Born and raised on the banks of the TyneSam Fender was born in North Shields on April 25, 1994, to Shirley, a nurse, and Alan, an electrician who later became a music teacher. The family lived in a terraced house in the town, and Fender has described his first decade of life as "comfortable" in his musical household. Fender was working behind the bar at North Shields' Low Lights Tavern when he was spotted by his current manager, Owain Davies, who began booking him gigs. He has said his hometown remains "a constant source of pride," crediting the people of North Shields for shaping the man he became. For a place shaped for centuries by fishing, shipbuilding, and hard-won community spirit, North Shields has found in Fender a modern figurehead who has carried its story – riots, recession, and resilience included – onto stages around the world, all while insisting he remains, at heart, simply a lad from North Shields.