For our 32nd Clapper Sounds Interview, we’re highlighting pianist, Sam CD.

Sam CD (@sSamcdprod on Clapper) is a Florida-based pianist and musician. He shares videos of his piano skills, posting covers of modern music and classical pieces. Earlier in the year he broke his arm, but he still found a way to play even with a cast. We’d love to have talent and dedication like that! In this interview, we talked about his music journey, his thoughts on content creation as an artist, and his advice for new musicians.

Clapper Sounds is meant to be an intimate musical experience, and we want that mission to translate into our written interviews too. Listen to his music as you read to get to know Sam and his unique sound.

Let’s start from the beginning. What is your first memory of being involved with music? How did you start your artist journey as a pianist?

I started playing piano at age 7. I was into Green Day and Nirvana and wanted to play guitar, but since we already had an upright piano in the house, I took piano lessons. The first song that I liked playing on the keys was ragtime. At an early age, I lived in an environment that was encouraging and supportive of artistic pursuits, which I think helped me greatly in my journey.

Who helped you most in your journey?

Growing up in New York City can be both inspiring and intimidating as an artist. As a child and teen, I was exposed to some of the most amazingly talented human beings.

I am thankful for friends and family who supported and challenged me, teachers who never gave up on me, my parents who encouraged and supported me (and also were professionals in the theatric arts). I am grateful to my wife for always encouraging me to continue to take music seriously. And, of course, for buying me the piano in our house that I play on every day.

What are your thoughts on content creation as an artist? How do you feel about artists having to balance their social media presence and still be committed to their art?

It changes the landscape and how you connect with people when you have, potentially, constant access to people’s attention. Some people can benefit from that, and others think it’s negative. It is definitely a plus that you can reach fans directly as an artist, because it frees you up to make whatever sort of product you desire and there is less need to have business decisions steering the sound of your music. However, if your creativity is steered more by inspiration, it can definitely be detrimental to your music having to churn out content every day.

What is your dream project?

Being able to connect with talented musicians all over the world, collaborate and share ideas is the dream project. This is possible at this moment, which I think is great but if we would get a Jay-Z feature that would be better.

How did you find out about Clapper? Why did you decide to share your music?

Although I have been playing music all my life, I had taken a step back for many years to focus on starting a family and I’ve been working as a database and business intelligence engineer.

When I got the piano last year, I began looking for outlets to stream music and Clapper seemed to be the environment that I was seeking to connect with individuals and creators. There are many businesses and technologies that can help an individual get their music out there. That encouraged me to share.

Deciding to be an artist can have its ups and downs. What advice would you give to that young artist who is just learning to play guitar, or starting singing lessons and whose dream is to be a pianist?

My first piece of advice is don’t take any advice from me, I don’t know what I’m doing… My second piece of advice is that as long as you have music inside of you, there is somebody out there who wants to hear it. You should keep working on it and, of course, play every day, even if it’s just for a minute. And finally, don’t worry about playing the wrong notes from time to time.

Make sure to check our recorded live session on our account Clapper Sounds and in our reels on Instagram. Enjoy the Clapper Sounds Live Session with this amazing pianist, Sam CD!