Sam Louis is the name to know in 2021! This Canadian artist gets real about navigating his emotions during isolation. His previous hit, “Driftin,” is meant to be an emotional escape from the confines of isolation. We recommend blasting this song at max volume in your car speakers to get the full effect. This powerful yet somewhat dark song (the good kind of dark… don’t worry) is a metaphor for lonely nights where it feels as if we are actually driftin. Not only is Sam Louis a talented musician, but he is also an advocate and music teacher who specializes in music therapy. This coincided perfectly with his desire to teach the importance of using music to heal the soul, just as it continues to heal him. Jejune is thrilled to speak with Sam about his emotionally uncensored song “Driftin,” his life as a music teacher, and his newest single “Die Tonight,” which dropped August 6th! So tune in and continue reading this interview for all things Sam Louis.

Where are you based?
Based out of Toronto Canada, originally from Thunder Bay Ontario.

When and how did you realize music was your passion?
Growing up back home in Thunder Bay, I was forever surrounded by music and artistry. My nonno was a mandolin player and would always be playing old Italian songs throughout the house when he’d stay over. My family had a band, each one of my uncles played an instrument with my nonno on mandolin and my mom being a bad ass on bass guitar. Seeing music so supported and loved all around me was inspiring at a young age, but it wasn’t until I was about 11 years old that I learned that I had a voice of my own. I began singing in school choir and went on to performing in musicals and national anthems at local sporting events. My parents never stopped helping me find the right opportunities for my love of music. But in grade eight, I was over at one of my good friend's, and he was super into glam metal and classic rock bands —KISS, Motley Crue, Ozzy all of them . He said to me, ‘I’m about to show you the greatest song of all time…’ it was Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen. Mind you, this was my first time hearing anything by Queen… It changed my life, the intricate and grandiose harmonies, the timeless melodies and the existential lyrics, made me addicted to not just the music but the craftsmanship of it. That’s the moment I knew I wanted to write songs and become a recording artist.

Can you describe the music genre you fit into?
This is a hard one; I love so many styles of music, so originally I was trying to craft my songs around multiple genres like pop, rock, hip hop, indie, R&B, funk, house. Then I started to study some of my favourite musicians, they didn’t let genres define their music but rather let their music define genres.
Once I started taking that pressure off and just kept creating music that I loved, music that made me move and feel good, my own sound really began to emerge, but it’s constantly developing. My main inspiration will always be Michael Jackson. The way he fused live rock sound with smooth R&B and dance/funk was revolutionary and something that I think my new music is trying to represent in a modern but nostalgic way.

We love your song “Driftin”. Can you please tell us a little bit about your new single “Die Tonight”? What inspired this song?
Sex and death have notoriously been referenced together in culture. Die tonight is my take on this allusion. The story was written almost like a movie script, two characters that end up together in a time that feels like the world is falling apart around them. What I would do in my last moments alive go through my mind, the emotions and existential euphoria of it all. This record is an expression of a moment where end and beginning meet and I want it to be a sonic escape for everyone who listens.

Can you tell us how the pandemic influenced this song and your music?
I wrote “Die Tonight'“ back in fall 2020, influenced by the uncertainty and growing social anxiety of the pandemic. This record is about living in the moment, forgetting about everything around you and falling victim to the rush of it all. It’s about being in this pandemic and having the night of your life with someone, committing it all in that moment. In today’s world of manic emotions, we crave/require more grandiose experiences and dynamic/eccentric stories to help take our mind off the monotony of our current lives.

What was the process of creating this song?
“Die Tonight” was the second record I recorded myself here in Toronto. I wanted the vocals to be cut a little differently for this track. This song required a lot more vocal attention and vulnerability during recording, it begged for a certain type of stereo intimacy in the performance.

Working again with LA based producer Shayan Amiri (Brian Justin Crum, Sabi), “Die Tonight” started out as a lo-fi hiphop piano loop with a secret 80’s guitar solo. Bringing in some new fire, Grammy-winning mixing engineer, Curtis “Sircut” Bye (Brockhampton, Sza, EarthGang, G-Easy) “Die Tonight” began to evolve into a real international record. With engineer Nicolas De Porcel AKA Million Dollar Snare (Roddy Ricch, Kendrick Lamar, Dababy) returning to master this next single, it feels like we are starting to create quite the sonic terrain.

What do you hope the listening experience will be for your new single ‘Die Tonight’?
“Die Tonight” is like an underground bond theme. The song is a mystery forcing the listener on a euphoric audio trip. The vocals are seductive but in a more subtle and emotional perspective. With dark sedative synths, distorted vocal echoes and a narcotic bassline, “Die Tonight” is an after hours apparition. I hope the listener can get lost in the song's production and storyline, in their first listen I want them to instantly be pulled into this purgatory like nirvana that we created with “Die Tonight.”

Do you feel we are all drifting more than ever before?
I really do, especially in the time when I wrote “Driftin.’” It is a record about feeling lost and alone surrounded by so much beauty and wonder that you can’t reach/access. Being stuck in a bigger metropolis like Toronto during this pandemic brought upon the darker emotions of “Driftin.’” Having the city lights in view while feeling like you’re helplessly floating farther away from it, created this weird disconnect, one that I compared to drifting through space-time.

To me, the record really echoed the pandemic's ability to isolate, and I think everyone is able to relate to that feeling right now.

Post pandemic it feels like everyone is itching to make the most out of life. Do you feel this
influenced your song?
Completely yes, “Die Tonight” is all about living in the moment and having no regrets. Committing all you have to this one second, being fully present with someone is such a powerful thing, especially now. Coming out of this Pandemic everyone needs to move at their own pace and readjust back into society slowly, Die Tonight speaks about finding someone who vibrates at your similar frequency, who instantly gets you, your dreams and desires.

It is beautiful that you work with Music Therapy in Schools, which has you visiting students with disabilities and reading disorders providing them with some music therapy and musical healing. Can you tell us a bit about this experience and what inspired you to get involved in it?
Thanks so much, I am forever grateful to be able to take something I love like music and be able to share it and inspire healing through it. I love working with my students, they have such a young hunger and pure, genuine attachment to music and it constantly drives me everyday. In my family, my mom is a high school music teacher, while my dad is a physiotherapist, so teaching music and helping others heal started to come naturally. I thought working in music therapy would be a great way to really unify my surrounding influences. It’s just a beautiful language, another way of communicating to each other that focuses more on feeling first rather than thinking.

With things opening back up, have you been able to go back to being in person? Do you feel your students got as much out of the virtual experience?
I actually haven’t been able to go back to in-person yet, having a lot of vocal students I’m still not allowed to be singing in a room with them! So I’ve been teaching entirely online still and truthfully some of my students have excelled more during these online lessons. Online has its positives and negatives though for sure. I feel like I’d be able to help my students more accurately in person (latency and audio issues), but online lessons forced me to learn new ways of teaching music and actually helped me strengthen my students’ technical abilities, putting more attention to vowel placement, positioning and most importantly breathing.

What is music therapy to you?
Music therapy is a language of healing. Just like music itself is its own true language, with different power, inflection and opinion music therapy is the use of this language for healing.

What differences have you noticed in students who participate in music therapy?
Such a positive motivation, there’s something so inspiring when you see a student lose themself in an instrument. Whenever I hand my guitar over to one of my students, they treasure that moment. They live in that moment and seeing that is one of the most rewarding things as a teacher.

How has music helped you?
Music has continuously been a translator, a channel that I can always tune to when I need to feel understood, when I need to feel pain, when I need to keep moving, when I need to live. There’s multiple ways that music influences me, through active listening but also through writing and design. Music allows me to dream and imagine, it gives me release and inspiration. My form of communication, my drug, my medicine.

Mental health has been a huge issue during covid. Do you have any advice suffering with everything going on?
The one powerful perspective that awakened through the pandemic was the stigma around mental health. I think the barriers that were previously placed around mental health are slowly being brought down. The pandemic showed us how even though we may feel alone, we truly are not alone. We are all experiencing and going through this together, and we need to be there for each other even more than ever. Remember there’s always a flipside to that self-deprecating thought, be kind to yourself and you will emanate kindness towards others, live in the moment, listen to your favourite artists/albums unapologetically haha and lastly actually stop and take some deep breaths throughout the day…It helps to ground yourself while giving your brain some much needed extra oxygen :)

How have you been staying positive during shelter in place? Have you gone back to normal?
It’s honestly been a roller coaster and some days are better than others, but being able to see friends again, FaceTimes with the family, learning scales on guitar, mario kart aha cooking and writing/recording new music have all been my saving graces.

What is your life motto?
Music is medicine.

To stay up to date with Sam Louis, please follow him on the platforms below:
Facebook: @SamLouisMusic
Twitter: @samlouismusic
Instagram:@samlouismusic
Youtube: SamLouisMusic
Soundcloud: samlouismusic
TikTok: @samlouismusic
Spotify: Sam Louis
Apple Music: Sam Louis
Website: https://www.samlouis.com/

Sam Louis And Coping From The Confines Of Isolation