New Music from Sam Fender
On his 31st Birthday (April 25th 2025) Sam Fender made 'Tyrants' available digitally for the first time. The song had previously only been avaialble physically on the ‘Me And The Dog’ vinyl EP, which was released for Record Store Day 2025 earlier in the month. Fender had served as the UK ambassador for Record Store Day 2025.
‘Tyrants’ was also featured on the seven-inch edition of his 2024 single ‘People Watching’, from his third studio album of the same name. As with the full record, the song was co-produced by The War On Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel.
When announcing that the fan-favourite ‘Tyrants’ would be coming to streaming, Fender wrote: “Big love to everyone asking after this one.” He shared the official black-and-white cover artwork for the track too
Compared with some of the other songs on 'People Watching', 'Tyrants' is a much lighter affair. Featuring backing vocals from Brooke Bentham, and some American heartland guitar, this is very War on Drugs, and Tom Petty and it sounds very very good. Lyrically the song is also very strong, with Sam reflecting on “the hardest lessons that I’ve ever had to learn“, saying that he “let my ego almost kill me“.
Fans are for the most part already familiar with the song, it was debuted during the first night of the European tour in Paris, and has featured heavily in his shows in North America. At Sam's show on the second weekend of Coachella, he was joined on stage by The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel where delivered a joint rendition of ‘Tyrants’
The War on Drugs had been supporting Fender at his two huge stadium shows in London and Newcastle, however, in recent days they have since pulled out and been replaced by Olivia Dean, for both shows. Dean was previously set to perform with Fender at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park and at Edinburgh Summer Sessions, but will now also take to the stage for the stadium shows.
Sam's having quite the year so far, and with these shows penciled in this summer. It is set to get even better.
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