Sam Feinstein
Based out of San Jose California, Sam Feinstein is what a Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, and Tower of Power collaboration might sound like. His gruff voice, chaotic instrumentals, and sardonic lyrics cast him as a wrestling-heel, or a villain listeners will love to hate.
Sam Feinstein is...?
I'm a musician living in San Jose California who's been waiting for the next wave of ska-punk since 2010. I've been in bands spanning several genres (including ska, bluegrass, klezmer, indie, pop-punk, and funk), but this is my debut single under my own name.
This song exemplifies the horn-drenched rock music I grew to love in high school, mixed with some different sounds I picked up along the way.
When did you realize that you are able to create your own music?
I had a particularly formative experience in 7th grade when I joined my middle-school jazz band as pianist. While I'd been playing piano for a few years, this was the first time anyone had ever encouraged me to play something that wasn't written out on a page. These simple improvised solos eventually evolved into writing full songs with lyrics (and soon-after, horn sections).
What or who was your inspiration for your release "Chasing the bull"?
The music of Chasing the Bull is a sound I've been developing for a long time. It started when my friend Griffin Todd introduced me to Streetlight Manifesto, and formed a ska band with me called the Sea Bees. When I went off to University of Miami, I joined a ska band called The Zognoids with a trumpet player, Zachary DiLello.
Zach and I took a long road trip from Miami to Tennessee when Hurricane Maria was coming, so we stopped at a CD store and he picked up Modest Mouse's "Good News for People Who Love Bad News". I fell in love with the chaotic use of horns and Isaac Brock's voice and sought to mimic it as best I could. This led to me forming a band called Strawman and writing a rock-opera called "The Trial of the Sins". Strawman was the prototype for the style of music I'm officially releasing for the first time with "Chasing the Bull".
The lyrics of Chasing the Bull had a few inspirations. I've always loved movie musicals and I found that some of my favorite songs were those sung by the villains: "Friends on the Other Side", "Poor Unfortunate Souls", etc, so I wanted to write more songs from the point-of-view of the villain in whatever story I was telling.
The writers of such songs often have to balance conveying the characters actual intentions to the audience with conveying their false intentions to our protagonist. This satyrical sleight-of-hand makes for a fun experience that I've been craving in more music. After living in Silicon Valley for a couple of years, working in audio-tech, I found my villains in the crypto-bros selling a whole host of pump-and-dumps, rug-pulls, ponzi schemes, MLMs (pyramid schemes), and various other fraudulent products and "opportunities".
While scams such as these seem to be popping up more frequently, there's an unfortunate timeless-ness of people taking advantage of others, especially with promises of riches, that have me believing the message of Chasing the Bull will remain relevant for a long time; to always ask yourself if an investment is really a Bull Market, or Bull Shit, before throwing away your hard-earned cash. There's a saying that the people who got rich in the gold-rush of 1849 weren't actually the prospectors out digging for gold: the people who got rich were the people selling shovels to prospectors, knowing that the chances of actually striking gold were slim-to-none. For this reason, I'm always cautious of anyone selling a path to riches, because they wouldn't be selling it if it was real: they would be using it.
When do you decide/say that a song is finished?
Songs are never really finished. The lyrics were good enough to use for the recording once I felt they properly conveyed the satyrical tone I was going for and properly roasted the scams that were the subject of this song. "Chasing the Bull" has a ton improvisatory components, so any full-band performance of this song will sound a little different each time you hear it, and I'm refining my vocal performance each time you hear me sing this song.
I decided it was good enough to be released once people started comparing it to songs featured in The Sopranos and Peaky Blinders. I may even re-record this song someday with a live-band, as this version was recorded separately by musicians living all across the country.
If you could choose one musician to collaborate with, who would it be?
I would love to collaborate with Randy Newman. He's a brilliant lyricist who hides biting satire in otherwise pleasant old-timey jazz-pop music. He also writes intricate parts for a full orchestra while making it feel as natural as someone playing 4 chords on a guitar.
What's in your opinion the most underrated song?
The Dear Hunter is a criminally underrated band. They tell stories that span entire albums that have me binge listening for hours on end. In their song "In Cauda Venenum '' off of their album "Act III: Life and Death", they take you on a wild sonic journey that mixes emo, math rock, and swing music. It's an intense ride that ends with them dropping you into what feels like a completely different song that sounds like 50's Doo-Woop.
What's next for you?
"Chasing the Bull" was always meant to be part of an album, so I'll be working on recording more songs about crooks, snake-oil salesmen, and con-artists. I'm also planning to play these and other songs with a live band featuring a giant horn-section. These songs were always meant to be played for an audience with plenty of theatrics.
