Here at RockRevolt Magazine, we can get very choosy about who we want to nominate as an Indie Band of The Week. We were at a loss. Who should take this coveted position? It was business as usual today, until The Sammus Theory popped up on our radars, and it was like the sky had opened and answered our question!
With an impressive background of over 400 national shows, and selling over 10,000 albums, and sharing the stage with accomplished artists such as Avenged Sevenfold, Seether, Disturbed,
Three Days Grace, Shinedown, Sevendust, this band is definitely an indie band that sets the standard for other indie bands to follow. They do it completely independently, and they do it amazingly well, hence earning the title of Indie Band of the Week. Thank you Sam Hughes for gracing us the opportunity for interview, and THANK YOU for setting a glowing example of just how indie bands should be!
Thank you again for calling me on a Saturday. I’m sure that you would much rather be doing something else?
No, it’s fun. It’s a good time. We are actually driving across the state of Texas right now. So, it’s all right.
Oh my gosh. You’ll be out there for hours!
Hell yeah. Days even. It’s crazy.
Yeah. Texas is massive! What are you all doing down there this time?
We’re touring through right now. We’re headed to Fort Worth. We just left San Angelo this morning.
How’s it going so far?
It’s good. Last night was insane man. Lots of people, big crowds, it was fun! We had a good time.
Great! That’s good. Are you noticing any differences between the crowds from state to state?
I think yeah. I think every state has its own brand of crowd I guess (laughs). Every state is kind of different, as far as how they react while we’re on stage.
Between the North, South, East, and West, do you have a preferred crowd?
There are quite a few places, but I think Nebraska is a good place for us. Texas, Idaho, Montana, Washington. Midwest and West Coast is where we have a lot of fan base.
Rocking it out in Nebraska. I can feel it! Tell us how The Sammus Theory came to be. You’ve been doing this since 2005. What brought you all together to form your amazing band?
Well, in 2005 I had written a bunch of music and I was looking to put together a band. 2006 is when I officially put out all the ads – I hit MySpace when it was still relevant. (laughs) I took out MySpace ads and Craigslist ads. I was just looking for people in the Phoenix area, and I ended up getting Kyle Welnel, who is still a rhythm guitarist. He and I finished putting everything together with everybody. That was it! It was fun because I had never met any of these guys before we got together. It just worked!
Wow. So on the first initial face-to-face meeting you all were, “this is going to work!”?
Yeah. It was something that never felt awkward. When we got together it felt good. It was right. I don’t know if that sounds corny or not. (laughs)
(sarcastic tone) No. It does not sound corny all! (laughs). That’s amazing. I don’t want to liken it to online dating, but sometimes some people put some stuff down on paper that may not be all that true, and then you meet that person and they have a lazy eye and no legs. You never know!
It’s true. You take a chance when you go that route. I think we just got lucky. It was one of those chance things that when you have everybody there it makes sense, as opposed to having somebody come in there and they’re just a nutcase.
Take your meds Sir, go home!
That’s right! Go take a nap, for a while.
(laughs) Yeah, he’s not going to work until he sobers up. (laughs) So, what has been your philosophe to bring it to this level so quickly?
Basically, we don’t rely on anybody doing things for us. We just go out and do it. Our whole saying has been, “Nobody cares about our career more than we do.” That’s true, and it goes for everybody. Nobody is going to work as hard as you do towards what you’re going for. Since day one we have been tour tour tour tour tour. We need to put music out and we need to tour, and we need to meet people face-to-face, and that is how we are going to build a fan base rather than hanging out in Phoenix hoping something is going to happen. That’s like playing the lottery right there. If you get out there and you do it, and you are building a business like a business, then there’s really not any way that you can fail at it – it’s just how far are you going to build it.
Right. How would you been interacting with your fans the most? Has it been through social media or has it been through the venues in which to play at?
It’s been both. We talk to a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter. We have a lot of interaction with our fans there. Whenever we do a show, we set up merch, we hang out by the booth, and we talk to people all night long. That’s been a really cool thing, being able to do both. You talk to people and then when you get to a venue, you actually get to put a face to the name that you’ve been talking to. That happens all the time. It’s a good mix for us: what we’ve got going between venue and Facebook.
Cool. So on your Facebook, it’s actually you all. You don’t pay anybody else to come in and tweet and Facebook it up on your behalf?
(laughs) No no no. It’s all us.
Okay. With you all starting out in 2005, and your first album releasing in 2009, and subsequently putting out an album every two years, how has your music changed or grown within that time frame?
You know, I think that we have figured out what we sound like. When you are first starting out, you are not sure what to do. It’s almost like you are mimicking other things, trying to figure out how you fit into the music world, you know? I think with every album we’ve grown in a way where we get more defined, and we get a more distinctive sound. With every album we grow musically, and are much more well defined.
Have your themes are messages that you’re putting out in your music changed over time?
I think every album is different. It’s what we’re going through at the time, or what we’re seeing at the time. I don’t want to say Journal, because that sounds corny. It’s a way for us to document what’s been going on with us and things that we see going on around us.
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Okay. So, maybe not so much a journal, but maybe more like a documented milestone?
There you go. I like it!
There you go. It’s going on the next album! You all have been relentless when it comes to touring, 300 hundred tours in a year, and releasing a second record two years ago. How do you push yourselves to keep putting that music out, all while touring?
Oh man, it’s tough. It really is. We all work great as a team. We have an amazing fan base behind us that is always growing. I think one of the more motivating things is seeing that our fan base works just as hard as we do. You start looking at things, and realize that it’s bigger than the five of us, and begin realizing that other people are involved. The fans are involved; it’s theirs too. It’s not an obligation per se. We have a goal, and we have to get there. We have all sorts of goals; we have to reach them. I think that is what keeps us motivated, along with the fans; getting to each goal, reaching it, and going higher and higher.
Do you feel that by releasing new music so quickly keeps you current or do you do it because your fan base demands more and more?
I think it’s a little of both. With us, when we were touring a record for two years, we don’t want anything to ever get stale. So when you are playing shows, you don’t want it to wear out. You don’t want to hear, “We’ve seen this band five times before and it’s old now, so we are not going to go.”
You want to keep things fresh; keep it going, as you change your style, and then you decide you want to put out another record. We are staying on this two-year thing, because touring on a record as a pretty good chunk of time. I think after two years we’re pretty much ready and prepared to put together a new album. It’s a whole lot of work, it’s crazy. Our fans demand it to. Our fans want to hear new stuff almost all the time. It’s really fun to bring new stuff to them.
Your new album “Entitled Anonymous” released recently. How do you feel the reaction has been to it?
It has been insanely good, I think. It’s definitely different. A lot of our fans are saying that we outdid ourselves on it. It’s a good feeling. We set the bar high for ourselves. We really wanted to do something unique for us and push ourselves musically. I think we did. It feels really good putting it out there and getting the response you were hoping for, and then some.
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The first single was “Numb”. What was the reason to make this the flagship to the album?
Everything about it was good. Everything fell into place perfectly with that song. It has a strong message, is a strong song, it has a good flow to it, and we all felt that it summed up the entire album pretty well.
Tell us about Donate Life America. What is it?
Donate Life America is the foundation that we support. Jeremy is really well-versed on it. He has a good relationship with them. He had a family member that needed a lung, and they helped out, and she got her lung. It was a real personal thing for Jeremy, and we decided to back him on it.
A portion of the sales from your tour is going to Donate Life America and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Is this the first time you’ve done charity work like this?
Yeah. We’ve never been able to do anything like this before. Being an independent band, it’s really hard to be out here, let alone help, and do something else. We were very glad when we could finally do something like that. So, here we are!
Will you be philanthropic again like this in the future?
I think so! I think we will do more stuff like this.
Right. When you wonderful thing you, you give, and you receive. It’s a nice feeling.
It’s nice because I feel that in a certain sense we are in the spotlight. I think people look to us for certain things, and it’s nice to be able to set a positive example and do something good, especially for a cause that our band mate is passionate about, as well as supporting good foundations. I know that there are some quirky ones out there, but there are also some really good ones.
Absolutely. What are some of the overarching themes or messages “Entitled Anonymous” is attempting to deliver?
The full album touches on anonymity; the different between when there is absolutely no consequence for what they say or do as opposed to when they are in person and there are reactions from people right there. The entire album is based on that, and there are little trickling themes from there. What we based it on the Internet, which is a huge thing where somebody can be whoever, say whatever they want to, and there is really no consequence. You see people acting in crazy ways. They asked completely different online than they would in person, because there is no consequence, and they don’t have to worry about anything. They can say whatever they want and hurt people’s feelings, and the room, it’s pretty crazy. Trolling is a prime example of that.
You are right. In person, people typically wouldn’t do that. At least we hope it would not do such a thing.
There are some people who are crazy enough that they would do that.
Now that you’re out and about touring, we are you going to be next?
We are going to be in Texas for the next couple of weeks. Then we’re headed to Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas. Then we head West and hit Colorado, Utah, Washington, and Montana. Then we go home for the month of August and then we are going to hit the Midwest and East Coast. We are not quite sure where we’re going to go there. That is still in the planning stages, but we’re definitely going to do a full U.S. run by the end of the year.
Most excellent! That is actually my last question. Do you have any message that you would like to relay to your fans?
If I could say something for everybody all at one time, it would be thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for all the support that you do. Honestly, from the bottom of all our hearts, we would not be able to do the work and do what we do without everybody that supports us: A huge thank you to everybody.
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