About Me

Official Bio

Sam Billen is a busy man. Between raising his baby daughter, working full time at the University of Kansas, and running his new business, BillenSounds, LLC, he somehow finds plenty of time to dedicate to his passion – making music that moves. Since joining The Record Machine in 2009, he’s released a good amount of music: a digital EP entitled Tokyo Sessions, a full-length album called Headphones and Cellphones, a Christmas compilation (including songs by friends Half-Handed Cloud, The Paper Route, Andrew Conner from Ghosty, and others), a solo piano album called Death of a Saint, and his most recent project, Removers, a constantly growing collection of his remixes and covers of the music that influences him.

His newest traditional full-length record Headphones & Cellphones is a departure from the quirky indie pop that his previous band, The Billions, were known for. The Billions were influenced by 90’s bands like Built to Spill, Pavement, and The Flaming Lips. In Sam’s solo music, The Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens have since found their way into the list of influences. Headphones & Cellphones finds him meshing those with more classic sounds like Hall and Oats, Todd Rundgren, and Stevie Wonder, causing him to take a soulful, more mature, smooth, and electronic texture to the endearing pop songs he has always written.

Sam is currently working on three projects: his next full-length album which will be less electronic and more heart, a Christmas album with his good friend Josh Atkinson, and another full-length with his brother and fellow-ex-Billions member, Dan Billen.

Sam Billen, Miracle Man

Sam Billen is a singer-songwriter from Lawrence, Kansas. Sam has been making music since he started piano lessons at 8. He excelled at a tremendous rate and I can still remember the day his piano teacher sent him home saying she had nothing else she could teach him. Sam began teaching himself any instrument he could get his hands on, from drums and guitar to harmonica and banjo. Sam would practice until he mastered an instrument, quickly turning himself into a veritable one-man band.

As kids, we were immersed in Neil Young, James Taylor, Paul Davis and Todd Rundgren and it is safe to say these influences have left their mark on Sam’s song-writing. Sam’s music is introspective as well as focused on a bigger picture – and it is hard not to turn away once pulled in by his unflinchingly honest lyrics and intriguing instrumentation and arrangements. Sam has a knack for writing songs that refuse to be turned off, and I’ve often found myself late for work sitting in my car until one of his songs is over.

Sam saw relative success when he fronted the critically-acclaimed indie rock group The Billions. After signing to the L.A.-based Northern Records, The Billions played a handful of national tours and recorded an album (Never Felt This Way Before, 2003) at the legendary Green Room in L.A. under producer Chris Colbert. From that album came a Christian Rock radio hit – the title track, Never Felt This Way Before – that Sam wrote for the album. Back in Kansas, the band was able to find a farmhouse (complete with barn, cows and chicken coup) on the edge of town that served as a perfect living and practice space.

Sam released his first solo album (SAM – MIRACLES) on Northern Records in the spring of 2004. Producer Chris Colbert came out to The Billions’ farmhouse to record the album entirely on location. Local writer Richard Gintowt summed up the finished product nicely when he wrote, “The 11-song home recording showcases his heart-on-sleeve songwriting and Beach Boys-inspired pop sensibilities. The songs are decorated with lush violin arrangements, plucky banjo lines, casiotone keyboards, sleigh bells, synthesized sitar sounds and just about anything else Billen found laying around the farmhouse where he resides just west of Lawrence.”

Years later, Sam Billen has not slowed down. He recently released a Christmas album featuring Christmas carols he has revamped and rearranged in his signature style. Remarkably, he raised all funding up front, allowing him to give copies away by the hundreds. Sam constantly records new material in his in-home studio (a converted bedroom in his basement) and it is rumored a new album is not far away. While some artists hit their peak and go downhill quickly (or simply disappear), Sam is still creating music as fresh and exciting as when he began. There is something amazing, almost miraculous, about this, and I will be one of the first in line at his next CD release show.

by Dan Billen