Modern Refuge’s Sam Winfield Talks Playing Pregnant, Alanis, and Sibling Jams

Sam Winfield started her band Modern Refuge in the kitchen.

It was casual at first, with Sam singing cover songs while her brother Vin Amendola strummed his guitar, just a pair of siblings passing time in their own 2020 Covid bubble.

Sam, who’d only moved back home to East Haven, Connecticut, a few years earlier after finishing college in Vermont, mainly wrote poetry. She loved singing, but unlike Vin, who is three years older and had played guitar in one other band, Sam only sang privately, with family and friends.

But as their sibling jam sessions started becoming more of a regular thing, something shifted. Sam and Vin started working on original songs that he wrote years ago, blending their mutual love of 70s rock bands like Fleetwood Mac, 90s/early 00s rock, and free-spirited grooves with lyrics that meander between mystical musings and straight-up storytelling.  

“When I learned more about the songwriting process, the inspiration started flowing and I brought melodies that came to me to writing sessions,” recalls Sam of the band’s early years.  

Today Modern Refuge is five strong, with Sam (lead vocals), Vin (guitar), Brian Winfield (drums), Jim McLoughlin (bass), and Matt Pacheco (keys). The band spent 2025 launching its own Porchfest in New Haven (East Rock Porchfest), opening for national band Collective Soul, and releasing its critically acclaimed album, Runaway Dream, produced by Tom Pisani of Vibe Vault Studios and recorded at Welcome to 1979 (Nashville), Powerstation (Waterford, Conn.), and Vibe Vault Studios (Old Saybrook, Conn.).

All while raising a toddler.

“I think it’s very important to continue your craft because it gives you life and happy mama, happy baby always,” Sam tells Rockmommy.

Pinning Sam down for an interview wasn’t easy, now that she’s a mom of a 2-year-old son, who adorably chirped throughout our video interview. But she’s taking it all in stride. We sat down with Sam to learn a bit more about her journey and what’s next.

The edited transcript is an excerpt of the full interview (below), between Sam and Rockmommy editor and founder Marisa Torrieri Bloom.

Rockmommy: You’re a musician and a poet. What came first?

Sam Winfield: I’ve been writing poetry since when I was younger. It’s always been something that has brought me inspiration. When we started up Modern Refuge, I incorporated that poetry into my lyrics – though I did have to learn a lot about song structure. My brother and guitarist of Modern Refuge [Vin] taught me a lot about that. We have a nice synergy working to incorporate my poetry style into the lyrics.

Rockmommy: How did you and your brother decide to make the band?

Sam Winfield: It was 2020 and everything was closed down, obviously, and we started jamming in the kitchen, working on just some covers. Then we brought back some old songs that he wrote when he was younger and we’re jamming on those and just caught the bug and we wanted to — that’s where Modern Refuge basically started.

Rockmommy: So he was in your Covid bubble and you’re just like, ‘let’s do this’! That’s awesome. Who did you start off covering?

Sam Winfield: We were doing Bill Withers, Alanis Morissette … we were covering Manchester Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Nicks, all of those rock stars.

Rockmommy: So I want to talk about the band because, like, obviously you guys get compared to like Fleetwood Mac [but] I also hear jazz, I hear funk, there’s a sort of jam element … but there’s a modern aesthetic too.

Sam Winfield: I love that you picked up on all of that! That means a lot! We just really were all from different backgrounds when it comes to music. So we incorporate all those elements into our band and it really shines through in our original music. I’m influenced by a lot of the 70s rock … We incorporate a lot of the emo hardcore scene too. There’s little pieces in our songs because we were definitely involved in that scene when we were younger so that comes through and some of the guitar riffs you can hear. We have Jim McLoughlin on the bass and he, you know, he gets these like funky rhythms, like Red Hot Chili Peppers coming in there.

You can see a lot of the different influences shining through. And now we have Matt Pacheco on keys too, and he adds a whole new element. He has a lot of jazz in there and just really funky key sections that we’re writing new songs to … you can hear those influences shining through now.

Rockmommy: It sounds like you and your brother know each other well and are super comfortable [writing songs].

Sam Winfield: Yeah, we get along so great. We’re best friends although we’re very different when it comes to writing styles, you can hear on his songs he’s more of a storyteller. I definitely have more of those experiential lyrics. They’re very atmospheric and poetry based. But when we work together, sometimes I’ll come up with a melody. I’ll be wherever I am, I’ll do a voice memo [and] send it to him.

He’ll transpose it on guitar and then vice versa — he’ll send me these little guitar licks, and  it will inspire me and honestly, the words come to me very quickly. Vin likes that because it takes him a longer time to develop the storyline for his songs. But yeah, I just kind of dip into the feeling and they come to me, they flow out of me.

Rockmommy: So I was watching this video of you when you were pregnant in May 2023. Was that hard? Or were you feeling empowered?

Sam Winfield: Yeah, I was so empowered. I performed during my entire pregnancy and actually that particular show was less than a month before I had Ronan, and we were joking that I might give birth on stage. That was my last full band performance before I had Ronan and yeah, I was just, I was ready. I mean, you know, at the end of pregnancy, you’re just kind of ready to get that baby out.

But I was feeling good. I loved performing on stage when I was pregnant and I do think a lot of that, I think he felt a lot of that in the womb and he really came out of the womb very musical. He’s already a drummer, has an amazing rhythm and he loves music. I do think that performing all the time and him feeling the energy of the stage when he was in my womb had a lot to do with that.

Rockmommy: How did Runaway Dream, your current record, come together while you had a baby?

Sam Winfield: Something I always say, and I think this is just to all the mamas out there, especially rock mommies, I think it’s very important to continue your craft because it gives you life and happy mama, happy baby always. I was performing five weeks after I had Ronan and I was like, I couldn’t stay away! Yeah, I had a cesarean and I just asked [my doctor], Like, ‘can I perform? In a few weeks I have a show booked.’ That’s my energy. I’m just fiery and I need that in life. And I brought [my son] into that, so it was kind of a non-negotiable for me to continue with music. We have an amazing support system too. We have an amazing family, and that helps take care of Ronan.

The album took 18 months of writing, recording, sessions in So Nashville, Waterford, Connecticut, and our producer Tom Pizzani’s studio in Old Seabrook.

It really was a lot of work, but work that I was willing to do. I stay at home with Ronan, I work from home, and at night I would go and do long stretches at the studio if it was in Connecticut. And when we traveled, we got Ronan to stay with family, and it’s just been, yeah, it’s been a journey.