Stimulator Jones

Roanoke, Virginia isn't known as a hotbed of R&B or hip-hop, but Sam Lunsford -- the producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter known as Stimulator Jones -- has emerged to show there's plenty of soul in the Old Dominion. While he has produced sample-based tracks, Lunsford has been as stylistically adventurous with his made-from-scratch material as a crate-digging beatmaker, synthesizing early jazz-funk, psychedelia, dub reggae, and even new jack swing on his releases for the Stones Throw and Mutual Intentions labels. Since making his full-length debut with Exotic Worlds and Masterful Treasures (2018), a showcase for his tender vocals and sensitive songwriting, Stimulator Jones has issued the disparate instrumental LPs Mano and Low Budget Environments Striving for Perfection (both 2021), and Round Spiritual Ring (2022), his vocal-based third Stones Throw album. Stimulator Jones was born Samuel Jones Lunsford in Roanoke in 1985 to a family that loved music. His mother played piano and has perfect pitch; his father was self-taught on clarinet, saxophone, and guitar; and his brother was a guitarist, drummer, and vocalist. Lunsford grew up in a house where he had instruments at his disposal at all times, and he started playing the drums at a young age, next teaching himself bass and guitar. He was exposed to a rich variety of music, ranging from jazz to alternative rock to hip-hop, and after joining a local ska-punk band called Dr. Teeth & the Elektrik Mayhem, he worked with a number of bands, including the Red Skulls, 63 Crayons, the Funk Cousins, San & Rhi, and the Young Sinclairs. In time, Lunsford became interested in music that combined the organic sound of funk and soul with the structures of hip-hop and electronic music, and he launched his Stimulator Jones project. The first Stimulator Jones release was a cassette titled Scuffed Suede Music, a collection of home recordings built around samples that was released in 2014. As Lunsford advanced with Stimulator Jones, he used fewer samples and made greater use of his own skills as a musician, with Mano and Silver Age, albums released in 2016 and 2017, respectively, reflecting this progress. In October 2017, Stones Throw announced that they'd signed Stimulator Jones to the label, and he quickly released a new single, a smooth exercise in sexy funk titled "Need Your Body." A second track, "Choosey Lover," followed in January 2018 as he worked on his first album. Exotic Worlds and Masterful Treasures, performed strictly by Lunsford, arrived three months later, and was soon followed by an EP, the self-explanatory Exotic Outtakes. Although not as much was heard from Lunsford over the next couple years, he was busy. In 2020, he returned on the Oslo-based Mutual Intentions label with singles that led to the January 2021 arrival of La Mano, a set of instrumentals rooted primarily in R&B and jazz-funk but with deviations into dub reggae and a dreamy interpretation of Aaron Hall's new jack swing classic "Don't Be Afraid." Only six months later, Stimulator Jones released his second Stones Throw LP, the more hip-hop-oriented Low Budget Environments Striving for Perfection. He then returned to writing and recording vocal material, and in July 2022 released Round Spiritual Ring, a sanguine set centering on mental health. Lunsford titled the Stones Throw-issued album after his humorous childhood mishearing of the chorus to Prince and the Revolution's "Raspberry Beret." ~ Mark Deming & Andy Kellman