For the past few years, Samantha Mollen has been a fixture on Los Angeles’ singer/songwriter scene. She’s played venues ranging from the Troubadour to Hotel Café and everything in between. Mollen has been wowing audiences with her strongly introspective song lyrics, sultry voice and her inescapable beauty. Her voice is very distinct and isn’t something you’d expect to come from the 5’2” vixen. When you look at her, you’d imagine her to sound more like Jewel rather than Lykke Li, but like with many great musicians, there’s to more to Mollen than meets the eye.

One of the trademarks of a Mollen song is her self-described “creepy songwriting” with a dark edge to it– think Portishead. Unlike many artists in her genre, Mollen prefers to write music before words because her “lyrics capture the mood that the sound gives off.” That isn’t to say that everything is gloom and doom, but Mollen likes her lyrics to reflect to her mood, though she’s in a better place than earlier in her career. “As opposed to when I started writing, I feel like I’m in a much better place and my writing is much more happy,” says Mollen.

 

Ever since her adolescence in San Diego, music has always played a big part in Mollen’s life. She loved playing the guitar and singing, and throughout her collegiate years, she would infrequently perform at some coffeehouses near her school. When she moved to Los Angeles in late 2003, she decided to perform on a regular basis. “When I got here, I was working in PR and marketing,” reflects Mollen. “I knew when I moved to L.A. that I knew had to do open mics. At first I did it as an emotional release, like I really had to (get) these feelings out, and then it started to take off. I started off playing at Molly Malone’s and it took off from there.”

For the first time in her career, Mollen is collaborating with a co-writer to work on her upcoming album. She didn’t go wrong in picking multi-platinum selling writer/producer Justin Gray, whose credits include Kelly Clarkson, Joss Stone and Aqualung amongst others. Instead of going with the usual rock-driven sound, Mollen is switching things up on her new album. “It’s more of a pop sound, which will be different for my listeners,” remarked Mollen. “He’s helping me take everything that I do well and refining it that much more, and he understands the vision where I want to go.”

She’s right. After hearing some of the tracks she’s recorded with Grey, the new pop-friendly sound, Mollen definitely shows growth in her sound, yet doesn’t stray far from the formula that made her popular in the L.A. singer/songwriter scene. “I think scaled back the darkness a little, but the lyrics are still deep, but are delivered in a scaled down, easier way,” she said.

By adding these new elements to her already distinct sound, the future is looking very bright for Mollen. “It seems like the stars are aligning and I feel like there are some good things on the horizon.” With a pop-friendly sound and looks that could kill, you can expect to be hearing a lot more from Samantha Mollen in the very near future.