At 8 years old, biology and psychology sophomore Sami Gudipati began writing poetry. Gudipati said she always considered herself a storyteller, and during the pandemic, a gifted ukulele inspired her to turn her writing into music.
On Oct. 10, Gudipati, who goes by the stage name “sami g,” released “Sitcom Love,” a single inspired by the TV show “How I Met Your Mother.” Two days earlier, Gudipati hosted a show at Calamity in West Campus to introduce audiences to the new song. Gudipati said that while rewatching “How I Met Your Mother” and packing for college, she began thinking about how she wants to live an interesting, exciting life she can create stories from.
“The reason they have (nine) seasons worth of content is because (the characters) keep fumbling their way through situations and making the same mistakes without learning lessons,” Gudipati said. “I got that line ‘Oh, if I keep watching sitcoms, I swear that I’m scared that one day I’ll end up lonely at a bar with shitty friends I love and hate.’… I opened my recorder app on my phone, and I sang the whole thing in one take.”
Gudipati’s friend and fellow musician, Emma Cantu, an advertising sophomore who releases music under the stage name “Emma Grace,” said Gudipati stands out as an artist due to her raw lyrics.
“She has so much vulnerability and is so open about all of her experiences and the things she writes about,” Cantu said. “(She) has the ability to tell such a wide range of stories, and I think that’s so important. … She can make a TV show she watched super interesting and creative, or a lived experience, or somebody else’s lived experience.”
Gudipati said she views her songs as stories and puts lyrics before anything else.
“I always think of (songs) as a story,” Gudipati said. “It’s always been more lyric-oriented for me.”
Jude Laird, junior psychology major and Gudipati’s producer, helped Gudipati bring “Sitcom Love” to life. Laird said he fell in love with the song after hearing Gudipati’s initial creation and wanted to help her bring it to life while staying true to her vision.
“I don’t need to touch (a song) unless I feel like the song is missing something,” Laird said. “With ‘Sitcom Love,’ there was nothing like that. … I heard it for the first time, and I was like, ‘Oh wow, I love that so much.’… I didn’t touch the melody, lyrics or composition.”
Gudipati said making music comes naturally to her, and she can’t imagine a day without it.
“Nothing feels as good or rewarding as not only having a song at the end, but the process of sitting down,” Gudipati said. “That process of getting that articulation of that very particular feeling in your chest and seeing it get fleshed out into lyrics and a tune, and then in production into this incredible thing that’s succinctly within three to four minutes — it’s the most rewarding output to me, and I love the process so much.”
