SAMUEL Winder will forever remember 2023 as the year he ceased his bedroom procrastination and launched his music onto a public stage.
It is also year the 25-year-old Newcastle singer-songwriter dropped the emotional walls he'd built and allowed himself to be vulnerable and open to collaboration.
Winder had been operating on the fringes of the Newcastle music scene for several years, jamming with friends and notable musicians like Cormac Grant and Jesse Morrison.
In March the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music graduate finally made his live debut when he was offered a support slot with Grant at Newcastle's Ship Inn.
Good friends Tom Henderson (drums) and Saylor McVernon (bass), of Saylor & The Flavor, joined Winder at the Ship Inn and a month later he released his debut EP, Fragments.
The EP's three tracks Buried, Passenger and Fragments, are described as "sleepy folktronica" and had been bouncing around for years, weighed down by Winder's "perfectionism".
"It's self-critiquing everything you do," Winder says. "I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels and falling into a bit of choice paralysis.
"I got to the four-year mark and thought if I don't do something about it now, I'm never gonna put it out."
Fragments revealed Winder's meditation baritone and knack for emotive lyrics, particularly on the title track as he almost whispers, "Where did the time go?/ Before we had so many things to hold/ And how did we get so young and old?
The accompanying videos showed Winder driving around his childhood neighbourhood of Nelsons Plains, as well as Stockton and the Newcastle CBD.
Winder says the EP's release taught him not to be so creatively insulated.
"Once I put out the EP it was like the waterfall came crashing down and the floodgates opened up to live stuff and collaborating with more people, once I let myself out of my bedroom.
"I've been playing with lots of people and my new single is indicative of playing with a band."
That single is Steady Hand, released two weeks ago.
It moves away from the contemplative folk of Fragments for a more muscular folk-rock and Americana sound.
It's indicative of the confidence that's grown inside Winder.
As a child Winder says he adopted the position of the "rock" in his family due to his younger brother's autism diagnosis.
"We went through some hectic stuff when he was younger as a family dealing with that," he says. "I feel like I was always the one who pulled the socks up."
It's a character trait that naturally led to Winder working in disability support.
However, Winder has also since realised being stoic all the time isn't always beneficial. In a sense, Steady Hand is a message to himself to be vulnerable.
"[It's about] learning it's OK to not have a steady hand," he says.
"The chorus line 'steady hand for bleeding love', I guess, is about friendships or relationships where the love, or whatever is going on, [is troubled] and your struggling.
"I was always the steady hand fixing everything even though I was bleeding as well.
"It was about learning it's OK, I don't always have to do that."
Samuel Winder launches Steady Hand at the Ship Inn on Saturday.
