SAM BURCHFIELD | Nature Speaks

A Conversation with Singer Songwriter Sam Burchfield

Interview by Tommy Moore

Photos by Erin Burchfield

Sam Burchfield Photographed by Erin Burchfield

The title of Sam Burchfield's latest album, Nature Speaks, is both a statement of belief and an instruction: to listen carefully, to feel the world move through you, and to heed its loving nudge. Recorded in just five days at Studio 1093 in Athens, Georgia with co-producers and collaborators Ryan Plumley and Jason Kingsland, the upcoming album is Burchfield's most stripped-down and spirit- forward to date.

The theme of commitment glitters throughout Nature Speaks. Standout single "Stay (Betty Blue)" is a tender and arresting tune of devotion, a vow of stability against wavering mental health and the general fragility of life. Burchfield wrote it for his wife—a musician, painter and poet-on their anniversary. "You don't know what you're going to have to confront when you enter a relationship. We all have different battles to fight." In his sandy, evocative vocals, he makes the colorful promises that account for real love: And if you get lost on the other side, I'll plant roses in your mind / If you go mad and hurt yourself, I can lick your wounds until you're well.

From his farmhouse in North Georgia, Sam Burchfield sat down with us to talk through facing the hard things, staying hopeful, and his new record Nature Talks.

Sam’s touring here and there throughout the rest of the year, and then is hitting the ground running in the US in early ‘26.

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Sam Burchfield Photographed by Erin Burchfield

Sam Burchfield: I'm in North Georgia, kind of where the Appalachian Trail starts. Right up in the mountains, like an hour and a half north of Atlanta. People don't think of Georgia as even having mountains sometimes, it's kind of the sleeper, but it gets up there near Western Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, and South Carolina where I grew up.

Tommy Moore: What part of South Carolina did you grow up in?

Sam Burchfield: Seneca. If you know college football, Clemson is right next to that. Where are you?

Tommy Moore: I'm in Livingston, Montana. It’s my favorite spot to fall back into whenever I get off the road. So happy to get connected though man! The record sounds great. It seems true to the feeling of waking up in the woods, surrounded by this kind of smoky morning feeling.

Sam Burchfield Photographed by Erin Burchfield

Sam Burchfield: Visualizing it like that is pretty on point. I mean, specifically these mountains that I was talking about, where I grew up going to my granny's house and have all these nostalgic memories. So it feels like the more vulnerable or deeper I go songwriting wise, that’s the place where I land. This record is one of my more personal, heavier records. It may not always sound like it, but I was going through a lot of relational stuff, and was a new father writing these songs. And really nature speaks to me. It’s like nature and God, or whatever you want to believe in, is kind of this synonymous thing for me. So I think that's ultimately what it's saying. When you go into these vulnerable moments and listen, like if you're tripping on mushrooms or whatever, it's like there's something speaking to you and it’s this joy. It's a loving thing that actually wants to pull you out of these moments to have some hope. 

So the record, especially the end of the record and the song Morning Light, I wrote because I needed to hear it. I discovered a cyst on my neck, and was worried I was gonna. I had all this shit that I was kind of running from or trying to ignore, and then it was this moment of like, “Fuck, I have to face this and all the hard things that are going on in my life,” and that one spilled out as this, “I'm gonna face these things, but I am gonna choose to do it hopefully.” And that's just who I'm trying to be as a human being.

So that's where it that bubbles through the music, and that's what ultimately the record is—me going through these hard times, but choosing to find hope in it as much as I could. A lot of it is also around change, because I was in the midst of these trying to figure out how to keep my marriage together, and be a good dad, and not die from a thing in my neck. And I was like, “Okay, I think I need to change some things.” Honestly, some of it was around the work life balance. As a musician, and I'm sure if you have a partner or even just homies you know, it's like hard to keep a life and do this thing. What a fucking crazy juxtaposition to have where it's the conundrum of art, because you're pursuing this thing that you feel like is this meaningful, great thing that's so important. But I think the older I get, the more I realize that your life itself is the ultimate art piece, and it's tragic. Sometimes looking around the music industry, there are friends and people that have almost let this pursuit abuse them to the point that wrecks their lives.

"It's a loving thing that actually wants to pull you out of these moments to have some hope."

Sam Burchfield Photographed by Erin Burchfield

Tommy Moore: The change is hard for anybody, too, regardless of the situation. And then you add in touring, and the pressure to write, and everything else that comes along with that, and I think it's anybody outside of this world to really hard to see how little time and energy there is left after going on any sort of tour, whether it's a 10 day run or a three month run at whatever level you're at. It just pulls the energy out of you, and especially to come back home and try to be a good partner, try to be a good father, and then to try and have energy left over to start the whole process over again—it’s an insane thought. 

I think I saw somewhere that you had said this album was more human than anything you'd done before. From what you were just saying, it seems like it’s all coming from such an important moment in your life. With how overwhelming things are, trying to wrap your head being around a dad for the first time, or figuring out relationship stuff, coming home and getting off the road is such a needed thing. Are you guys lucky enough to be tucked away in the woods at all where you’re at now?

Sam Burchfield Photographed by Erin Burchfield

Sam Burchfield: We have an old farmhouse right near this little downtown, which we actually really like. I think we would love to get out a little more into the woods where people aren’t, so we can walk around naked in our yard and shit. We have a fenced in half acre fenced in where we've been growing food, and it's been nice. As much as we want more to have like 15 acres and a whole fucking farm, I think you get what you can handle. Because dude, it's hard enough to just get this grass mowed every week and take care my house that’s 100 years old. This is probably as much as I could possibly handle right now.

Tommy Moore: Yeah, it's one of those things, too, where I was just up at my buddy's place last night, and he's a touring guy, too. I think they've got like 30 animals and 20 acres. In summer it’s so wonderful, but in the winter it's the gnarliest mountain drive you could ever have. And I'm like, “Dude, I don't know how you do it. Coming off the road and then every single second of every day and every night is taking care of all this. I don't know how your head's still on your shoulders.”

Sam Burchfield Photographed by Erin Burchfield

Sam Burchfield: There's a quote that I always liked from Thoreau’s Walden which is, “A man becomes a slave to his own tools,” and it's sort of like, yeah, I got a cow, and now I’ve got to feed the cow. To feed the cow, I’ve got to grow more food, and then I’ve got to go cut the food to feed the cow, and it just keeps stacking up, and you're like, “Man, I should have just stayed in a fucking tent.” 

The past two records before this one were me going on different side quests and playing into the different people I was playing with. I did like a sort of an outlaw record, and then did like more of a live band, upbeat, record. So this one, as far as humanness, is just stripped back and raw, focusing on the song first. In the world of inevitably, the AI music stuff people talk about, it just excites me for the push towards more humaneness. Whether that's just live music, people sitting unplugged in a living room, or sitting around fire and playing music, we need something to jolt us.

"Whether that's just live music, people sitting unplugged in a living room, or sitting around fire and playing music, we need something to jolt us."

Sam Burchfield

Interview by Tommy Moore

Photos by Erin Burchfield

Sam Burchfield is on tour in the US off and on the rest of the fall, and is hittin' the pavement hard early in 2026. 'Nature Speaks' is out now on all streaming platforms.