Samuel Alan McCandless (born January 28, 1971) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and artist who is best known as a founding member of the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

and the

psychedelic blues Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording tech ...

band

Carny Carny, also spelled carnie, is an informal term used in North America for a traveling carnival employee, and the language they use, particularly when the employee operates a game ("joint"), food stand ("grab", "popper" or "floss wagon"), or ride ...

. With McCandless,

has released five albums of which two have been RIAA Certified Gold and one RIAA Certified Platinum soundtrack album for

A Walk to Remember ''A Walk to Remember'' is a 2002 American coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Adam Shankman and written by Karen Janszen, based on Nicholas Sparks' 1999 novel of the same name. The film stars Shane West, Mandy Moore, Peter Coyote ...

. He left the band in 2015, leaving vocalist

Scooter Ward Scooter Ward (born Ronald Ward Jr. on May 7, 1970) is an American musician who is best known as a founding member and lead singer of the rock band Cold. He has also performed occasional guitar duties both in the studio and live. Ward has been ra ...

as the only original member. However, he later rejoined the band full-time in 2019, but left in 2021, when Tony Kruszka (of Lifer and University Drive) stepped in.

Career

Grundig

In 1986, McCandless formed the band Grundig along with several other students;

Jeremy Marshall Cold is an American rock band, from Jacksonville, Florida, formed in 1986 by lead singer and rhythm guitarist Scooter Ward, drummer Sam McCandless, bassist Jeremy Marshall and lead guitarist Matt Loughran. The band has gone through numerous li ...

, and

Matt Loughran Matt Loughran is an American musician, songwriter, and guitarist who is best known as a founding member and former lead guitarist of the American rock band, Cold.

at Fletcher High School in

Neptune Beach, Florida Neptune Beach is a beachfront city east of Jacksonville in Duval County, Florida, United States. When the majority of Duval County communities consolidated with Jacksonville in 1968, Neptune Beach, along with Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach a ...

. The band played their first gig in 1990 at a club called the Spray. In 1992, the band released an 8-song EP called "Into Everything" and moved to

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. Three and a half years later in 1995, Grundig broke up and McCandless, Ward, Kelly Hayes, and Pat Lally formed the band Diablo. Diablo would only last about 3 months.

Cold

At the end of that three-month period, Grundig reformed under the name

and signed a 6-album record deal with

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

. McCandless would remain with Cold until February 2006 when, after several line-up changes and battles with record labels, the band decided to break up. McCandless and Ward promptly began working on their new project The Witch, which McCandless has since left. The project has been renamed twice, When November Falls and now

The Killer and the Star The Killer and the Star was a musical side project started by American musician Scooter Ward, frontman of the band Cold. History Originally named "The Witch", the band name was changed to "When November Falls" in November 2006, before any wo ...

. In early 2009, Cold reformed for a reunion tour. Their album ''

Superfiction A superfiction is a visual or conceptual artwork which uses fiction and appropriation to mirror organizations, business structures, and/or the lives of invented individuals (Hill). The term was coined by Glasgow-born artist Peter Hill in 1989. ...

'' was released on July 19, 2011. McCandless was responsible for the design of the band's Spider logo which was influenced by Cold's "Oddity" EP cover (photographed by McCandless' wife, Georgia von Eberstein, of their pet spider "Wednesday"). The Spider Logo is now tattooed on thousands of Cold fans and is the trademark of the band. In 2015, McCandless left Cold in search of other projects. However, he rejoined the band as a full-time member in 2019 until 2021.

Carny

Sam McCandless has worked with producer and guitarist

Paul Leary Paul Leary Walthall (born May 7, 1957), known as Paul Leary, is an American musician and music producer from Austin, Texas, best known as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist for the American rock band Butthole Surfers. He is also the ...

Butthole Surfers Butthole Surfers are an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas, by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been ...

fame (as well as the producer of Sublime's third album); Singer-songwriter Formica Iglesia, also of the band Carny.

Discography

;Cold *''

'' (1998) *''

13 Ways to Bleed on Stage Thirteen or 13 may refer to: * 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14 * One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013 Music * 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band Albums * ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013 * ...

'' (2000) *'' Year of the Spider'' (2003) *''

A Different Kind of Pain ''A Different Kind of Pain'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Cold. It was released on August 30, 2005 in the US and September 12, 2005 in the UK and features the singles "Happens All the Time" and "A Different Kind of Pain". It h ...

'' (2005) *''

'' (2011)

References

Living people American rock drummers Musicians from Jacksonville, Florida 1971 births Nu metal drummers 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 21st-century American drummers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians {{US-rock-drummer-stub