SAMANTHA CRAIN
Samantha Crain’s release ‘A Small Death’ in 2020 received global acclaim. The amazing record was made in part after several severe car crashes rendered Samantha unable to make music in the traditional way. Having limited physical ability to play and write music meant a total rethink of how to lay down music.
Following that up with her soon to be released EP ‘I Guess We Live Here Now’, it is a wonder if the latest body of work is an extension to that record or a standalone piece that encapsulates a very specific time and place? “This EP is very much an extension of ‘A Small Death’ like the P.S. on a letter, an epilogue in a book. ‘A Small Death’ was the breath in, finding courage, taking action, getting well, finding strength and ‘I Guess We Live Here Now’ is the breath out, the hot bath after the long trek. It is the postscript of the “worst case scenario” letter as the smile crawls across your face when the thought enters your mind that there is no unbearable burden if you are still alive. These four songs are an expression of myself increasingly at peace with uncertainties, strong in the agency of my own decisions, finding undiscovered love in my heart for others, and beginning the lifelong process of balance between ambition and satisfaction.”
Having been through such a tumultuous time during the period of ‘A Small Death’ and having to look at music creation in an entirely different way, understanding what music truly means to Samantha is fascinating notion. As she describes it, “Music gives and takes if I'm honest. Sometimes it gives me confidence, sometimes it takes all of it away. Sometimes it gives me joy, sometimes it makes me so angry. I guess in that sense, if I'm thinking about it, it gives me a sun with which to orbit. I'm the one that changes, not the spirit of music. So it gives me center, something to always come back to.”
The name sake of the EP comes from a line in the final track off the EP Two Sitting Ducks and the concepts of reflection and freedom. In elaborating on the subject matter of the song, Samantha says “I can only speak from my own experience, but I've felt as I've gotten older, that I can feel a bit tied down to my station, my responsibilities, less brave, less free and when I was younger, I felt free in my fortitude, in my fearlessness, in my naivety even though life was much more difficult for me back then. So I wanted to explore the idea of freedom and its many meanings. I'm attempting to parallel the feelings in our youth of freedom and opportunity even in times of struggle alongside the feelings in our adulthood of weakness even in times of relative ease. And then, as for my aim with most of my songs, I'm trying to unlock the door to the other side, to find what freedom means to me now and how I can re-assess it in my current life. It's really just about how certain concepts--the meanings changes throughout your life. For me now, freedom is the agency to my own thoughts and movements and decisions not necessarily as much about physical movement and adventure as it used to be.”
In terms of writing for ‘I Guess We Live Here Now’ Samantha summarises the process “like baking a cake. I think most of us realize that it's a magic thing that appears at the end somehow but breaking it down into steps feels very un-magical.” Although she goes on to explain her approach “is that I just collect all the ideas I have no matter how small or silly or brilliant or lengthy. Anytime my brain has a moment of thought that extends past systematic keeping my body alive, it usually gets scribbled on a piece of paper or spoken or sung into my phone. Collecting all of these things, trusting that the good stuff will find its way to be where it needs to be but i just needed to catch it before it disappeared and then, inspiration, that can be elusive but when the urge hits, I thumb through my collection until something jumps out at me and try to explore whatever idea I pick out. As hard as it can feel sometimes, it's really just clearing your mind to explore and play when you've done the homework of collecting thoughts in the meantime.”
Considering the eclectic way in which thoughts, sounds and lyrics are coalesced into structured tunes, asking Samantha if any personal subject matter was strictly off limits yielded “I'm sure there is but it's not a formulated or written thing. It just has more to do with where I'm at emotionally or where I am on a journey of dealing with some things. I hate rules and I don't set them for myself. If something feels wrong to me, I'll make that boundary when I come to it and then I may erase the boundary someday down the line.”
As an Oklahoman it is only natural to enquire how much the state played a role in her recent EP and to a wider extent, her work as a whole. The part “Oklahoma played in writing these songs was actually just a concept of familiarity. Sometimes it takes this forced slow down in a comfortable and familiar place to gain perspective of things and I think that's happening to a lot of people right now. It isn't so much about Oklahoma and the specifics of the place, it's about what it represents for me (stability, affinity, comfort) and how that plays a part in our ability to take inventory of our lives during this great pause that's been happening around the world over the past year. The other side of this is having an experience where a place is so commonplace and familiar that it loses its shape, it becomes blurry almost. But during this unprecedented time, I was able to see the place around me in a new way like when you walk or bike around a town, how it feels so different and you notice different things than when you drive a car, that's what happened to me. Without my normal life going on as usual, and everyone else around me doing the same, a crack happened and it sort of led to a different filter of seeing things.”
After looking inwardly about the EP, Samantha’s long journey in producing it, the outward topic of performing and those who she has played with comes to the fore. Having met and performed with so many amazing artists over the years, it is inevitable that some words of wisdom had been uttered to her during that time and what she has taken away from these experiences. “I feel like every time I'm around a musician that's been doing this for a while, I learn just by watching them. Sometimes I learn things not to do, sometimes I see things that work really well. I feel like most actual spoken advice isn't very good, but you can learn everything by watching. I learned a lot about how I wanted to play on a stage by watching people like Justin Townes Earle. I learned a lot about working and ingenuity by watching Murder By Death. I learned a lot about kindness from William Elliott Whitmore. I learned a lot about individuality from the Mountain Goats. I learned a lot about humility from Gregory Alan Isakov. I'm a slow learner but happy to keep getting opportunities to watch and learn.”
Skilled across many disciplines, video production is but another and the optimistic clip for Bloomsday is a beautiful one. Understanding the connection between creating a song and producing the video for it is made all the more clearer when Samantha notes that “To me the song is anthemic in that it reminds me of the capacity I have for influencing my own day, the days of others, and a larger connectivity. I wanted to show that in the video as well. I wanted to write a visual story that showed the simplicity of that exchange. I had the idea of this cake being passed around in a very simple "pay it forward" fashion. One person is shown kindness, light, belief, wisdom (represented by the cake) and can choose to pass that along to someone else.”
It may just be a four track EP however the concept of a bolt on piece to a larger body of work isn’t something that artists often employ and it must be applauded that Samantha has done so. Adding to the collection of experiences of an earlier work gives fans a rare chance to delve even deeper into Samantha’s psyche and check in post 2020 as to where she and the world find themselves.
