Photography by Caity Krone

“I believe artists should be additives to the world and I feel a genuine responsibility to be an additive with the music I make,” Stephen Sanchez tells Man About Town. Since transfixing global pop audiences with swoon-worthy love song, “Until I Found You” in 2021, the 1950s-indebeted, California-hailing troubadour, today, has amassed over 1 billion streams on the track alone and remains a magnet for over 25 million listeners who flock to his Spotify each month.

Continuing to scale up one career milestone into another, Sanchez recently returned with the deluxe edition of last year’s debut album, Angel Face, a re-release featuring six previously unheard tracks. “There were a few that didn’t make sense to release at the time because of the preciousness surrounding the story and maintaining its integrity,” he says. “Now that the story has been told, to me, these songs feel like an extension of a deeper feeling inside of me surrounding love, loss and fame. Everything has a time and place.”

As well as establishing himself as a mainstay in playlists the world over, Sanchez also found himself at the heart of a catalogue of pinch-me cultural moments last year, including joining Elton John on stage for his Glastonbury headline set, performing at the internet-transfixing nuptials of Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge and taking his musical chops to late night US talk shows spanning The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Myers. With such a compact array of triumphs packed into one year, the mind can only ponder what he’s possibly got up his sleeve next.
 
In the meantime, he talks the deluxe version ofAngel Face, why he cried on the morning of Elton’s Glastonbury set and plans of making a movie, below…

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Hi Stephen! Massive congratulations on the deluxe version of Angel Face. It’s around eight months since the initial release, how does it feel to now be embarking on this next chapter with the project?
It makes me wonder about success. I feel that I’ve crafted a story with songs and characters I believe in, which has made me feel a deep sense of personal success. People have seemingly connected to this record and the numbers show, the tour sell-outs show. But, now we have a deluxe with six new songs that will hopefully amplify that success and I guess it makes me wonder what is enough for me as an artist? Having another hit? Selling out another tour? I don’t think so. I think as long as the music holds the truth, as long as the stories have a chance to out live me, I am successful.

Among the new tracks, we love, in particular, “The Other Side”. Can you tell us about the day that you made that one?
I remember being slouched into a couch with a microphone in hand. The group had collectively run its course of ideas, so we just messed around for the final hour. With John Ryan on the drums and Scott Harris on the ivories, we accidentally constructed the song. I sang some incoherent lyrics for the song and then…voila! The song was born and raised into the absolute hand grenade that it is today.

 
Some of Angel Face’s tracks certainly packed an emotional punch and really deftly detailed the ups and downs of Troubadour Sanchez’s love story. Is there a lyric on these new tracks that you think might particularly resonate with fans?
Everyone’s story is different. It’s hard to say exactly what one person might resonate with over another. Truthfully, I do make the music for me at the end of the day to satisfy this never-ending itch of the heart, but once it’s out, people have a choice to do with it what they will. Hopefully they do their best.

Your music has taken you to so many incredible places and you currently boast a whopping 25 million monthly Spotify listeners. When you strip all of that away, has the experience of making music changed since those early days when you were posting covers on TikTok?
It has changed drastically. There is more money, more attention, more responsibility. It’s a lot scarier and a lot more pressure-inducing, however, it is still flawlessly exciting too. These things come with their highs and their lows, that’s a given, and managing that will always be interesting, but my heart for the music is what drives me to keep making it.

We have to touch on your experience performing at Glastonbury with Elton John. Can you unpack how that moment came to be? What was going through your head when you were on that stage?
Honestly, that morning I cried because I was so scared. I remember being backstage hearing the thunder of 250,000 people splitting the air while Elton played “Pinball Wizard”. I was on my knees praying at the time thinking, I actually can’t do this unless God goes with me. I truly felt that he did the moment I walked onto that stage. All the fear evaporated. I felt like I could do anything. I’ll never forget the calm that came over me.

What was the best piece of advice Elton gave you?
He didn’t really say it, but it’s who he is and it’s how I hope to be. His heart always seemed to say: “Champion the little guy, bring the misfit in the back to the front, take the crown off your head and place it on them.” He is a good man. I’m grateful for the chance he gave me to see the world. I hope to do that someday for an artist I believe in too.

Finally, if there were no consequences and you could do anything next, what would you do?
I’d make a movie about me and I’d make an album of songs that soundtracked it. That’s exactly what I’m doing next.

Angel Face (Club Deluxe) is out now