Check Out Sam Paul’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Paul.

Hi Sam, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have a fairly vivid memory of my dad helping me write a story in like third grade — the story was essentially Jack and the Beanstalk, but from the perspective of the giant — and I have been in love with writing since at least then. I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15, but I was really embarrassed about my voice back then, so the bands I was in didn’t play any of my songs for a long long time.

Several bands and many voice lessons later, I started singing my own songs with a band called “Dear me.” Dear me, died and I decided that I never wanted to have that feeling of starting from scratch ever again, so I started releasing my songs under my own name, and here we are.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a bumpy road. Looking back, I can see that the biggest problem was/is a lack of confidence. In the beginning, I was mortified about the sound of my voice, but when I listen back to recordings I made back then, there’s a lot of good, and I wish I had been more proud of sharing my music from the start.

Even now, it can be hard to keep on going when it feels like I’m not having the kind of success I want. I start to think, “Am I crazy for thinking this is worthwhile? Do these songs suck?” It can be hard to recover from that. Logistically, it’s also hard to find the balance between working and living in a Capitalist dystopia and making art — which is apparently most worthless in a Capitalist dystopia.

What do you think sets you apart from other artists? What makes you different?
I studied and wrote poetry in college, and my big takeaways there were to use concrete details and tell the truth. So that’s what I try to do. I try to think, “What does this really feel like? Where was I when I was feeling this thing? What did I actually do?” and because of that, I end up writing things that other people won’t.

A song on my new EP goes, “My dog’s dead, and I’ve got a Tinder crush,” and that’s the kind of non sequitur that you get when you tell the truth. My dog was dead, and that was horrific, and I also had a Tinder crush. And the Tinder crush didn’t go anywhere, but it was a little salve, or at least a distraction, for a second there.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If you’re writing, just say the thing. One time a friend of mine was discussing a lyric with me, and he said, “It was like every little thing I did made her upset. Like, I’d get the door for her and she’d cry.”

And I was like, Woah, that should be the lyric. He ended up going with “I’d buy her flowers and she’d just cry,” but close enough.

Contact Info:

• Email: contactsampaul@gmail.com
• Website: www.sampaulsays.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sampaulsays
• Youtube: youtube.com/spinalcolumna
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/sampaulsays

Image Credits:
Bianca West and Matt Howshar