Sam Fender’s new album is outselling the rest of the top ten combined today and he’s celebrating with some pointed words at the state of the music industry.

He spoke to The Sunday Times (which presumably didn’t know what it was letting itself in for) about the frustrations of coming from a northern working class background into the music industry:

“The music industry is 80 per cent, 90 per cent kids who are privately educated. A kid from where I’m from can’t afford to tour, so there are probably thousands writing songs that are ten times better than mine, poignant lyrics about the country, but they will not be seen because it’s rigged.”

He also spoke about the ramifications of class on drugs: “Well, I’ve noticed that my drug addict friends who are posh go to rehab, but my mates with issues up there just die.”