Rock n roll cowboy Sam Brittain has today announced his sweeping new single Hitchhiker, inspired by a real encounter with a hitchhiker on the train across the Nullarbor Plain, out May 14.

The hooky new track is accompanied by a clip that acts as a fun and loving ode to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, created in collaboration with Mickey Manson (Maya Cumming, Hachiku).  After completely scrapping an album’s worth of songs, Sam Brittain is thrilled to be back with Hitchhiker, and will be celebrating the release with a show at Jive in Adelaide on June 12.

Hitchhiker is evocative of songwriting and rock n roll greats Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, while stil maintaining a truly unique, modern sensibility and classic Australian flair.  This is an artist who understands how to tell a story, who understands how the peak and fall of a melody can inform how the audience interprets the narrative – and it’s so satisfying to get lost in this piece of music.  Speaking on the inspiration behind the track, Sam says, “A few years ago I was travelling east across Australia by train when we screeched to a halt in the middle of nowhere, a few hours out of Perth.  The reason for our stoppage was that a passing train had spotted a stowaway on the motorail car.  We pulled into Kalgoorlie station and the man was arrested by police.  Apparently he simply pleaded not to be sent back to Perth.  The man’s actions seemed extreme to say the least – it made me wonder what drove him to such desperate measures? What was he running from?  The song was born from exploring that feeling of desperation, the fear, and inescapable self loathing.” 

The video for Hitchhiker is a 70s, saturated, vibrant dream; it pays playful homage to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Sam is chased across the desert by an ominous recurring character.  Reflecting on the making of the clip, Sam explains, “I wanted to create the same feeling of being chased across the desert by your own demons that I imagine the man who got arrested on that train must have felt.  But instead of Johnny Depp and Beneci Del Toro’s characters seeing hallucinations of bats in the sky, we are seeing visions of our hitchhiker -  played wonderfully by our drummer Matt Birkin – as many different characters throughout the video’s storyline – from wanderer to gas station attendant, to traffic cop to prisoner to himself.”  

Pumped about the new release, Sam Brittain is set to wow audiences at Adelaide’s Jive on June 12, celebrating all things Hitchhiker.  It’s been a long time coming, as Sam reflects, “After a failed attempt at recording the new album, and throwing the whole project in the bin, it feels incredible to finally be able to release new music that has not only achieved the vision I had from the beginning, but surpassed my expectations.”

Hitchhiker is out May 14.