“This feels like what I’ve always wanted to make” – Indie Singer-Songwriter Sam Tabor Talks Music, Mental Health, and New Single
Updated: Oct 27
Written by: Lily Willson
Based in Louisville, Kentucky, 32-year-old Sam Tabor is an indie, folk, and alternative-style musician who released his first song, titled Bones, in 2017. His most recent release is an indie rock and alt-pop single titled Bleed Me Dry. Tabor’s music is largely introspective and commonly tackles subjects relating to mental health and growth. We talked with Sam Tabor about his experience as a musician, Bleed Me Dry, and his upcoming album.
LW: Before releasing music, you started creating comedy content on social media. How has being an influencer before musician helped you with your music journey and getting into that industry?
ST: I think the most it has probably helped is with live shows. I’m not so nervous standing in front of a crowd because I've been used to people commenting on stuff for the past decade. Music is definitely the more vulnerable thing, so it’s a little different. I'm still trying to navigate it a little bit.
LW: You just mentioned how it's easier to deal with comments and things because you've been doing that for so long with your comedy. Since music is the more vulnerable thing, is it more difficult to deal with the responses towards that than your videos?
ST: I think so, because it's so much more serious. Like, the comedy thing is so goofy and less personal. The music stuff is so personal. It's definitely a bigger hit if someone doesn't like it. But also totally cool if someone doesn't like it, you know?
LW: Obviously your comedy is designed to kind of make people laugh while your music is definitely a lot more honest and has emotional lyrics. Is it difficult to maintain that balance between these two personas you have?
ST: Yeah, I'm still trying to navigate that a little bit. I've kind of just leaned into not trying to combine them. The music is what it is, and then that other side of me is what it is. I say that actually, but then with the newer songs, I was like, what if I made the lyrics a little funny, even though the song is a little dark. So there's a little bit of dark humor kind of inching its way into some newer songs. I used to, like, really, really worry about that, and now I'm kind of like, oh, well, I just have different avenues of myself, and different people watch or listen to different things, so I'm trying my best to not think of it as much as I used to.
LW: What made you decide to start making music?
ST: I've actually been making music since I was a kid, before my videos. I've been writing songs and recording songs, badly, with a MacBook microphone. I had no idea what I was doing. I've been doing that since before making videos. In 2017, I wrote a song for the first time in years or something like that, and I just decided to show my YouTube audience, and they loved it. That song was called Bones, and that was also recorded on a very bad microphone. I had no idea what I was doing. I think it's still my most streamed song, which is hilarious and cool, but it's the least professional sounding song of all time. I just kind of like showed them one time and then the people wanted more and it felt really good to put a more serious side out there. And some people connect with it.
LW: What are your musical influences?
ST: I love Phoebe Bridgers. I actually just saw her show a couple weeks ago. It was her first show on the tour that she's doing, and it was the best show I've ever seen. It was unbelievable. That inspired me a lot, actually, seeing her show. It gave me so many ideas. Also, Radical Face. I don't know if you've ever heard of Radical Face. He is my favorite lyricist ever. I remember the first time I heard him, I was like, oh, that's what I've always been trying to do with my music. He writes the songs I wish I could write, if that makes any sense. Recently, I've been experimenting with a lot of synth sounds, and someone that's kind of in the same realm, you know, comedy to music and coinciding both of them is Petey USA. He's a big inspiration to me. Not just his music, I love his music, but also I followed Petey USA back in the day just because he was hilarious. Then he started putting out music, and it's a big inspiration to me that those two sides can exist together, and I think he does it flawlessly.
LW: You’ve been playing guitar since you were eight, right? How many guitars have you owned?
ST: Yeah, it's kind of a guess. It's like 7 to 8 probably. I’ve owned probably five guitars. Not that many. My first guitar, when I was eight or eight-ish, was a first act guitar from Walmart, and I will never forget this. My mom was learning how to tune it, because we had no idea what we were doing. And we also didn't have YouTube, you know, to know how to tune it. She didn't figure it out because she was tuning the guitar and something happened. I guess she tuned too tight, and the neck just snapped. It just blew off. It was like one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Like the guitar just exploded, basically. That's the most memorable guitar I've ever owned.
LW: Do you only play any instruments other than guitar?
ST: I would say I barely play piano. I can play chords on a piano, and I can figure out a song on piano. It's kind of my tool to get ideas down. Drums are probably my favorite instrument to play ever. I play drums on every song in this new record. I would say I think I'm a better drummer than guitarist. I think I'm a pretty basic guitarist as well, just average at it. I’m average at drums too. I'm just average at all instruments that I play. I played the trumpet. I was first chair trumpet in middle school, and I played violin and gave that up. But I wish I never gave that up. I actually miss playing violin.
LW: Bleed Me Dry has a different sound than what people normally associate with vampire-type music. Why did you decide to use vampires as the song's metaphor and theme?
ST: Yeah, so that song was different for me as well. That was the first song I ever co-wrote, and I co-wrote it with Micah Talks, who is an incredible co-writer and producer. He’s worked with many people like Haley Williams and Niall Horan, so I was very honored he even hit me up. I was in his studio, and he just brought in this synth noise, and I've never experimented with it. He just immediately brought it in, and it kind of reminded me of an old '80s vampire movie. It kind of changed the way I'm writing the album that I'm working on. We're introducing a lot of weird noises and sounds and cool stuff, so I'm really excited about it.
LW: The 80s movie inspiration brings me into the next question: if you could live in like any piece of vampire media, what would you choose?
ST: I have to say Twilight because I watched it for the first time last night. I feel like there was no thought to that answer, but that was the funniest, craziest movie I've ever seen in my life. Being a cheesy character in Twilight would be pretty awesome, I think.
LW: Do you have a favorite track that you've written for this album that you're especially excited for people to see?
ST: My favorite keeps on changing. My new favorite that will probably change again is the last song on the album that we started recording three or four days ago. It's very heavy. The songs that I'm putting out right now are really fun and that's something I wanted to do with this album. I want some fun songs because a lot of my songs are so sad, but I also want to introduce the sad songs that I've always written, but with different sounds, not just, like, an acoustic guitar. Nothing wrong with acoustic guitar, I love that, but I wanted to try something different, and I don't want to give too much away with the last song, but we have some stuff I've definitely never used before. I'm stoked on that one.
LW: Where do you tend to get your inspirations from lyrically, or how do you decide what you want a song to be about?
ST: I write the music first. Almost all of the songs I've ever written start with a voice memo or just filming my face when a tune pops up in my head and I’ve just got to get that tune on a recording. Usually, I'm just singing gibberish. Lyrics are one of the last things for me for some reason. I can't really even think of a song where lyrics came first, actually. A lot of the time I'll start writing the lyrics based on how the song is. For example, the last song on the album I was talking about is very sad sounding. I was like, okay, well, what brings out this emotion? And then I've found a subject and then I'll start talking, you know, forming lyrics about that. Most of the time it's about me being trapped in my head, but I'm trying my best to not only write about that. I've experienced depression and anxiety all my life. It's been way better the past few years, but that's the thing that I've struggled with the most. And OCD, which I've talked about before. I'm trying to go outside that a little bit because that is kind of the thing that I end up writing about. For Bleed Me Dry, the lyrics for the chorus came to me as I was playing the chorus on the piano when I was writing it. I just had this tune in my head and I started playing it, and I just started singing, “I know the reason why you only leave your house at night”, and that's the first thing I said. Then I was like, well, that sounds like a vampire. That's how I got inspiration for that. I was just like, oh, that sounds like a vampire song. Well, let's make a vampire song. I didn't know if I wanted it to be fully about vampires or vampires as a metaphor, and when I was co-writing with Micah, he was like, “no, dude, let's make a song about vampires. Yeah, let's just do it. It will be funny”. He definitely opened up a new world of oh, I can write a song about literally anything.
LW: You mentioned anxiety, depression, and OCD. Has music helped with that? I know it can be very cathartic to put that emotion and experiences into a song.
ST: I think so, but a lot of times it'll make me sadder. The song will just sound so sad, it’ll put me in a horrible mood. I think over time it actually does help to get those thoughts out on paper and then into a song. I think it does help quite a bit. It also helps because I get really worried. This is probably where some OCD comes in. I ruminate on how people are gonna perceive me with those lyrics and it actually really helps when people who relate have messaged me saying, oh my gosh, I thought I was alone on this. It's just really awesome to hear people say they relate to the problems that you think you're alone on.
LW: Do you have a favorite fan interaction?
ST: I talked before I played a song about OCD. I was like, hey, this song's about my struggle with OCD. After the show, a mom came up with her kid, and the mom was kind of crying a little bit, and she said, “my son has struggled with this forever, and he thought he was alone”. She said I was his favorite YouTuber and hearing that his favorite YouTuber had the struggle that he thought he was alone on changed him, so that was very special to me. That was very, very special.
LW: Is there anything else about your new upcoming album or Bleed Me Dry that you want to talk about?
ST: I'm very excited to talk about details of it very soon. I can't say too much about it. I do have something new coming out within a month with something special along with it. I'm very excited for it. It's very, very different from anything I've ever made before to the point where I'm worried that people who like the old stuff might not like this new stuff. This feels like what I've always wanted to make, though. I will say that I'm very, very stoked on these sounds that we’re coming up with, and I’m really, really excited about songwriting. I have a music video coming out within the month, and it features one of my favorite creators ever. It's a comedy-based DIY-style music video with a creator named Chad Chad. I've always looked up to her as a creator, and we followed each other on Instagram a long time ago, and I just cold messaged her and I was like, “hi, my wife and I have loved your stuff for years. Do you want to be a vampire with me in a music video?” So yeah, we're making it happen. We're about to film it, but I guess by the time you’re reading this, it's out. The whole music video is her teaching me how to be a vampire and live in the sun and live everyday life. I don't want to give away the ending, but the whole music video is really fun activities vampires wouldn't do. She's trying to teach me, “you can do this, you just gotta wear sunscreen”. Just stuff like that. It is a super fun music video. Go watch it. It's out. Also, a huge thank you to Chad Chad. She’s the best for saying yes to this. I asked her if she wanted compensation or anything and she asked for a Jersey Mike sandwich. She's the best.
Bleed Me Dry is available to stream, and the music video is out on YouTube now.
Interview and article by Lily Willson for STREET GRRRLS / GRRRL MUSIC.
Comments