Sam Tompkins has announced his second studio album Are We Gonna Sing?, due 4th September via Island Records, alongside new single ‘Crawling Out My Skin’.
The Eastbourne-born singer-songwriter built his following from the streets of Brighton, going on to accumulate over 300 million streams across projects including the UK Top 10 release Who Do You Pray To (2022) and his 2024 debut album Hi, My Name Is Insecure. Previous milestones include performing alongside Justin Bieber, Platinum certification in the US and a global viral hit in ‘To The Moon’ with Jnr Choi.
Are We Gonna Sing? is his most personal record to date. The title comes from a home video captured on the closing track ‘Live Where I Don’t Lose You’, in which Tompkins’ father asks “are we gonna sing?” The album is his first full-length composed since his father’s death in late 2023. “This project is a snapshot of the period when I was working through the emotional aftermath,” Tompkins has said.
The twelve-track album was shaped in partnership with producer Humble The Great alongside Manta, HARGS and Mac Jamieson, drawing on a live instrumentation and jam-led approach that gives the record a looser, more immediate feel than its predecessor. “It felt like I was making music in a different way,” Tompkins has said. “During that process I realised I wanted the entire project to feel alive and honest.”
‘Crawling Out My Skin’ was the last song written at an intense Norfolk writing camp, recorded spontaneously on a laptop in a garden. “Everything was super rough, and the vocals were actually all recorded outside too,” Tompkins has said. It follows previous singles ‘Beauty Queen’ and ‘Body To Body’, both of which have passed one million global streams.
A short UK and Ireland headline run follows the album’s release, including London’s KOKO on 7th October.
6 Oct – Grand Social, Dublin
7 Oct – KOKO, London
8 Oct – O2 Institute 2, Birmingham
11 Oct – Club Academy, Manchester
15 Oct – Les Étoiles, Paris
