Samvega

In Samvega’s world, music is a voyage into the subconscious. Heavy psychedelic overtures, bellowing lyrics, and a tendency to tip toe into the darker places of the mind form the subway of sound. As visual artists the four members have learned to gulp down society and digest it on canvas with texture and color, as musicians their reaction to life and it's trials moves from the slow, the dreamy, the melodic into a tidal wave of heavy distortion. Their aim is to create soundscapes to tantalize the mind with the complexities of existence. They’re genre unspecific. Their set can move from psychedelic instrumentation, to doom, to gypsy, to blues and anywhere in between. All four members sing, and the vocals that ride on top can be lowdown outlaw, to punk cabaret. Regardless the singer, their lyrics are carefully crafted and cry of the underground, for change, for lost love.

The Players:

Pat Feistel trained by a traditional jazz drummer, has formed his own heavy tribal rhythm that drives the band. He also literally drives the band to shows and on tour and can be found building, wrenching on cars, discussing the cosmos, cattle ranching or gardening.

Melissa Baker alternates between electric guitar and an electric rickenbacker mandolin which she soars above the rest of the band with slides and swells, that add a certain cheer and experimentation to the sound. She is a painter, a dreamer, a cat and coffee enthusiast, and lover of humans and their stories.

Ricky Woulfe offers the psychedelic electric guitar, rhythm and riffs spill out of his fingers and from his voice a siren sings. He also plays trumpet. He is a vinyl collector, an artist, a knife maker, a leather craftsman, and we suspect a time traveler.

Mercedes Baker and Sammy her prophet hold down the low end with heavy haunting synth, that rides down easy like a horse on the plains. She is a painter, a sculptor, a nature lover, a rust farmer, and a person that finds solace in creating and doing.

The meaning of the word "Samvega"

"The oppressive sense of shock, dismay, and alienation that come with realizing the futility and meaninglessness of life as it's normally lived; a chastening sense of our own complacency and foolishness in having let ourselves live so blindly; and an anxious sense of urgency in trying to find a way out of the meaningless cycle"

*WARNING* Lending your head to Samvega may cause: -questions of society and self -involuntary dancing, twitching and/or head-bobbing -dreaming and/or screaming

In some cases there have been: -loss of self consciousness -hemorrhages of creativity -stimulation of mood.

*Additional studies are being conducted on the long term effects of Samvega on the brain.