Sam Roberts gets serious

Published in The Cottage Times, July 2008

Brienne Juniper sits down to chat with Sam Roberts about his latest album, his beard and what keeps him coming back to Muskoka year after year.

What have you guys been up to the last couple of months?
• “Oh this and that, putting out a record. I wouldn’t call it a tour, but we’ve been playing a couple of festivals and club gigs. It kind of came out at the end of the club season which is now sort of getting underway. We’re hitting the road, playing pretty much coast to coast at outdoor festivals.”

What’s it like spending life on the road now that you’ve got a little daughter?
• “Fortunately during festival season, you might play three days on and you might go home. There is just more contact with the mothership, and I think it will only sink in when we’re on a proper tour. Last year we were in the studio making a record so I think the longest we were away was a couple of weeks. Even that was pretty difficult. In my mind, at least, I have to learn to incorporate family life into this – I don’t think they have to be mutually exclusive, while she’s young anyway. Maybe they can do a little traveling and see the world with us, that’s how I’d like to see it anyways.”

How would you describe Love at the End of the World compared to some of your previous albums?
• “The creative forces behind it weren’t necessarily coming from what felt like a different place, it’s only in retrospect when you listen to it and compare it to your previous albums you recognize you’ve actually taken a departure and gone off in a different direction. That’s a function of how you’ve been living, and you’re not always consciously aware of the changes that take place. That’s why records can be such an interesting way of documenting the twists and turns that your life takes. I think definitely, there is a significant departure in my mind anyways, from where Chemical City was coming from, but I only realized it after the fact. You’re not really all that aware, at least in my mind, you shouldn’t be overly conscious of what you’re trying to do with music. You just kind of let it come out the way it wants to come out. You’re just basically trying to capture it as you hear it in your head.”
• “it’s something you can’t really deny, it’s just a part of your genetic makeup I think when you’re meant to write songs, it’s just there. Not necessarily in whole or final forms, but the music is constantly drifting out of your consciousness. Again, it’s up to you to take it from there and recreate it in a form that can be listened to and experienced by other people, and that’s what making a record is.”

Is there a lot of pressure to come up with new material?
• “There’s pressure to do it well, there’s pressure to make good records, to keep people interested in the music that you make but that pressure is nothing compared to the pressure you put on yourself, to write a song that’s better than the one before. It’s not necessarily the pursuit of perfection, but the pursuit of musical places that you’ve never really been before. Just constantly pushing yourself and hope that other people are going to come along for the ride.”

I know you’ve said in interviews that you “just write the tunes”, but you’ve got some pretty interesting names for your albums. Where do they come from? (Inhuman Condition, Born in a Flame, Chemical City, Love at the End of the World)
• “It’s funny. Sometimes they come about when you’re sitting there and you’re listening to a finished record, and you’re trying to come up with that one phrase that encapsulates the whole thing – if it can be done. With Chemical City, I actually had the name of the album before I wrote a single song, so that came from the opposite end of the spectrum. Just having the name gave some of the songs their direction in a way. You can approach it from different ways. The song Love at the End of the World, the first song on the record, was the last song that I wrote. I think that in a way, having worked on and recorded the other 12 songs wasn’t an attempt to summarize, but certainly captures the spirit. If you were trying to capture everything that all the other songs were trying to put out there, that was the song that kind of summed it all up in a way, and therefore it just became the album title. But again, that was because I’d lived with the other music. I’d lived with the other songs for all this time I’d had a chance to reflect. It’s like making an opening statement, but sometimes you only make the opening statement after you realize the body of the work is going to be.”

You’ve played some pretty huge concerts, like SARSstock. What’s it like to play in a venue like the Kee to Bala?
• “Obviously it’s a great experience or we wouldn’t have come back. I think this is our 6th or 7th year in a row. The Kee just has it’s own magic. The Kee is a beast that knows no rules, really. It’s a phenomenon unto itself. There’s really nowhere else that I’ve played that I can compare it to. Some other clubs bear strong resemblances to other venues, sometimes one festival can feel identical to another, but there’s something about playing at the Kee. Maybe it’s the fact that the stage is 10 or 12 feet off the ground, it’s a bizarre thing. The fact that you’re playing in this old barn, essentially, on the edge of a beautiful lake, makes for a unique setting. Then there’s the mindset of the people who are vacationing. It’s strange to think that people need a release from cottage country, but this is apparently where they do it. There’s a freedom at the Kee. People don’t seem to be too self conscious there, they just seem to let it all out. At any rock and roll concert, that’s the ideal mindset for the crowd to have is to not be too worried.”

So does the audience feeling transcend to the band?
• “Oh for sure. I think we feel like anything goes up there, when we’re playing at the Kee, and that’s a really great feeling. In a way, its our summer therapy where we can just go and forget about the whole context and just really enjoy playing for the sake of playing.”

Have you ever watched a concert there?
• “Never. I’ve watched the opening bands, so that’s I guess at least some of the experience of being out in the crowd. I’ve never seen either David (Wilcox) or Kim (Mitchell) but I see their name every year on the bill and it’s amazing to think that we’ve thrown our name in the hat and been included in the legacy of the Kee, in this very unique and particular Canadian experience.”

What is it that gets you to return here year after year?
• “It’s that freedom, the uniqueness of the experience that it has no…there’s no point of comparison with anything else and I think that lures us back there all the time.”

What’s the wildest thing that’s happened to you while performing in Muskoka?
• “Oh man, it’s all wild. I think the craziest thing is the one time that someone actually got up and did a stage dive from that height. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody jump from that high before. It’s not recommended, that’s for sure.”

Did anyone catch him?
• “Not really, no. It ended up in kind of a cataclysmic wipeout, so I hope that experience isn’t duplicated this year.”

Can we expect to hear a lot of your new stuff or more of the older material this year?
• “We’re going to try to incorporate as much of the new record as possible, so we obviously advise people to start to familiarize themselves with the new material, for sure. We’ve got a few albums to choose from now, and I think we always just try to put together a set that takes people on a bit of a journey. Not just pump out the hits one after another. You’ve got to find the songs that really fit together and are going to take people somewhere. Whatever we feel on the night is the right thing we go with. There is always a heavy pow-wow an hour before we get on stage where we discuss the set list and what tone we’re going to set for the night.”

Sporting the beards this year?
• “Summertime we’ve been trimming it down. I usually put the woodsman/Klondike on hold until the wintertime and then you let it all hang out for a while. Right now it’s pretty low key, nothing more than a stubble. Beards come, beards go.”

What do you think about how them kids dance at the Kee?
• “They’re pretty good – they defy the rule. Whatever the song is talking about, that’s obviously one of the places where they’ve learned to let it all hang out. I think maybe that’s another reason why we love to play there. Maybe it’s the kind of place where other young people out there could take a lesson from. Come out there and see what a real rock and roll show is supposed to be about – just forgetting yourself, letting yourself go and become part of the music. If we all did that a little more, we’d probably be better off for it.”