Snowball: Insight About an Underground Shoegaze Artist

Juniper Wolff

Local Music Journalist

In a post-pandemic society, alternative music has blown up and impacted many people, particularly Gen Z. Samantha Anderson is a spectacle in this regard. A recent Texas State graduate, she “fell in love with alternative rock and wanted to explore as much music as possible” during the isolating lockdown era. Going by the moniker “Snowball,” Samantha is a one-woman show. From writing and mixing to producing and releasing, she’s done it all.  

Behind the Scenes 

When asked about her pseudonym “Snowball” and its origin, she replied, “In my pre-teens, I played a lot of Smash Ultimate with my brother and came up with the name, which I’ve used online since then.”  Not only is her name unique, but also her dedication to self-improvement. For reference, Samantha “first started playing guitar in 2021,” she says, “but I found it difficult to find time to practice since I was in an Early College High School program, which meant I took college classes as a high schooler.” Even with these setbacks, she continued to push on. For all artists, there’s that sparking moment that draws you to music production. For Samantha, it was seeing King Gizzard live in 2022, whereafter she would take on a four-year degree to focus more on her passion for music. 

Growth and Struggles 

Being a singer-songwriter is no easy task. It took her around a year to go through the process of writing, editing, producing, and releasing her debut EP, Growth. Samantha finds songwriting to be her favorite part of the process. “Seeing ideas in your head being materialized into a song is one of the best parts [of song making].” However, hills aren’t without their valleys. Perfectionism is a prominent struggle of hers. “After listening to songs, you are working on many, many times while mixing, it becomes hard to hear problems to improve,” Samantha stated. Especially when making shoegaze, this issue is very difficult to overcome. 

Genre and Inspirations 

Samantha defines her music as psych shoegaze, mixing the droning ambiance of shoegaze with the hypnotic sound of psych rock. With this unique combination of genres, she has quite a few inspirations for the sound she creates. “I’ve always been inspired by the experimentation of shoegaze pioneers like My Bloody Valentine, and I feel like modern acts miss out on that aspect of the genre,” she mentioned. Not all of her motivations have been just to create music. Her recent incentives have been regarding politics. “There are so many causes that I want to talk about through songwriting, including talking about trans issues that I and others face,” Samantha mentions. This aspect can be seen on the cover for her single, Just Enough, featuring a picture of a counterprotest that took place after two men demonstrated on campus with controversial signs and messaging. 

Samantha’s Final Message to the Reader 

When asked about any messages to the audience, she proclaimed, “Rock music isn’t dead, and there’s great artists in every scene, especially San Marcos.” Readers can find her music on major music streaming sites such as YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and Bandcamp.