Singer/songwriter, bandleader, and human being Samantha Bowers first began writing songs at age 12 while taking piano lessons and listening to Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Freddie Mercury playing on the family stereo. By 16, she developed a love of jazz and began to study the great female vocalists of the century (mainly Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Sarah Vaughn). She and the Friends make music that has elements of pop, soul, funk, rock and jazz and focus on themes like coming-of-age, defiance, and self-expression. Their genre blending performances are high-energy, honest and quirky, influenced by the great performances of those childhood classic rock heroes. Says Bowers, "Thieves is a song about petty theft. A song about shoplifting. A song about getting what you want and precisely when you want it. In our brains, a song about kids stealing. And ultimately an anti-authority song."