We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sam Callahan . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sam below.
Sam, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I actually never really had resilience growing up, I guess I never really needed it. Then I moved to LA at 18 and I was thrown into the music business and very quickly had to adjust to it. Once I started gigging I was immediately thrown into the deep end of it all, getting gigs left and right but there were some people I would reach out to and they would deny me for all sorts of reasons: my height, weight, hair color and mostly my gender. Ive been denied so many gigs just for being a woman and most people care about how the band will look as a whole and if you don’t meet their standards that’s it. Also, people being unreliable, saying I got the gig and then they just ignore me and I later find out they went with someone else without telling me. The first time any of this happened I was pretty upset but then the more it happened I realized it’s apart of the business and it’s what I signed up for.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a professional Bassist located in Los Angeles California, I moved there when I was 18 to study music performance at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I started gigging about half way through my time there, I would take every gig I could get and I played with lots different people and bands, mostly other people I went to school with. I think at the time I was playing for about 10 different bands at once. Then I graduated and I started working at the school to teach music, while also still gigging. I ended up getting offers from so many different people outside of my life from school, and that was the coolest feeling in the world to know that people wanted me to play for them. I love getting to know everyone I play for and create little families, it makes me so happy to have so many amazing people in my life. I currently play for a few projects including a solo artist named Hannah Leigh, a metal band called Dead Marble and a pop power band called Doheny Drive. I also get called for other things, I’m just not their main bass player. I always have shows going on, I have several in January coming up with all of the projects I mentioned. My overall goal is to tour the world, I’ve always loved traveling and if I get to do it while doing what I love then even better.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
One of the most important things for me is patience: I think it’s a lot of waiting around and not always knowing when your next gig is. Sometimes you know months in advance about gigs and other times you’ll get asked the day of the gig. Also, another important one is being diligent: you really have to put in the work to get to where you wanna be you can’t just breeze through and think you’re going to get everything handed to you. Lastly being honest: Nobody wants to be around with people who are hard to work with, but at the same time sometimes things need to be said, so don’t be afraid. Some advice I would give to people early in there journey is to live in the moment and don’t take anything for granted. keep dong what you love and don’t let anyone stop you.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
A very big part of my journey is I was lucky enough to be mentored by Nicole Row of Incubus and previously Panic! At The Disco. I studied with her for almost 3 years I think, and she helped me through every bump in the road. She made it clear from the beginning that I could come to her for anything I needed, and I always did. Sometimes it was questions about school and others would be advice on certain gigs; whether or not It was worth taking them. If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t be where I am today. She was who inspired me to pick up bass in the first place. Every lesson she inspired me and pushed me to be the best I could be.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sam.callahan_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgBS8GVVxZO0K4RbE72pcVA
Image Credits
Kayleigh Urban Eduardo Orelha Tiffany Von Ins
