Sam Billen

Bear with me – it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so there’s a lot to catch you all up on: music for some new films, results of the Pitch Weekly Music Awards, a couple of new, free, downloadable songs, and a couple new shows.

The creators of a documentary called Street Fighting Man, about a retired Detroit police officer that is taking the law into his own hands, have asked me to do some music for the film (after I contacted them about it because it looked so awesome!). They’re raising money to finish the project, so check out the clip below and follow this LINK to find out more about the project and donating to it!

I will also soon start working on some music for another documentary about the educational culture in Korea – this also looks like an awesome film and it’s about some things I’m very interested in: education and Asia. Check out the clip below!

I also recently attended the Pitch Music Awards in KC with my wife. While we had a great time, I didn’t end up winning the award. The winner of the ‘pop’ category was Audiovox – congrats to them! Also, a big CONGRATS to my friends Margo May and Cowboy, Indian, Bear who both won in their respective categories. Thanks again to all of you who voted for me!

My brother, Dan, and I recently played a couple of Cat Steven’s covers at a friend’s wedding and, as a gift to the bride and groom, I put together some recordings of those songs. Here they are for your listening enjoyment:

The Wind by SamBillen

Morning Has Broken by SamBillen

Lastly, I’ll be adding a couple of new shows to my calendar – check them out!

Thanks for reading!

I’ve been talking this up for a while now – it’s finally out! This is my remix of Rum Hee by Shugo Tokumaru, one of my favorite Japanese artists right now. The album this song comes from is amazing. It’s called Port Entropy. I was lucky enough to be in Japan when it came out a few months ago – I think it’s still not available in the US. Fortunately for you, I’ve done a remix of one of the best songs on the album, so you can get a sample of what to expect from the rest of the album right here!

After creating this remix, I actually sent it to Shugo and he responded by saying ‘Great! I like it!’ (that’s a rough translation of his Japanese) – simple, to the point. Just like his music.

I’ve been juggling some ideas for new music and I’ve probably already mentioned them on here at one point in time, but I think the ideas are starting to solidify and they aren’t so abstract or far off in the distance anymore.

1) I plan on doing an album with my friend Josh Atkinson who just moved back from Japan with his wife. This album will sound a little like Nathan Phillips, Aaron Roche, and Shugo Tokumaru. At least that’s what I’m hoping.

2) For a while I’ve wanted to do an album of old hymns and I’m happy to say, I’ve finally actually started. I recorded ‘What Wondrous Love is This’ a couple of weeks ago and it turned out nicely. It’ll be similar to the Christmas album I did a couple of years back – kind of haunting, real organic sounding tunes.

and 3) My brother Dan (who used to be in the Billions with me) has a goldmine of good songs that he’s written, but never released. He is one of the only people I know busier than I am, so understandably he doesn’t have much time to record. What I’ve decided to do is to take some of his songs along with some of my more ‘marketable’ or ‘poppy’ songs (I don’t know how else to describe them – less artsy, more standard pop/rock – almost like Teenage Fanclub or the Jayhawks) and make an album with that. I’m not sure if it’ll be a ‘Billen Brothers’ album at this point – that’ll probably depend on how much Dan can put into it. Whatever it’s called, it’s going to be awesome. Trust me!

That’s it for now – the voting for the Pitch awards is still going on so please swing by and give me your vote! I’m in category #18: pop. [the link to vote is in the last blog post]

Thanks!!

I was nominated for best pop act in the 2010 Pitch Music Awards. If you have a minute, I would appreciate your vote! I’m in category #18 (pop): http://polls.pitch.com/polls/kcp/musicballot10/

Thanks so much!

I’ve been recording a little and thinking a lot recently about my next full-length album. I know it’s really amateur to try to sound like someone else, and that’s not my plan with the next album. But I really can’t deny the inspiration that I’ve had from three artists in particular: Nathan Phillips, Aaron Roche, and Shugo Tokumaru.

Nathan and Aaron have a project together called ‘The Choir at your Door’ – I got their new album Work Tapes and have been listening to it non-stop for 1 month. If you want to hear it for yourself, I suggest ordering it here: http://www.aaronroche.com/. From what I’ve heard, anything that Nathan or Aaron (together or solo) have put out speaks straight to my soul. It’s truly beautiful music.

Shugo Tokumaru is a Japanese artist that I just heard about for the first time about 2 months ago. When I was in Japan last month, I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of his new album Port Entropy which hasn’t been released in the US yet. I guarantee that when it is, it’s going to blow up. His music is a crazy mixture of Sufjan Stevens, Daniel Johnston, and Half-Handed Cloud. It is definitely another one you have to check out.

Finally, I’m thinking about trying to gather up friends (and/or fans?) that want to partake in helping me create my next album. I’m planning on writing parts for strings, horns, a harp, a children’s choir, etc. etc. for the album. If you’re interested, please comment on here or write me at sam@sambillen.com. I’d love to get a lot of people involved!!

Thanks for reading. Make sure to check out that music I listed above. You will thank me!

My wife and daughter have been in Japan for the past 3 weeks visiting family and doing research. I’ve been working hard to stay busy while they’re gone so I don’t go crazy in our empty house – writing some new music, recording, playing shows, hanging out with friends, watching movies.

As I’ve gotten older, the responsibilities that come with being a father and having a full-time job have brought me to a point in life where I can’t play live as often as I did years ago. With that said, I thought I’d ‘give it a go’ while the girls were out of town, so I worked on setting some shows up. Somehow I got 4 lined up for the month of June. Three have passed already and the fourth is this Wednesday at the 8th Street Taproom in Lawrence. While I’m looking forward to this last show, I’m also looking forward to going back to my normal, old man life with my wife and daughter (and back to only playing out once every couple of months).

I guess I just want to say thanks to those of you that came out to the shows or hung out with me during this month of re-visited bachlor-hood. You helped make what could have been a real lonely time not so lonely for me.

On a side-note, if I can ever figure out how to de-code this Japanese DVD that I have, I’ll soon be posting some videos of my performance in Japan last month.

もし日本にいて、時間があったら私の二つのライブに来て下さいませ！この週末の土曜日に秩父でポスポスオタニ様とネキといういい音楽を作っているバンドとライブをやります！来週の金曜日に新松戸のFIREBIRDというクラブでライブをやります！

秩父のライブは５月２２日、夜５時から、５００円でございます。秩父の地図は下にあります．

新松戸のライブは５月２８日、夜６時から、１５００円でございます（１ドリンク込）。新松戸のライブの詳しいインフォメーションはここをクリックをして下さい。http://www.aj-group.co.jp/firebird-top.html

Well, I’m not really ‘touring’ Japan, but I do have two shows lined up while I’m there to visit my wife’s family! I’ve been wanting to perform in Japan for years now and my chance has finally come. Truthfully, setting these shows up was a lot harder than I expected, but I’m glad that some finally worked out. I’m hoping that a lot of the friends that I have made over the last 12 years or so now living in Japan will come out to the shows!

The first show is on Saturday, May 22 at my friend Yoichi’s studio, ‘Ura no Ie’ out in Chichibu. I’ve heard this is a really beautiful, remote location surrounded by mountains and hot springs. Yoichi was able to get a couple of other groups to come out and play as well: Neki and Posuposu Otani. That should be a blast! I hope some of my friends in Japan will be willing to make the 1.5 hour trek (or whatever it is) out to Chichibu to hang out that night!

The second show I have set up is on Friday, May 28 at Firebird Sound Bar in Shinmatsudo, Chiba (kind of a ’suburb’ of Tokyo). There’s actually a funny, ironic story behind this one. About a year ago, my wife and I became friends with a girl at Kansas University named Haruna. Through some conversations with her, I found out that her brother managed a club in the Tokyo area called FIREBIRD. I e-mailed him soon after I found that out and introduced myself in broken Japanese. He wrote back and said that he’d love to have me come play sometime. That got me pretty excited.. Fast forward to about two weeks ago. We weren’t able to finalize our travel plans until last minute so I couldn’t, like I had hoped, contact any venues far in advance about performing. I e-mailed my buddy at Firebird just in case I could jump on something last minute. It seemed I was too late – he books things 2-3 months in advance.

At the same time, I had e-mailed some other friends to see if they had any ‘connections’ in Japan that might be able to help me set up a show. One of my labelmates, Darin Seal from Capybara, had taught English in Japan for a year, so I asked him as well. He wrote me back about a week ago and said I should contact a guy named Duncan in a band called the Watanabe’s. I e-mailed Duncan and checked out their myspace site – only to find out that they had one show lined up and it just happened to be at the one club I have a ‘connection’ to – FIREBIRD. AND it happened to be taking place while we were in Japan. AND when I wrote and asked: “I know there’s already 7 bands on the bill, but if you have room for one more, I’d love to play that show with you guys!”, he responded: “We’re actually planning on canceling that show because we are real busy recording. Do you want to take our place?”…. What are the chances? Please keep in mind that the Tokyo area has a population of about 5 godzillian, and they probably have about 1 godzillian clubs.. How ironic! Anyway, that’s how that show was set up.

Sorry for the novel. I just had to share it with you.

The Removers project has gotten some good feedback and press recently. Here’s a little taste of what people are saying:

“…His voice has a fragile melancholic ting, and he adds a bit of dreaminess to the songs with airy crescendos in unexpected places…” – www.knoxroad.com

“…sweet electro-pop take on lovingly rendered cover songs…” – www.pitch.com

“…über talented musician who for whatever reason, doesn’t have a wikipedia page. Come on man! You’ve made it! Lets get those connex!” – www.tsururadio.com [dude - I have not made it! I'm still updating my own website!]

Also, the ReThink Topeka event was a success – to those of you who came out: thanks!

Finally, if you’re in the KC area tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 20), please swing by the Record Machine between 7-9 to see Joel Kanne and myself as the featured artists in this week’s Songwriter’s Consortium hosted by my good friend, Thommy Hoskins!