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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!!