Q&A: Samantha Fish on new music, loving live, and chicken wings

Vocalist and ace guitarist returns to Buffalo for May 31 show at Asbury Hall

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

For every Taylor Swift, Beyonce or Ed Sheeran – talent whose work sells in the millions, and whose videos are seen by the billions – there are thousands of musicians who will never “make it big.” Though they have the talent, they don’t have that clichéd-but-true “lightning in a bottle” that will carry their music to the masses. Rather, their gigs will likely be local, and for a regional audience.

There is a third option, and it’s often the lane specifically chosen by select artists: becoming a “working musician.” This path involves mastering a craft – singing, playing an instrument, performing on stage – and touring venues known more for performance than pyrotechnics.

Though she has achieved a national reputation for musical mastery – as well as Grammy Award nominations and gigs with the likes of The Rolling Stones – Samantha Fish is very much a working musician. Constantly touring, training, and always looking for ways in which she can connect with her listeners, Fish is clearly more concerned with craft than celebrity.

As a result, her work is notably improving from project to project, culminating in a well-rounded, musical-umami bomb called “Paper Doll.” The blues-rock album released in 2025 and captured the essence of Fish’s live show in a recorded package.

Taking that idea one step further, Fish is releasing “Paper Doll Live” on June 12. Ahead of a return to Buffalo – where she’ll perform at Asbury Hall – Fish explained more in this edited Q&A.

Samantha Fish (Photo credit: Doug Hardesty // courtesy of devious planet media)

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Q: When I read (press releases) about you, it always about how your music is sort of like a rebellion against preconceived or accepted norms of who you should have been or could have been. Obviously, you're in a very specific career, a very specific industry – not something that a lot of people go and do and pursue – certainly not to the level that you've done it. What were some of the steps that pushed you in this direction?

Samantha Fish: I started playing guitar around 15. … I came from the Midwest and I have two great parents. But coming from the Midwest, I think there's, like, a sense of practicality – maybe I shouldn't attribute it to the area, but it felt that way a little bit, you know? There's sort of this rule that you go to college, you get this practical job. You got to be practical and be reasonable. So, when I come home and I'm like, “I want to be a musician.” It seems a little like, “Well, $hit, how do you get from point A to point B?”

And I think one of the first things for me was going to this local club in Kansas City, called Knuckleheads, and seeing all these artists, different-size bands – small bands, big bands – and just kind of seeing that there was this way to tour. You could become well known regionally, or nationally, and still, you might not be No. 1 on Billboard, but there's a way to do this and to have a career and to build something for yourself. That made it kind of practical for me, when I envisioned it that way.

So, really, just going to this club and seeing it for myself. I'm very much a see it and believe it kind of a person. If you can go and be immersed in an environment where other people are doing the thing you want to do, it becomes possible, right? So, for me, that was a big step, was just going to this place. I had to get the “x’s” on my hands and go with my dad, because I was too young to be in there. But I think that that was really formative for me and helped push me in this direction.

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Q: You have become a world-class performer, guitarist and singer. I know how much live means to you – and even with your answer that you just gave me now, I see how much live influenced you growing up.

Something you mentioned the last time we spoke was your desire to bring that live energy into a recorded project, and I feel like you did that, and then some, with “Paper Doll,” which is just such an amazing album from start to finish.

I was surprised, then, to see that you're working on a live version. Tell me a little bit about how this came about, because, as I mentioned, you did such a great job of bringing live into this recorded project – what's the idea behind doing a live live, I guess, version of this now?

Samantha Fish: Well, there's more songs than just the songs on the record. I thought it could have passed just being “Samantha Fish Live.” You know what I mean? It's really kind of the moment.

I think because the record label saw (what) is coming off of this record, and just wanted to associate the two – but we included more songs than what was on “Paper Doll.” So, it's not just a live record of “Paper Doll”; it's pretty much the tour that we're doing right now – the “Paper Doll Tour.”

I've been wanting to do a live record for years, and it's kind of like been brought to my attention by fans that that's what they want, and I've been asked for it for a long time.

Not to destroy the romance of it all. “Why now?” It was just the first time that the record label was like, “Yeah, let's do it” (laughs). And I'm like, “OK, great; we're ready. We do this every day. You just take a place and we'll record it.”

We definitely pulled out a few extra stops by adding The McCrary Sisters to the show. They add some beautiful backing vocals, and they're just like the best in the business. But, really, it was just because it was time, and this is something I've been wanting to do for the fans.

Q: Your team points out you like to be a perfectionist. The first time we chatted was when you were doing press for “Faster,” but since then, I feel like your work has become more balanced – especially with “Paper Doll.” Like I said, from start to finish – just a really good album. I see a lot more balance. … I see a lot of improvement, even in your storytelling, and certainly you did a great job of bringing that live feel to it.

So, to the extent that you may or may not be a perfectionist – and to the extent that you are certainly on the road a lot and maybe don't have time to be contemplative – do you see improvement? Do you feel like the music you're putting out and the albums you're creating are growing and evolving as you continue to do this thing?

Samantha Fish: I mean, I see it improving as far as like I want to see it improve. But the thing with music is that it's subjective. Some people's favorite record was that first piece of $hit that I put out (“Live Bait”) – they don't like anything beyond. But that's OK, because that's their opinion, and this one's mine.

So, for me, yeah, I do feel like that I'm getting better at it – but that's my opinion. Somebody who maybe likes something that I did 10 years ago doesn't like the track that I'm on right now, because I'm chasing down a different sound that maybe doesn't sit with them the way that it sits with me. And that's kind of the beautiful thing about music, is there's not like one way to get better, right? There's a lot of jobs where it's like the way you're good at it is one very specific way. But with music, it's kind of like it can be a bunch of different things. You know, there's technical prowess; there's taste; there's genre collaboration; things that you can mix together. What strikes one person might not strike another.

So, for me, I do feel like I'm getting better, but it's subjective (laughs). Long way around: It's subjective. Everybody might not agree, but I think the music gets better. I like it!

Samantha Fish (Photo credit: Aries Photography NOLA // courtesy of devious planet media)

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Q: Let me ask you more about being on the road. You sing a lot about relationships. I don't know what the ratio is in your lyrics between lived, and imagined or observed – but I'd like to know more about what life on the road looks like for you.

We know that your live shows are epic. I'm sure that's a lot of fun for you. It's certainly fun for your audience. Your team, God love ’em, insists your touring regimen could kill a man twice your size. … To put forth the energy and the creativity … that's the fun part. That's not the travel and the lodging and everything else that goes along with it.

So, the question is: How difficult is it to be on the road and to try and forge relationships when you're also trying to forge a career at the same time?

Samantha Fish: Well, I think you can use your imagination, and you know it's pretty difficult (laughs)! It requires a lot of effort to just be present, to be in the moment. Now, imagine trying to be present and be in the moment, and also try to keep a foot in some kind of situation in another location altogether.

I'm not saying that this is just unique to me. A lot of people work away from their home, away from their families, away from their loved ones – and you figure out a way to make it work. But there is a balance that you have to strike and try to uphold and stay connected.

Thank God for modern-day technology because I don't know how people did it back in the ’60s. I guess they just wrote each other letters, and they were fine with that (laughs); they just accepted they weren't going to see each other. Now, it's like I can text and stay relatively connected – but it requires an immense amount of effort, and you have to stay mindful of it and try to … you just have to try; and sometimes you fail, and sometimes it's successful … it's never really easy. But, you know, nothing is that's worth doing, right? Relationships are hard even when you're sitting next to the person on the sofa, right?

So, it's not easy, but it doesn't make it less worthy of a cause, or it's not worth it. You just have to try. And sometimes even when you try, you fail. That's kind of what I found in these situations.

I think that, as you grow and learn, you just kind of figure out what people are willing to accept – that it's not the easiest lifestyle, and they can love and care for you through it. And then there's some people who just can't accept it, and that's OK. They're just not the right people for you.

First and foremost is finding the right people. And when I'm home, I do my best. And I'm not just talking about a romantic relationship. I'm talking about your family and your friends: You just have to do your best to stay connected and keep a semblance of a relationship.

I mean, to me, that's where most of my effort goes when I'm home, off the road, is just reconnecting – because that's important to me. What are we without our relationships? I feel like that's like a currency for me. That's something I work really hard for, is to have good relationships with people. So, I do my best to maintain them.

Q: What do you like about Buffalo? What continues to bring you back here?

Samantha Fish: Your wings, of course. I mean, I'm not partial to your football team. Not to talk any smack – but I have to a little bit. Just a little bit! (A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Fish is a Chiefs fan).

I feel like there's so much passion up there for the Buffalo Bills. You guys are rabid, and it's scary (laughs). Every time I've been in, I try to talk a little bit of $hit on the microphone. The amount of kickback I get from the audience is like immense. You guys and Philly – not to compare you to Philly! I'm just saying they're very passionate in Buffalo about the Bills.

Q: We’ll put “passionate” in quotation marks!

Samantha Fish: I mean, when you're dealing with passionate people, they make for great music fans. So, you know, I can knock the football thing all I want, but it's nice to go and perform for people who put themselves into everything.

I, of course, I love the fans up there. I'm glad we're not coming when there's 12 feet of snow on the ground. That'll be a nice change for once. I usually come up there in like December. So, I'm really looking forward to that.

I don't know. There's just something charming that I really like about Buffalo. I haven't spent enough accumulative time there to get like a vibe for every quadrant of the city or anything, but the areas that I've been able to walk around, you know, you’ve got a lot of cool, cozy, old bars, and it feels like what I think it would feel like. When I think about Buffalo in my head, there's this, in a way, almost a welcoming vibe, like coming from out of the snow, and have a drink in this cool, cozy little dive bar. I don't know; it's just a good-feeling place.

Q: Chicken wings: drums or flats?

Samantha Fish: Flats are great – if you know how to eat them. Somebody taught me this maneuver that actually, like, you know, you're not just eating around the two bones.

But I'm still a drum girl. I mean, it's the easiest. That's the one everybody goes for right away. I feel like flats are complicated and messy. Drums, you can get in, get out.

Q: Wisdom we can all live by.

Samantha Fish is online at https://samanthafish.com/. Preorder “Paper Doll Live” on the website. Click HERE to find tickets to the Asbury Hall concert.