5 Questions: Samantha “Princess Shaw” Montgomery

The star of a new documentary talks music as a salvation and her personal philosophy on fame.

In 2014, documentary filmmaker Ido Haar had an idea to shoot a film about the unwitting group of YouTube musicians Israeli compositional artist Kutiman was planning to use for his next large online project. Kutiman, whose work has been performed all over the world, creates his musical compositions by layering YouTube clips from various amateur musicians and looping their snippets over one another. In advance of the video release, the musicians have no idea that their playing will be featured in one of his pieces — as he receives no money for the compositions, he claims no one has ever complained about his process.

Haar started out filming Samantha Montgomery, a young, struggling vocalist living in New Orleans, who while working as a nurse, was trying to pursue her musical career playing open-mic nights and posting a cappella original songs to her virtually ignored YouTube channel. Watching Montgomery perform, under the stage name Princess Shaw, and seeing the unadorned emotional resonance of her character, Haar wisely revised his original plan and instead focused his camera solely on her, cutting back and forth between her increasingly desperate attempts to find an audience, and Kutiman out in his studio outside Tel Aviv, calmly turning one of her a cappella songs into a fully orchestrated opus. Knowing what she does not – that Kutiman is about to radically change her life – makes for an absolutely riveting experience. Upon the film’s wide release, Montgomery spoke with Ticket via the phone about her relationship to Kutiman, music as a salvation, and her personal philosophy on fame.

A big part of the film’s appeal comes from the fact that you are so kind and relatable, and comfortable in your own skin. Have you always been that way?
I was very shy, very shy, and before I had braces, I had crooked teeth. I was not going to sing nowhere in those braces. People do not want to see none of that. I was so scared I did not have my own voice. I was singing like everyone else that wants to sing, and I was not secure in my voice. I could tell because it just did not suit me. It took years and years, until one day I moved to Louisiana. I was in the shower. This was before I started my YouTube channel in 2012. I was in the shower and I recorded myself. I was singing this song with some freestyle, and I played it back, and I was like, “Oh my god.” I knew in that moment I was me, because I was comfortable. I was comfortable singing those notes. I was comfortable just belting out tunes, and I found my voice.

This is strange to say to someone who is the star of a movie, but it also seemed like the idea of fame and money was never really a driving force for you. Is that true?
Yeah, just the idea of me singing and sharing with people and connecting with people. It was not about [fame]. If I am locally known and people know my songs and my music, and they want to hear it, as long as I have a microphone and can sing, I am fine. I do not really too much dwell on that: “I want to be a big star. I want to make all of this money.” I do not really look into that. The love of music is what drives me. The love of singing, the love of writing creating, is what drives me. That is what keeps me going.

This makes you very different from the kind of obsessed, reality-show performers we seem to be making into a cottage industry in this country, no?
I have always been this proud of my show. My show was not about everybody else. What they wanted was me. I could be in my room, singing. I am okay. I am having a great time. I am singing my song. I cannot really explain it. It is just a feeling that, you know, I cannot even really explain to you, but it is a great feeling when you are sitting there and you singing these songs. These are your songs. These are your words. When people sing them along with me, it could be one person singing, I want to start jumping up and down because they know the song. They understand what I am trying to say.

How close did Kutiman’s version of your song “Give It Up” come to the version you had in your head?
You know, the song was a little bit bashful when I sung it. When I heard it, it was beyond anything I could have imagined in my head. It was what it needed. It was the perfect combination. The melody is so beautiful, and then the voice and the song goes together. It is a haunting melody. It was beyond anything I could imagine, but it was what my soul was saying. Kutiman heard the song in my soul and transferred it into sound, and it is so beautiful. We just mesh well. We connect, not only with music, we connect spiritually. Our hearts connect. That is a beautiful thing.

At the Q & A of the screening I saw at True/False, you mentioned you hadn’t been signed to any label. Are you interested in pursuing that?
I do not want to be signed. When you become signed, you be what they want you to be; it is not you any more. I just want to remain me. I do not want to sign anything and I am not going to, so I feel like, if it happens with me not being signed, that is fine. If I have to sign something, I will not. I will just go back to my old life. For me, it is wonderful and all, but you have to be careful with fame. Fame is not the best thing for every person. I want to stay me, and I do not want anybody to change who I am.

Presenting Princess Shaw opens at the Ritz at the Bourse on Friday, June 3rd.

Piers Marchant is a film critic and writer based in Philly. Find more confounding amusements and diversions at his blog, Sweet Smell of Success, or read his further 142-character rants and ravings at @kafkaesque83.