Meet Samuel De Christopher Jr.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samuel De Christopher Jr.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Samuel. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
So I started playing music back when I was about 15 years old or so. I remember I was at Arizona Mills Mall one day, back when they had Virgin Records & it was going out of business. I found this album “A Lesson in Romantics” by “Mayday Parade”. I had heard their music on Aol radio before & it was like $5 so I decided to buy it, it was the first record I ever purchased with my own money.

I was super excited about it, I got home & popped it in. There’s a piano ballad called “Miserable at Best”, I believe it’s track six of the record. It hit home for me & I decided right then & there that I had to learn it. I never had played an instrument or sang a single note before that. No one in my family is really musically inclined either. My dad used to DJ weddings & my sister was in choir, but that’s about it. So my sister did own a keyboard & I got to work. I looked up youtube tutorials of the song & practice religiously for a couple of weeks till I got it down. I think it was in that moment on my first full play through that I knew this was for me.

Skip forward about a year or so & I had started a little acoustic project with one of my friends at the time. We didn’t really have money to record anything. But he owned an mp3 player that allowed you to record on it. So we spent hours sitting on the floor in the bathroom (good acoustics) just recording our songs in 1 take over & over till we were happy with them. I think the first song we put up on myspace got over 1k plays in 24 hours, it was pretty crazy. That was my first I felt any kind of success with music. it was a good feeling knowing people listened to something I had wrote. After that, it continued with multiple projects, some more successful than others.

Here we are now with the project I’m currently writing about, “thesleepynomad”. I originally started this as just something to release music with for fun while I focused on my photography career. I never really intended it to get where it is right now. I’ve had music up for about a year now & it didn’t really pick up until earlier this year. I remember waking up one day & I had around 20k monthly listeners on Spotify. It was kinda mind-blowing to me that I had so many people listening to this small project I had created. At this point in time, I’ve reached up to 175k listeners & 600k streams on Spotify alone. I’m about to play my first show under this name & I’m really excited about where things are heading.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
haha, I wish it was a smooth road. But at the same time not at all cause then what would I have to write about? Just going from someone who never played anything to learning piano, guitar, ukulele & how to sing all on my own has been a crazy ride itself. I spent a lot of time around people who didn’t value me as a musician at all. I was mostly kept around for my ability to write catchy/relatable lyrics. I as well was discouraged from using my voice at all. So I didn’t really pick up singing until I was around 20 years old. Its definitely been an uphill battle for sure.

Putting the music part aside. I had jobs that didn’t really allow me to have the freedom to pursue the things I love. Id work anywhere from 60-100hr weeks. So it definitely had a negative impact on my mental health.

But all things considered, I’m happy I’ve had the struggles in my life. It’s shaped me into the person I am now & has moved me towards the person I wanna be. Everyone in life has problems in some shape or form. For me, I’m given a gift that allows me to write about it & bring people together. So I think that’s something special & I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Well, I’m the writer/singer for my project “thesleepynomad”. I wouldn’t say I’m really known for anything, yet…but I feel like i bring a unique sound to Arizona that other artists aren’t doing. The live shows are gonna be a lot of fun, I have a lot of energy that I’m gonna bring & an amazing drummer as well. I’m really proud of the numbers we pull online. Like I said before, we have 175k total listeners & 600k streams in about year. I think that’s pretty cool & I hope we can now find some local support & people who love the music as well.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think success is defined by your happiness in what you’re doing. Yeah, being able to pay bills with something is a version of “success”. But even people who pay their bills aren’t happy. So I think when you can find the time to do something you love & be happy no matter the outcome, I think that’s success. There are definitely goals I want to reach with music for sure.

To make it my life where I don’t have to focus on anything else would be amazing. I’d love to play some music festivals & go on tour. But I find happiness in the journey, not the destination. So I’d say I’m already successful & happy with what I’m doing. Reaching my goals isn’t gonna make me happier than I already am. In a way, I’m already living the dream.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: thesleepynomadofficial
• Facebook: thesleepynomad
• Twitter:
• thesleepynomad
• Other: spotify:artist:2TBpGlViCOpoMMjAhZLH90

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