Catching Up is Hard To Do (Part II): Singer, Producer, Engineer...Night Owl

I've had the desire to start a blog for some time now, but finally I feel like I will be able to share my experiences and life in a way that will show meaning to my goal. Everything I've been through has shaped the person I am today and the reason I do what I do. My only hope is that you fall in love with the story of my life(though there is still so much to it left) and the soundtrack that's being built for it. This post is actually coming at a good time because in these last two weeks I have regained my abilities to be a Night Owl. Apologies for waiting so long in between posts, but I've had little time to update on my whereabouts because I'm creating these whereabout experiences. I figure what would be a better way to catch up with the passed 3 years and the passed 2 weeks but to incorporate the two.

Let's pick up where we left off in my last post, Junior Year at Carnegie Mellon University and I am in my first recording class. It came so naturally to me, not just telling people what to do when they were in the booth (Brandon says I can be bossy sometimes, I think I'm just a natural leader) but also having the ear to pinpoint good takes vs bad ones and edit the right musical information to tracks. That may seem like a bit too honest to admit that I enjoyed having the power to tell others what to do, but it's true. It's an art really, to get it down to a T. There are people who are "bossy" and there then are people who are "leaders". My professor noticed my ease with leadership immediately. I never told anyone what to do, I made they feel comfortable enough with themselves so that they did what I wanted them to without them realizing that I had been gearing them in that direction from the beginning. And despite what anyone may think, that is art. I had people requesting to work with me as an engineer because of all the fun and laughs that I brought to a studio session while still getting work done efficiently. To be completely honest, I think that the reason that most engineers are successful is when the engineers themselves are artists because they understand what it feels like to be exposed and have everyone around you listening to your art while you're trying to record something creatively. In this case especially, because most artists would come and use the studio for free since they knew that their session would be educational to a class of 30 people. Now, on top of having your own criticism (which is the harshest) and that of the engineer/producer (second harshest) you also had a group of 30 college students watching your every move and hearing your every mistake. It may seem easy enough, but it's nerve-racking to say the least.

One of the artists that came in frequently was a local Pittsburgh Rapper, named "Freestyle" at the time. He currently goes by "Frzy" (@Frzy) and has a wide following, having worked with a number of famous national and international artists now. Good friends now, he always likes to pretend that he had his eye on me before I even tried to become his engineer of two years, but who knows the truth. The facts are that after one session with him I came out of my shy shell (tongue twister? "shy shell") and sang for him in the hopes of working with him as not only an engineer but as a guest artist on one of his tracks. Of course, my engineer professor was taken aback because he had no idea that I was a singer, as well. He only really trusted me for the engineering skills. Slowly, I proved myself though. I should mention that during this time the Teacher's Assistant of the class was Andrew Goldberg, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon receiving his certificate in Music Engineering and Production was the one who gave me the most mentor like abilities to learn everything faster. He noticed my ease with the soundboard immediately and had already become very good friends with Frzy, so needless to say the three of us became a dynamic trio in the studio, where I spent most of my nights for the first half of my Junior Year in college.

3am Studio Session Nov. 2010
Andrew took this picture I'm pretty sure, either him or Free. Just this picture alone pretty much sums up Junior Year of CMU, as well as, the last two weeks. Since I last wrote I got a second job, applied for another more permanent job and continued working at my current job, all while writing, recording, singing, practicing and attempting to squeeze time in with my friends and boyfriend. For those who don't know my job that I already had is in retail. I'd be more explicit about which company I work for, but since I can feel myself having the urge to write more about it in the future I don't want to put myself in a compromising position. My new job is going really well, but I tend to want to keep things private until I know they're really going to work out. Maybe I should stop that and get more music out, too (something I promise to have done by the next post because I've been on it for the last two weeks like a mad woman)! And finally, there is the new job that I am interviewing for that I am definitely not going to make public so as to not jinx it, but I'd really appreciate the good vibes for the final interview, which is early next week! I've just been the busy bee trying to fit it all in and truthfully, I love this much more than feeling as if there is nothing to do, even if it causes a little Stress here and there.

Following my sleepless nights at CMU I was faced with a big decision for the second half of my junior year. Since before I started college, I had decided that I was going to study abroad in Paris, France. I had already been accepted into a Parisian Abroad Program for Economics/Business and awarded a small but worthwhile abroad scholarship from CMU. But now I had a family in the studio and I really didn't want to leave it, I wasn't sure if it would be the same when I returned.
I'll have to elaborate on my amazing experience in France one of these days so I'm sure you've figured out what decision I made and I can say with confidence that I have no regrets. When I returned Senior Year to CMU I earned a spot taking Andrew's position as TA of the Engineering class and even got a job as an engineer for the CMU School of Music doing live productions, as well as studio productions. With this kind of access to the studio you can bet that I had a lot of time to record my own things here and there.

I soon graduated to become what most college graduates are these days… unemployed. Haha, I seriously just chuckled to myself as I was writing this. I should save my post College drama for another post, but needless to say, it took a bit of time before I really was able to hone in on what I wanted, where I wanted and decide HOW I was going to get it.

My good friend, who helped me set up this blog is going to help me figure out how to add MP3's to it, so if the next post doesn't have a tune up for you to listen to, I'll be pretty upset with myself because there are no excuses at this point, especially with how hard I've been working to get some stuff recorded. The only real set back is me! Yesterday my engineer/co-producer, who will be introduced later, sent me some of the demos that we had worked on and I liked what I heard, but when I listen to myself I don't listen to it subjectively. You'd think "Yeah, right… you LOVE how you sound!" or "Yeah, right… you're too critical on yourself". But it's actually not true. I can compliment myself just as well as I can criticize myself, but the real issue is that I've worked with different record labels and so many music companies in the passed that I know what they're looking for. As I continue the story of my journey, I'll elaborate on how one of my specific jobs once upon a time was to just listen to demos and accept or reject them before they went up to a higher management to accept or reject. I know what music moguls will give the time of day to and I know what they won't. For that reason, I hear something of mine and I immediately think 'how long would I listen to this for until I turned it off?' If it's less than 30 seconds, then it's no good and I have to keep working at it. I did an a cappella version of the song "Explosions" by Ellie Goulding just as a sound test for adjusting levels and surprisingly I think I like it better than some of the other stuff I had considered doing, so I'll upload that on next post while I continue working on my original Minted Tunes for you.

Have a great Thursday, and I hope to have made this week's snow day pass by just a little smoother for those of you out there in the Northeast!

It's A New Year, Let's Catch Up

It’s a new year and a new day so from here on out you’ll be reading a lot about me, my music, my journey, my funny stories, my friends and hopefully you’ll be able to relate and get a good laugh and feel inspired, while enjoying the Minted Tunes. My name is Samantha Bowen, but I’m SamJam to anyone who knows me. I live in Philadelphia, PA with my boyfriend, Brandon and travel to visit my amazing family in Miami, FL often enough to enjoy the beaches and views without getting too tired of the humidity.

What a way to start the new year with the chilly temperatures and snow, but I don’t mind it much as long as I’m indoors. This gives me the perfect opportunity to sit back with some hot cocoa and write to the followers out there looking for something new (Minted) to read.

A Little About Me:
I’m 23 years old and a musician, hence the Minted Tunes, and I live in Philadelphia, PA. Home is way down south at the tip of Florida, also known as Miami.
My parents met in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My mother was born in NYC but studied medicine down there and my father was born in Ecuador and working. They met, the loved, they had me, fairly straight forward. Then moving to the US Hot Spot Miami, FL. For a lot of people reading they may expect some sappy sad story about their divorce, but truthfully, that’s not going to happen. They’re happy wonderful people and I couldn't be more content with our family dynamic. So what, it’s a little stressful sometimes, but who can complain about getting twice the amount of gifts on Christmas?


Back to me, I’m an only child by technicalities, but in reality I have brothers and sisters close to me.

When I was eight years old I started taking music lessons on the advice of my elementary school music teacher at the time. What she saw (or heard) in me, I’m not quite sure because she mentioned the idea to my mom after hearing me sing “The Bunny Song” with all my other schoolmates, who were probably wondering "Why does our education include singing this dreadful song?” . I immediately began learning my third language, music (I am fluent in both Spanish and English). I was part of the Miami Choral Society! It sounded so prestigious, until they quickly changed the name to the Miami Children’s Choir. Kind of a let down because now everyone knew they were coming to listen to kids sing their versions of elementary songs while a man waved his hands in front our faces in the hopes that our eight year old ADD minds would follow before realizing how we’d become performing monkeys… and our parents were paying for it! What a laugh! All jokes aside, I loved being a performing monkey. I loved the applause, the smile on people’s faces, the standing ovations, the request for more and most of all the actual act of performing, singing and making people laugh. Oh wait… I still love all those things.

One year into it, I got my first rejection at the heart wrenching age of 9 when I was told that I was not ready for “Intermediate Choir”. So I continued on in Beginner’s Choir for another year before making it to Intermediate. Two years there and I was off to Advanced Choir, where I was chosen for the kid’s roles in the Florida Grand Opera. Now this was a real stage and at real venues. I got to act and sing and dress up and being chosen, I felt so special. No one mentioned these dreams become harder to fulfill when you’re older?! … I’ll save the ‘live and learn’ bit for later. As I mentioned I was moving on up and most of all, I was learning a lot about how music worked, how to do the fun things like improvise and take on solo parts. I could never admit that I wanted to sing a solo, I’m not sure why, but I had this shy front that I would put on despite how hard I worked to make sure that I worked well with my choir mates. There was one thing I knew for sure though, I was heading to HighSchool, 14 years old now and I wanted to go to Arts School. Yes, I am good at math and science and blah blah blah, but I wanted to be a goofball and prance around singing like the performing monkey I mentioned earlier. Months of practice and training and my audition for New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami had arrived. I could elongate the nervous wreck I was that morning or talk about my ridiculous interview answers, but the point is… I MADE IT and I could not have been happier!


NWSA Senior Show Case (I'm on the far left)
My four years of high school at NWSA could be a whole book in itself so it’s difficult to condense but I’ll mention the most important detail which is that I grew as a performer (and a person) so much. I was so shy when I first started my vocal lessons, simply standing and moving my mouth to expect the wow reaction I had received at age 8, but that wasn't the case anymore. I had to learn more about moving, acting and performing. Let’s just say that by senior year I had mastered my craft… at least among my peers. I had the best class and group of people in my choir and at school. Everyone was always really supportive and talented so you genuinely felt you wanted others to do well and I finally started auditioning for solos.

I remember one time my mom said “Sam, why don’t you audition for more solos and sing out more?” and I said “Well, no one asks me to..”. My mother quickly responded “Sam, no one is going to ask you to be famous…”. Finally, the response I needed to motivate me to get out there and just say ‘hell with it’ if they don’t like me, they don’t like me and I’ll sing elsewhere. After the many awards and recognition I received at New World School of the Arts, I graduated and head to the Northeast (where I’ve longed to go since before I could remember) to Carnegie Mellon University. Another book could be written here about pretty much everything, but this is about the music, the Minted Tunes to follow. I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Economics, a minor in Music Technology and a Certificate in French and Francophone studies. Yes, I studied abroad in Paris, France and had the time of my life, but that’s for another post. The really exciting stuff is how I took on the task of learning how music is recorded and working behind the scenes in the CMU Studio. I pretty much became the Head Engineer’s right hand and gained my new skill of recorded music. It’s with this knowledge that I am able to now record anywhere and everywhere. It's with this how I’ll be able to put my tunes up for you to listen to and comment on.


3am Recording Session at Carnegie Mellon
After I graduated, I worked a bit, then got signed to an independent record label (whole separate post about that to come) then left them and moved to Philadelphia to keep working at an independent music label as an A&R Coordinator, sing and live with my too-good-to-be-true boyfriend that supports my little kid dreams 100%.

The people I met along the way and the troubles and joys I’ve been through to get to where I am today, to feel comfortable enough to put a non-perfected video up of me fiddling around on my guitar is just too long to fit in this post, but no worries I’ll elaborate on the little details of my journey slowly but surely with pictures, laughs and most importantly music. I just wanted to catch you guys up on a bit of me and how I got here.

This video (link below) was taken just two days ago in Miami with my mom. She caught me and I didn't realize ‘til halfway in. I’ll be recording the full version of this Cover sometime this week and will hopefully have it up by the end of next week. I am such a perfectionist that I would never in my wildest dreams put something up that I didn't think was 100% but as my mom says “Fuck it”. It’s a new year and I’m going to get out of my comfort zone to just put myself out there. Take it or Leave it, Love it or Hate it.

Thanks for reading and hope you’ll keep following me and my Minted Tunes ;)

"Please Don't Stop The Music" (Cover) - Rihanna