Sam Newton Battenberg Faulkner entered the world in Surrey on January 11, 1985 and completed his studies at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, where he focused on guitar and finished the program at 17. Early experience included bass duties in a Green Day tribute act, after which he assembled the funk-rock outfit Half a Guy alongside Matt Buchanan, Dave Elvy, and Nicola Crawshaw rather than launching a solo project under his complete name, Newton Battenburg Faulkner. The group issued a live self-titled EP that failed to register commercially; rejecting the prevailing pattern of delivering aggressive metal sets in church halls, the members instead chose to perform buoyant, optimistic material. Over time the combined demands of vocals, guitar work, songwriting, and booking shows prompted a shift to a solo path. Initial independent appearances at the Troubadour club in London secured a songwriting agreement with Peermusic UK and invitations to South by Southwest. A subsequent recording contract with BMG yielded the solo EP U.F.O., positioning him in the company of Jack Johnson, James Morrison, and Paolo Nutini. In June 2007 he performed twice at the Glastonbury Festival, once on the acoustic stage and again on the Left Field stage. His first full-length effort, Hand Built by Robots, appeared in July 2007, debuting at number three before ascending to the top spot the following September. Rebuilt by Humans followed in 2009 and extended the relaxed acoustic style that had already earned critical notice and expanded his audience. Three years elapsed before Write It on Your Skin surfaced in 2012 and became his second U.K. number-one album; departing from earlier thematic approaches, the record was conceived expressly for live performance and carried an affirmative, energetic tone. Contributors included BBC Fame Academy winner David Sneddon and production collaborator James Bauer-Mein, both members of Nexus alongside Lana Del Rey, Matt Cardle, and Hurts, together with bassist Sam Farrar of Phantom Planet. In 2013 Faulkner elected to document the creation of his fourth album by live-streaming sessions for five weeks from a camera-equipped residence in East London. The resulting Studio Zoo was self-produced throughout and featured appearances by Irish singer Janet Devlin and Ted Dwane of Mumford & Sons. Human Love, his fifth collection, arrived in 2015 and opened with a version of the Major Lazer song “Get Free,” weaving together the range of influences—spanning global rhythms to richly arranged ballads—that had marked prior work. September 2017 brought the sixth album, Hit the Ground Running, a full ten years after the debut. The next year introduced his inaugural retrospective, The Very Best of Newton Faulkner... So Far, which added the new track “Wish I Could Wake Up.” Following a four-year break, he resurfaced with the denser textures of Interference (Of Light), his seventh LP, issued in separate track configurations according to each physical and digital format.
