"We Heart NY" | An Interview With Samuel

Story by Mitch McCann 

| Published Nov 29, 2011

A born and raised New Yorker, Samuel has spent his whole life surrounded by music. His mom’s music career and spending his formative years in the Greatest City on Earth served as a catalyst for Samuel’s creative mind, but it wasn’t until he met with would-be friends and contributors The Knocks that Samuel found a home to foster his work. With an approach to songs that blends more genres than are readily available, Samuel’s work is often just referred to as “genreless” and is geared toward an environment that is both nostalgic and timeless.

Smash hit single “I Heart NY” propelled Samuel’s tunes across college campuses and hype blogs mid-2010, and even managed to earn the Kanye West stamp of approval. Followed by full release “Trains to Wanderland,” together the songs gave listeners a sense of pop bliss that only Samuel could provide.

Samuel can be found spending his time writing, producing and recording almost any kind of music imaginable for any number of artists. A man of many talents and a subscriber to the know-how-to-market-yourself mantra, Samuel sat down with Seeds to detail his still rising career, the state of the industry today, and a life spent creating music simply for the love of it.

Seeds: For our readers who may have only heard [hit single] “I Heart NY” or haven’t heard of you at all, can you tell us a little about Samuel?

Samuel: I grew up in New York and [my parents] were very artistic and musically inclined, so that was always a really big part of whatever we were doing. If we were going to go for a trip in the car, my parents would play lots of music. When they’re just sitting in the living room having dinner, they’d be playing music. And my mom has lots of stories about working in music in a different era. It was obviously different from the music that I’m making now, but growing up in New York and going to different public and private schools, you get a bigger picture of the musical landscape of what is possible. So I’d be listening to Paul Simon, James Taylor and Bob Dylan, but then I turn on the radio and hear Biggie and Nas.

That definitely pushed me in the direction I am now, because I work with The Knocks, who make dance music and produce for a lot of other artists. Yhat amount of music from different genres lead me to where I am now: making beat-driven, singer-songwriter-y stuff, but not typical; it’s genreless in a way. That’s what I aspire to, to not be pigeonholed by the music I’m making, letting it be just what it is. Writing lyrics and songs that I feel comfortable with.

“I Heart NY” originally was just a hip-hop beat that I got from The Knocks, and I thought instead of rapping over it, I should sing over it. That lead me to where I am now--being able to experiment, feeling comfortable trying different kinds of music and seeing where it would take me. And the stuff I’m making now is even more different than that. It’s a big process of self-discovery, figuring out where you’re comfortable and pushing yourself to make new types of music.

Seeds: I know artists can sort of grow to resent their hits. Do you get a little bit of “Freebird Syndrome” when you get to concerts and kids yell out for “I Heart NY”?

I love “I Heart NY” and I have a pretty good sense of humor. I don’t take myself too seriously. Anywhere we play, even if no one has heard any of the other songs, they’ll probably know that one. We went and played a bunch of college shows with Jason DeRulo. Big colleges, like 15,000 person auditoriums, mostly young kids. That kind of thing. I’d see people from the stage; first song, they don’t really know what you’re doing. They don’t know he lyrics or anything, but by “I Heart NY” they turn to their friends and they’re like, “This is THAT kid?” I could see those conversations going on from stage. That’s why I play it live, so you can feel the rest of the music and then at the end there’s the song that you know that everyone wants to sing along to.

Seeds: Is there an idol that you have or a person you like to model yourself after in the studio? An influence that you like to draw from?

There’s a couple that I consistently return to for inspiration. One person is Mike Kinsella from Owen, who’s this Chicago indie songwriter who’s been around since the 90’s. He did a band called American Football; it was one of those bands that I found on my own when I was 14, and for some reason my 14 year old mind was like, “this is it!” Even now, as he’s releasing more stuff. I think about his lyrics when I’m writing, I think about his cadences, his rhythm, his melodies, and it’s inspiring. Not to take from him--my stuff doesn’t really sound like his--but it is inspiring because I’m so in love with his music. Most music today is pretty transient, it’s in one ear and out the other.

Seeds: I saw in an interview you mentioned Darwin Deez...

Yeah, we opened for him last year. I had never really heard of him and at this point he wasn’t as big as he is now. I was so impressed. His songs are kind of quirky, a little too fun at times, but his live show is so fun and undeniably happy. They had little choreographed dance moments where everyone put their instruments down and just danced. I am constantly trying to up my stage show, so going to live shows like that is such a huge influence. Seeing bands who I either really look up to, or seeing bands I don’t know and being completely blown away.

Seeds: You and [your label] HeavyRoc are bending towards having a huge online focus and have really active online promotion. How is all that shaping your approach?

It’s a really important question for anyone, really. My advice to kids who are in the music industry is always to just be intelligent. Read as much as you can, know what’s going on. Like Spotify, the future of music is stuff like that. The Cloud form. Moving away from retail sales of physical copies--people are already ditching that format. No one wants to buy a $16 album anymore. People want singles. If you like pop, Katy Perry has it nailed down.

For people like me who aren’t on that level, the internet is the easiest way to connect with fans and people who are really going to appreciate your music. Hype Machine has become a better music site than most music blogs or recommendation services like Amazon or iTunes. I think that is the future of where music is going to go. Labels are becoming more and more obsolete unless they’re so hyper passionate and they can help you with distribution or something that you don’t have access to. In order to be an artist today you have to be able to produce, write, record, remix, write for other people--all those things make you a better artist. In the long run it’ll only make you stronger if you can do all the things that make people interested in you.

Especially as solo artist, you really are at the mercy of your own technology and limited by the things you can do.

Seeds: So do you welcome the young kids or the overnight successes?

I think it depends. There are a lot of kids out there who don’t want to make music, they just want a shot at fame. That percentage is growing smaller, I think. People are tired of hearing... s**t. For lack of a better phrase. People wanna hear good music. It’s why things like Mumford & Sons or Adele are so big, but why somebody like Owl City can’t make a second album. It’s part and parcel of it. The world needs new musicians all the time, and there’s always somebody out there who’s going to be good, but then there’s the YouTube celebrities who aren’t really good and they’re just taking advantage of it. But that’s part of it, they notice that there’s a spot there to be filled. Much respect to those kids who can get 5 million views on a cover song, that’s huge. I wish I could get 5 million views on a cover. [Laughs]

Seeds: You said once that New York kids can kind of get spoiled or turned off to that? They don’t notice the art around them; they’re in the best city on Earth and they take it for granted.

There’s a bubble that, when you’re inside of it, makes the rest of the world kind of invisible. You don’t even realize what’s going on in the rest of the universe. There are kids in the city who make music and don’t take advantage of the fact that they live in New York. I really try to gain inspiration from my surroundings. Every time I travel somewhere I try and write a song about it. Getting out of New York is a huge help if you’re from there. It can only make you a better artist to see the rest of the world and know what else is out there. You’ve got to know your competition, the stuff that’s really good and really bad. It’s good to be opinionated as an artist.

Seeds: You can hear definitely New York’s influence on you throughout the album.

That was a big concept when we finished the album. Let’s make it a trip starting in New York then ending in New York, but all along the way you’re traveling and figuring everything out. Those things are huge influences while you’re writing. If you take a break for two weeks to leave New York and go to L.A., your whole world is turned upside as a New Yorker. I don’t even drive. [Laughs] Even that first thing, completely different. The was the happenstance for the album, sort of how it came to be in the winter, after this year-long excursion to try and figure out what’s going on in my own music.

catch updates from Samuel & The Knocks: http://heavyrocmusic.com/
find samuel on twitter: @samuelsamuel