Music

The meaning of the word Samsara (the cycle of death) may imply the opposite of Nirvana (the circle of life), yet the New York band of the same name is not unlike the iconic grunge band that still defines an era of misfit musicians from the 90’s. Yet the alt rock band, SAMSARA’s musical oscillation and talent stands on its own merit. 

SPIN discovered SAMSARA on ReverbNation via the music creation and discovery platform BandLab where their tracks jumped out as fully formed calling cards among other developing acts on the popular music mastering app. Not unlike emerging bands before them, SAMSARA has played NYC dive bars, had the chord pulled on them for being too loud and misunderstood by audiences and venue owners, and played New York’s Mercury Lounge at key turning points in developing their live performance prowess, songwriting, and edgy yet beautiful sound.  

The five-member act started out playing covers – from Billie Eilish (“Bad Guy”) to “Little Sister” by Elvis – at Food Truck Festivals around their native New York. Today, their smart, hard-driving sound belies each member’s 20-something age. Guitarist and vocalist Charlie LoMonaco was ten years old when he first met bassist John Devito and drummer Ben Bustamante at School of Rock, the performance-based music education program for young New York musicians. “It really taught us how to perform in front of an audience,” explains Ben, “and it’s where every single one of us met at different times.”

“I remember when I met them I was 14,” says lead vocalist Dylan Trif. “They were the most tight knit musicians I’d seen for our age because they had known each other for so long already, and I was like, Oh, f***, how do I get in on this? And I slowly finagled my way in… secretly.”

Today, SAMSARA’s technical ability melds with vocal and lyrical chops to create an evocative, determined sound that sets them apart from other rising musicians. LoMonaco is now a graduate of Berklee College of Music where lead vocalist Dylan is currently enrolled. John acquired a prestigious history degree from upstate New York, while Ben attended community college in Long Island for studio recording but learned more from studying the drumming of John Bonham and Dave Grohl. Rhythm guitarist Brendan Sandhovel remains a mysterious secret weapon that the other members swear they can’t live without. He’s the computer scientist in the group. You can hear the band’s diverse sonic influences in Queens of the Stone Age, U2, Arctic Monkeys, early Coldplay, Black Sabbath, and even My Bloody Valentine. 

SAMSARA’s blown out songs are powerful and infectious. Edgy lovelorn storytelling and vocals match assaulting guitars, ominous chord structures and amped up rhythm. Their sound is melancholic and downcast yet cacophonous not unlike British rockers The Editors. 

The track “Shadow” unravels a tale of loss traversing through the light and dark of a traumatic night that is dream-like and real all-at-once. On the uncompromising drive of “Nirvana,” Dylan’s vocals and lyrics land somewhere between Julian Casablancas in The Strokes, Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner, and Billy Idol. The more metal sounding, “Tell Us Your Name,” is marked by heartbreak and possessed guitars. It was the band’s first track where they felt their true sound started to emerge. “Filthy Habit” reveals an addictive love and an unsuccessful attempt to break it. Yet it is the mournful track, “411,” that haunts the listener with its jangly Britpop guitars and tight rhythms washing over chord structures and vocals that pine for an ill-fated love (“But you had to say that we are gonna fade away…”). “Awake” is the most British rock sounding track, yet it is also distinctly American.

SPIN caught up with the guys on a Saturday night in September where they were eager to talk about their music, desires, and future aspirations of playing Madison Square Garden and a British festival like Leeds and Reading or Glastonbury, plus finish a full-length album by year’s end. 

When people ask you about the band’s sound, how do you describe it to them?  

(Dylan) Hard alt rock is a good way of describing it. It’s really interesting because all of us listen to such different music. None of us in the band have the same music taste, and I think that’s why we have such a unique sound. It’s because we take everything from different genres. What I like to say is that SAMSARA is alt rock with a mix of grunge and shoegaze. Shoegaze is a very generous one. But there are so many different components of what everyone listens to. 

For instance, John just loves metal! This guy can go on and on about metal. I like the 2000s, a lot of pop alternative rock. Ben is just a crazy John Bonham type of drummer… that’s just how he started off. When you have that power from the drums, then some grit from the bass, and then Charlie in his own little world – he’s like a machine on guitar – then Brendan comes in with this chugging that brings it down. Somehow it all goes together. One of my favorite bands is Coldplay. I love early Coldplay… the album Parachutes with the song “Yellow.” I put Coldplay-esque melodies over all the music underneath our sound. I don’t know how to explain it but when you add all of these different genres in, it gets into all of our minds on one track. 

Tell us about the first song that you ever wrote as SAMSARA, “Tell Us Your Name” (2019). 

(Dylan) John wrote the baseline. It was when we first started the band and we used to spend every day of the summer together. Like, three months. We probably spent 90 days of the summer together and we wrote one song. It was good.

(Ben) I feel so bad for my parents. Everybody was playing close to my house, right next to the living room… rehearsing so loud, going over the song over and over. 

(Charlie) But it made us so tight as a band where you can just glance at somebody and know exactly what they’re thinking… onstage and in the studio. It made us super locked in together. It was like an incubator. 

SAMSARA has so many songs already. Can you explain how they all come together in your song writing process:

(John) Sometimes we get to send demos and sometimes we’ll have the opportunity to write together in the same room.

(Ben) Dylan writes all the lyrics but songs can come in from anywhere. We all dabble in different instruments which helps in our songwriting, and performing too. It’s really interesting and helps with our process. It makes us different from other bands. 

A lot of the time, Dylan and I work on Logic (the app), and we’ll send little ideas to each other here and there. And I’m like, ” Oh, I think this might be cool.” And then Dylan will be like, “Nah, I don’t like it. I like this.” It’s super important to be honest with each other, or else it won’t happen. Then we’ll show it to the band. Then if everybody’s cool with it,  it starts to become bigger. Then people who actually know how to play their instrument will start playing the parts how they are intended to sound. They bring in the skills! We always thought it was a good idea to have songs that were powerful, that hit you. Like how Dylan writes his lyrics over the songs, it’s very melodic. Then when we pull back on a song, it gives the audience a second to breathe and take in what just happened. 

(Dylan) It’s funny, though, because whenever I’m writing, I’ll be like, okay, I can’t play that well, but Charlie can… John can do that… then Ben can do that. But we’re all very locked in rhythmically because we can all play drums so it comes together rhythmically. We all definitely play more than one instrument, some more than others, which really helps in our songwriting, although writing songs is more difficult now with me being a little far away in Boston. Since I’ve been at school, we’ll write individually then send it to each other, just to get the ideas out and be like, Hey, just thinking about this, what do you guys think we can do with it? If we agree over text, we’ll listen to it and try it out.

Tell us about how you all play more than one instrument and use that to describe the other guys:

Vocalist Dylan on Bass Player John: John is a crazy drummer and a crazy guitarist. He won’t admit it, but he’s insane at playing every instrument. He’s probably better than all of us! He’s better at  playing secondary instruments than we are at playing our primary ones.

Drummer Ben on Vocalist Dylan: He’s the best singer ever. I remember when I first met him. He was 14 and came in to School of Rock. He auditioned and I heard him sing for the first time. It felt like the room was shaking. I felt it in my chest and I got chills. I was like, dude, this is crazy. How does this guy have such a powerful voice? His voice is so good and I actually love Dylan’s lyrics a lot.

Guitarist Charlie on Drummer Ben: Ben’s guitar playing is super inspiring to me because he comes at it from a different perspective. Let’s say he writes a riff or a chord progression, and then I transcribe that where I riff from what he’s doing but play it my way. Then somebody who doesn’t have, for example, a formal guitar education, like Dylan or Ben, will come in. I got into Berklee for guitar, so when somebody like that will come in and show me weird chord shapes that they’re playing, it becomes a challenge for me. It’s fun to explore different melodic pathways. 

Vocalist Dylan on Guitarist Charlie: It’s funny, though, because whenever I’m writing, I’ll be like, okay, I can’t play that well, but Charlie can. John can do that, and then Ben can do that. But we’re all very rhythmic so it comes together. We are all very locked in rhythmically because we can all slightly play drums.

Guitarist Charlie on Rhythm Guitarist Brendan: He’s our second guitarist. He joined the band when John went to college in 2019 and we didn’t have a bass player. We had met him at School of Rock. He came through when I was about 15 – a little bit later than the rest of us. But Brendan clicked right away. He had the same humor and same ability. He was keeping up with us. He just got added in and nothing changed. He gelled and kept on rolling with it. So when John got back, we were like, we should keep this guy around!

Conclusion

How does a really good band even come together? Is it through innate talent, technical skills, a soul connection, a great name, drive, comradery, or even fate?  Most successful bands can’t even tell you. They can only guess at how they achieved an elevated status in a competitive music landscape. In general, it’s a little bit of everything. If that’s true, then SAMSARA is sitting pretty.