Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samuel Sandoval. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

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

My most recent EP, Dinner at Loon, is probably the most meaningful project I’ve worked on to date. I love when artists have series, (loose) trilogies, or their own universe where their work lives and occupies, and Dinner at Loon completes this meal trilogy I’ve worked on since I started releasing music. The other projects are Lunch Time at the Mausoleum and Breakfast at the Coliseum, but Dinner is the most meaningful to me because it most thoroughly explores my favorite themes: reconciling generational trauma, humor vs. poetry, and specific to Dinner at Loon, being the ancestor my sisters and I need. All four songs on the album use voices from candid recordings of people I love to create an atmosphere of memory and dreams. I’m especially proud of the laughter and humor in the album because being able to laugh, although at times is a sign of subdued pain, is my favorite symptom of peace.

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?

I started writing poems at twelve. Around the same time I had a newfound interest in all the guitars in the house, my older sister’s acoustic and the blue electric I begged for a few Christmas’ before. I didn’t like the poems I wrote and thought they’d work better as songs. For the next ten years, everything I did revolved around writing a good song or a song I’m proud of, and in 2017 I released an album called Garden Noise. The nine songs on that album were written towards the end of those ten years discovering myself as a songwriter, so I felt ready to perform live. I found Funnybone Records, an independent record label in West Hartford, CT, found by Dylan Healy. He listened to Garden Noise and I was flattered when he asked if I’d be interested in signing onto his label. Since then I’ve released Breakfast at the Coliseum, Tupper, and Current Pretender, and unconditional support for my independent projects Graffiti Songs Vol. 1 and Dinner at Loon. On top of helping me release my music and share it with people, in 2019 Dylan and our friend, Justin Barre, formed a band we call Changeling. Before Changeling I wrote, performed, and recorded all of my music but working with/as a band has made me more interested in the ways my songwriting develops through collaboration. The ambition to generally write a poem has never left me. I want my best songs to make you laugh, think, and sing, and I’ve always been most proud of a song when the lyrics fulfill all three of those things.

My love for writing lyrics contributes deeply to my love for language and writing. Before the pandemic, Dylan (Funnybone Records) had talked to me about helping with a magazine he’d been planning. It’s called Import Sky, we’re on our third issue and I’ve been proud to be editor of the magazine since the beginning. For me, a life of songwriting has made it so easy to be curious about finding new ways to express the same thing. Being a part of the magazine allows me to meet and communicate with several artists of different mediums, all submitting work they feel best follows the issue’s theme. The whole process feels like artistic citizenship, the act of getting involved with people your age who are all doing weird and new things that I get to learn from.

My latest venture into the world of language is more technical: I took the time this year to become ESL certified and plan to teach English both in the US and out of the country. This goes back to community for me as a great resource and experience for growing as a person but also, if I’m able to figure it out, an artist.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The sweetest thing about writing a song someone likes and learning more about them when they tell me why. They bring up other artists they like or are listening to, bands their parents raised them on, what kind of art they make, or not at all and actually they don’t even like the kind of music I write but for some reason they were moved enough to tell me about it. Being an artist keeps me curious about people and other perspectives and I’ll go as far to say it’s my discipline and in general being curious about the world is how I go through life.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This might be simple but community. I would always underestimate the value of going to a show and meeting people and becoming a part of the community. It really helps, you never know who could help you or who needs your help!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://samuelsandovalmusic.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/human.yoyo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGkM3STRYHwlodw8yo6FroA
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/humanyoyo
• Other: https://funnybonerecords.com/human-yoyo/ (Biography)
  https://funnybonerecords.bandcamp.com/merch/import-sky-liminality-01 (1st issue of Import Sky)
  https://funnybonerecords.bandcamp.com/merch/import-sky-synchronicity (2nd issue of Import Sky)

Image Credits

Denis Semenyaka, Dylan Healy, Ashly LaRosa, Peter Neagle