Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Harvey.
Sam, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in Orange County, California and moved to Dallas when I was six. My dad was a professional drummer back in the ’70s, so he raised me on the most timeless music like Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Michael Jackson, Michael McDonald, Etta James, Jackie Wilson, and the list goes on… I played drums all my life, eventually teaching myself guitar on YouTube when I was 13. I started to sing with it and that’s when I knew it was my passion. Started gigging at 14 at local coffee shops, then started gigging around downtown Dallas at 15-16. I’ve gotten to perform at House of Blues, The Foundation Room, the Cambridge Room, Gas Monkey Live, Southside Ballroom, New Years In The Funk, Don’t Tell Supper Club and more.
After developing my sound for a while, I met my producer Brandon Saiz. I posted a picture on Instagram that said “looking for producers” and a mutual friend of Brandon and I’s tagged him in it. He messaged me and I asked him what he was doing that night, so he invited me over and we created our first song together. After that, we both knew we had to keep creating. Shortly after that, we met our manager Austin Sheets. He moved both of us into his amazing house for over a year and paid our bills so we could solely focus on creating the music. Right now our main goal is to get the music heard, so people can finally listen to what we’ve been working towards for years. The music process consists of me writing either a chord progression, bass line, and/or lyrics, then I hand it off to Brandon to start full production. Every song I’ve written has been inspired by an event or an occurrence in my life, so I feel like I can connect with a lot of people who’ve gone through the same things I’ve gone through. We are currently releasing singles to build exposure for a full album release. I currently have a weekly gig at Don’t Tell Supper Club in Dallas on Thursday-Saturdays 7-9pm!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Figuring out people’s true intent was and is a big struggle/obstacle.
Constantly reminding yourself what you are worth and working towards becomes a challenge, because there is a lot of dark times where you’re stuck in limbo not knowing what is around the corner. Patience and faith is key to maintain your mental health during the process of becoming an artist. You can’t expect to manifest anything you want to achieve if you don’t believe in it 100%.
Finding the people that believe in it more than you do is rare/challenging, but key. Having the right team around me changed my whole mindset. Not only does it give you courage, but it also gives you the strength to keep going because you know they haven’t given up either.
Please tell us about Twenty Odd Records.
Right now, we are fully independent, starting our own record label called Twenty Odd Records. Our purpose is to help other starving artists dodge obstacles we’ve had to jump over ourselves so they don’t have to.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Hanging out with my best friend in middle school, without a care in the world, haha!
Contact Info:
- Website: Samharveytx.com
- Email: contact@twentyoddrecords.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/samharveyofficial
- Facebook: Facebook.com/samharveyofficial
Image Credit:
Jose Estrada @strada.digital, Johnathon Nguyen @nguyenlucid, DSTN @dustydink
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