We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sam Deffenbaugh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sam, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is Hello Stranger’s upcoming third record. We decided to completely self-produce this record including engineering, mixing, and mastering. It’s been an incredibly rewarding creative exploration and, though challenging, has allowed the band to produce an album that exactly matches our vision.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a singer-songwriter and I perform with the alternative rock band Hello Stranger. I started writing songs when I was 13 and fell in love with the process of crafting melodies and lyrics. And I think it’s really my lyricism that sets me apart from other songwriters. There are so many excellent melody-writers and arrangers, but far fewer lyricists, so I always take great care to make sure that what I’m singing about is resonant and unique.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Hello Stranger’s main goal is to connect with as many people as possible. Music is about community and the ability to share our art with an audience is the most rewarding aspect of the creative process.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think the biggest shift in our thinking was when we stopped trying to win over everyone in the audience and instead focused on connecting with the people that would best receive our music. It’s easy to want to please everyone, and we definitely want to build a large following, but we’re also careful to make sure that we’re not dumbing down or homogenizing our songs.

Contact Info:

• Website: hellostranger.band
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellostranger/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloStrangerBandOfficial
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGZgb0DDbsE8mDlbpjp5IDg

Image Credits
Credit: Sofía Felguérez and Charley Button