Never did I think that I would firstly meet anyone on Tinder. But to think I would now be in a band with them too, I couldn’t have imagined it happening to me.
Sam and I matched in August last year. I still remember on the day of matching – Sam’s first message was a tad forward “What are you up to today? Shall we go swimming at the lido?” I thought WOW he’s keen! Haha. It was probably one of the hottest days of the year to be fair, but in hindsight I didn’t fancy getting into a bikini on a first date - so I suggested meeting up in a more conventional setting sometime in the week instead.
The following Wednesday was the day of our first date. I was really nervous about meeting up. I suggested meeting up in the daytime so we could just grab a casual coffee! (and incase he was crazy – I mean he did invite me swimming on a first date). Sam said he was only free at 6pm. I was going to back out, I guess you could say the nerves were getting the better of me!! However, after phoning a few friends and for them all to tell me I was being silly, I got on the tube and we met outside Tottenham Court Road station.
When I got out of the tube, Sam sent me this picture of where he was, as it was so busy. He was watching a musician, “I’m by the guy singing Radiohead – Creep”.
Little did I know Sam was also a musician!
On our first date, with no plan, and in Central London (literally centre point) Sam decided to take us to “Soho Whisky Club” a private members club, where his friend works. Its kinda a secret - you enter through an almost hidden door inside of a Whisky shop ‘The Vintage House’ on Old Compton Street, Soho.
The whole thing was immediately intrigueing to say the least.
I don’t really even like whiskey but I didn’t want to be difficult and hey it was unusual. Why not! It was different, anyway, it was apparent straight away we had a lot in common. We spoke for ages about politics, music, film and the arts industry in general.
We decided, after our first few drinks to head to east London. Dalston, to be precise. We grabbed a quick slice of Pizza at Voodoo Rays. I was still quite nervous so didn’t really feel like eating much! We walked along Dalston High Street and stumbled across a bar and had a few more drinks. We then headed to the bus stop, where we said goodnight.
The next day Sam text me saying he was going to a poetry event in Brixton at The Windmill tomorrow night, why don’t I come. So I did.
Sam was planning on reading a poem he had written at the event. I could tell he was nervous, which he said was the reason he was doing it. I said “why don’t you read me the poem” but he said it would make the experience less authentic, and that it would be better if I heard it first in the context of the performance.
On the way we met some of his friends - Emily, Carl & Ned. We settled in and sat on a bench outside and ordered some drinks.
After some umming and ahing and a few whiskys later, Sam got up and read his poem.
On the way home, Sam lent in and tried to give me a kiss, as he did he ended up walking straight into a postbox. I wish someone had filmed it!
I could tell Sam was very passionate about his music, and so was I. I guess it just happened naturally, but we started jamming out music together.
We actually wrote a song called ‘True Love’ it was about us meeting and one of the lyrics was about walking into the post box. We now think the song is a bit cheesy but it is about a true story, our story I guess.
Sam has a friend called Dan, who lives in Malvern. We travelled up to Malvern and spent four days there recording.
Two months ago we decided to upload one of the tracks we recorded on soundcloud. It’s called Grow Old. You can check it out here if you fancy:
And here's something else of ours too - Silver Screen:
https://dsound.audio/#/@samcook/l-a-w-silver-screen