Rising Stars: Meet Sam Borrello of Rice Village

Written By Sam Borrello

Photo by Gabriela A. Velasquez Lupita Rivera

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Borrello.

Hi Sam, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Absolutely! In 2013 I decided to leave my hometown of Burlington, VT to study Jazz Guitar at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I had many amazing mentors and peers there and spent four years learning, gigging around the city and honing my skills as a guitar player and producer.

After graduating I stayed in Philly and spent the next five years playing in two primary bands: ILL Doots and with the artist Zeek Burse. Between 2009 and 2017, ILL Doots toured nationally four times, released a number of projects and composed the music for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play “An Octoroon,” winning a Barrymore Award for the production in 2016.

On the production side, I started releasing a beattape series called “Sketch Pad” in 2015 and dropped four successive beattapes under the moniker BPad. I also met the Queens based rapper Homeboy Sandman and landed multiple placements on his album “Veins” in 2017.

As a gigging guitarist I worked in small group jazz settings around the city and did session guitar work for artists including: Rich Quick, Aliah Sheffield, The Bul Bey and the rapper/singer-songwriter Khemist and his producer Anwar Marshall. I collaborated frequently with Anwar and Khemist in particular and had the honor of playing on a number of songs on Khemist’s EP entitled “Khemtrails” as well as his full length album “A List of Demands,” released in 2020 and 2023 respectively.

In 2018 I decided to leave Philly to study Music Production and Technology at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. I met an incredible community of producers, instrumentalists and audio engineers there and am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to live and study abroad. For my “Culminating Experience” I released an album entitled “Light Shift” (also as BPad) and had the opportunity to perform the music at the local jazz club, Jimmy Glass.

After graduating I spent 2020-2024 in California, living in the Humboldt County area as well as Los Angeles. I released my first full length album in June of 2022 entitled “Connections.” The project was created largely during the pandemic and was a collaborative effort with many of my favorite artists and musicians that I’ve worked with over the years. Since releasing “Connections” I have been continuing to drop singles with artists including: A.Rob, US, Elle.Morris and The Pastor Jul. I am currently working on finishing my next album as well as a full length project with Jul and continuing to promote and perform “Connections.”

I moved to Houston in January of this year in order to be in a bigger musical hub. It’s been awesome to see how welcoming the musical community is here. I’ve had the pleasure of working with the band Hotbox as well as singer/DJ Lakeita Valon and recently caught a great show by Diptera.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’d say ups and downs are definitely the norm when it comes to a career in music. Finances, time management, and learning how to value my time and self worth are all obstacles I’ve faced along the way and continue to try to improve on.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a producer, guitar player, artist and music educator. I produce and perform my own music as well as working with artists. I also teach guitar lessons and production lessons. As far as what I’m most proud of, I’d say my recent album “Connections” as well as the work I’ve done with Khemist, Zeek Burse, ILL Doots and Anwar Marshall.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I’d like to share that my album “Connections” is available to stream on all platforms. In addition, I will be releasing the project on vinyl this coming fall so stay tuned for that! For other artists or producers reading this, I dropped a sample pack earlier this year called “Guitar Loops Vol.1” which is available on my website now. I also have a new album on the way as well as more music with rapper/singer The Pastor Jul coming soon. If anyone reading this would like to stay in the loop about what I’m doing or to support please feel free to follow me on social media or subscribe to my email list.

Contact Info:

Sam Borrello
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Real Name, No Gimmicks: How Sam Borrello is reintroducing himself to the world.