Sam Bland

Sam Bland’s relationship with music began at a young age. Every year for the annual Bland family holiday gathering a period of time would be set aside for the whole family (approximately 40 people) to sing traditional hymns together. Bland’s paternal grandfather was a Methodist minister and his grandmother was a trained accompanist which influenced this tradition. Although his spiritual views most likely differ from that of his grandfather, the messages the hymns preached affected his philosophical outlook on life as well as his songwriting later on.

At age nine Bland began to pursue the cello but the early morning rehearsals proved to be too big of an adversary at this point in his life, so after 3 years he made the switch to vocal music. It wasn’t long before he discovered his love of singing and continued in choir all the way through high school and part of college. It was in high school where Bland formed his first ever band, a folk-music group known as SPF-75. During the school day, members of SPF-75 would meet during study hall and write new music and also practice performing. Post high school, SPF-75 split as members went their separate ways as young adults.