SAMIAM 2023 press shot (CREDIT: Austin Rhodes)

SAMIAM just wouldn't be the same without a little bit of chaos. Over their three decades together, the Oakland, California-based band have specialized in energetic hard luck songs that are as hooky as they are relatable. So, perhaps, it's fitting that the creation of Stowaway, the band's first new album in 12 years and their ninth full-length, wasn't the easiest. There are very few bands better at capturing the feeling of stumbling only to get up again and on Stowaway, SAMIAM prove exactly why they remain one of the most endearing and enduring Punk bands of their generation. Initially formed in 1988, SAMIAM—whose current line-up includes long-time members Jason Beebout (vocals,) Sean Kennerly (guitar,) and Sergie Loobkoff (guitar,) as well as newer additions Colin Brooks (drums) and Chad Darby (bass)—grew out of the D.I.Y. Punk scene centered around 924 Gilman Street. After the release of 2011's Trips, the band didn't exactly break-up or go on an "indefinite hiatus" and they continued to sporadically play shows, but the demands of life put their song-writing process on quasi-hiatus. After joining up with Pure Noise Records just a few years ago, the band began to get more serious about polishing their material, booking time at Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's OTIS Studio in Oakland and beginning to hammer out the skeletal rough recordings in February 2020. A month later, The Pandemic turned the world upside-down and like everyone else, SAMIAM's plans were once again put on hold.


Over a period of many months, the group chipped away at the instrumentals, recording sporadically in various studios in assorted locations: Brooks found his way to Savaria Studios in Brooklyn, New York, where he recorded the drums with Jon Markson (Bartees Strange, KOYO, WORLD BE FREE,) Darby, Loobkoff & Kennerly flew down to Gainesville, Florida, to keep working on the song skeletons they'd started back in Oakland, and, eventually, Beebout & Kennerly headed back to OTIS to record vocals. "It was just Jason & I... but he didn't have any material. We were stuck. We'd gone through all of these hoops and hurdles and there was nothing to record. We spent a week there and came back with nothing," says Kennerly. It was another discouraging false start, but Beebout was not deterred. Kennerly & Beebout soon re-grouped with engineer Scott Evans (Thrice, Katy Perry, Ghoul) at Antisleep Studios and began slowly coaxing out vocal takes. "Everyone in the band was worried whether or not Jason would still be able to do it," admits Kennerly, "because we hadn't recorded anything in a decade. Like, did Jason still have the pipes for it? After our experience at Otis, we wondered whether he was nervous because he couldn't sing anymore, but on the first day at Antisleep, we recorded the first song, "Lake Speed," and he did it all in one take and it was blisteringly great." Loobkoff adds, "a lot of this band rests on Jason's shoulders. Musically, for the other four of us, it's easier than it is for him because it's not coming out of our lungs and our hearts and our throats and our bodies like vocals are. He really has to pour his soul out."


After seemingly endless starts and stops, the arduous writing and recording process was finally done. "There were a lot of times when it seemed like it was just going to completely fall apart and we wouldn't, actually, get everything done," says Kennerly. Perhaps, even more surprising is the undeniably confidence of the final result. Stowaway seamlessly picks up where SAMIAM left off with just as much energy, melody, and pathos as their classic works. Kennerly & Loobkoff weave their dual-guitar attack over Darby & Brooks' taut rhythm section, while Beebout's voice soars from one anthemic chorus to the next, his trademark tuneful grit still intact, but Stowaway isn't about re-capturing the past: the album is informed by the accumulation of experiences—good and bad—that comes from living full lives, especially, if over 30 of those years were spent as working musicians. "It's very un-fun a lot of the time and we don't make enough money to make it worthwhile from a financial standpoint. SAMIAM is the most pure kind of band, where we do it because we have a love for the music and, for lack of a better term, the world-wide scene that we participate in. And it's, sometimes, still super-fun, especially, if we haven't played for a while, because it's great to see all four of the other guys," explains Loobkoff. Kennerly describes Stowaway's themes quite bluntly: "failure, for sure. Tenacity in the face of continuing failure; failure to communicate, failure to succeed, failure to find meaning, which is weird because it's, actually, kind of an "uplifting" album, as far as SAMIAM goes."

an assortment of SAMIAM 2023 show flyers (SOURCE: Facebook)

The record tracks the bluster of youth as it evolves into frustration and, eventually, the clarity that comes with age. "Crystallized" is a jittery surge of memories both sad and hopeful that reflects the band's own experience and on "Lights Out Little Hustler," Beebout bellows, "there's always something in the way..." a line that mirrors the difficult path to making Stowaway. However, once again, SAMIAM pull off their magic trick of creating a defeated refrain that's sure to be life-affirming when shouted back in a live scenario. "There's some relief or release that lets you find happiness inside of the sadness," says Kennerly. "I think that's, actually, more generally what SAMIAM is about or why some people are drawn to our music." Loobkoff seems to echo this sentiment: that despite all the challenges of life, and certainly all the headaches of being in a band, connecting with people through music still supersedes all of the frustrations. "If you're lucky, you get this sort of sense when you're in a band that you're participating in something that's important to other people," he says. "And I still get that with SAMIAM." SAMIAM's Stowaway is out 3/31 on Pure Noise Records. Singles "Crystallized" & "Lights Out Little Hustler" are both now available on streaming services.