously didn’t think were possible. Capturing feeling and emotion is of the utmost importance to MacPherson. Even though drawing from real scenarios may seem like a self-assured process, he can also be his own worst critic as tries to capture a “fleeting creative moment.”

“A lot of the time I kind of just assume that something sucks, and then if I really can’t get it out of my head or if I’m really just coming back to it, then I know that there’s something there,” he says. “My process now is just doing anything I can to nurture that kind of creative environment when it happens.”

His experiences with people and places both past and present ultimately became the inspiration for Powerlines. “It really came from all of the songs feeling like they had some type of congruent connective tissue in them and feeling like they were all connected somehow,” he says.

”The idea of Powerlines is just still feeling connected to all those things, whether I want to be connected to them or not, whether some days I feel connected to them or not. It’s about just intrinsically having some type of tether to these moments, and these people, and these places and these little vignettes of my life.” The songs on Powerlines are still resonating with him, and he’s hoping they connect just as much with listeners. 

“I’ve been given that gift a lot in terms of people listening to my music and reaching out, letting me know that something in the music resonated with them, and that’s always going to be really really special. And I think hopefully a lot of the songs accomplish that for the people that listen to them.”