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!

Catching Up is Hard to Do (Part I): Learning a New Medium and Acting Behind the Scenes

I woke up this morning to pure white. As most of you already know it's a winter storm in the northeast today and tomorrow. I figured it was a good day for a post since a lot of you are not working today and will be able to enjoy some story time with hot chocolate and an outstanding view from your window. For those of you in the heat of the west coast or sunny Florida I took a picture for your liking. It's really quite wonderful as long as you're inside looking out.

The next two blog posts are going to be a bit long. Ideally I would have started this blog three years ago so I wouldn't feel as if I needed to condense the important details that have gotten me to where I am today into two blog posts. If I blogged every small event that lead to large life lessons one at a time it would take forever, not to mention that cliffhangers at the end of each post would become annoying to bear. On the other hand if I attempted to do it all in one I'd either have a novel that would have most of you with visual problems from staring at the screen for so long or I'd have a half assed version of what took a while to accomplish. Well, let's get started.

Remember earlier when I said I was very shy about solos? Right, well that did not go away overnight. For a long time I told everyone around me that all I wanted to do was produce music, learn what goes on behind the scenes. Well, I went to Carnegie Mellon University, searched around and inquired 'til someone finally gave me the answer I was looking for. Music Technology and Production is what it was called and music production is what I learned.

By the time I learned that there was a program in which I could study and learn the methodology behind recording, producing and editing music it was a few weeks before the end of my freshmen year in college. There was nothing I could do at this point but to wait 'til the following academic year to enroll in classes where I'd work directly with a sound board and other artists. So what's a girl to do, oh I know! How about I bug everyone I know in Miami (where I spent my summer vacations with my family) about getting me in contact with a studio for me to work in. I didn't care if I had to clean the bathroom to get a sneak peak into the studio - well, that's not true, I'd mind a little...okay maybe a lot - but the point is I was willing to get in and be surrounded by the environment. I kid you not I once interviewed at a recording studio that told me I'd be cleaning bathroom most of the time while occasionally getting in on sessions and I wanted that internship, but that's another time.

So, I'll save you from reading the boring 'he knew her who knew him who knew them' schpeil and cut to the chase, which is that I got in contact with a man named Hal Batt. Hal owned a small studio in North Miami called AfterHours Studios and for some reason he took me in to intern with him. The only reason I could see him taking me is because he saw my passion otherwise how was I genuinely going to help without any knowledge of how to use all the very expensive equipment with all the nobs and buttons. I felt like I was in a cockpit of an airplane staring down at the soundboard awaiting me. Not as if I was going to be able to even touch the beautiful buttons before learning how to get my hands dirty learning all the background work first.

Fortunately, I am quick learner. In just two weeks I was helping out with setting up and tearing down sets in the booth and the control room for multiple sessions throughout the day. For those of you who still believe that recorded music is like live music, boy will you be surprised with what you're about to read. It's public knowledge, but simply most of us are ignorant to the truth that marketing the music is sometimes more important than the music itself. It's really a fascinating process in which all the different instruments that you hear on a record are recorded separately on their own track. It took us a whole week to get one song completed with horns, piano, voice, guitar, bass and drums because each instrument was recorded on it's own day.

To put it quickly I ended up working there a lot that summer and even became a vocal coach for some of his artists working directly with them during their recording sessions. I believe that as a vocalist myself I was able to form a connection where the artist felt comfortable working with me as an engineer, an advantage that I've found has stuck with me and continued to use in the future. One of my biggest advantages being my ability to communicate in Spanish because in Miami there are a lot of people that want to sing in Spanish even though they don't speak Spanish, but it'll sell more, right? And that's all that matters. This handy language knowledge comes to use later, as well.

Back at Carnegie Mellon Sophomore year I was told that I still couldn't take my recording classes because I needed to take Music Theory Prerequisites ... I guess the best things are worth waiting for. Fortunately, I passed with flying colors and broke my professors and classmates expectations about how well singers were with music theory. It's an ongoing joke that vocalists are the worst at music theory and practice, but I was one of four students in the entire class, as well as the only vocalist, that earned an A that semester. To those around me there was nothing that could be said about me that was stereotypical.

Another year and no recording experience, so I decided on a different route and applied for an internship with Sony Music Entertainment. You're thinking 'Yeah, Right... Like she can get an internship on the first try with one of the four biggest labels in music'. Well, before I continue, I should mention that though I only applied to Sony BMG, I must have applied to well over 15 positions. I specifically remember having dinner with a family friend after two months of no response from Sony. Over the two months of no response I had been offered countless internships with Citbiank, PNC and other similar financial opportunities. It's true that I love math and my econ major but I wanted to use it in a different way. So I held out, hoping for it to pay off with word from Sony. At this dinner reunion I will never forget being told "You had offers given to you already and you didn't take them? ... That's stupid! You're stupid!" Of course I was offended but I was 20 years old and didn't really know if I had made the right decision since all my friends had their internships set and I was only one still waiting for a miracle from a one in a million chance. Offended, I left upset and feeling doubtful. Two days later I got a call to come in for an interview at Sony Music Latin. A week later, and I was hired as a summer Intern with Sony. I hardly ever spoke to the family friend again, but I repeatedly used to think about what I wish I had said to defend myself from such narrow-minded thinking. It's that kind of doubt that I can't let guide me or stand in my way of what I want. If you're not with me, then I can't afford to waste my time with your negativity because I have places to go a future to make.

Working at Sony as a Digital Marketing Intern was amazing. I wish I could go into the nitty gritty detail of what I worked on and the projects that allowed me to learn even more of how the music industry is shaped and how much effort is put into the smallest of details to ensure an artists success, but I fear I'd only get into large trouble with such a private and well known company. What I can say is that I made a lot of friends and the work environment was amazing. The meetings were eventful and I learned more than I thought I could have ever taken with me to have in the future. Even better, now it was on my resume and I had that background that tied my Econ and business studies along with my passion for music. I was only too excited to get back to school and learn the next part of the 'behind-the-scenes' process that I had been waiting for since two years back.

Finally, junior year at Carnegie Mellon University (2010-2011) and I made sure I was the first to sign up, plus I had priority being an upperclassman. I now sat in my first recording class. The second half of this story is where it really gets good and where I honed in on my new found ability to be a leader in the engineering chair. It just came too naturally to ignore.

Born Into The Stars... It's Not For All of Us, But I'll Make My Way There

If you followed me on Twitter this passed Saturday then you already know that I did not pass on through to the second callbacks for the Network Television singing competition "The Voice". The entire experience has me still thinking a lot about how it affects the artists when you get out there and try despite your odds. As long as you feel good about you, then that should be all the preparation you need.

I arrived at 6:06am to the stone building under the grey of the rain, power walking as if the mass of people arriving to the same place may make it one spot in front of me. Though I'm an hour early for my audition time I am still behind well over 500 people waiting to make it inside, meanwhile only thinking of how I'm going to keep my guitar dry from the rain during the wait. Finally we slowly started making our way inside the building and it fascinates me how in a time where everyone is competing for a small number of slots we all still come together in support and encouragement for the sake of feeling better about the nerve-racking audition ahead.

"Where are you from?", "What song are you singing?", "What's your style?" and the comfort taken in knowing more about others and their journey to this audition allows us to feel a togetherness while standing in this insane line for over three hours to sing for a man for 45 seconds with the high probability of rejection. I particularly took to this one girl who was in front of me in line, let's call her Kate. After a quick conversation she had picked up on the fact that I had auditioned last year and gone through the process once already. A friendship is born. From that moment on she clung to me with dear life in what I believed was a desperate search for connection amongst the thousands of competitors and honestly, I didn't mind. Kate was extremely sweet and if she was with me standing in line putting herself out there for everyone to hear all I could imagine is that she had the voice to match. Coming across as confident at first, I realized, was just the façade for her true nerves.

"Is this shirt silly?", "Should I change the song I'm singing?", "Hat or no hat?", "Does my hair look too flat, I can pick it up?", "What happens when we get to that room?", "How many people are allowed inside at a time?"... I guess knowledge really is power.
The lesson to this is the more you just get out there and think less about the result and more about the confidence and character you'll build, you will realize how much more prepared you feel for these moments. Her nerves were getting the better of her and it was for small things that at this point could not be changed. What if her shirt wasn't that great, would me telling her that it was not the best really help her at this point? Nope. So I went for the high road and said to just think about the music and be happy with your performance. She was too kind and I almost felt like I had become a mother figure, which I will openly admit gave me more confidence about how secure I felt over the process of going through an audition. It's just a fact that the more you practice something the better you'll get at it.

Bag check lines, registration lines, and waiting until finally we were divided into groups of ten and brought in to audition in front of our Network TV Producer. Last year I left and didn't question it much because though I thought I sang the hell out of my song I didn't think anyone else blew me away, which left me thinking that maybe I didn't blow the judge away either. But after this Saturday I heard some incredible voices that I believed surely would get passed to the second round even if I was not a part of those chosen... but I was wrong. No one from my group made it through. And it just reminds me that we are all in this together with talent and not, like some famous people and their kids now, born into the stars. We have to go through the "no, thank you's" and learn to pick ourselves up for the next audition or the next crowd until we are one day told "You have a callback".

Kate didn't make it either and we never said goodbye, but I saw her before I left the convention center and despite her rejection she had a full family waiting for her with arms wide open congratulating her and expressing how proud they felt of her for going through this difficult selection process. I think having our family and friend's support means the world to us after giving it our all for a one in a million chance, so I felt happy seeing her leave with a big smile on her face.

The point of this entry is not for discouragement, no, but rather to show those out there that I'm human and may not always make the cut, for now. I say in my little blurb on the right hand side of the page that this is to read about the ups and downs of someone that is not walking the red carpet... yet. ;) It's easy to just have the luck of being born into the stars of fame (though they still have the difficulty of proving to us that they deserve to be there) and while real-estate in the star world is tricky to obtain, I'm looking into the market there and I know there's a spot reserved for me.

Singing and Playing Guitar for a New Recording
I'll be there and I'm taking all my followers, readers, fans, family and friends with me for the ride. I don't want you to feel discouraged because of one, two, or 47 rejections. Rather I want it to make you stronger as it made me stronger and left me feeling more knowledgable and confident to go do more. To celebrate the confidence I felt on Saturday I met with my friend and producer yesterday for a recording session of some special treats that I have in the works for my followers. It may take a little longer than usual but it will be well worth it. I am proud to say that after over six years of being in the studio and hearing my voice in a professional setting where no flaws can be hidden, I was finally able to appreciate my voice yesterday without criticism and say "Damn, Sam, that sounds good!". It feels good to believe in myself and know that others believe in me, too, which is why I appreciate you reading.

To make matters better, I got home and hit the gym before celebrating a delicious dinner with Brandon and some late night TV! Nothing like a little work out to always pump up your mood.
'Til the next post!

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