Electro-Pop Wunderkind SG Lewis on Why All Travel Is ‘Good Travel’

When electro-pop artist SG Lewis bounds onto the Mojave stage at 2019’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the energy in the tent noticeably shifts. The 24-year-old British musician’s lure has filled the space to capacity, and the crowd sings, sways and bounces in unison as he pours out song after song — the performance is, in a word, electric.

SG’s star has stayed continuously on the rise — earning nods from the likes of Pharrell Willliams and Justin Timberlake — and the multi-instrumentalist creates and produces tunes on his own and in collaboration with artists like Clairo and G-Eazy.

Still, preparing for the Coachella experience — undeniably one of the music world’s hottest tickets and where Marriott Bonvoy is a sponsor — is no small undertaking.

“You have 45 minutes to really leave an impact on the crowd and show what you can do. So when considering a set list, you’re thinking about energy levels, you’re thinking about engagement,” SG says. “People expect you to put your best foot forward and bring some surprises.”

Marriott Bonvoy Traveler had the chance to sit down with SG as he geared up for his Coachella performance and chat about how place serves as inspiration for sound, why music is magic and how he earned the nickname “Sunset Sam.”

You wrote your latest single, “Throwaway,” with Clairo one night in Los Angeles. Did being in L.A. inspire any of the songwriting?

I was working out of this amazing studio, actually, it’s a house in Los Angeles that’s just off Melrose, and it’s one of my favorite places to work in the world because rather than being a really high intensity studio setting, it’s just a house that’s been gutted, and they built three studio setups.

But there’s a lot of natural light. There’s a big garden with a palm tree in the middle of the garden. And really, for me, just the setting of L.A., and it’s such a visual city, the palm trees, the sunsets. I really do draw inspiration from that, and one of my friends takes the mickey out of me and calls me Sunset Sam because I always post too many photos of the red California sunsets.

But it’s such an amazing visual to draw on. It’s such an emotive visual. So definitely making the music in that kind of laid-back setting and feeling comfortable there was a huge part of it.

Can you tell us the backstory of your video for “Better” — another Clairo collaboration — and how you wound up filming in Chicago?

I had this idea for the video late one night. I was watching Diddy, Will Smith, ’90s videos with the fisheye lens and the light-up dance floors. And I texted Claire and was like, “It’d be kind of crazy if we did our own kind of tongue-[in]-cheek version of it.” And she was super down.

Chicago just felt like a good middle ground for us because, you know, it’s like East Coast and in terms of flying over from the U.K. It was actually my birthday when I flew over, and we had one day to shoot this video, so we bought this old car, this old drop-top, for like $500.

We had an amazing crew there to help us out, but it really just felt like we were making it up as we went along. We filmed the disco scene in this club in Chicago. It’s this amazing club, and it has a light-up LED dance floor like something out of the ’70s, ’80s or something. It was the perfect place for us to do this, like Justin Timberlake “Rock Your Body” kind of episode.

It turned out so cool, and I’m really happy with it.

You’re a native of Reading, England, and studied in Liverpool. What’s the music scene like there, and how did it influence your current work?

Reading is where I grew up and then I went to Liverpool to study. So Liverpool is really where I got my music education. Liverpool is this amazing vibrant city, and it has so much going on there. It’s home of the Beatles, which is something they’re very much proud of. Everywhere you look there’s Beatles memorabilia, but really, for me, it was a place for electronic music education.

I could go to these clubs for the first time and experience these world-class DJs playing house and techno music and really have a formative experience in that city. There’s so much to see there, and the people of Liverpool are so friendly and so open, as well.

Where would you suggest a first-time visitor to Liverpool go to listen to music?

The East Village Arts Club is really great for seeing shows or nights out and stuff. Or my personal favorite is probably The Shipping Forecast basement. It’s a tiny, maybe 200-person basement, but they have amazing acts come through and DJ there.

The ceilings are so low that when the crowd likes something, they slap the ceilings, and it’s got this real sweaty, basement vibe. I love that.

How would you describe the relationship between music and travel?

I think they really go hand in hand. I’ve been so fortunate to travel through music as my job. I think we’ve all had our headphones in while on a long train journey or driving somewhere, and that music becomes a soundtrack to that moment — like you’re in a movie or something.

What’s interesting about travel and music is how different places embrace different music cultures. You go to South America — to Rio and other parts of Brazil — and you experience the local music and how that’s a part of their daily lives and how it affects their dancing or the way that they party, as opposed to going to Amsterdam and experiencing club music there.

It’s like the music is an imprint of the local culture.

Why do you think music has the ability to transcend borders, to touch people across the world?

For me, music is really the closest thing we have to — it’s such a corny thing to say — but it’s the closest thing to magic that we have. It’s the only thing that transcends politics or language or relationships.

There’s nothing like it, and I could really get sentimental and cheesy about it for the next hour, but it is the only universal language, in my opinion.

What’s on your playlist when you travel?

The most recent Bonobo album is a really good one for if I’m in a city by myself. I always put my headphones on, and I walk around the city with that album playing because it has such a feeling of motion. And it’s not the lyrical focus; it’s a real sonic focus on that album. That’s always my go to if I’m traveling.

Is there anywhere you’ve been recently where the music scene surprised you?

Probably Ireland. I just hadn’t really thought of Ireland musically, which is really stupid, in retrospect. I know it’s not the most far place to have traveled from England.

But once I went to Ireland they just really seem to love music there. The festivals, the bars, the venues, [music] seems ingrained in them I think.

Do you have a favorite travel memory from your time on the road?

I had a week off in Rio de Janeiro when playing the Rock in Rio festival, and experiencing that city and that culture was one of the best things I think I’ve ever done.

Tokyo was somewhere I went recently and got to experience a completely different culture, different food, different music, and experience somewhere relatively different from Western culture, where they’re very much doing their own thing.

We live in a world now where through the internet there is a universal culture and feedback from each other. Before I went to Japan, I didn’t eat ramen, and now I probably eat ramen every week of my life. So, you know, you gain things by traveling.

Your music has taken you all over the globe. With that perspective, how do you define good travel?

I’d say all travel is good travel. Obviously you’re gonna have your favorite places, but there’s always something to be taken from everywhere … If you dig deep enough, there’s always going to be people living there that are living their lives in a different way to you, and there’s something you can take away from there.

Whether it’s food or a way of doing things or music or an experience, it’s just being open to those things, I think.

I think I’m very lucky to get to travel through my work and realizing just how small the world is. Soon I will have been to most places, which is crazy, really. I feel very lucky for that.