Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
EXPAT Scottish chart-topper Sandi Thom, who melted the hearts of music lovers around the globe with her I Wish I was a Punk Rocker single in 2006, is making headlines again with a new version of the coveted classic as she weighs in on current world events.
While the original was based on Sandi’s musical journey and the digital revolution, the Punk Rocker Reborn track has been rewritten to share the challenges of today, touching on hot topics such as American President Donald Trump’s actions, the UK’s plans to sever links with the European Union, a lack of equal rights and other poignant issues.
“At the minute, there is a lot going on in the world that should be spoken about. I just figured it was time,” said the multi-platinum selling singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who lives in Saar.
“Music is a great way for people to have a voice. There aren’t many old-school-style protest songs, perhaps in rap, but not as there was in the 1960s and 1970s.
“This song talks about everything that has been going on in the US with the recent government shutdown and Brexit is also a massive talking point. Plus, so many amazing people have sadly passed away in recent times – great musicians such as George Michael, Prince and David Bowie.
“There were so many poignant subjects.
“I Wish I was a Punk Rocker still is relevant and its one of those songs that you could just continue rewriting and it will keep making sense.”
Since posting the lyrics on YouTube on January 10, Sandi has notched 1,512 views, 109 likes, 10 dislikes and 11 comments with everyone praising the campaigning animal advocate for her boldness and for speaking her mind.
She has also received rave reviews on her Instagram account @sandi_thom with people applauding the song’s upgrade.
“Most people think something but never say it whereas I say it and I don’t mind taking the backlash!” she explained. “People always get upset by anything that rocks the boat. There are quite a lot of people out there that support President Trump and they have already started coming at me saying how amazing he is and so on. However, loads of people really like the message.
“I don’t mind causing controversy. At the end of the day, you are never going to please everybody and why not say what people want to say. Also, I’m just doing what everybody does these days as well – sequels!”
The song topped the UK Singles Chart in June 2006, the year it debuted. It went on to became the biggest-selling single in Australia, where it spent 10 weeks at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart.
“After I rewrote it and I saw the reaction from people, I thought, OK, maybe I need to write something completely different too,” she said. “I think I might call it Orange is the New Black and it will be about Trump. That is probably going to be highly controversial.”
The star was once unreasonably chastised in her home Scottish press for performing in the kingdom by the ill-informed anti-Bahrain brigade. She had taken to her social networking page to let fans know how much she enjoyed a visit to JJ’s and its multi-national audience, and promised to return.
It’s not been easy going for the performer in a notoriously fickle industry. She once posted, then deleted, a video in which she tearfully explained that a single she had recorded had been passed over for inclusion on major radio and network playlists. “I am done with this industry,” she said at the time. “I can apparently do no right.”
Now she’s about to prove the doubters wrong.
The updated I Wish I was a Punk Rocker track is one of many moving, foot-stomping songs featured in Sandi’s newly-released album Ghosts. She started on the album years ago whilst in Los Angeles and after having her son in March 2016, decided to take a step back from the music scene to focus on raising her two-year-old son, Logan.
“I played a jazz club in London and at the time I was heavily pregnant,” she said. “Then I was a stay at home mum for a long time.
“We’ve been living in Bahrain for two years as of this month. When we first arrived, Logan was one-ish. Now that he’s a little bit older, I decided I was going to start playing live shows.”
She has performed a couple of gigs to raise funds for Tony the Dogfather’s animal sanctuary in Saar, and one performance at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club received a glowing review in GulfWeekly.
Once a month, Sandi has been rendezvousing at The Domain Bahrain Hotel playing in its jazz lounge. Now she performs every Sunday at Calexico in The Sunday Sessions from 9pm until midnight alongside its house band.
“We conduct different sets and I even have special guests that will come in,” said Sandi. “Then once a month, we are also going to do this thing where we invite people who want to showcase their music. I kind of like host the evening which is a bit different for me because I have never done anything like that before.
“I don’t necessarily have that profile here but now I am focused back on my career and I am so excited to once again perform on a weekly basis. What better way to re-launch myself than by performing on a local stage playing the songs that I grew up with and that had such a huge influence on me. It is a perfect fit for me and my son at this time in our lives and I am so looking forward to introducing myself and my sound to a Bahraini audience.”
Sandi completed her album in Bahrain at Mellow Studios in Zinj making it her sixth after Smile... It Confuses People in 2006, The Pink & the Lily in 2008, Merchants and Thieves in 2010, Flesh and Blood in 2012 and The Covers Collection in 2013.
Her new album can be found on music streaming sites including iTunes, Spotify, qobuz and Deezer as well as on Amazon.
“Ghosts is very indicative of the last album I made,” Sandi said. “I played a lot of it myself and a lot of the production was mine as well. There are some very dark, bluesy stuff on there as well as some upbeat energetic songs. It’s a mixed bag really. I always like to try and make it so that you want to listen to the album from start to finish rather than ‘oh, I want to listen to song number seven’, for example, all the time.
“The Feeling is a one chord number and it’s a bit worldly. It is about somebody having control over you and manipulating you. I wrote World War One in 2014 but I hadn’t released it in a long time, inspired by some war poems.
“Earthquake is about somebody ending your world as you know it and Look Up is about how much we are engrossed in our phones and how you could potentially miss the love of your life while walking on the street because you have your head buried in your smart phone.
“Logan’s Song is about my son basically going through life from being a child to a teenager and to becoming a grown man and that I will always have his back. It’s a really cute song.”
The album has been aptly named Ghosts. “Everybody writes about things that happens to them in life or things they have seen,” she explained. “Some of this stuff is from my past life, experiences, heartbreak … whatever. It’s all stuff that is very much in the past. I don’t sit up and cry about it anymore. It’s called Ghosts because it’s gone.
“I’m definitely happy that I’m back performing and what I most want to do now is to do something here that is relevant musically. I live in this country, love it and I want to involve the culture musically. Hopefully, I will take that out to the world stages and festivals.”
Sandi is currently working on something she has dubbed the Island Project which is mixing modern blues and traditional Arabic music.
“It will be really cool and there are a lot of great musicians here,” she said. “I’m gathering with the right people. I want to record it live in a theatre, with a lot of people on stage, a live audience and, hopefully, I’ll get it film it as well.
“I want to use a lot of Bahraini musicians and hopefully get some support from the ministry.
I think that will be really cool and I’d like to take that maybe throughout the MENA region – to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and even to Saudi Arabia.”
Sandi, who has four rescue dogs herself, has also been working closely with the Bahrain Rescue Society as well as Tony the Dogfather’s shelter. She is currently fostering two dogs and works on helping get dogs with special needs adopted to families locally and abroad.
She will once again be staging a concert at the rugby club on March 1 to raise funds for Tony the Dogfather shelter, supported by local musicians.
To find out more about Sandi, contact (UK) Carrie Hustler – carrie@m-music-m.com / +44(0)7789 273 432 or Matty B by emailing mattybmodels@gmail.com.
