Sebastian Schub Shares New Single, “I Can’t Believe We Never Went Out Dancing”
German born, London based artist Sebastian Schub shares his second track, “I Can’t Believe We Never Went Out Dancing.” It’s released via Island EMI Label Group / Capitol Records.
Following the recent introduction to the music of Sebastian Schub courtesy of the drama-filled, gospel-adjacent first single, “Sing Like Madonna,” he follows up today with the elegiac poetry of “I Can’t Believe We Never Went Out Dancing.”
Sebastian’s new track (produced in collaboration with Steve Fitzmaurice) is a beautifully theatric ode to hindsight, with his rich baritone vocal doing much of the heavy lifting. Threadbare but for stark voice and minimal musical backing, it’s a song showcases the range of Schub’s vocal, and his deftness of touch around a melody. It’s modern-day blues and soul from a new artist already pulling big, impressive numbers online.
Sebastian on the new track: “‘I Can’t Believe We Never Went Out Dancing’ is a wistful look at a relationship past. A song on regret and not making the most of something that deserved more.”
“The song was initially born from a little poem I wrote in the middle of the night not being able to sleep. It’s a rare example of me pretty much writing all the lyrics before I had any music.”
“For a long time it was nothing but an elegiac little rumble on the piano – something I kept coming back to but found myself unable to finish the song. It finally clicked on a trip to Berlin last spring. And the rumble turned into quite the ballad.”
“There were a few different production approaches along the lines of songs like Harry Nilsson‘s ‘Without You’ – but in the end I settled for just sitting down at a piano in Soho at Dean Street Studios and performing the song live back to front. Nothing else. The same way I would at any show.”
Sebastian Schub (pronounced Shoob), has long been putting in the hard yards. Raised by his mother in Hamburg before moving across to London in his mid-teens, Sebastian grew up being encouraged to commit fully to whatever creative endeavour he felt most passionately about.
With music becoming the only true outcome here, Sebastian was busy learning to play some favourite songs, and spent long days, weeks, months moving from pitch to pitch busking those songs in both London and over in Dublin too, deciphering which ones worked where and to who. With the streets as his stage, Sebastian discovered Spiritual Bar, a notorious open-mic institution in Camden that had previously offered early spots to the likes of Michael Kiwanuka and Jade Bird. Honing his craft in front of the often brutally honest crowd who responded to performers by way of constant chatter or respectful silence, Sebastian set himself the goal of silencing that crowd solely with guitar and voice, again noting quickly which worked and which didn’t. A decidedly old-school approach in a fast-moving, digital age.
With a close-knit circle of friends consisting almost solely of actors and creatives that he’d met years previous, Sebastian has long since learned the importance of paying attention to the detail, whether that be up on stage with a guitar, or acting on a film-set. Nuance can wildly affect an audience’s perception, but it’s almost squarely about hard graft, passion, determination, and innate natural ability.
Photo Credit: Emilia Staugaard