Singer/songwriter and pop confectioner
Sam Means honed his hitmaking chops alongside
Nate Ruess as one-half of Arizona indie pop outfit
the Format. When
Ruess left the project in 2008 to form the Grammy-winning collective
Fun.,
Means shifted his focus to family, but kept his name in the game by founding his own band merch company and scoring the independent film
The Sinking of Santa Isabel.
Means scored a minor hit with "Yeah Yeah" from the film's soundtrack and issued a handful of 7" and EP releases, but it would take six years for him to put out his full-length debut. Working with ex-
Format members Don Raymond, Jr. (bass), Marko Buzard (guitar), and
John O'Reilly, Jr. (drums),
Means recorded his first studio long-player, 10 Songs, with producer
Steven McDonald (
Redd Kross) in Los Angeles, and released it independently in early 2016. ~ James Christopher Monger