Sammy Arriaga wanted a song he could dance to, and so he decided to write one himself. The Miami native penned “Something We Can Dance To,” fusing his love of country with his Latin roots, as well as all of the other multiple styles of music that he enjoys.

“That song was actually written four years ago,” Sammy told Everything Nash. “I wrote it with my good friend, Erin Scherz, originally. I’ve always wanted to have a song that I could play in somebody’s car. ‘Cause every once in a while, you always have that one friend that goes, ‘Hey, I feel like dancing a little bit. Play something we can dance to.’ And so that’s kind of where the idea was born. I was just in the car and somebody said that, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that would be a really cool song.'”

Sammy might have written “Something We Can Dance To,” years ago, but he never felt like it was the right time to release it, until 2020.

“Four years later, COVID hit and everybody started feeling kind of down,” Sammy reflected. “This year has been really tough on so many people. I figured that everybody needed something that we can dance to, so I felt like that was the perfect song to release this year.”

Sammy wants to make his mark in country music, but he also wants to embrace his other influences as well, in all of his songs.

“Whenever I write music, I naturally like to blend my culture,” said the singer. “If it’s not my guitar-playing, it’s the way that I say the words. But honestly, it just comes very organically. I just like to work with a lot of other friends that are more American than I am, and then I like to blend their knowledge of country music with my knowledge of country. The final result is kind of a cool little fusion.”

It wasn’t until Sammy auditioned for Season 10 of American Idol in 2011, where he made it to Hollywood, that he realized he could form his own style of music, thanks in part to a little advice from his father.

“My dad was like, ‘If you’re going to go through the auditions, you should do something that nobody else is doing. I don’t think there’s any Hispanic country artists. You should go in with that idea,” Sammy recalled. “So I did that, and then I ended up falling in love with the genre. I ended up learning how to play the guitar because of it. That led to my move to Nashville the following year. And I’ve been pursuing country ever since.”

Sammy isn’t currently working on a record, but he plans to start one in the near future.

“I’m hoping sometime in the next year, I will release an album,” he revealed. “That’s been something on my heart. I’ve been wanting to release something like that just for myself, so when I get older, down the road, I could tell my kids or my family, or I’ll look back and be like, ‘I did this album when I was in my twenties.’ So it’s more like a treasure for me.”

Sammy is also part of The 615 House in Nashville, a group of musicians and influencers who have a strong presence on social media, sharing their music and art with the world.

“The 615 House is this new project that I’ve been really lucky to be part of,” Sammy shared, adding that it’s a similar idea to The Hype House in Los Angeles. “The Hype House is an actual place in LA where several people, like social media influencers, all live together to create content and to just to post stuff, to TikTok, Instagram, whatever. They all blend their social media and then their followers together, so that they can all reach out to fans that they wouldn’t have gotten to on their own. It’s a pretty cool project, because nobody in Nashville is doing anything like it.

“I’ve been able to meet so many other cool artists that are involved and we’re all kind of like a family now,” he continued. “We all constantly hang out. We go to dinner. We play weekend sports together, stuff like that. And then ultimately, we all do videos together and have created this awesome platform on TikTok … I’m just really excited to see where this goes.”

Find out more about Sammy and his music by visiting his website.