Martin W "Marty" Sampson (born 31 May 1979) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and former worship leader at the Hillsong Church in Sydney. From the late 1990s until 2019 he featured on the United Live albums and was one of the original Hillsong United band's worship leaders. Sampson's main instrument is the guitar although he also plays the piano, flute and drums. Aside from work for Youth Alive and Hillsong United, Sampson has issued solo albums.
Biography
Sampson[1] was born on 31 May 1979 and became a member of the Hillsong Church in Sydney. From the late 1990s he has featured on the Youth Alive albums and was one of the original Hillsong United band's worship leaders. His last album with Hillsong United was the 2011's Aftermath. He often lead worship at the church and had contributed for Hillsong albums. Since his departure from Hillsong United, he has worked on his songwriting. Sampson helped with the worship at Northern Beaches, a Hillsong extension service. In November 2006 he married Michelle and the couple have a son.[2]
In 2007, Sampson released a solo EP, Let Love Rule, via his official website.[3] In April 2008, Sampson co-wrote "We Give You Praise" with band members of the United Kingdom Christian rockers Delirious?.[4] In 2010, he recorded an album in the United States under the band name, The Red Bikes. It was recorded with James Rudder as producer, Luke Munns on drums, Michael Guy Chislett on guitar and Paul Malbury on bass guitar. The album has not yet[when?] been released.[citation needed] In June 2011, Sampson released another solo EP, Objects, as Martin Sampson.[5] It is an acoustic guitar folk album in the vein of Bob Dylan. The tracks were recorded at the same time as The Red Bikes project.
On 10 August 2019, he publicly stated that he was "losing his faith".[6] Sampson initially clarified that he had not "renounced" his faith but was "struggling with many parts of the [Christian] belief system", then subsequently on 23 August 2019 stated that he is no longer identified as a Christian.[7]
Instrumentation
According to AllMusic, Sampson is credited with being a composer, lyricist, vocalist, producer, worship leader, guitarist (acoustic, electric) and arranger.[8]
Discography
Songwriter
Songs written or co-written by Sampson include[1][9][10]
