University Writing Center

April 2008

MEGHAN: Samaria Dalia Roberts-Perez has a long name and a large talent to go along with it.  Hi, my name is Meghan Wall and welcome to “Write Right,” the Texas A&M University Writing Center’s student podcast.  She goes by Sammy, and besides her work as a singer /songwriter, she is full time PhD student and an instructor here at Texas A&M.  I had the pleasure to speak with Sammy today about her interest in music as well as her work as a singer/songwriter.

[singing]

There’s a calf with a mournful eye
high above in desert swallow
winging swiftly through the sky…

SAMMY: I’ve been singing my whole life, and I started playing guitar seriously around sixteen.  I did a lot of coffee houses singer songwriter stuff.

MEGHAN: For Sammy, music has always been a part of her life, even if it wasn’t of her own choosing.

When I was a kid and my parents introduced me to music, my dad had this rule in the car where we could not listen to our station; we had to listen to the oldies station, and so I grew up kind of listening with him to the oldies station.  And I really still to this day enjoy Doo-wop, and I enjoy disco, classic rock, all of that.  My mom on the other hand really was  more into the 80s and she would take us roller skating a whole lot; I got really into the free style kind of roller skating music.

MEGHAN: From an early age music had a strong impact on Sammy as it still does today.

SAMMY: Music for me has been kind of like a release.  I was really really shy, and music really helped me to open up.  It’s helped me to be to be a better presenter; it’s helped me to be I guess more confident all around; I’m still really nervous about playing; I still really get stage fright, but for me there’s something about music when you do it where you just get lost in it.

MEGHAN: Although she never boasts about her musical talent Sammy has one victory she’s quite proud of.

SAMMY: There was a talent show my freshman year of college in our dorm, and I won that by playing and singing, and I beat a guy who was juggling knives, so that was pretty cool.  I thought he was going to win for sure but he came in second.

MEGHAN: In the past Sammy wrote many songs with a sadder tune, about relationships that didn’t work out, but she’s doing something different now.

SAMMY: Lately I’ve been trying to write more songs that are positive that are about, you know things happen in life but you kind of have to role with the punches.  I have an idea to make a children’s cd.  It started off because I have a  niece and nephew who are twins and an older nephew.  Anyway, the songs that my sister plays for them, I think are horrid. So I’m going to try to create a cd of covers as well as  my own songs that are children orientated.

MEGHAN: One thing that’s crucial to Sammy is the need for complete isolation when writing.

SAMMY: If I feel that someone can hear me while I’m writing I don’t like it.  It feels very awkward and uncomfortable; obviously I wouldn’t want someone to hear an unfinished product.  I have to really be in my place, wherever I happen to be living, and there can’t be anyone else able to hear what I’m doing.

MEGHAN: Sammy doesn’t use the computer to type up her songs as she creates them…rather she goes for a more traditional method.

SAMMY: I have only written on paper; it just feels for natural to me to just do it with the pen and paper and have the mess in front of me with a whole bunch of scratched out chords.

MEGHAN: Although never formally trained Sammy used alternative approaches to learning more about music and guitar playing.

SAMMY: When I was in Puerto Rico I would bring my guitar to the beach and attempt to make friends, and one time it worked.  And this woman on the beach came by and she said ‘ohhh I see you have a guitar, well I have this store in old San Juan and we have this open mic nights and then you get free ice cream if you sing and play, so you’d fit in there real well.’  And I said ok.  That was a Ben and Jerry’s actually, which is still there in old San Juan.  So I started going once a week with my guitar.  And they had there a guy who brought his drum set, and so there was a drummer, and they had a base player who would come in.  They had another guitar player, other singers, so it was kind of like always a jam band every week at this ice cream shop.  And there I didn’t ever get lessons, but just playing with people over and over you, you’re forced to get better.  You learn by playing with others, and that also made me go home and learn new songs all the time because I didn’t want to be one of those people who came in every week with the same exact songs, so that really pushed me into learning different things and to learning better things.  And it was a great experience.  I learned a lot about music in general from that scene.

MEGHAN: Although a very serious student, Sammy does not see the need to take life too seriously, just look at the humorous and unusual names she’s assigned her three guitars.

SAMMY: I like cats a lot, and so my guitars have been named after different cats.  My last acoustic guitar is called Tiger.  Tiger was obviously the name of Winne the Pooh, but that was the name of a cat that I had.  My electric guitar is Mr. Bigglesworth.  Mr. Bigglesworth was named after Austin Powers, Dr. Evil’s cat.  And this guitar is named Mammy Cat.  The shape of it, the bottom, is very curvy and large, so it’s womanesque.  And then there’s this figure in kind of old movies called the mammy figure.  That’s like an African American large woman whose is kind of like in charge of the house and at the same time nurturing.  And so even though that stereotype gets a  lot of rap I kind used it to name my guitar in terms of a positive thing.  So Mammy Cat is the name of this guitar.

MEGHAN: For Sammy, writing music has not only been a way to have fun but has also served as an outlet for solving life’s problems.

SAMMY: My mom tells me all the time if you’re upset about something and you can’t get over it and you just keep on thinking about it over and over then take out a sheet of paper and just write down everything that’s bothering you.  And whether you do something with it or rip it up into a million pieces afterward, it’s still really an important process of taking things that are within you and then instead of having it manifest itself through stress or anger towards others or bitterness.  It’s a really good way of letting that go.  I think writing is an excellent tool whether it’s a song that you think is going to make millions or whether it’s a song you play just for yourself.

[singing]

How the winds are laughing they laugh with all their might
laugh and laugh the whole day through
and half the summers night
donna donna donna donna donna donna donna…

MEGHAN: Sammy’s future plans include playing a lot more often, as she’s been away from the performing scene for awhile, because of school.  She’s also thinking about volunteering at the local community radio station doing some DJ work and hopefully recording some of her songs.  Upon completion of her PhD she plans to head out west to California to work in the Health Communication field, and if the right opportunity comes along pursuing her singing and songwriting career.

In our next podcast, Sammy will play some of her songs so don’t miss out on that. And if you’d like to hear more original singer/songwriters you’re in luck because there are many coffee houses and bars in the area that host local talent.  Revolutions Cafe, It’s a Grind, The Roasted Bean, and Coffee Station are just a few of them.

And if you’ve been inspired to start writing your own music we’re here to help.  Here at the Writing Center, on the second floor of Evans Library, we can help you with everything except singing lessons, so come on by for all your writing needs.

For you really brave performers out there we can set up a recording and you can be the next singing star on this show.  Thanks for listening; I’m Meghan Wall, hoping you’ll tune in next time for another exciting episode of “Write Right.”