Creator to Creators S3 Ep 23 Sam Welch

Sam Welch, by design, does not do easy-listening music to create moods or feelings.
The lyrics and music go need listening. He wants his audience to put some work into his
songs. Though the lyrics are about thoughts — metaphysics, if you will — and deal with things
like relationships, life, death and the hereafter, his music gives a wry twist that makes
thinking interesting, trending toward fun. And worth the work.
As an example, “Kamikaze Co-Pilot,” the single he is featuring from his new album, Last
Night on Earth. Right there, in the two titles, you can see the metaphysical and the twist
at work. This is Sam talking about the message, or messages, of “Kamikaze”: “I’ve defined my
own philosophical interpretation of this song, and I’m calling it ‘social existentialism.’
Basically, it’s the idea that every relationship will come to an end, this idea that
everybody’s on the same journey to their destiny, but that the journey in and of itself will
divide us and separate us.” Sounds heavy, but the song begins with his voice, a high-register, floating, ethereal vocalization set to a ringing instrumental that rises for three notes, falls back, and drums enter with an upbeat tempo. Ten seconds later, a saxophone leads in the lyrics:
Kamikaze co-pilot the future can’t come soon enough
Kamikaze co-pilot well this world is getting tough Gonna fly away with you it’s the past that I rue
Gonna fly away it ain’t the future that is true“I think if I had done a really, really sort of hard techno, unrelentingly loud or aggressive,it wouldn’t support the themes that I’m exploring,” said Sam.
“Kamikaze co-pilot,” he pointed out, is an oxymoron. Who in their right mind would co-
pilot with someone on a suicide mission? And yet, he says, human relationships and
life, composed of individuals, are like that. But Last Night on Earth does not preach, it explores.
His music, too, is an exploration. His previous output, which he called “transcendental
techno vox,” is giving way to more melody and instrumentation and less harmonization
and vocal distortion. The transcendental remains, but the techno is much reduced.
Sam has begun to play with his voice and his music. One song on the album, “Man in
My Mind,” could pass for a dance track.
His vocals, almost entirely undoubled and undistorted, are much more prominent in
each of the 11 tracks. Fewer mixed harmonies and more of his own voice have been
goals
“In each of these songs, I’ve provided a lead vocal melody line, a solo voice. I think I’m
doing a good job of controlling the urge to just create more harmonization.”
“I think every album that I do is better than the album before,” he said. “I’m always trying
to improve the quality of my music, and I feel like I’ve definitely reached some new
goals in terms of this album. I have worked very hard on trying to create a very organic
sound that supports the very, very rich themes that I’m exploring poetically. The two
things support each other.” Another goal, to produce an album each year, has been reached every year, beginning in 2017. He had several albums before that, including one called Unitarian Hymns, in 2005. He has studied piano since age 8 and received voice training at Columbia University
and the Longy School of Music. He started a barbershop quartet in high school and
participated in classical chorus performances and theater. At Columbia, he toured with
the male a cappella group The Kingsmen. He has written and recorded music since
2001. This year, he has begun live performances.
In his music, he explores “the convergence between themes of spiritual transcendence
and emotional disregulation.” He knows the first through his life as a practicing Unitarian
and the second from his own bouts with depression and psychosis as a young man.
“‘Kamikaze Co-Pilo