The first thing you notice about MU sophomore Sammy Elfanbaum is his hat.

It is navy blue with a red bill and the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the front. The top button is missing, and you can tell it has been stretched throughout the years. Elfanbaum never performs without it.

“I got [the hat] when I was five,” Elfanbaum said. “It’s awesome. I carry it around to remind myself where I come from. St. Louis gets a lot of slack, but I love my city and I want to represent it.”

Elfanbaum writes, produces and performs music under the stage name Sammy. He admits that the naming decision was “risky, but [he] needed something.”

He describes his music as “dreampop,” heavily consisting of pop/hip-hop production styles and percussive beats. Sammy’s tranquil voice helps cement him into this genre; his songs invite the listener to enter an existential state.

Most of his tracks make use of a synthesizer, bass, guitar and programmed drums. Recently, he has performed tracks from his debut album, _Mazes_, at The Blue Note and places around campus.

“It’s such a thrill,” Sammy said. “When there’s more of an audience, I’m more vulnerable, and I move around just because of all of the adrenaline. I let myself go.”

Sammy has been surrounded by music for most of his life — his musical roots began with his father and brother, who played guitar and piano and sang as he grew up. This encouraged Sammy to join his elementary school choir and take instrument lessons.

“I would always sing with my friends,” Sammy said. “I would be that kid who would be singing randomly if no one was talking. I would just burst out into song.”

In middle school, Sammy had his first experience with writing music. He recorded himself playing the piano using the computer program GarageBand.

In the same vein as musician Steve Lacy, who recorded his critically acclaimed demo entirely on an iPhone, Sammy produced his entire album in his bedroom at MU’s Phi Delta Theta fraternity house. Much like he did in middle school, he taught himself how to use the computer program Logic Pro X to record his album. The entire process took two months.

“I wanted to not depend on other people’s creative input,” Sammy said. “I needed to do this by myself so I could truly say that something is mine.”

His fraternity brothers have been supportive, giving him the opportunity to perform at the house and practice his songs.

“My inner circle of friends are very honest with me,” Sammy said. “If there’s something that doesn’t particularly click with them, they’ll give me their honest feedback. I really appreciate that, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll change it because I don’t make my music for other people.”

Most of the songs on _Mazes_ deal with the idea of independence. The 10-track album offers a glimpse into the psyche of a typical college student; the emotions that Sammy touches on are ones almost everyone has experienced throughout their adolescence.

“Emotions aren’t really something that are easy to describe or experience,” Sammy said. “Each track on the album has a lesson: a maze you have to go through. Some of those mazes are still dead ends to me — I haven’t gotten to the other side yet.”

Sammy is a rule breaker. He feels the aim of his work is to push boundaries and question the culture of a music industry that requires artists to sign onto popular labels and use expensive production equipment. He follows this philosophy outside of music too; he ended up switching his major from vocal performance to graphic design because he felt constrained in what he could do musically.

“I’m very anti-rules,” Sammy said. “Music is the one art form that I truly want to be myself with.”

He will be opening for local rapper Poundgame Addison at The Blue Note on April 7. In the future, Sammy wishes to continue releasing as much quality music as he can.

“I get nervous when I say that music is my life, but it is pretty accurate,” Sammy said. “I’m going for the real deal, and I think that it’s obtainable. I’m a heavy believer in, ‘If there’s a will, there’s a way.’ And there’s not a will for me for a lot of things in life. When I’m passionate about something, I’ll work hard. But I’ve never had the same drive for anything else as music.”

_Mazes_ is available on Spotify, Apple Music and more. Sammy can be found on Instagram, Soundcloud and Youtube at @officialsammymusic.

_Edited by Alexandra Sharp | asharp@themaneater.com_