There are times I wish I was retired. Kingdom Come Festival is coming up (you may remember my interview with Angie Leyda last year?), starting Thursday evening June 16 on one stage and having two stages all day Friday and Saturday. Starting things off is Samuel Day, followed by another former interviewees, the band Undefeated. Unfortunately, I'm at work both Thursday and Friday, and considering the trip is over an hour each way, I'll have to miss them! 😭 Of course, I doubt many retirees are planning on camping out at Kingdom Come Festival, but did you expect me to be a normal retiree?
Samuel is also a member of the band Reclaimers, which makes me wonder: If I'm a fan of both the Reclaimers and former interviewees Reclaim the Day, would this make me a Reclaimer Fan Squared? At my age, probably.
Okay, enough of my bad jokes. Let's get into this interview!
JR: Welcome to my blog, Samuel. Allow me to start by asking how you came to Christ and how you got interested in music.
SD: Thanks for having me Jeffrey! I came to Christ as a child, raised in a Pastor’s house. That being said, as I got older I really had to decide what my faith was based on, I knew it couldn’t be just because of what my family believed. My relationship with Jesus and with the Word of God had to be my own. The background I came from gave me a healthy ground to approach a lot of “tough questions” and even tougher situations from, but most importantly it reminded me of the power of knowing the Word for myself and making my own choice.
I always knew that music was going to be a big part of my life - I really don’t remember ever NOT being interested in pursuing it. Some of my earliest memories are of watching Carman on TV and being inspired at 3 and 4 years old. So I started piano and and voice lessons at 7, and moved all the way forward to being a music major in my college Undergrad work.
JR: My impression is that your latest single is "Warrior Spirit." Could you tell us about that song?
SD: That’s right! Warrior Spirit was really inspired by my return to the world of martial arts. I did a lot of it as a teenager and wanted to come back and pick up where I had left off. The song itself is a big, pumping anthem meant to get people motivated. Lyrically, it’s really about maturity and balance. Learning any combat-related skill reminds you of how important it is to have ferocity and a warrior spirit in life, but to also balance that with loving peace and not having anything to prove. I think that’s a really interesting subject, and it made for a total bop of a track.
JR: Looking at your web-page, I notice you do a lot more than sing: you do behind the scenes work both in videos as well as audio, such as MillyAnn's "Save A Life" and "Incarcerated" by Tiffany Anderson of Theophany Poetry. Not only that, you also blog and act. Have I left anything out? How do you prioritize between these various activities?
SD: The truth is that right now I’m really trying to simplify my life. I’m interested in so many things and I believe the they are all supposed to work together for me, but I’m still just one person. Music, video, visual art, acting, film making, and writing (although I don’t really blog anymore, I keep that more in the realm of YouTube videos) - all of these things compliment each other. There are a lot of folks who dabble in all of these areas because of how interconnected they are in today’s world, but I’m learning that “just because I can, doesn’t mean I always should”. So I’m getting better at either hiring folks or working with others where appropriate.
That said, I also do a fair amount of ministry work with my church, Faith Christian Fellowship of Trenton, and aside from teaching, I’ve gotten to use a lot of those skills there as well.
I’d like to get more into various aspects of filmmaking moving forward, but I’m at a place right know where I’m figuring out a more healthy balance for myself, which has been challenging, but also really good.
Note from Jeff - photos of artists Samuel helped produce are at bottom of this blog.
JR: I remember William Shatner commenting that he had a different mindset when he was directing Star Trek V than he did as an actor. Do you find yourself in different roles from your own singing and when you're working for another artist?
SD: Sitting on “both sides of the table” helps to open your eyes, and ultimately makes you better at your craft. When I’m doing work for another artist I’m able to be really objective: “If you want this song to have a better shot on the radio, you don’t need to repeat that instrumental intro” or “I know what you’re trying to say here, but that’s a lyric that’s kind of been done before.” I always tell people that they can throw my advice out the window too - at the end of the day it’s their project. But what’s great is that I can take those experiences back to what I’m working on and be more effective and more efficient instead of overthinking my own creative decisions.
JR: Thinking again of your song "Warrior Spirit," we're definitely in a time of Spiritual Warfare. What do you see as primary battlefronts today? What are your sources for encouragement? Any mentors or, for lack of a better term, heroes that have inspired you in this area?
SD: A big battle today is the enemy trying to get believers to just accept the curse in their lives. I love that people want to be humble, but some folks have been told that the calamity, poverty, or sickness that they are facing is somehow God’s will for their lives. How is the church supposed to be effective and do what we are called to do if we are constantly rolling over and just letting the enemy hit us over the head, crippling our lives and ministries? If God has given us big dreams, then it’s going to take big fuel to accomplish it, and that takes his blessing and a fighting spirit on our part to not “just take it” when the enemy attacks.
I really want Christians to know that Jesus has redeemed us from the curse. Galatians 3:13-14 tells us that, and Deuteronomy 28 clearly shows us what the blessing is, and what the curse is - what we’ve been redeemed from. But we have a part to play - our free choice, and standing on the faith of God within us matters. To quote Star Trek, we’re a lot more dangerous to the devil when we “live long and prosper”. That doesn’t mean “be lazy and greedy”, but it does mean having our vision elevated to the next level, even if we get criticized or persecuted for it.
Some inspirations for me in this area have been the ministries of Keith Moore, Kenneth Copeland, and Joseph Prince. Look, I don’t believe things just because “the minister on TV said it”, I really do endeavor to search things out in the Bible for myself. That said, I have to give credit where it’s due. In some extremely hard times one of the biggest helps was knowing that NOT everything that was happening to me was God’s will, and that there were some things that I needed to stand against and not “blame God” - instead, I needed to pull closer to Him. That made a huge difference, and those ministries often reminded me of those things. I’ve especially enjoyed the way the Joseph Prince manages to teach so much of the Old Testament and show its connection to the New, despite so many people seeing them as disconnected.
JR: Thank you for your time, Samuel. What's coming over the horizon as far as music or other things? How can we keep up with what's going on with you?
SD: I’m really looking forward to playing at Kingdom Come Festival with my full band on June 16th - I’ve been trying to get connected with that festival for years, so it’s great to be able to come and bring the full live experience! We’ve gotten a lot more cool opportunities like that recently, such as playing SonFest last summer with artists like Jordan Feliz, Corey Asbury, and our friends in SafeKept (shout out to Jeremiah!)
I’ve recorded some new music these last several months, and even shot a video that I hope to be able to talk about soon - it’s a really nifty concept, and something visually different for me in a lot of ways.
Folks can keep up with me on just about any social network - Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, and really anywhere people stream music. They can get to all of those places from my LinkTree or my website below, or even just by Googling “Samuel Day”
https://linktr.ee/powerspyke http://samueldayofficial.com
Onward and Upward!
NOTE FROM JEFF: Below are artists Samuel's produced, with his comments beneath.You can check any of them (as well as Samuel) out on Spotify. I've been blessed by them.
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| Screen grab from "Incarcerated" from Theophany Poetry |
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| MillyAnn - I produced her first two singles "Let it Rain" and "Save a Life" |
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| Dominique Horsley - I produced her first single "Psalm 10" |
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| "Fight" by Reclaimers, my other band that focuses on hard rock. Last year we had a #2 single on the CMW Christian Rock Charts with "Say What You Will" |
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