Samuel Locke Ward

Samuel Locke Ward is a veteran avant-pop songwriter, home taper, and comic zine maker. He has released over 60+ records, both as a solo recording artist, as well as recordings with bands and collaborators such as Miracles Of God, Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward, BBJR + SLW, Boundless Relaxation, and SLW cc Watt.

Starting in the late 1990s Locke Ward began a prolific home-taping habit that has created an immense catalog of music starting out in the era of self-released cassettes and moving on to CD, CD-R, and vinyl. The albums often found Locke Ward singing and playing all of the instruments himself as well as collaborating with a wide variety of musicians. His most recent album is Thrift Store Gtr Gold, an album of experimental folk protest music which was released on Orb Tapes.

In 2020 Locke Ward began a long-distance home taper band with renowned bassist Mike Watt. In 2022 SLW cc Watt released the Real Manic Time LP on the Personal Archives label, as well as the 45 song cassette tape EP, Let’s Build A Logjam. In July of 2023 they released their third album, Purple Pie Plow, on the Kill Rock Stars label.

SLW also has an ongoing collaboration band with noise pop legend Jad Fair of Half Japanese, simply titled Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward. In February of 2023, they released their first album, Happy Hearts, on Kill Rock Stars.