The story of my life so far

From the very Beginning...

I came into the world on February 9th, 1996, born to the most beautiful family there is. I am the youngest of five, two brothers and two sisters. We all grew up in the country on two different farms; a piggery, until I was four, and then a miniature goat stud. Now that we're all grown up and moved away, we are all still very close and family orientated, which I find important, as evident in some of my songs on my debut album 'Every Passing Minute'.

I completed my primary schooling at Young Public School, where I actually played saxophone in the school band from year 3 to year 6. It wasn’t until I turned eleven that I started finding my love for singing. I guess it's kind of hard with a saxophone in your mouth though.

In year 6, a school talent quest was held, and a group of my friends wanted to go in it, so we all signed up. On the day, my friends pulled out but I wanted to continue. I invited my Mum to come and see the show so the stakes were high. She was shocked as I had never sung in front of anyone before.

I got up on stage to sing “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, however I got stage fright and ran off in tears. Towards the end of the quest, I gained enough courage to get back up to sing with my face turned to the wall. By the time I reached the chorus, I turned around to face my audience, and I loved it. I actually won the talent quest and it was then that I told Mum I wanted to focus on singing. The singing bug had bit me, badly, and I was inspired to pursue a career in this industry.

Soon after I found Mark Brooker, a singing teacher at the Young Regional School of Music. He helped me in a large way, and has continued to be very supportive over the years.

My very first 'major' performance had to be at my sister's (Sharee) wedding when I was eleven. Soon after, I began to apply for Eisteddfods, which are classical talent quests. I really enjoyed my time performing in these competitions as it gave me confidence. I won many Junior Overall positions at numerous Eisteddfods such as Forbes (where Anthony Field also won) and Wagga. This was also my very first piece of public proof that I could actually sing and so my family supported my entrance into concerts and other performances around our area.

High School came around fast! I attended Hennessy Catholic College, following the footsteps of my brother Mitchel, however, as all my friends went to the public school, therefore, at the end of year 7, I switched to Young High School. This was also a great move, as through the public system, I was able to represent Young, three times in a row, in the Schools Spectacular in Sydney. I also attended the Regional Schools Choral Camp. I met so many incredible people and musicians there who are still lifetime friends.

Throughout my high school life, I still didn't know I could make a life in the music industry as I never knew much about it. Of course, my dream was to be a famous singer, but I thought it was my wildest dream rather than an achievable one. It wasn't until 2011, when I was accepted into the CCMA Australian Academy of Country Music, which was held in Tamworth, that I fell so deeply in love with this lifestyle. I knew then that I had to do whatever it would take to make it work. During years 10 and 11, my ideas began to form towards wanting to be a musician full time.

I attended Tamworth Country Music Festival for my first year in 2012 and I was shocked to experience how incredible it was. I was in 17 showcases within my 10 days there. Each year since, I have followed in those footsteps, adding on full three hour performances in Tamworth and surrounds, along with many other stage performances.

I began work on the radio in Young at 2yyy 92.3fm in 2011, after I came home from the academy. This was one of the best decisions I have made in my life thus far as I learnt so much through radio, such as interviewing people and talking clearly. I was with Young 2yyy until November 2013, as I left on Tour, but I do thank everyone who helped me, and a special thank you to my coworkers, Tom Oreilly and David Munnerley.

During my HSC year of 2013, I decided to start work on my very first album as I had nearly written enough songs. While recording, I wrote a few more, so the album changed from 10 tracks to 14. I wrote these songs from about the age of 15 all the way through to when I was 18, showing all different stories, some about me, some about others and the rest were for all of my listeners to relate to. I had so much fun recording with Derwent Studios in Canberra during the time of February till September. This album was passed onto Jeff McCormack for mastering and we received the finished product on the 16th of November 2013.

During this busy time, I began to receive recognition in the industry from some of the big names in the Music industry, winning Beccy Cole's Shiny Star Contest and being asked to perform in three of her shows; Canberra, Young and Cowra. I was also asked to open for Tania & Ray Kernaghan and Bill Chambers throughout 2013 and 2014.

I finished high school at Young High School in 2013 knowing exactly what I wanted to do. With the constant support of my family and my Mum as my Manager, we prepared for my 2014 Australian Album Tour.

My Official Album Launch/18th birthday concert was held on the 8th and 9th of February 2014 at the Harmonie German Club in Canberra. This was an amazing night with nearly 300 people turning up throughout the night, coming from as far as Darwin for the night. I was very privileged to have eight, very talented and different guest artists performing throughout the night which kicked off at 6:30pm and finished at 1:30am.

I began writing songs continuously and started my touring life with performing 101 shows in 10 months on the Eastern Coast of Australia in 2014. The excitement of touring caught on to me so of course I had to continue touring throughout 2015, performing 3-4 shows every weekend. I found that in this industry, you can never stop learning so in 2016, we have organised two international tours: New Zealand and Canada.

I got completely out of my comfort zone and toured the Eastern Coast of Australia with Mum (my manager) for 10 months- performing 3-4 shows every week. This tour consisted of 101 shows, which has assisted in creating a permanent name for myself in the Country Music Industry as one of the hardest working musicians. This tour had my manager and I cover over 130 towns between Airlie Beach QLD and Port Fairy VIC, performing three to four shows a week, and this was all due to the release of my award winning debut album; 'SAMI-Every Passing Minute'.

Since that first year touring Australia, I have been completely dedicated to making this passion for music a full time career by continuing to perform over 100 shows yearly across Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and Canada. I never know where it is going to take me so be ready to see a few more countries added to that list in the years to come.

I released my new CD ‘Crazy Love’ in 2018, at my launch at the Small Ballroom in Newcastle. I wanted to recreate a similar atmosphere to my first album launch so I had organised a number of my favourite musician friends to perform during the 5 hour concert. I also worked with a fantastic group of musicians to perform the tracks off my new CD and of course, a bunch of fun ones for everyone to dance along to. The night was a success and it was the best way to release my new music to the world. I wrote majority of the songs with Steve Deal, one track with Dane and Troy Kemp and a couple completely by myself. I am so proud of this new release.

In 2019, I released a film clip for the title track of the CD; Crazy Love. With the help of Cat Tale Productions, we created a fun, enthusiastic and celebratory film clip. View it HERE.

So much has happened since 2019. In 2020, I welcomed my beautiful boy Finnegan to our lives. Talk about a change! COVID hit which put a lot of strain on the industry but with the help of my agent Paul from Whirlwind Entertainment, I was able to secure a number of gigs in between lockdowns. Finnegan comes to a number of these shows, and is already taking charge on his piano, singing and ukulele skills.

Later in the year, I proudly graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Communications where I majored in Journalism and Public Relations. To help me through the time without gigs, I worked as a journalist for a couple of local newspapers. I really enjoyed this avenue but secured a full-time position as an event manager in the Hunter Valley. Here, I looked after any event with more than 10 people, typically including conferences, weddings and parties. It was right down my alley. I was given the insight from what the behind the scenes of booking entertainment looked like which was great. I finished up this job exactly 12 months later in December 2021 to continue focusing on my own music career again, and enjoy a few months of downtime (it was a very full-on position) before baby number 2 arrives.

Yes, baby number 2 is due in May 2022! I had a few months after restrictions were released of gigging ‘normally’ again. I finished up in April 2022 and will be hitting the road running from August 2022. I have decided to work towards more weddings and events rather than gigs but you will still be able to catch me at a number of gigs each month.

Before bub comes, I am releasing a new song called ‘I Keep Falling’ in May 2022. Writing this song was one of the easiest things I found myself doing. I was preparing to sing at a wedding, working on a list of love songs when I got the urge to write something personal. Within 20 minutes, I had this song complete. I've been blessed with a beautiful little boy, a wonderful man by my side, and a baby due very soon. I simply wanted to write my feelings down. I hope this song touches you in the way it makes me feel when I listen back to it. I filmed the song in Wollongong at the Conservatorium of Music with Jay Seeney from Blacklist Productions, and recorded it with the talented Michael Carpenter from Love Hz Studios.

Thank you for following my music career!
Stay in touch with me on social media and I would love to see you at one of my shows!

Love to all of my fans, SAMI xoxo