Sam McCarthy (formerly of Goodnight Nurse and Kids Of 88) relocated from Auckland to Los Angeles in 2013, where he makes pop music as Boyboy. The decision to go solo came with a lot of introspection.
Sam McCarthy AKA Boyboy Photo: supplied
“I had a project going that was collaborative, and I found it really hard. I think I had some past baggage from creative relationships that was making its way into the way I was working with new people.”
Sam McCarthy is explaining his decision to go it alone as Boyboy, after his past successes in bands.
“I was also doing co-writing for pop song-writing sessions and the same bad habits were coming up.
“So the solo project actually came out of the decision to go away, re-think how I was approaching myself and other people, and from that revaluation came the musical project”.
“It’s interesting to have music come out of an emotional, mental health-type decision, but I think that’s what I like about it – it’s essentially me getting therapy”.
That idea becomes quite literal in the song Boy, which finds Sam singing to himself as a younger man.
“It’s like trying to give yourself a hug, and let yourself know ‘it’s not as bad as you think it is. You’re doing your best and that’s what matters.
“That sentiment echoes through a lot of the songs.”
This dedication to self-care found Sam giving up alcohol, drugs and “a LOT of stuff”, so the song ‘Vices’ is much more innocent that it may first appear.
“When I was writing it I was really into figs.
“I used to walk around Los Angeles and find all the houses that had fig trees that were overgrowing onto the pavement so I wouldn’t feel wrong picking their figs.
“Those figs tasted just like candy.
“And I’d maybe get a [candy bar] so I’d have that and a fig waiting for me at home.
“So of all the things I was able to renounce, I still couldn’t give up sugar. So that’s what Vices is about”.
Boyboy was largely co-written with Chelsea Jade, another member of a growing musical contingent in L.A. (producer Leroy Clampitt and Space Above’s Aaron Short also orbit this collective).
Sam also works consistently as a producer/ songwriter on other people’s projects, although the mentality of that, he explains, is “complicated”.
“If I think of [that] as ‘professional’, it can kind of dim down my solo project. And so, what I’ve had to do recently is consider Boyboy my profession, and I then do production and songwriting on the side.
“Whether my bank account reflects that is another story.”
Sam tempers that by pointing out that if he contributes to a film score or someone else’s music, it could be quite a wait before he sees any financial return.
“I’ve been much more financially stable from my solo project than I have from other people.
“It’s encouraging to realise if I dedicate myself to my own thing and not be afraid, that I can survive.”
