We recently connected with Sam Buckley and have shared our conversation below.

Sam, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I have ever taken was deciding to go out on my own and build my own career under my own name from the ground up. I was in an successful and respected Blues band (Dreamboogie) for 9 years. We had professional management, a record company, and we toured all over Australia and were semi-finalists in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2016.
In 2020, the band dissolved. I decided it was time for me to own my dream – which was to lead and front my own band, and it was a big risk. I had to learn how to be a front person, cop all the comments “You can’t sing, you’re not good enough” etc and cop all the drama that front people have to deal with. I had no management or label to buffer me from that and I’ve had to build up my own sound, book, manage, tour, play on my own. I am super grateful to my wife, Amelia, who not only stood by me in some of the toughest moments, but who worked with me by helping me with all my back end. I attribute a big part of my success to how we worked as a team and believed in each other, no matter what.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Sam Buckley. I am a professional Blues. musician based in NSW, Australia. I grew up in a Christian family on 100 acres and my Dad inspired my love of music. I use to join him at church playing guitar – he introduced me to the greats: Clapton, Derek and the Dominos, Yes, Santana, Bob Dylan and many more.
At around age 16, I decided that my dream and calling in life was to play the Blues after listening to Roy Buchanan’s, “When a guitar plays the Blues”. I left home at age 18 and eventually moved to Sydney…and the rest is history.
I have been a professional musician for over 2 decades and I am about to release my debut album with Blues legend, Lester Snell, and Royal Studios (Memphis).
Over the last 4 years, my wife, dog and I have lived in a motorhome and driven over 110,000kms gigging in Australia. I am most proud of my worth ethic, which comes from my Dad. I have played nearly 500 shows in the last 4 years and my attitude is “whatever it takes”.
I take nothing for granted and put my head down and get it done. I believe attitude is everything and if you wanna rock n’ roll, you gotta be prepared to grind it out and develop character – I do not believe in taking short cuts – because your music is a. direct reflection of your soul. True Blues comes from lived experience – pain, suffering, hardship, the good the bad and everything in between, you’ve gotta be able to feel and express these emotions to be able to play it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Where do I start? lol Too many to mention. A good example would be last week. I had a 8-hour drive to get to a sold-out ticketed show. My van broke down as I was about to pick up the band about 5 hours into the trip. I then had to brainstorm a solution……… pronto!!!! ……….As the gig was 5 hours away from start time at the time. My friend ended up saving the day by lending me his car and we were able to get there with just an hour before showtime. The ability to then be able to reset after all that drama and go into performance mode is where the resilience really comes in – being a touring muso and doing it all on your own and the amount of things that can and do go wrong when you’re constantly travelling can really test you.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me is building on the skill that comes from constantly channelling and performing music. Over the years I’ve really enjoyed learning how to somewhat express myself in a creative way and to see the positive effect this can have on others. I heal myself through playing music but in turn this seems to reflect onto the audience in a positive way also.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sambuckleymusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sam_buckley_music/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sambuckleysvb
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sambuckley3393

Image Credits

Daniel Elliott