Student singer releases new album “Colors”

Samantha Clayman, a St. Ben’s senior, is set to release her second pop album on Nov. 22. She has a single coming out Friday as well. A long-time singer, Clayman grew up in Maple Grove, Minn. Her passion for singing developed at a very young age, which led her to being very active in choir and musicals throughout high school.

“I really wanted to take voice lessons when I was seven years old, and they wouldn’t take me, so I began voice lessons in high school,” Clayman said.

It was not always an easy path for her, as she developed social anxiety in middle school. She knew that singing was an important part of her life, so she pushed herself to get past the anxiety and continued to develop with music. As junior year came around for Clayman, she toured CSB+SJU during the Minnesota Private Colleges Week. CSB+SJU was not on Clayman’s radar until she saw the many concentrations that the music department offered. Since then, the music concentrations have dwindled.

“I was really irritated because it was the reason I came here. It looked like the music program was flourishing before COVID and then basically crashed after,” Clayman said.

The loss of concentrations in the music department is not the only thing that has put Clayman in a difficult position. With the fall of concentrations came the loss of faculty in the department, as a lot of them retired and transferred to different colleges and universities. She felt a loss of support from the college and university.

“There are not a lot of resources for people like me who want to do pop and musical theater, so I had to pave the way myself,” Clayman said.

She felt unheard and unsupported as someone who wanted to do musical theater and pop. Clayman found what she was learning to be applicable to other parts of her life.

“I feel like they [CSB+SJU] should support all types of musicians, not just a certain type. And I think that the stuff I do develops a lot of skill sets. It’s not just random. It’s not just useless. I can apply the skills learned to other things in my life too,” Clayman said.

Although the music department, and college as a whole, posed many challenges for Clayman, she knew her passion for music and singing was strong, so she persisted and found some support in doing so. She has found lots of support from Ryan Picone, a guitar instructor at CSB+SJU, and Anna Ward, a voice instructor at CSB+SJU. When asked about Ward, Clayman explained how much of a supporter she’s been for her.

“She’s always been an advocate for me. She’s tried her hardest to advocate for what I want the music program to be. She loves that I write my own music,” Clayman said.

Clayman was grandfathered into the music major concentrations, as she is a music performance major, along with an English major, graduating this spring. She has found a lot of benefits in double majoring.

“I love English because it helps me a lot with my music. Obviously, the songwriting I get a lot of help with from English, but also it gets me thinking about things differently, which I can apply to my music as well,” Clayman said.

During her first year at CSB+SJU, Clayman released her first album titled “I Will,” a nod to her passion for pursuing music, even when things were not going her way. While she is proud of her first album, Clayman is eager to release her second album, as she sees growth in her music after putting effort into the different aspects of music production.

“I wanted to get a lot better at music production. I will admit, the first one is not the best production. I love the songs on it, and I plan to re-record them at some point, but I wanted this one to be a huge step up. So last semester, I took a recording and production ILP with Ryan Picone, and I learned so much during that, and I think the second album is going to sound really cool,” Clayman said.

Her song coming out on Friday is called “Stand Out.” Clayman explains that this song is about standing out and being different, and not being treated correctly by other people. The album is titled “Colors” to showcase the different colors of life.

“There are a lot of lyrics that reference colors to paint different emotions and experiences. But also, the songs themselves represent different moods and phases of life, and it’s kind of just a journey throughout the album,” Clayman said.

“Colors” is also the first song on the album. Clayman feels that it sets the mood for the whole album.

“I’m using colors to represent different layers of people. People want these certain colors from you and these certain ways of living, and I think you can’t truly understand me and accept me unless you accept all these colors. Because I’m a spectrum of colors. I’m not just the color that you want,” Clayman said.

Clayman is excited to share her new pop album with people. It will be released on all streaming platforms.