Sam Welch creates music that is not only layered lyrically but sonically as well. He makes music the way he wants to through non traditional musical structures. In fact, Sam’s music is so unique he created his own genre to describe it: transcendental techno vox. The lyrics of his songs are centered around the human experience through a psychiatric lens. With his latest single, “Jerusalem” he paints a picture of a world that he imagines we as humans will transcend to. By viewing this concept through the vein of spirituality - specifically Christianity - the idea of using Jerusalem came to his mind. The song focuses on the idea of God taking humans to this transcendent world and dives into the idea of Him existing altogether.
Spiritual transcendence is a running theme with Sam’s music as his previous release The Republic discussed it through the experience of living in the United States through a political lens. However, this time around, Sam is looking at the theme of transcendence through a historical and spiritual lens. On “Jerusalem” he’s discussing the topic in both a mental and physical sense. By painting pictures in the listener's mind through his lyrics, they can envision the transcendent world he speaks of in more ways than one.
“I have a lot of imagery about nature and the imagery that I have about nature in the song is depicting a world where there's natural irregularity. The irregularity relates to spiritual dysfunction. I mentioned a black star, a dry lake bed and a desert wind. It's all imagery that somewhat depicts spiritual suffering.”
The atmosphere of Sam’s track “Jerusalem” is quite positive in comparison to his previous project. Synthesizers, keys and shakers create a feeling of hopefulness across the track with Sam’s vocal harmonies leading listeners on a thought filled journey. Much of Sam’s music is meant to be a beacon of hope for those going through things but this track and the rest of the project takes that to a different level than he’s previously explored. Sam’s core motivation to continue making music goes back to his love for helping people. As someone who has dealt with trials of his own at different stages in his life, he wants to not only relate to people but connect with them and push them to keep going.
“It's a little bit more hopeful sounding. The ideas of recovery, renewal and having faith are explored across several songs on the project…I think music is a way of maintaining hope about the future. Being able to provide a resource for people is a rewarding thing.” he said
With themes of Christianity and history blending in “Jerusalem,” the track is one that can be motivational and even eye opening to the listener. It’s a testament to motivation since it was born from when Sam damaged his hearing while working in his music studio which led to not only this track but the full project.
“…It was a pretty serious thing because it challenged my confidence, and my ability to write music. And that's sort of when the Jerusalem thing popped into my head because it was about having faith that things will move ahead and having faith that there is a possibility of healing and restoration.” he said
Sam Welch is an artist with a lot going on musically, which is something that his listeners will appreciate. He plans to release a song a month, he just performed in New York, he’s been performing live locally around the area of Lunenburg, Massachusetts once a week and he’s got music on the radio. Additionally, his full catalog so far is available on his website, https://samwelchboston.com. This is his brand new website and he’s planning a newsletter to go along with it. Outside of the music, Sam recently appeared on the Guess Who’s Trending platform which was hosted by Too Deep where he talked about psychiatric topics, emotional and spiritual recovery and of course, music. You can find that interview here.
Jerusalem is available on streaming services now and you can watch the music video for it here.
You can keep up with Sam Welch on the following platforms.
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