The Sam Chase has a voice like a Nun on the lam with a mouthful cigarettes and curse words in a lonely bar, drunkenly dancing next to a broken jukebox. His songs are scribbled, not written, on lipstick and sweat stained motel bedsheets because he likes the way the ink bleeds. His guitar runs on diesel and leaks like the morning after too much Whiskey. His is a show you’ll probably want to tattoo on your body so everyone will know that you knew him before he was cool.

His backing band, The Untraditional, are descended from Norse Warriors known as The Berserkers. Old Norse literature and historians note that Berserkers fought with an uncontrollable, trance-like fury. They would work themselves into a rage before battle, consuming drugged foods, and dressed in nothing but their enemies blood. The Untraditional follow their ancestors ancient practices before every show.

Little is known about the night he was conceived because, frankly it is nobodies damn business. However, there are at least two people who had the foresight to procreate at just the right moment, when all of those dimly lit specs of light in the sky held a position just long enough to time stamp a genetic code and shoot it down from the cold, empty heavens to create another poor soul, destined to live and die out here on this cold rock, twirling violently in the vast emptiness of space.

Then he was born. He should have been born at the top of a mountain during a lightning storm. Where he actually was born was incredibly un-exciting so let’s all pretend that he was born on the top of a mountain during a lightning storm. It is good to start your life story with an epic moment, even if it is entirely fabricated.

He began to write music at the age of 14. He still has every scrap of paper he scribbled his terrible lyrics on and on occasion can even recall the infantile melodies and riffs that accompanied them.

The release of his first album in 2009, HELLA SOLO, was an amalgamation of many of the songs that he wrote and recorded in his room from the ages of 19 to 25. Most songs were recorded late in the night. Most times there was alcohol involved. What came of those 19 lonely, depressing songs became the jumpstart to THE SAM CHASE and the many live shows that followed.

In 2010, he came out with his second album, TESTICULAR FORTITUDE, which was more of the same. They were songs that sat rotting on his hard drive that probably shouldn’t have ever seen the light of day, or the soft underbelly of a burnable compact disc.

In 2012, came the release of his long awaited first studio album, THE SAM CHASE WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY and needless to say, it totally ruled.
Not more than 1 year later, THE SAM CHASE WILL NEVER DIE was unleashed on the unsuspecting public and pandemonium broke loose.

Since then the band has played many amazing shows, including a few tours to far a way places. In their trusty Dodge Van named Big Russ they conquered SXSW in 2013, the Kate Wolf Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Outside Lands, and so many others. The band also won some local awards for their music. In may of 2013 they won “Best Band” in the SF Weekly’s Best Of the Bay Readers Poll and then again in October won Best Singer Songwriter in the San Francisco Bay Guardians Best Of the Bay issue.

2015 has been good to this band. A new album is on the way, festivals aplenty, and some new members to breath new life into a tired old musician.

What’s next? Stay tuned.