Meet SAMBOYGER | Singer + Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with SAMBOYGER and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi SAMBOYGER, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
Something I have written on my wall and that I repeat to myself at least once daily is, “It Starts In.” It doesn’t make sense at face value, but it reminds me to be present with my internal world. Growing up, I mastered the art of disassociation. It was the only tool I knew how to use when navigating conflict, uncomfortable emotions, and change. Don’t like how I’m feeling? Power through. Someone did something hurtful to me? Act like it never happened.

“It starts in,” reminds me to be present with my internal world. It’s painful and hard at times, yes, but it’s the only way through. It’s the only way to feel alive. Making art and music from a disembodied place drains the joy out of the process of creating. You can’t turn off the “negative” emotions without turning off the more enjoyable feelings. To be present with grief and disappointment is to be present with joy and contentment. It reminds me that there is no pleasure in escaping myself and that all I ever need is abundant within me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m an alternative pop singer/songwriter established as SAMBOYGER since 2020. Prior to 2020, I had been a worship leader for many years and had put out an album with my band in 2017. I started in the band when I was 13 playing guitar, and did so until graduating high school and moving to California for schooling. I spent those 5 years between 13-18 writing music to be performed during Sunday services with my friends, and honed in my lyrical crafting skill, keyboard playing and guitar playing.

My dad came home with a Mac when I was 17ish and that’s when I began to produce music. I didn’t have a midi keyboard at the time, so I would make all tracks using the musical typing feature (you literally have to use the QWERTY keyboard to play instruments) to make my backing tracks. This is when I began my song “‘But You’ and the fan favorite ‘I Want You’. It wouldn’t be until 6 years later when I finally returned from schooling, invested in a keyboard, and reproduced the songs, and released my debut mixtape “the Garageband Sessions”.

It was very surreal seeing my music on the iTunes store for the first time. It was a lot of work so I didn’t release it on streaming until 6 months later when I dropped my debut EP “we peaked @ 17” on streaming. It was only $5 each, but it was surreal knowing that people were willing to pay full price for my music, and that I finally had money to invest in another project.

I haven’t put out a project since 2020 and have just been doing shows since then, but plan on releasing singles this year, end of March, to be exact.

I’ve been very vocal on social media regarding my mental health. I learned early on in my teens that vulnerability begets vulnerability. Sharing intimate details honestly and candidly makes people feel more comfortable doing the same. When I turned 21, mental health issues began to peak in their head and worsened significantly within that year. I shifted gears and began to re-examine my spiritual life, my diet, my health, and my thought patterns. I fight for what I love every day. Just like a relationship, you don’t feel in love everday, but you CHOOSE to love anyway. This is my relationship with music. It’s hard when your job is to be creative. Especially trying to write your feelings down on paper on days you don’t feel anything at all. But I write from that place anyway. I’ve learned that there is no escaping. There is being. To be authentic is to be present with myself. There’s no need to manufacture feelings of love and romance, or anger, or passion, or sadness. I GET to sit with this nothingness and explore it, and walk around it, and observe it, and speak to it, and experience it. It’s unsettling, but it settles when you sit and wait, if that makes sense. It shrinks. The depression, it brings its shoulders down from its ears and its hands from its elbows and begins to speak to you. I think when people listen to my music, they feel this settledness and this peaceful assurance. I hope to think so, anyway.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First, we would get Blue Sparrow coffee. I’m not typically into lattes anymore and prefer iced espressos and cortados nowadays, but their oat milk vanilla latte is out of this world. They have the best playlist for a coffee shop in the city and always play the explicit version and it’s very funny to listen to while watching middle-aged business professionals do their zoom calls and work on their spreadsheets.

DPark is down the street, so if it’s a sunny day, we’re definitely hitting the skatepark with coffee in hand.

We’d get lunch at Denver’s best wing spot, Fire on the Mountain and maybe do some book shopping at Tattered Cover.

We’d end the evening over a burger at Death & Co. (Denver’s best if you ask me) and a cocktail.

I’m not a huge dessert person, but if the night is still young, we’ve GOT to hit little man’s ice cream (for the vibes) and do the walk through confluence park through 16th Street, Best day ever!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out the divine. I’ve experienced this holy and profound feeling of inspiration since I was young. It felt like lyrics and melodies followed me wherever I went. Melodies were sung in the wind, and lyrics were written in the stars. It came so easily to me, and I do my best to paint these pictures and trap these feelings in my music. I’m thankful for my mom and sister who instilled a deep romance for God and their world in me. You can’t sample that. You can’t learn that in a class. They taught me how to be loved by someone far greater than me, and how to let it grow my love for myself and others. You can hear their influence in the ethereal bells, synths, and soundscapes in my music. It’s poisoned with that drunken, floating, feeling.

Website: samboyger.com

Instagram: instagram.com/samboyger

Twitter: twitter.com/samboyger

Facebook: Facebook.com/samboyger

Youtube: YouTube.com/samboyger