INTERVIEW: Get to know the ‘Interior Person’ of Samantha Sidley
Photo: Samantha Sidley will play songs off her debut album at The Green Room 42. Photo courtesy of Logan White / Provided by Fanatic Promotion press site with permission.
When Samantha Sidley takes the stage at The Green Room 42 in New York City this weekend, she will be putting a capstone on a transfixing and creatively satisfying year of musical dominance. She cannot wait for these performances when she’ll be able to highlight songs from her debut album, Interior Person, which has been favorably reviewed by critics and warmly received by fans.
Sidley will be joined on stage Feb. 6-8 by Dan Reckard (musical director, pianist, saxophonist), Vikram Devasthali (trombone, guitar) and her producer and wife, Barbara Gruska (drums), according to press notes. It’s appropriate that Gruska is on stage, not only because she and Sidley are married, but also because Gruska wrote most of the songs on Interior Person.
The tunes on the album, many of them dealing with modern love and LGBTQ relationships, include everything from “I Like Girls” to “Rose Without Thorns” to “Naked to Love” to “I Can’t Listen” (followed quite appropriately by “Listen!”).
As a performer, Sidley has played with some of the greats, including the Foo Fighters and The Bird and the Bee. She identifies as a queer music artist, born and raised in Los Angeles. Her professional performing debut was at New York City’s legendary Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox had the chance to talk with Sidley about her shows at The Green Room 42, which take place nightly at 9:30 p.m. at the Midtown Manhattan venue. Here’s what she had to say …
On what fans can expect at one of her live gigs …
“A really great time. They’re going to get their socks knocked off. … I’ll be doing some obscure jazz standards and every song from my record.”
On the origins of her debut album …
“My wife always told me, she said, ‘I’m going to produce your record for you one day,’ and that really happened. Originally it started because I started doing some cabaret shows with my friends and my wife included, and they started writing these original songs. And I would perform those, and one of the songwriters ended up starting her own record label. … And she was like, ‘I want to put out your record,’ and because she started this record label that I signed to, I was able to put out my record. And Barbara, my wife, produced it, and we did it all in my childhood bedroom, which she has converted into her music studio. That’s kind of the story in a nutshell.”
On when she first became fascinated with singing …
“I was always singing. My first musical loves were Raffi and Billie Holiday, and my parents would call my little Sony walkman Japanese valium because they would just put it on my ears. And if I was having a tantrum, I would just stop crying. …
“I was just always singing, making up my own songs, and then my best friend’s father was a musician. He said to my parents, ‘You know, she can really sing. She can do things that other kids her age can’t do.’ I mean, I must have been really young, probably in preschool, so when I was about 12, my parents got me singing lessons. And I would do different singing workshops. I just always knew that I would probably end up doing music.”
On what’s going through her mind right before a concert begins …
“I guess nervousness and excitement go hand in hand. I’m very excited. I always get nervous before I perform, and then once I get rolling on stage, it’s always I forget about it. Just getting everything together for that moment when you get on stage, I get nervous about.”
On her collaborators on stage …
“So Barbara plays drums. She also wrote many of the songs on the record, most of them, and she produced it. My longtime live musical director, Dan Reckard, he plays piano, and he’ll be playing piano, and he also plays saxophone. And my good friend, Vikram, who plays trombone, will be there, and I have a bass player who I’ve never met before. We’re only having one rehearsal, but he comes highly recommended by friends. So I’m excited about that.”
On the warm response to her debut album …
“It has been extra special in every sense of that. I feel validated. I feel honored. I feel just like when you put something out, it is for the purpose of fulfilling something inside of yourself that you had to express, but being a performer, you also need feedback and validation. That’s part of the performance. It’s like a circle. You give something; it can only happen once, and then people receive it. And they have these opinions about it. It’s part of the artwork. … Not even knowing what people are going to say, and then they say these things that are really quite amazing, and there have been so many amazing writers that have written about the record. It has been nothing less than amazing for me. I’m kind of flabbergasted about it. I couldn’t be more happy about it. It’s been really wonderful.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Samantha Sidley will play songs from Interior Person Feb. 6-8 at The Green Room 42 in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
