Samuel Kelly

Interview With Samuel Kelly

SBS:  Welcome to our pages!  Whether you’ve been here with us in some way before, or you’re brand-new to the site, it’s probably best to get an introduction from you so that we get everyone on the same page to start.  Tell us a little bit about the history of your music, and what’s happening with it lately!?!

Samuel Kelly:  When I was fourteen, my mother, a Pentecostal Pastor, told me to choose a career, or I would be a bum for the rest of my life.  She chose music and my primary instrument, bass, for me.  About two weeks later I decided this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  Make music, play bass and live from it.  I’m still here forty years later this year.  I thought bass, bands and maybe singing would be the beginning and end.  At eighteen my mom and I got into a heated argument about me being nonverbal and withdrawn.  I told her I just have a hard time listening and interacting when I don’t need to.  The music sounds better in my head, and I enjoyed listening to that instead of dead end conversations.  She asked what I was hearing in my head, and I said I can’t play it.  Too many instruments.  “Well, you had better find a way to do it all yourself.  Everything!”

Today I spend my days and nights composing alone, working to get my ideas out of my head.  I think I probably get about 60% of my ideas out but technology has made the process so much faster.  I’m trying to optimize daily, maybe 80% in the very near future.

SBS:  Let’s talk about the before and after of where you’re currently at.  What’s something about the music that you’re making now that you don’t think you could have done five years ago, and what’s something you think you’ll be able to do with your music five years from now that you can’t do today?  How have you grown as an artist/band, and what steps do you take to continue your artistic evolution?

Samuel:  Mixing, mastering and composing in 5.1 Surround.  Coming from composing and recording in a stereo space for most of my life, I was unable to mimic what I heard in my head; I settled.  When I hear it, I am in the middle of it.  I’ve always wanted to share it.  Now I have the setup.

Five years from now?  I am excited about tomorrow!  Every day I switch on my office, I open the room and walk around with a blank canvas.  However, I think there will be a jolt in proprietary AI software.  I think that we will see the beginning of artists acquiring their own personalized AI and training it to anticipate what they would do musically.  I also think the option to “will” that AI software like property and other assets to family will be an option.  I’d like to see that.

I don’t see my growth in real time.  I usually look at what I’ve done in the past five-year window and compare what I did last week.  If today’s music says “I’m a little Mo’Betta” then I’m moving forward.

SBS: If you were to assess the overall health of the independent music scene right now, what would you say?  What are the positives and the negatives about the current state of independent music, and what do you feel like artists & bands can do to contribute to the community & help it grow beyond the music being made?  If you’re not actively looking to listen to the music of other independent artists/bands, is it really all that fair to expect anyone would listen to yours?  How do you help the scene around you grow?

Samuel:  I think the independent scene is in wonderful place.  If one can turn off all the static, the people, the dead-end conversations, adjust to change, welcome the agitation as a way of keeping one uncomfortable and use it to push and grow.

I also think listening to independent musicians is essential.  Ears and eyeballs on the swivel.  I love finding new music on Bandcamp.com.  I listen for the enjoyment and when I find something to eat I know not to try to cook in their kitchen.  I have my own house.  I cook there.

I used to be part of the “scene,” but I needed to get the music out of my head.  I had a band that I used for experimentation though the band didn’t know it.  They were paid well and so I presented my ideas to the other musicians, but they were completely not open to it.  I had to have long conversations to get them to try my ideas.  Since I was the bandleader, they did it, but for the money.  I wanted to run, and I settled for baby steps.  I left that idea and started my own company in 2008.

SBS:  What do you consider to be the biggest accomplishment or achievement you’ve had with your music to-date?  How do you personally measure your own success – is that something that even can be measured?  Is it awards, accolades, chart position…or is your definition of success based on something entirely different?  Should success, however you define it, be something that artists are continually focused on – or is success something that naturally occurs in the course of doing what you love to do?

Samuel:  My biggest accomplishment this far is National Spaces: a visual music experience.  It’s a National, State and recreation collection of music, stories, safety tips, promo ads, and anything else I can come up with.  Initially, I figured I’d write some songs about the National Parks with my own approach.  I did some research while listening to other artists’ projects in the past and could see a way to move differently.  The achievement is thinking or hearing something in my head and being able to turn on the office and make it happen.  All the experiences, ups, downs, long gigs, traveling from venue to venue, playing in dirt traps, marine band, private parties, church, listening to music, radio shows, rehearsing and practicing.  This project is the complete compilation of my journey to searching for the next thing, for me.

Success, for me, is taking an idea and making it a reality.  The reality is the reward, and I’m addicted to it.

Someone visited me and I let them listen to another project that I mixed in 5.1 surround.  The song is called “The Life Firm: Lucas, Henson, King and Rodgers.”  It’s a heavy one.  They sat in the sweet spot, listened, smiled and when it finished, they said it sounded like Alice in Wonderland.

“I wonder what you could do if you did shrooms, what could you do then?  That might open you up.  You should try.  I’m curious what would happen if you did?”

Well, my process and getting here has been nothing but hard work and I don’t have any intention in risking it.  I’m already open and the spigot is turned all the way up.  I like the open spigot because I always have an idea.

If one’s vision of success is healthy and productive then make it a mantra.  If it’s moving you forward and into new discoveries keep at it.  We are a living part of the natural world, and it evolves so it’s natural we do so artistically.  The special sauce is loving it.  That’s where the true enjoyment is.  That’s where one truly grows.

SBS:  When you’re working on something brand-new, and something about it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together the way that you think it should, how do you know when it’s time to give up on it, or how do you know that it’s time to dig in even harder and find a way to make it work?  Are there distinct red flags you can hear when something’s not working?  What are the signs you look for that tell you to stop forcing the material?  What would actually encourage you to keep going with the process instead?

Samuel:  The music will tell you what it wants.  It will tell you when it’s ready.

When something new isn’t sitting right I export what I have into an audio file and listen to it in a different place.  For me it’s the car ride.  I live in Utah so I can go from the desert to a mountain with a waterfall in thirty minutes.  I abuse that luxury.  I can tell after a few rotations what I’m missing.  I ensure when we do this that I have at least an hour of ideas.

The creative process has a way of giving back to the creator.  When you put out creative ideas and then sit back and experience it, it’s like talking to yourself.  Don’t wait until you put a completed stamp on it.  Get focused and let it speak to you.  If it doesn’t happen the first time, then maybe you are not ready for the music to tell you. 

SBS:  One of the points of general consensus in the art of making music, is that we all get our sound from somewhere…we hear what we like, then more often than not, we take tiny pieces of what we love to find our own voice & approach to go on and make music in our own way.  Essentially, what I’m saying is that it’s absolutely natural to be inspired by other artists/bands, and almost every artist/band ends up having that inspiration show up in their own work in some way, shape, or form.  What the real key is though, is retaining your own organic perspective – you still wanna be original too, right?  So how do you go about doing that?  Are there artists or bands that you know have been an influence on your style & sound?  How were you able to incorporate that influence without becoming too noticeably derivative and still be yourself?  Should we embrace and celebrate our influences more than we do?  It’s almost like we try not to admit influences exist in the pursuit of being original, but it’s like, bruh…if it’s there, we can hear it.  We all borrow something from those that came before us to some extent, don’t we?

Samuel:  Here is a scenario.

I want to play like (insert favorite artist).

If I mimic (insert favorite artist) I’ll be considered a good player.

Everybody else is playing like (insert favorite artist) and you should too.

So, if I do the above, I’m a mimic, gimmick, just a (insert favorite artist) like everybody else.

Now I’m Charlie Brown.  Capitan “APD.”

We are supposed to be inspired by another artist.  I am that’s for sure.  We should take the opportunity and learn from them.  Mimic to learn then move on.  If everyone else is wearing a blue and a red boot while running naked and screaming “The Emperor Of Ice Cream!” through the city, go put on some bright clothes, sit on bench and read a book.  Do you think you might get noticed?

So, what I’m trying to say is artists are there to be enjoyed and hopefully one would have the mindset to learn from their work.  At some point however we need to do the opposite of (insert favorite artist).

My overall sound as it is now can be influenced by anything at any given time.  Most of the influences are not music related.  They are story driven.  That how I work.  Books, movie scenes, people I meet, the sun shining a certain way on the mountains, the way a river runs when the mountain snow begins to melt.  I could go on, but it all has music in it.

I love to celebrate my influences.  I try to learn everything I can from them.  If it is music?  Try to buy everything I can so I have it ready when I need to learn something new.  Books?  Get the nicest copy I can afford and add it to the library.  Old books?  Search far and wide.  My walls in my home are filled with art.  Art, books and music that make me want to wear a blue and a red boot while running naked and screaming “The Emperor Of Ice Cream!” through the city.  Instead, I hold that and export that feeling when I compose.

SBS:  Has there ever been a time where you wrote something inside one of your songs…maybe it’s a lyrical line, or maybe it’s a riff of some kind…something that you did, where you surprised yourself?  I like to think we all have a moment or two where we can stand back and be amazed by something we created, and appreciate the fact that maybe, just maybe, we exceeded our own expectations of what we thought we could accomplish – you know what I mean?  Get as specific as you can so the fans out there know what they should be paying attention to when they hear it – what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written on the inside of one of your songs, and why does this particular piece resonate so much to you?

Samuel:  Today I’ll go with “The Idle Cowboy” The Grand Canyon Of Yellowstone.  With this song I referenced my series The Haunted Tales of Brierie, my paranormal series, Yarns of the Infinate (YOTI), my science fiction fantasy series, and National Parks.

For drummers?  That Paul Motian Cymbal (Sizzle Sizzle).

The feel/swing?  The slow walk of a dying horse.  Triplets.

Beneath The Blizzarding Sky (it was a Utah blizzard snow day, John Carpenters “The Thing”).

Lyric: Lost in the fog (John Carpenters “The Fog”).

Lyric: Fall leaves fall like failed dreams (falling leaf scene in WaterShip Down (1978 Original Cartoon Movie).

Lyric: Old Billy Boy from Brierie (The Haunted Tales of Brierie, YOTI).

Lyric: Got ta get ta movin double quick (Marine Corps Boot Camp).

Lyric: Yes, you’re sick and so very sick and I think it’s time to go a dyin. (American Folk Music (Southern): Barbara Allen).

Lyric: Billy Boy gave him a map, sent him on his way (The Haunted Tales of Brierie, YOTI).

Lyric: Die Free (“Vivre Libre ou Mourir” (Live free or die).

Lyric: There’s a man yonder giving a speech (Betty Hutton – It’s A Man, Fallout 4).

Lyric: “I wish to thank the people of Montana generally, those of Gardiner and Cinnabar especially.”

(Speech by Theordore Roosevelt Remarks at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the Gateway to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Montana).

Lyric: Skin and Bones, Whiskey (1930’s cartoon with a skinny horse, Woodford Whiskey, my personal fav).

Whispering Time to go Girl (My mother’s passing).

Time to be idle… (ending life sonically).

Lyric: Old Cowboy (Pentecostal style Praying and singing).

Lyric: So damn dog tired (The Plague Dogs).

It resonates because it’s my life.

SBS:  I’ve been having a lot of great debates lately about whether or not everybody that’s making music has the right to be heard…and you’d probably be surprised by how different people seem to feel about this issue.  I know where I stand on it, and I think you can all probably get an idea of what my position would be from this free interview we’re doing here & the way we run things at sleepingbagstudios…but regardless, I’m putting this question out there to you, because I’m interested in YOUR perspective.  Just because you’ve made a song, does that mean people should listen?  If your answer is yes, do your best to explain why you feel that way & why we should make a sincere effort to listen to the music of others.  If your answer is no, explain why you feel that way, but also explain why people should still be listening to your music if that’s the case – what would make your music the exception, and not follow the rule?  Is there any value to an idea that’s not finished, or a song in its demo stages, or maybe something that’s not recorded in a top-shelf studio or with good equipment – somebody still took the time to make that song to the best of their ability with the means they had to create it – should that be listened to, or not?

Samuel:  Creating a song for the most part when listened to is appreciated.  I think the opportunity to make and share music in any capacity should be available to everyone who is willing to try.  I’ve dealt with this conversation in the past.  Because I didn’t adhere to certain genres I was told that people who don’t play along with the 85% crowd should be quiet.  “What!  You think you’re different?”  Just watch The Boondocks: Uncle Ruckus Gets Hit.  That’s the scene.  So, I think everyone should have the opportunity.

Who cares what equipment is used?  What is the result?  That’s what matters.  I had an individual come to my workspace and say that my equipment was cheap.  You reviewed my album The Book of My Heart.  Did it sound cheap?  I changed my last name from Cosby to Kelly.  

Listen not to equipment demons.  Just do the best you can with where you are and what you have.

SBS:  There are ups and downs in the dynamics of almost every album we listen to, with very few exceptions.  Even those exceptions, probably still come down to more of a personal preference about what we enjoy about music and how we personally hear it, rather than anything being completely and totally “perfect” – you know what I mean?  Does an album actually need to have some kind of up/down dynamics in terms of what’s appealing to the masses in order for the best of the best songs in a lineup to be fully appreciated?  Wouldn’t every artist & band avoid the ‘down’ side (less accessible/less popular for example) if they could?  Does the ‘down’ side represent something else perhaps, like the story of an album or journey of an artist?  Is the ‘up’ side of a record as potent or noticeable if it doesn’t have a ‘down’ side to go with it?  Would a completely balanced album somehow be boring if it didn’t have the ups/downs that most have?  Do we HAVE to like every single song on a record for it to be considered complete?  Are the dynamics of an album something anyone can really steer in the direction they want to, or are all artists & bands simply going with the strongest material they have created at the time?

Samuel:  It is what it is.  I’m a storyteller and sometimes the story is told in one song and other times it is told in several songs.  I just want to tell the story even though I don’t know how it will sound in the end.  I like to dig into the ‘down’ and try to look for something I may have missed.  In the end if I tell the story it is what it is.

Dynamically?  It’s never complete.  Options are always available if you have the master recording.

SBS:  I wanna send out a shout-out to YOU from me personally – I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to talk tunes with me throughout the years, and I appreciate the time YOU have taken with this interview too.  Because this one’s a little different in the sense that it’s been sent out to multiple people and is a little more generic in that regard, I have no doubt whatsoever that we probably didn’t get to talk to you about something you wanted to talk about – so let’s fix that!  This final space is what we call the SBS Open Floor – a spot where you can say anything else you want to say to the people out there.  It can be anything at all…your main websites…something else you want them to know about you and/or your music…your favorite bands in the scene right now…the secret 11 herbs and spices to the Colonel’s secret recipe – you get the idea, and it’s probably best you choose something that suits you rather than take any of my suggestions, but feel free to take the SBS Open Floor for a ride.  Whatever it is you want the people to know, now is the prime time for you to tell’em!  Thanks again for everything – keep in touch!

Samuel:  I’m currently working on National Parks project National Space: a visual music experience.  I have turned my artist abilities into a family business placing my music at beetle-go.com/music.  I’d encourage you to diverse yourself in this ever-changing world.  Beetle-Go Store.

Much love to everyone.

NOW GET TO WORK!

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