Before becoming a father, Sam Slick had already built a family of his own through music. Over the years, the folk-rock musician surrounded himself with a close-knit band whose chemistry and collaboration helped shape the sound of his newest album, After the Dream, Before the Memories, turning years of songwriting into his most fully realized project yet.

Slick’s newest project, released in March of this year, introduced a bigger sound to his fanbase, one shaped by years of playing alongside the same group of musicians. “The biggest force in this one that makes it different from the previous ones is that I had a band that had been together for a while,” he explained. That chemistry helped create a record that blends country and classic rock influences without feeling tied down by tradition. “I think people are understanding what we are going for; there is some country, some classic elements there, but we are not too much of traditionalists that we can’t just enjoy a good song.”

Slick’s current band on the new album consists of Jacob Adamson on electric guitar and vocals, Julian Curelop on bass guitar and vocals, Daniel Goldblatt on drums and percussion, and Hannes Kling on keys. 

“Goldblatt joined us, and he really helped solidify our sound,” Slick said. “He gave us a lot of focus to really rehearse well and always have consistent and exciting live shows, and that really helped us hone new material.”

That stability became one of the defining differences between this record and Slick’s earlier releases, which often featured rotating collaborators and more solo-driven recordings. “Previous albums had been a little more scattered,” he explained. “Usually there were a few songs I was just doing solo, and we had different guests filling in, but this is the first album where it’s just the band with me on every song, and I think the chemistry shines through on it.”

Adamson has remained the longest-standing member of the band, having moved to Los Angeles around the same time as Slick. Over the years, the guitarist became one of the defining pieces of the project’s sound.

“He’s brilliant, such an intuitive player,” Slick said. “He really adds a lot of technique I really don’t have myself, a lot of ideas that kind of come out of left field sometimes, but really help add a lot of character to my songs.”

Bassist Julian Curelop joined the band before the pandemic and helped strengthen the group’s overall sound, particularly through layered harmonies that Slick said added a “lush sound” to the record. More recently, keyboardist Hannes Kling expanded the sonic range even further, helping create the fuller arrangements heard throughout the album.

With a more stable lineup behind him, Slick found himself approaching songwriting differently. Rather than creating a concept album centered around one specific moment in his life, the songs came together from memories, dreams, and experiences collected across several years. Only after finishing the record did he begin to notice the larger themes connecting them.

“Overall, I’d say it’s a balance of living in memories and dreams and trying to find the balance of those, so you are able to enjoy the life that is before you in the present,” Slick explained. 

In Slick’s favorite track off the album, “Ballad of a Coward Flower,” Slick follows this theme while also realizing how far he can expand his sound with the band around him. “I wrote it in 2018 and had not had the right band to bring it to life until now,” Slick said. “I wrote this song when I was working this evening job every weekend, and I would be in a basement alone with my guitar, and I would have just enough time to write… Finally, the band came together in the past couple of years and was able to make the sound as big as I was hoping, and we even went beyond that, adding some strings and extra vocalists on this one.”

Slick also had plans to bring the album to the stage with the band. After years of performing throughout Los Angeles and Southern California, the group had been preparing for a small tour in support of the record before life unexpectedly took a turn. “My wife gave birth to our son a few weeks early, so I had to call the tour off — for a good reason,” Slick said. “We are looking forward to playing a few shows again in a few months.”

For now, though, his focus has shifted toward fatherhood and the creative possibilities that come with it. With notebooks already nearby, he is eager to see how these recent life changes begin shaping the next wave of songs. “I’m excited to start writing,” he said. “I have my notebooks ready when I have a moment to get some ideas down.”

Photo taken by James Delos Reyes | Interviewed on April 1, 2026