Watch Sampha Perform His Moving New Song, “Plastic 100°C”

Sampha details his debut album, and all the learning and personal trauma that accompanied its creation, in a new The FADER cover story, to be published on The FADER today at 10 a.m. EST.

“Plastic 100°C,” a beautifully raw song about pressure, is one of that album's highlights. Its chorus refers to feeling like plastic melting in the heat, and one of its verses hints at the source of the discomfort Sampha describes: Usually I'd run home/ And tuck the issue under/ Oh/ Sleeping with my worries/ I didn't really know what that lump was/ My luck.

Here, Sampha plays a singular acoustic version of that song. His performance was captured in one beautiful take at dusk, on the rooftop of his label Young Turks’s London office.

“There’s a lot I see, feel, really want to express,” Sampha tells The FADER. “I think that’s part of the thing, like — I feel so much.” In his most in-depth interview to date, he opens up about the journey he's been on, the music he'll be releasing, and his hopes for the future. “I wanna make things feel more magic to me, like how I felt when I was younger. When you grow older, you try and work harder to find the magic in life.”

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Director: Robert Semmer and Kevin Hayden
Producers: Robert Semmer and Olivia Proctor
Executive Producer: Joseph Patel
Executive Producers: Rob Stone, Jon Cohen, Andy Cohn, Anthony Holland
Co-Producers: The FADER and Luca Films
Director of Photography: Kevin Hayden
Art Director: Imogen Lloyd
Assistant Camera: Lee Burnett
Steadicam Operator: Ilana Garrard
Production Assistant: Natalie Fairs
Production Coordinator: Madison LaClair
Sound Recordist: Daniel Brosnan
Editor: Sam Balaban
Sound Mix: Marta Salogni
Colorist: Bryan Smaller at Company 3

Thank you: Sampha, Katie O'Neill, Caius Pawson, Stephen Campbell, Gabe Spierer, Jim Demuth, Posy Dixon, and the rest of the Young Turks staff.