Out of Florida and into L.A, Samantha Marie Saglibene traded in the Mexican Gulf for the Pacific breeze in one sudden bold move that turned her life around in more ways than one. Very recently, Samantha premiered her debut EP, titled “Running In Place”, a collection of four deeply personal statements and one just-as-meaningful cover song that proves she’s finally going places.
Growing up, Samantha struggled with certain mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety and even eating disorders; the out of it came through music, singing in particular, something that landed her in the realm of musical theatre for five years starting at the age of ten, and though she never quite stopped singing, her highschool years proved to be less about sharing her gift with the world and more about escaping through it in the loneliness of her bedroom at night.
Samantha’s true musical awakening came during her college years. The coronavirus lockdown turned classes into sparse online affairs that gave her more free time that she devoted to singing and even travelling across the country, and on one of these trips where -inspired by a friend- she decided to “just do it” and dive head-first into Los Angeles to become a musician.
The story behind Samantha’s Debut EP begins with this turning-around of her life. For as bold and commendable as her actions were, to stand at the gates of the musical industry and bang on the door with music out of nowhere demanding to be heard is an absolutely daunting task. Even in the democratized world of online self-publishing, it takes real grit to get noticed, something that many less-driven aspiring musicians come to learn in a completely deflating way, of course, Samantha Marie was not deterred and she’s stuck to her guns from day one, ” Sticking to one genre wasn’t an option,” she says “since each song had its own emotions come out when writing them. Since writing these songs, I’ve been ignoring many “stick to one genre” comments, “find your niche” comments. I’m really passionate about expressing myself through music and I don’t believe that has a genre label. ”
Though she definitely has an alt-pop edge to her sound, Samantha’s un-commitment to genre labels does pay off in making something that is more about the emotional expression and value inherent to the songwriting process than it is to musical uniformity or any desire to venture out deeply into any particular venue, this makes for a very exciting listening experience when it comes to a solid group of songs to be taken in one sitting rather than a loose couple of singles. “Running In Place” is a lot about frustration and struggle, but it does not come off at all as frustrated or lacking in cohesiveness, it is instead a very purposeful exploration of feelings, each befitting their own subtle sonic idiosyncrasies rather than being adapted to this or that style. If anything, the EP’s biggest takeaway for Samantha herself should be to drive ever onward in bolder avenues of sound, exploring increasingly more eclectic blends and influences in search of truly distinct sounds for each of her tracks.
Nothing is quite ever alike in this EP. The differences are just noticeable and subtle enough that there’s no stylistic whiplash to talk about but each song is a delicious new course meant to complement and even improve upon the previous entry. You’ll notice that Samantha’s often on the softer side of things, perhaps even to be described as a flair for the post-goth, a pastel-hued melancholy that starts with the dreamy electro-pop opening of “When You’re Not There” to the haunting string ballad soup of “Never Did get it right”. One particular high point is in her avant-garde rendition of INXS’ “Mystify”, it is so good that I had to search for more covers of the song, and I’ve determined that it is by far the best I’ve ever heard.
