Sam Fender didn’t set out to “tackle social issues” with his latest album.

The 27-year-old singer has been praised for the subjects he’s raised in the songs on ‘Seventeen Going Under’ but he explained he was simply reflecting on his own life in a working class household and the surrounding issues that had come up during his therapy sessions.

He said: “To be honest, with this record, it wasn’t actually a real aim to tackle social issues.

“It was just I’d done therapy for two years once I started getting famous.

“That, basically, opened up a whole can of worms with my upbringing.

“I just ended up writing about home a lot more, and writing about my life, and writing about my mother.

“The stories just have a social conscience in them, because it’s talking about very, very normal things that happen to very normal people.”

Sam hopes his music can help his fans in the way other artists have helped him over the years.

He said: “Music was therapy to me before I did therapy.

“It was the only form of catharsis that I’ve ever had.

“And if I can provide some level of catharsis for somebody else who’s listening, then that’s what I’ve achieved.”

And the ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ hitmaker is proud of the sense of “community” his live shows bring.

He told Radio Times magazine: “Some of the kids down the front at London and Newcastle, the words looked like they were theirs more than they were mine.

“There was one guy in particular I saw. He was completely electric. He was singing every single word.

“That’s why I’m doing this. Him down there. Or the small girl with blue hair who was just balling her eyes out the whole time down the front, holding on to her phone and her wallet.

“It’s like community. It’s 10,000 people together, united by something that’s positive.”