Samara Yung will officially launch her newest CD this week.
Entitled ‘Scared Enough’ the disk is a first from the Yorkton country artist in just over two years.
Yung said life just got in the way in terms of producing a new disk anytime sooner.
“My husband and I decided to extend our family and right in the middle of writing and recording for this album I had a beautiful baby girl,” Yung told Yorkton This Week.
Having a daughter impacted Yung’s time, but she said it hasn’t changed her approach to music.
“Honestly it hasn’t changed too much in the way of music,” she said. “I still have the same goals and aspirations. If anything I want to succeed even more so I can show her that she can be anything she dreams of.
My mom has always said that having a baby doesn’t change your dreams, it might just change the timing of them. Since I had Nova I only took three-months off from shows and Nova celebrated her two-month birthday at a show with me in the band rooms of a small town bar, slept through the whole thing!
“Don’t worry baba and daddy were there to watch her while mama and papa Murray played,” she added. She also celebrated her five-month birthday at Craven with me while I sang for 10,000 people.”
Yung said a huge part of her life is music, and her daughter will be part of that side of things.
“Music is such a huge part of my life I want Nova to experience as much of it with me as she can,” she said. “She already loves music and after all I’m a singer today because I spent so many hours at band practice with my dad.
“In Nova’s first year of life she came to Nashville twice with me, once for a writing trip at three-months old and once for a recording trip at eight-months old and she also attended the CCMAs in London, Ont.”
So family was just part of life in terms of the new CD.
“The album may have taken a little extra time to complete but I wouldn’t change a thing,” said Yung.
Yung did note that a young daughter does limit the time to devote to the craft of song writing. It also broadens the experiences she can draw from.
“There is definitely not as much time for that anymore as I work a full time job as well, but I do feel like I have more life experience to write about,” she said. “I have always said that I’m a singer first, and a writer second, and that the best songs need to be on the album whether I write them or not.”
But family is finding its way subtly into Yung’s music.
“I do believe that having a family may change the types of songs I gravitate towards but with that being said I’m still the same girl, and since I never really sang a lot of ‘party’ songs to begin with,” she said. “I really don’t think you see a drastic change in the themes of my music. It will still be about love, loss and empowerment.”
In accumulating material for the latest project Yung said she looked for good songs.
“I have never approached an album with a particular theme in mind ever,” she said. “I always choose songs by how they make me feel, or how they speak to me at whatever point I am in my life.
“I don’t even really try to pick an even amount of love or breakup songs, it always kind of just seems to work out to a great balance.
“The last two projects though I have been gifted some amazing empowerment songs which mean a lot to me. I really just want to inspire people to chase their dreams and go for it. There is no guarantee that you will ‘succeed’ but you should still give it your all and not let people tell you, you can’t. Work hard and hope it all pays off one day. Truly that’s all anyone can hope for.
“We don’t play music for the money, we make music because we love it and it’s really important to always remember why you started in the first place.”
The material from the CD is already been getting airplay.
“We have actually released two singles from the album to radio already, but the song release that is accompanying the album release is a song called “Fireproof’ written by 2017 Grammy Award winners Emily Weisband, Maren Morris and Jesse Frasure.
“When I first heard this song I viewed it as a breakup song but it was brought to my attention that it’s truly a song about empowerment; a song about a girl who let people bring her down for so long she started to believe all of negativity until one day she woke up and decided to take all of that negativity and use it to fuel her fire. There is a line in the chorus that says ‘so strike your matches, don’t look for ashes I’m walking outta this burning room because I’m fireproof’. That’s the message I want people to remember -- that we are all fireproof.”
But is Fireproof Yung’s favourite cut?
“All of the songs are my favourite,” she hedged. “I truly cannot pick just one. They are all on the album for a reason and they all hold a very special place in my heart.”
Next up for Yung is promoting the disk.
“Well I’m on a little promo tour coming up hitting radio stations and TV here in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and we have a very busy summer coming up with tons of shows where we will be promoting the album as well,” she said.
“We are also talking about a possible album release tour sometime in the fall. There is no slowing down for this singing mama.”
You can follow more at www.samarayung.ca.
