Sam Stoxen

Assistant Event Coordinator
Original Member
He/Him

Sam Stoxen is a Minneapolis-based noise, experimental, and underground music curator, producer, and label operator best known for founding and running Phage Tapes—a prolific DIY label issuing noise, industrial, experimental, and fringe audio on cassette, CD, and vinyl.

Since launching Phage Tapes in the mid-2000s, Sam has overseen dozens of limited physical releases, emphasizing handcrafted assembly, screen-printed artwork, and a self-sustaining approach that channels all proceeds back into new projects. He personally screen prints many of the record covers himself, reinforcing the label’s commitment to material process and total DIY control.

He is also an active producer and performer across a wide range of aggressive and boundary-pushing genres, including hardcore, power violence, EDM, EBM, trap, and harsh noise. In addition to his solo and collaborative work, Sam still occasionally performs as one half of Pain Apparatus, a long-running duo with Grant Richardson of Gnaw.

Beyond label operations and performance, Sam has shared insights on independent music production and underground culture through interviews and podcasts, discussing the realities of sustaining a DIY imprint and the importance of physical media as both archive and resistance. His practice is rooted in community, materiality, and sound as artifact—aligning closely with H.E.X. Collective’s commitment to uncompromising, process-driven work.