Samantha (AKA: Dee Jay SAK)

Samantha first realized her love for music at the young age of six. It was then that she began writing song lyrics on construction paper and would compose melodies and beats in her head. At the age of ten she received a Christmas gift that would change her life. It was a twenty-two key Yamaha keyboard. It was at then that her passion for music was confirmed and there was no doubt she was destined to be a part of the music industry.

As an adolescent and a teen, Samantha had a multitude of circumstances working against her achieving her goals. The cost of professional equipment was just one circumstance. This, however, did not deter Samantha from moving forward with her dreams. Once out on her own, she began saving her money to build a music studio in her apartment. It took years of saving and going without what most people consider necessities, such as furniture. Her small, roughly 500 square ft home slowly became a place for Samantha to bring her ideas out of her head.

Buying one piece of equipment at a time, she would master each piece all the while saving up for the next. Before she knew it, her apartment was no longer a home but a small time music studio with a desk, chair and bed. Selling her remaining furniture to make room for everything she soon found herself no longer living in an apartment but sleeping in a studio. This was unimportant to her because she finally had everything she needed. Now all she needed was time. Working full time to support her need to buy only the best equipment available, she soon found herself operating on little to no sleep for months at a time.

"I will never be completely done with a song. I like editing, adding to, and remixing my songs," Samantha says. She has at least 2-5 versions of each song. One song in particular she has over 40 different versions! This is the most obvious evidence of her obsession with perfectionism when it comes to her music.

In addition to music composition, Samantha is also a proficient mixer, producer, recording engineer, and lyricist and currently creates music in a variety of genres including Electronic, Techno, Trance, and Drums N' Bass. She previously worked in the pop, ballads, and soft rock genres.

A few other specialties (outside of music): poet, business entrepreneur, web designer, programmer (HTML, Javascript, Flash)

Here are a few of the recognitions and awards she has received:

* Samantha's song, “Balance”, was used in a promotional video for indiependencemusic.net

* Won 3rd in the 2007 Empire Song Festival for the song "For Always"

* Received Honorable Mention in the 2004 Empire Song Festival for the song "Once in a lifetime"