Unsung Melody - Entitled Anonymous. An interview with Sam Hughes from The Sammus Theory

As we continue our support of what we call Unsung Artists, it’s important that we check in from time to time on bands that we’ve featured in the past. Helping the bands with exposure and pointing fans in their direction is great, but we want to foster these relationships and continue to help them grow. Today’s openers are tomorrows headliners and there is a ton of hard work to get there. One of the hardest working Unsung Artists we’ve featured is The Sammus Theory. The band has been been featured on several television shows and has toured the US relentlessly. The Sammus Theory has a new album ready to drop on everyone, it’s titled Entitled Anonymous. Below is my conversation with vocalist Sam Hughes. I hope you enjoy!

You can listen to the entire Sam Hughes interview below:
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Today, I’m welcoming back an old favorite to the Unsung Melody family. Sam Hughes is joining me today. Sam is the voice behind The Sammus Theory. First off, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today and welcome back to the family.

Thanks for having me on man. Always a pleasure.

Anytime. There’s been lots of things happening since we last spoke, so let’s get caught up. You guys have been busy little bees writing and recording I see.

We have been yeah. It’s been quite the schedule over the last six months or so.

Who did you work with on Entitled Anonymous?

We worked with a guy named Evan Rodaniche, he has his own band called Cage 9. He was the lead guitarist for Powerman 5000 for awhile. We ended up hooking up a couple of shows with them, then decided to go out on a tour this last fall. During the tour, we talked to Evan about producing our album. So, it was pretty cool. It was fun having an outside ear helping us with stuff. It was very different experience, but I think it helped us grow as musicians.

I couldn’t agree more with your last statement. For me personally, it’s leaps and bounds better, from a songwriting perspective, from the last album to this one. It just seems like you kind of gelled and it all clicked.

Absolutely. All the songs are very smooth. They just fell together perfectly.

How much time was spent in the studio?

We were in there for just over two weeks. Once we had everything set, it was just a matter of getting in there and making sure we had the best takes we could possibly do.

I believe this was the first time recording with bassist Brett Gilliland. How involved was Brett in the writing of the new album?

It was pretty much an open door for everybody. Anybody who had an idea on what we could tweak on a song or little changes here and there. He actually had a couple ideas that ended up getting on the record. So, everybody had a pretty good part in this one.

I’m not going to lie, the album cover kinda freaks me out a bit. So, I’ve got to ask, what the hell is that on the cover?

It’s kind of a mystery creature. The whole theme of it is like the dark world of the internet. Which is where they’re at. You have this creature that’s there and this person that’s drawn to it. My brother is insanely good at what he does. (laughter) He made it creepy. When we got it, we were like, “Oh man, that’s awesome.”

Does he have a website in case other bands are interested in his work?

You know what’s funny, he doesn’t have an art website. He has a rattlesnake removal business (laughter) and that’s what he does. He just helps us out here and there on the side. We got lucky with him.

Fair enough. We talked a little bit about smooth the songs are and how they all fell together. Going into this album, was it a conscious effort to make the record more polished. In particular, the songs Scarlet Letter Devil, Numb and Deadline are great examples of what I’m talking about.

There was not really…it’s hard to describe. We didn’t think a lot of what we wanted the songs to sound like or the way we wanted the final thing to be. We wanted to kind of get rid of that pressure. There’s always that pressure where we have to make an album that’s better than the last one. So, you start psyching yourself out and you start trying to write things. Thinking, this has to better, this has to be better and nothing will ever get done if you think that way. Because you are not trying to top your last album. It’s about growing as a musician and doing what you do. However it comes out is how it comes out. That’s how it works out. I think we finally embraced that we don’t need to try anything, we just need to do what we do and have fun doing it. So, that’s the mentality that we went into this album with and then when it was coming together, we started shaping ideas of how we wanted things. We could definitely tell the direction of it when you have all the songs in rough form and so we set the bar high of where we wanted. Evan had come back and helped us go way beyond that. So, it was a pretty cool process for this album. Something that we had never really done before. I think it’s safe to say that every album we’ve done, we’ve tried something new to keep it different. Just not having any kind of pressure of having to write the best that we’ve ever done. It was nothing like that.

Last time, we discussed a video that was shot on an incredibly hot day in the desert. Can we expect a video from this album, only not shot in the desert?

I’m hoping so. We’ve been kicking around a couple of ideas with the same guy who shot Your Time. So, we’ll see. We’ll see how things end up. Right now, it’s not quite a priority. Our main goal is to get out there and promote the album and to play these songs for as many of our fans that we can. Maybe at some point, during one of the breaks through this year, we can find some time to really do a cool music video. I think. I’m hoping at least that we can do that. (laughter) I definitely had fun shooting the last one.

Except for the heat.

Except for the heat. That was the terrible thing, but it’s fun to talk about now though.

I see a few tour dates on your site. Tell us what the plans look like for The Summer of Sammus. Yes, feel free to use that and you’re welcome. Lol

(laughter) The Summer of Sammus. I like that. We are planning to just be out on the road for the rest of the year. We’re still booking tour dates through the Summer. It’s going to be a little bit thinner through the Summer with the dates, because we’re doing festivals and bigger shows. I believe we’re going to be out until August 1st. April 26th through August 1st. Then we’re home for about a month and we then go out on our big Fall run through the Midwest and East Coast dates.

A portion of the proceeds from the tour will go to Donate Life America. How did you guys become involved with that particular charity?

Jeremy’s family was working with them. One of his family members got a new lung from that particular foundation. So, when we were talking about doing some sort of donation, this immediately came up. We are kind of in the spotlight with this stuff. We just feel like we want to do something good with that, instead of just take, take, take. We want to give back. So, when we talked about it, we didn’t want to just pick a foundation and give to it. Because you never know, you have to do a lot of research on these things. That was one that was really personal for Jeremy, so we ended going with it. I think it’s going to turn out good. I’m hoping that we can give a nice chunk to them. It would be at least something to get the word out there.

Alright, I always end on a random question. So, I have one for you today. Last time, I gave you a tattoo choice after losing a bet. I thought I’d go a little easier in you today. If money is no object, what’s the first thing you buy?

I would buy a house with a pool here in Arizona. (laughter) I have that on my mind a lot. I’d like to get my own house at some point. Right now, you do the renting thing.

Of course, you’re gone six months out of the year.

(laughter) That or a nice car. Right now I drive an Aztek. I don’t know if you are familiar with that car or not. If you’ve seen the tv show Breaking Bad, it’s the car that Walt drives. He’s the main character. I’ve been driving that since ’07 and all of a sudden it’s the famous Meth Mobile. (laughter) I’m like oh great dude. Come on. Maybe upgrading from the Meth Mobile to something not quite as Methy.

(laughter) I’d hate to see ya not get a house, but I’d probably get out of the Meth Mobile, just so you don’t get pulled over.