SAM SHI Takes Her Songs Into One Room on “Live From Santa Monica”

Live From Santa Monica runs about 25 minutes across six songs: “Judgment,” “Perfectionism,” “Unbury Me,” “PETTY,” “Comfort Zone,” and “No Love.” Florian plays drums and Eric plays guitar, and the whole thing was filmed as it happened. When she heard the drums bleeding into her vocal mic, she thought about re-recording her parts. She decided not to. That choice is the reason the EP feels like you are standing in the room.

“Comfort Zone” is the only new song here, and it came out first, on September 18. “I wrote ‘Comfort Zone’ while I was stuck in two at once, a relationship and a corporate job,” she told EARMILK, “and this song was recently released right as I’m finally leaving that job behind.” At the other end of the set, “No Love” is a song she wrote about sixteen years ago, and she closes the session alone at a grand piano. “Unbury Me” comes from a dream about being chased and hiding.

SAM SHI was born in Honolulu and raised in Sweden, with a stretch of her early teens in Kuwait that left her with a lifelong love of organic percussion. She still keeps a darbouka close. She studied physics and interactive media, worked in tech, and is a certified yoga teacher. The music has always been there, though, and this summer it was everywhere: her voice is on Nico Szabo and Aske Izan’s “Aside” for Anjunadeep Explorations and Enamour’s “What U Said” for Crosstown Rebels.

She has done this kind of live recording before, out in Joshua Tree last year, and she is scoring her second contemporary dance show. Her label name comes from a question she likes to ask about every song. Did you dance? And if you did not, did you at least feel something?

Watch the film if you can. If you only have a few minutes, start with “Comfort Zone” and stay for “No Love” at the piano. It is a lovely way to meet her songs, and very hard not to feel something.