Sam Blasucci - Mapache Interview
Sam Blasucci is best known as one half of Mapache, a Southern California roots-rock duo just as instantly recognizable for their elegant, intertwined guitar parts as they are for their devoted, Nudie-Suit wearing fanbase. But when Blasucci was writing the songs that would become his debut solo record, Off My Stars, he found himself less focused on the guitar and more gravitated toward a different instrument: piano. The mother of Clay Finch, his Mapache bandmate, was getting rid of one, and so Blasucci took the piano, carefully transporting it to his home in Ojai, California, with the help of a few strong friends, including Farmer Dave Scher of Beachwood Sparks (and a Mapache collaborator). “Farmer Dave wasn’t even wearing shoes,” Blasucci remembers, laughing. Once the piano was safely in there, he became deeply attached, playing on it multiple hours a day: “It’s changed the way I think about music, having all the keys laid out in front of me,” he explains. “Having that sort of changed everything.” Also inspired by his recent time riding out the pandemic in New Orleans, where the clubs may have closed, but the music never stopped, Blasucci used that piano to start writing one of the most inspired batches of songs of his career thus far. New gems like “Turn Yourself Around” and “Sha La La” were developing with a Southern swing and classic songbook sparkle, and when assessing the growing stack of music he was working on, Blasucci realized that there was something about these tunes that wasn’t quite suited for a Mapache record.
Infused with an honest, personal perspective about settling into adult life—about developing as a person and a partner and a family member—these songs were straight from the heart, a clear window, recently Windexed, into the life of one of the most talented members of the L.A.-area underground rock scene. Using just as much inspiration from the music of Ronnie Wood and Sade as the films of Ingmar Bergman and the writing of Brian Doyle, Blasucci started to see a vision of songs that are all “fully autobiographical.” Blasucci reached out to songwriter and producer Johnny Payne, and the two decamped to Dan Horne’s Lone Palm Studio, the home/studio where Mapache has in the past both recorded and abided in. Blasucci’s direction to Payne—acting as producer and as multi-instrumentalist, performing on everything from shaker to “guitar pancake”—was simple: no pretense, no affect, no Mr. Cool. This approach is most evident through covers on the record—like a stripped-down, achingly beautiful version of Dido’s ubiquitous “Thank You,” or a New Orleans-porch-worthy version of the Cranberries’ classic “Linger.” “There was nothing ironic or gimmicky about wanting to do those,” notes Blasucci. “I just really, really love those songs.” Also covered on Off My Stars is a raw take on Jimmy Fontana’s timeless ballad “Il Mondo,” sung in its original Italian by Blasucci, who belts it in a performance that ends with him giving it all he has, his voice cracking as he reaches the song’s epic finale. “Il Mondo” is a song that Blasucci particularly wanted to do as a means to get more in touch with his Italian roots—and this wouldn’t be the only way he’d tap into family on the album.
On “Proud of You Dad,” Blasucci dug into his archives for a song that’s he had for some time, originally having written and recorded it just for his father, David Blasucci, a musician who was at one time a touring member in the band Toto, and who has performed and acted in Christopher Guest movies like A Mighty Wind. “If I ever told you this while we were in the same room / I know you would cover your ears and run,” Sam sings over a rustic, campfire acoustic progression. As Sam explains, David was a crucial influence on his taste: “A lot of the underlying styles that influenced the rest of the songs on the record definitely come from what he introduced me to,” Sam says. But Sam is his own man now, writing the new chapters of his own life with an aw-shucks tone that belies his prolific workload. Even through the pandemic—and even with the ongoing backlogs at pressing plants—Blasucci has still managed to put out beloved Mapache records in each of the last three years, and he and the band have no plans to slow down anytime soon. “I’m definitely the type of artist that is constantly creating,” Sam says, matter of fact. “And I can’t seem to really stop.”.
(Bio: Blasucci’s Bandcamp)
When and where were you born? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?
I was born November 21, 1994 in Pasadena, CA. I would say my childhood was a bit spontaneous. My father was a musician and was the introduction to music for me. He was formative in developing my taste in music. I have three older siblings all with very different taste as well. There was a lot of music, almost constantly in one form or another around the house.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? I understand you're a huge Dead fan as well as Neil Young and The Band. When and where did you see your first concert and when did it dawn on you that you wanted to be a musician?
We had a good list of activities we considered “fun” growing up, most of which would not be as fun now. We lived near a dam and would frequently throw things off of it. We’d go see bands play in hotels by the beach sometimes in high school, that was fun. Most of my childhood was really just spent in the front yard playing baseball by myself. I’d toss the ball up and hit it, then walk across the street to get it and walk back. Over and over. Maybe a family outing here and there. My first concert was N’sync and to this day may still be my favorite. They came down onto the stage from helicopters, it was insane. I don’t know if that was the pivotal moment for me to want to be a musician, but looking back it was probably my first exciting musical event. I’ve wanted to be a lot of things in my life - car, skateboarder, baseball player, etc. Musician is just the most recent.
How did you initially meet your longtime pal and bandmate Clay Finch? What initially led to the decision to form Mapache? What were those early jams/rehearsals like and what was the overall vision for the music when you guys first started out? Aside from music, what other commonalities and interests did you guys share? Prior to releasing the band's first LP you guys actually split up for a time.
I met clay in high school. We didn’t have classes together at first, we would just hang out on the bridge at school and talk, or maybe skate together occasionally. We would eventually have a music class together where we would play acoustic guitars and sing. Mostly just Beatles songs, or the band, or Neil young - whatever we knew how to play at the time. If we ever had any musical vision for ourselves it was a very naive sense of it. We were just thinking of how we could play at the bookstore in town, I don’t think we ever envisioned ourselves taking it further than that. We had a trio in high school with another guy, but we did split up for a while when I went to Mexico for 2 years after my first year of college and Clay finished his schooling in Chico, CA. The other member of the group went to Berkeley in Boston, MA. When we came back together it was just me and Clay back in California, so we went ahead with Mapache as our new name.
Tell me about writing and recording the group’s 2017 album. What was the overall approach to this record? What did you guys want to contribute both artistically as well as personally with your first release together? How did the deal with Spiritual Pajamas come about? You guys released,“From Liberty Street”, in 2020 on Yep Roc Records. What was the overall experience of writing and recording this record?
Our first record is a bit of a blur honestly, since it was so new to us it felt a bit like learning to walk and I don’t totally remember the first steps. I know that Dan Horne really took care of us and helped us make that record what it was. The writing came from songs dating way back to middle school. Our first little attempts at putting pen to paper. Mountain Song and In The Morning Light were both written before I was old enough to go to prom. We met Brit and Toast (from Spiritual Pajamas) through Dan and they quickly ushered us into what we now jokingly call the Big Sur Mafia. We tracked the first record at Valentine Studios in LA and mixed it at Dan’s old Lone Palm Studio on Liberty Street in Echo Park. From Liberty Street was just made at our home on Liberty Street. Very low key with lots of friends coming by and recording on our own schedule sort of whenever we wanted.
2023 saw the release of your debut solo album, “Off My Stars”. Tell me about writing and recording this album and what that experience was like for you to kinda be out there on your own for this body of work. You worked with the fine folks over at Calico Discos for this album. What did you want to ultimately express with songs such as “Everynight On The Farm”, “Tenera Magia”, “Paradise” and “Turn Yourself Around”?
Off My Stars was not a very pre meditated idea initially. At the start of the pandemic, my stockpile of songs had begun to increase and I felt like I was branching out in ways that deserved its own space. It’s really about the songs. I felt like the songs deserved their own space outside of what I had always been doing. I called up Johnny Payne, who I had met through Luke Paquin (one of my greatest musical inspirations and educators) and I asked if he would want to produce it with me. I was interested in making something that was not based on any type of image. I wanted to do some things that I really loved and not worry about trying to seem a certain way. I wanted to do songs like Thank You and Linger because I thought they were beautiful and I felt like they needed a chance to be treated nicely and not done ironically. The coolness factor in the music industry was nauseating at this point for me and after many of us lost Neal Casal to suicide, it was a bit of a mission of mine at the time to try to rid myself of that notion of popularity and approval. Tenera Magia and Il Mondo were nods to my Italian roots and goodfellas style family dinners growing up. The sessions feel like they were in such a different time even though it was so recent, but I look back on that season of my life very fondly.
