Start Listening To: Samana
From busking on the van to building an analogue recording studio in Wales, Rebecca and Frankin are living our creative-cottage dream.
Born on the road, Samana is a creative child of Rebecca Rose Harris and their partner Franklin Mockett. What sounds like a psych-folk dream, is a real-life account of their days filled with busking, writing in the mountains and hiding away from the chaos around them. Immersing in the dream-states, philosophy and poetry, they’ve set themselves upon a mission of exploring the mystery in the core of the subconscious. In the end, as their new album, ‘All One Breathe’ suggest, it was never about finding the answers but the journey.
Breath in, breath out. Samana left their laid for a while to let us look within before we’ll look out.
Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
We are Samana, a multi-disciplinary outfit consisting of myself Rebecca Rose Harris and my partner Franklin Mockett. We’re both from Brighton but moved to Wales 5 years ago where we have since been.
How did it all start?
It all started with an old Mercedes van and a year-long road-trip across the breadth of Europe, busking on the streets and writing in the mountains. Since then we have gone on to restore a farmhouse in Wales, and have built an analogue recording studio in the old milking parlour.
If you were to describe your sound to someone who’d never heard you before what would you say?
I would say it is a sound that imbues an emotional and poignant journey. It is an eclectic, tapestry of sound consisting of ethereal ambient swells of psychedelic slide guitars, melancholic strings and deep and earthy lyrics
How are you feeling about the release of your new ‘All One Breath’ album?
We feel really good and positive. We’re proud of this body of work and confident that it will reach the people it’s destined to on its journey.
Can you tell us more about the themes behind this album?
We were guided by the pulse and narrative of each song as it came into fruition, be that as a subconscious improvisation, or as a deep reflection and rumination on a dream. All One Breath feels to be more of an archipelago than that of a single world or landscape.”
You’ve been set in Georgian farmhouse in the wild Welsh countryside when working on the album, how did this influence the record?
We were restoring and re-building a stone cottage with heritage techniques and then building a recording studio ‘The Road Records’ during the pandemic, learning entirely as we went along. It has been a very rewarding process but also very physically and emotionally demanding. We travelled to the midi-pyrenees in France to have some space and time to create in a new environment, away from the build, which at that point consisted mainly of rubble and dust. It just so happened that the day after we arrived, France announced it was going into lockdown. A months retreat turned into three. This was a blessing for our creations, to be immersed in the isolation of the forests and the hills; it offered us the powerful gift of perspective and reflection. We wrote and recorded a large body of new work during our time there, before consolidating it into an album which became All One Breath. Nature is always a huge inspiration for our work, for nature is where the full breadth of experience and emotion can be realised and reflected upon. If there is anything that ties the music together for this album, it is its impact on both of our subconscious, as we traversed through it during our time in France.
What inspires your music?
Nature, the interpretations of dreaming, philosophy, poetry, emotions, experience, wonderlust and the never ending mystery that is the subconscious.
What advice would you give for anyone trying to achieve a similar sound to your band?
My advice to any musician, would be to look within before looking out. Carve a sound that rings true to a feeling, a perspective. Don’t try to imitate; take inspiration and fuel from others to propel you on your journey of creation and discovery. Music has the power to transcend. When you yourself traverse the velocity of time and space through the act of music, you know you are making something true.
If your music were a film or TV show which would it be?
Paris Texas
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you?
Boards of Canada. They have been hugely instrumental to both of us over their years in their appreciation for nature and in their unequivocal passion for analogue recording equipment.
What do you hate right now?
The feeling of confinement.
What do you love right now?
Watching the sunrise, the crispness of winters onset, spending time with the people I love.
What comes next in the Samana story?
The album is being released on March 11th and there is an exclusive edition being released with DINKED. We’re then going on tour in March with our full band to perform ‘All One Breath’ which we are very excited about! We are also in the process of making a series of analogue films called ‘A Portrait Of’ which is a very exciting chapter for us as multi-disciplinary artists. Each portrait combines 8mm film with psychogeographical soundscapes, fragments of acutely intimate interviews and a reflective instrumental composition, to portray each subject through a tapestry of senses.
Is there any new music you’re enjoying from 2021?
Vinyls we’ve been playing a lot recently are those of William Eaton, Seabuckthorn and Neil Young.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
These past two years have been tough for us all. I feel there is a lot of collective healing required over this next year. Remember to listen to your instinct and to trust yourself with the decisions you make. We hope to see you on the road!