William Fitzsimmons is “equal parts songwriter and psychotherapist”, an emotional high-hitter who crafts rich folk music that entrances and engages. His voice, coupled with his candid and poignant songs will captivate and draw you into a world that delivers unbridled honesty through autobiographical tales of human emotional experiences.
But don’t just take our word for it, his hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, comments on his videos and music plays lay testament to how much his music resonates with its listeners.
Recognising their strong narrative and emotional qualities, William’s songs have been used to mark emotional apexes on the soundtracks of multiple high-hitting TV shows such as Brothers & Sisters and Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Private Practice, MTV’s Life of Ryan and Teen Wolf, One Tree Hill, Greek, Army Wives, and Burn Notice.
Since 2005, Fitzsimmons has released four full-length albums, each addressing intimate themes from his personal history, demonstrating an admirable commitment to disclosure and catharsis. His greatly anticipated latest offering, ‘Lions’ is released in mid Feb 2014 and will be coupled with a full European tour this spring.
Despite the intensity of his songs and subjects, in person William is warm, affable and quite frankly, extremely funny. We met up with him in a cold station café in Amsterdam where he performed two of his songs specially for Rockstone Sessions, and talked to our presenter Nadja about his songwriting, his ability to touch people through his music and his magnificent beard.
Watch his captivating performances of ‘Fortune‘ and ‘Lions‘.
Filmed by Patrick Rietvelt
Edited by Michael Boulas