(if you like to read, here’s the transcript…)

Hi! I’m Sam. (a.k.a. nighter because, well, nobody seems to know how to pronounce my last name).

I’m a multi-genre American recording artist, vocalist, songwriter, and featured artist.

Born + raised in the DMV — Bethesda, Maryland, to be exact — I sauntered across the country and finished my Bachelors in Media at Berkeley (Go Bears). Popped down to LA for a decade to work in advertising and entertainment, where I produced events, booked bands, branded artists, launched companies, and, of course, made music with my friends.

As one-half of the Sam&Dane duo with artist and songwriter, Dane Drewis, we played up and down the SoCal coast every weekend from 2012 - 2018. Reunion show coming soon!

In 2016, I met Alex Kemp at WLFDR Studios in Venice, CA, and we started writing commercial synchs together. Our sessions quickly developed into a full-fledged band called ESX (stands for Everything Seems X-Rated). We welcomed producer + legend, Aaron Miller, in as a co-writer and drummer, and sealed the deal with him as the 3rd and final member to our band in 2018. We started paying shows. We released an EP in 2018, All We Got Now Ain’t No Thing Now. We’ve got more tunes on the way.

Music has always been an outlet for me — something I could depend on. These songs are my journey: the growth, the struggle, the fight, the wins, the losses, grit, resilience, self-awareness. A theme that I love is the duality of human beings. The juxtaposition of life. Black. White. Yin. Yang. That sort of stuff. Something that has taken me a lifetime to learn (disclaimer: still learning): Your choices in this life will break your heart at some point. It’s unavoidable. What matters is how you pick yourself back up when you fall. How you flex self-awareness to stop repeating the mistakes of the past. How you stay tough as nails in the face of adversity. These records are meant to help you keep your head above water when you feel like you’re drowning because you’ll know that someone (i.e. me) went through it too. Use it.

While nighter is the brainchild of yours truly, there’s no way in hell I could have done all of this alone. TY to all of my collaborators, contributors, cheerleaders, mentors, people who told me to kick rocks, and future collaborators.

Thanks for hanging out. Enjoy the show!

• Producer, co-writer, and musical mastermind: Adam O’Rourke

• Mix/Master: Loren Moore.

• Co-writer: Brady Loveless

• Co-writer: Seth McGee