"Impatience" by Sam Tsui, Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Sam Tsui may not be a household name like other some former YouTube stars, but he has put in the work. Time took notice of Tsui back in 2009, when the young singer posted videos on his childhood friend Kurt Schneider's channel. He went on to form his own YouTube channel in 2011. Also in 2011, Tsui graduated from Yale, majoring in Greek Classics. Tsui had participated in promotional video titled "That's Why I Toured Yale," prompting Tom Hanks to mention Sam by name as he gave the commencement speech at Tsui's graduation. In Tsui's musical career, he has performed for the cast of Glee and performed with Kurt Schneider on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Ellen Degeneres Show. He released his first album of original songs, Make It Up, in 2013, crowdfunding the record. "Impatience" comes from Tsui's second album, Trust, released in 2018. "Impatience" was the second single from the album, released on November 21, 2017. 

NEVER THOUGHT I WAS THE RESTLESS KIND. In 2016, Tsui came out as gay and announced his engagement to fellow YouTube musician, Casey Breves in a YouTube video. The two had collaborated previously and had met at Yale. Writer Claude Summers for The New Civil Rights Movement wrote compared Sam Tsui's coming out in April with former Christian Rocker Trey Pearson's coming out in June of 2016, noting the difference in the singers' tones. Summers writes that Pearson's coming out was "tortured and dramatic," whereas Tsui's was "confident and casual." Many of Tsui's fans praised his coming out video for its tone. One commenter said that Sam "didn't go into some teary emotional hysterical crying speech," another commenter said "I'm not surprised about Sam coming out[;] I'm more surprised that he's not dating [Kurt Hugo Schneider]." Kurt Schneider was supportive of his childhood friend's coming out. Sam and Casey married in April of 2016 and continue to make music together and are raising a daughter. Summers writes about Tsui's coming out that the singer "had the luxury of being able to assume that his fan-base would be mostly supportive." In his coming out video, Sam apologized to fans that he wasn't completely transparent throughout his career. He addressed his prior belief that his music and his personal life were separate entities. But as time went on, he felt he needed to be more honest with his fans. 

DAYDREAMING ABOUT YOU... The video for "Impatience" sees Sam all by himself, waiting for somebody in a number of scenarios. We see the singer in bed, at the laundromat, and at a fancy dinner sipping wine at a table set for two. Despite being happily married, Tsui's sophomore album, Trust, is a collection of songs about love and loneliness. None of the songs are gender-specific. Perhaps the songs come from personal experience. Perhaps they come from writing techniques Tsui picked up as a songwriter from the hundreds of covers he's recorded. "Impatience" makes me think about what's my next step in my life. I think about Sam Tsui's online persona and influencer culture, how he has built a career out of making music online and how he, along with Kurt Schneider, has built a community around that music. Then I think about the rest of us, those without a major online following. I think about how the successful online spark jealousy and feelings of inadequacy in some subscribers. A few years ago, my friend became extremely depressed when she saw engagement photos on Instagram. She lamented about her relationship with her boyfriend who was hesitating in proposing. Seeing others' happiness offline can make us impatient about our own lives. But the problem is that when we log on, we can become absorbed in it. It floods our feeds. Why can't we just log off and live. Still, I'm envious of Sam Tsui's coming out. Of course, a YouTube video doesn't give us the full gravity of the situation. I only wish that mine could go as smoothly as Sam's, but I'm afraid that the way I've built my life is more like Trey Pearson than Sam Tsui.





 

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