Kaesen Samson had to watch some things fall apart before his band, Las Vegas indie rock trio White Noise, could come together.
The local singer and guitarist started out as a drummer for The Mad Rabbits, a blues-rock trio featuring fellow White Noise bassist Nicholas Lacy. But as a student of various styles, Samson says he found himself at odds with the sonic direction of the band.
“There was no push to go further than classic rock,” he says. “Me and Nick have always liked punk rock and stuff like that. We’ve always wanted to go a little harder.”
In 2021, The Mad Rabbits disbanded after two and a half years, leaving Samson with a bulk of written material and no band to record or play it with. Fronting his own rock band would require him to step out of his comfort zone, Samson says. “I didn’t want to start a new project with a singer who wore like, khakis,” he says. “I know I at least look the part, so [I figured] I’ll just go ahead with this.”
With shoulder-length hair and a sleeve of tattoos, Samson certainly looked the part—and his rock ’n’ roll upbringing backed it up.
“My dad had a very close friendship with Vince Neil from Mötley Crüe, so I would go on his tour bus when I was younger,” he recalls. “There was a moment where we went over to California, and Vince brought me up onstage and sat me in front of thousands of people; I was nervous as hell. At the time, I was playing drums as my first instrument, so I was looking back over at Tommy Lee. That’s the moment when I decided music is what I wanted to do.”
Samson, now 25, initially launched White Noise as a solo project. Then in 2022, it evolved into a trio. Lacy, who hat-tips bassists like Les Claypool (Primus) and Mike Dirnt (Green Day) for his onstage showmanship, rejoined Samson, and the two brought in drummer Austin Mansfield, whose breatmaking influences run the gamut from DJ Mustard to Travis Barker.
Though strikingly different, the White Noise members’ styles click together on debut LP Neapolitan, set to be released February 3. Sex Pistols fans will feel Steve Jones in Samson’s fevered fretwork, especially on the rabble-rousing “Gimmie Out,” which ends with the frontman yelling “F*ck you!/F*ck you!” Punk attitude runs throughout the tracks, from the aggressive chants in “The Otherside” to the accelerator-to-the-floor pacing of“Room for That.”
“It’s a taste of everything,” Mansfield says. “We’re all experimenting in a way, but it’s almost a taste of what’s to come. It’s letting everyone know we can go in any one of these directions, and we’re gonna figure that out as we go.”
The band used different methods to capture its instruments during the recording process, Lacy says, which contributes to the lo-fi feel of the album, which was mastered by David Candelas, lead vocalist for Vegas band Secos.
For his part, Samson says he’s pleased to finally be able to promote a “full body of work.” And what does he hope listeners take away? “That good old fashioned rock ’n’ roll still exists.
“There’s a lot of great rock bands coming out that don’t really get the same hype as somebody like Post Malone or Dua Lipa. [Listeners] always reflect to the past. We can’t get past Hendrix and Zeppelin. That was a problem with our last band; we sounded too much like the past. I’m happy that with this one you can hear a push to more modernism.”
White Noise will celebrate Neapolitan, with a record-release party February 3 at the Space, alongside local punk rockers Pure Sport, who are also dropping a debut album.
WHITE NOISE linktr.ee/whitenoise702
WHITE NOISE & PURE SPORT With Pathogen, Elevated Undergrounds, The Dollheads, Elephante King. February 3, 6:30 p.m., $20. The Space, thespacelv.com.
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