Our First Signs of Love feature is about the moment you find a new artist to love, and you simply can’t get enough. This week we shine the spotlight on Sam Valdez and her new single ‘Clean’
Introducing Sam Valdez
Sam Valdez’s immersive indie-rock sensibility reflects her childhood growing up at the edge of the Nevada Desert and her formative musical experiences as a child violinist. The mystery, beauty and haunting quality of desert life has shaped the LA based artist’s sense of dreamy textures, and her flair for abstract but emotive lyrics. Classical music’s majesty has informed her imaginative arrangements and cinematic sense of dynamics.
Sam Valdez – Clean
‘Clean’ is a reverb-dipped slow burner which glows with warm vocals, melancholy soundscapes and a twist on the typical breakup narrative. Valdez explains “Clean is a love song in a way, but it’s more about being drawn to self destruction. It’s about finding comfort in uncertainty and appreciating the darker qualities in someone as well as the good.” Sam Valdez ‘Clean’ delivers sparse intimacy with a beguiling aura. it’s hard not to listen on repeat and hang on her every word.
Sam Valdez has melded in an intriguing blend of shoe-gaze, Americana, indie-rock, and pop into a signature aesthetic. Select career highlights thus far include garnering rave reviews in Clash Music, Consequence of Sound, and Earmilk; earning heavy rotation from KCRW for multiple singles; and opening tours for Stella Donnelly, Cayucas, and Giant Rooks.
“I’ve always tried to write from the most genuine place that I can, but, lately, and with this record, I’ve been working on sharing more sides of my views and emotions,” Sam details.
A feeling of 1960s nostalgic balladry courses through many of Sam’s songs. She says:” Melancholic, comforting and thought provoking is what I look for in music and what I feel and hope comes across in mine.” The album’s first single, “Toothache,” is a reverb-dipped slow burner glowering with sensual vocals and a twist on a breakup narrative. Here, the feeling is a longing to reconnect with one’s sense of self post romantic rupture.
