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Blisshouse.’s Sam Smisek: “Work, Work Work!”

by The Alchemist

Based out of Frederick, Maryland and Seattle, Washington, blisshouse. is the sound of two people making music that is driven by the natural emotions and experiences of life. When asked how they create music they responded, “Whatever we’re feeling when we write a song, we hope to translate that feeling to you in the deepest way possible.”

Q: What first got you into music?

 A: Constantly listening to music growing up, I think we both were just fully inspired and intrigued by music from the start. Eventually the curiosity of what we could potentially create ourselves to evoke the feelings we felt from our favorite songs and artists was all we needed, and once we started learning our instruments and creating we were hooked to this feeling of creating.

Q: How did you first start developing your career? 

A: We both started playing in bands around Frederick starting with just covering other artist’s songs, which eventually made us realize we wanted to write and play our own songs. This led to us forming a band with some friends of ours, playing everywhere from clubs to festivals to basements, really anywhere we could. We knew we had to focus on honing our ability to write songs, and take any opportunity to play wherever we could and really just start to get a feel for the music scene and the people in it. Eventually our band at the time was starting to be scouted by labels, and after a few months of back and forth between our manager and some label people, we signed to a major label out of NYC. Though it didn’t last, we gained so many experiences from that time that are still relevant to who we are now in blisshouse.

Q: What is your creative process like? 

A: We try to get a good vibe going in our space, and really just try to come up with anything we think sounds cool. Sometimes it starts with a beat, an acoustic progression, or even just a tone that inspires us. Once we start putting ideas together it’s kind of a combination of writing, producing, and editing all at once until we have a rough version of a song. From there we’ll keep developing the song, continuing to write and edit all the ideas within it until we feel the idea is fully realized. Vocals for our songs typically come last, once we can listen to it in full and get a feeling for what we’re trying to communicate through the song.

Q: If you could open a show for any artist who would it be? 

A: That’s a tough one. We’ve played with so many different artists in so many genres I think that we’ve realized our favorite people to play with are anyone whose passion for their sound truly comes through in their performance. This could really be anyone, including people we may have never even heard of. With that being said an opening slot on a Billie Eilish show would be crazy.

Q: What does your music aim to say? 

A: To not be afraid to express how you truly feel, and to be extremely honest with those emotions when expressing them. Our songs detail various life experiences we’ve gone through and how we continue to try to understand how we can learn from them. blisshouse. as a whole is a state of mind we go to that evokes genuine emotions when we need to distance ourselves from reality, even if that’s only for a few minutes. An escape.

Q: What is your favorite song to perform? 

A: New place is what we open with, it always gets us hype when we’re about to play and we hear that intro start. It’s cool for us to play that song knowing it was the first song we ever wrote as blisshouse., and is the first song people hear when they see us. Ready for the end of the world is fun to play live too. The song is pretty bare bones with just an acoustic guitar and a beat, but when playing live we translate it in a bigger, almost more aggressive way.

Q: How do you seek out opportunities? 

A: We focus on having as big of an impact in any experience we’re going after. We feel if we’re coming into something with a positive mindset of trying to get the absolute most out of it, no matter how big or small, someone might notice and want to connect with us. It’s important for us to set big and small goals, and if we go into all of those goals with that positive mindset we’ll find the opportunities.

Q: Do you have any side talents?

A: Man, not really. We’re really happy we feel so at home with creating music, as we haven’t had much luck with other things we’ve tried to do in our life. I guess we have been getting better at Call of Duty Warzone though!

Q: Do you have any advice for artists just beginning in their career?

A: Work, work work. It’s so important to hone in on and figure out exactly what you’re trying to say, and that takes countless hours of energy and patience. Don’t feel rushed to release anything. Wait until you’ve created something you’re completely content with, so even if people don’t like it, you know you’ve created exactly what you wanted to. Also, don’t get bummed if things don’t happen for a while. Every artist has their own path and their own process.

This song, released on May 22nd, 2020, starts with vocals that relax the listener immediately. It makes you feel as if all your problems are gone, and as if this song can take you wherever you want to be. This is exactly what blissHouse. tries to do on every song that they put out, make you feel as if you are in true “Bliss.” Check out the song below and find more information here: blisshouseband.com

The Alchemist

Alchemical Records is your source for music in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia and wordwide! Visit us on your favorite social media site and tell us how Alchemical Records helps you discover and stay current with great artists.

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