Written and produced by Sumi and John 

Samr (سمر) as a name means "gathering of those who spend the evening in pleasant conversation usually with poetry or music” in Arabic. As SAMR Nights we hope our music accompanies you on those pleasant nights.

Single

Storytime

Odesza inspired vocal chops, Jai wolf style 80's atmospheric arrangements and synths, juxtaposed with a fun jazzy/fiery piano and a donk bass. An unlikely combo that somehow works well together as a playful but also heartfelt, fusion sound. Inspired by electronic music and styles of the southwest united states music; we put ourselves into this song and hope we created something enjoyable. Lyrics are about our need for being accepted, as who we are, from those around us; and how lucky we are to have that from each other. About how that authenticity guides us forward and gives us the comfort and confidence to be the best versions of ourselves.

Our process for this song:

Instrumental - John created the instrumental and threw out some ideas for the song to see what sticks. Initially the piano riff was just a midi placeholder melody to explore other instruments. However, Sumi really liked both the piano and the melody. We then worked together to setup a structure and general idea for the core song. Sumi would give ideas like having an 8 chord progression instead of 4, or change the piano in the second verse, and then John would write the arrangement. The rest of the song like drums, snares, synths, sound bursts, impacts, arpeggios, etc. were fleshed out later by John. Synths were created by using vital. The synth was 3 different synths, stereo imaged across different areas of the soundstage. The arpeggio at the end was a modified basic shape in vital with an arpeggio plugin. The note order was automated to change with each chord change. Some additional notes were sprinkled throughout to make it more melodic.

Lyrics and Vocals- Looped sections of the song and Sumi sang ideas. We picked the best ideas and recorded around 15 attempts of each verse and chorus; refining as we go until we felt that we had a good recording of each line. John spliced together the best takes and also cut them up for the rest of the song's vocal chops. We sang some additional backup vocals on a whim and kept the crude recordings as another placeholder but stuck with it to add a low fidelity contrast to the cleaner sounding instruments in the middle of the song. 

Mastering - Is still a work in progress by John but the song is at the point of listen-ability. Just lots of pushing for loudness and cleaning up the mix as more issues present themselves with each boost. -5 LUFS for the original file baby. Pretty proud of that. Totally not worth it though because I can't find video editing software that can handle that level of loudness without completely butchering it in the render. Thanks for sticking around this far and reading all that. 

Photo taken by John.

Samr (سمر) as a name means "gathering of those who spend the evening in pleasant conversation usually with poetry or music” in Arabic. As SAMR Nights we hope our music accompanies you on those pleasant nights.

As Long as You're Mine

Inspired by artists including Memba, Glass Animals, Slender Bodies, Tender, and Odesza. This is an electronic track that is a fusion of those styles. Lyrics are double meaning. The synth heavy section can be interpreted as "my head/hand." I intentionally sang it that way to play around with the McGurk effect while giving a deeper meaning to the simple lyric. Represents the inner turmoil of putting the fight out of that inner voice trying to take me down. "Pull me from the sound/sand" serves to create imagery of being pulled away from that noise by somebody special. Thank you Sumi for helping me see my worth. This one is dedicated to you and everyone who has had to jump in to help someone and making them believe in themself again.

My Hand

Samr (سمر) as a name means "gathering of those who spend the evening in pleasant conversation usually with poetry or music” in Arabic. As SAMR Nights we hope our music accompanies you on those pleasant nights.

SAMR Nights

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