There are a handful of Canadian acts that have reached international stardom in the past decade. Patriots and music lovers alike proudly put Sam Roberts Band at the top of the list when it comes to national icons.
It’s nearly been a decade since the bearded boys played U of T’s Varsity field for frosh week. Six records, four Juno awards, and countless sold-out shows later, the slightly more high profile band made a pit stop on their summer tour to once again welcome U of T’s frosh and promote their most recent album, Collider. Amidst a campus full of cheering students and dancing frosh leaders, The Varsity sought refuge in the band’s tour bus to chat with Sam himself about the new album, why small-town Canada rules, and the conspicuous new addition of “band” in the group’s title.
The Varsity: So how has the tour been treating you so far?
Sam Roberts: It’s fantastic! I mean, it’s going well, we’re in a bit of a transition phase right now — coming out of the summer festival season and getting more into the touring season. There actually is a difference between the two. The summer is so chaotic and all over the place and not so consistent. In the touring season, which is starting just about now, things start to settle down and you know you’ll be playing every night.
TV: What have some of your favourite stop offs been so far this summer, aside from U of T, obviously?
SR: These past few months have been awesome, there’s been a lot of great gigs this summer. I think Ottawa for Canada day in July was one of the most momentous occasions though. We played on Parliament Hill to a really great crowd, and it was just so cool to see how excited Canadians can get about music. It is that particular occasion that certainly sticks in my mind. We also played some small towns, which was cool.
TV: You kind of love small towns, don’t you?
SR: We certainly do! We were in Kirkland Lake, Ontario recently, and we had never heard of it before. We were also in Smithers, Alberta, really tiny towns, I mean, these are really just places on maps. That’s what we do sometimes, is just sit down in front of a map and point out spots that we’ve never been to. And you know what, the shows always end up being surprisingly good. A lot of these places have really great venues and facilities, and you show up and the hospitality is always first rate and they’re always really appreciative that you’ve made the trek to get up there. It can sometimes be expensive to get there, but its always worth it.
TV: Let’s talk about *Collider. You have a new producer on this album, Brian Deck. What was his impact on the band and the album?*
SR: He had a huge impact on us. There are some, actually a lot, of producers that just pat you on the back and move on after they hear your work. They say, ‘you’re on the right track, keep up the good work!’ Brian is definitely not like that. He is supportive, and he will pat you on the back, but then he immediately says ‘OK, let’s change all of this, guys.’ And you have to develop that trust in him as a producer, and trust where he wants to take the music, and the record as a whole.
TV: It’s been three years since your last record, can we expect another few years until your next one?
SR: Yeah, it was a whole three years. The producer we had before was actually our good friend, and we communicated really well with him. On the other hand, Brian was a complete stranger and we had to be a bit more open to criticism. That’s the tough part as a songwriter when it’s your mission to expose yourself to that criticism and simultaneously take it as a positive force in the creative process. Brian came in and he really shook this record up and I think he had such a significant impact. And now, we have to figure out how to fit it into all the other records we’ve made. The thing is, you can very easily, especially at the beginning of a tour, have a show that feels disjointed. You have to find a way to blend them all together, and that’s the trick when you’re in the early stages of a record and being on tour.
TV: And is it still the early stages now?
SR: I would say yes, the summer is so scatterbrained. Now that it’s getting into the actual tour and you have to play every single night, you have to be constantly finding a new sort of drive within the band, and to perform to your best abilities you have to be excited about the music that you play. We’re getting into that headspace as a band now.
TV: Is there a song off the new album that stands out as a crowd hit?
SR: Oh yeah. I would say “Let it in,” the third song on the record. Right from the first time we played it, even before the record had come out, it got a huge response. That’s the one that sticks out to me at the moment. It gets a good response, but it’s not a radio single which is what I really like about it — the fact that people react so strongly to it is cool because it’s not so that they can say “Oh, I know that one!” it’s because it really speaks to them.
TV: Do you find you’re received differently in the United States compared to Canada?
SR: Well we have two different labels, one in the States and one here. So, kind of, but no. It’s a tumultuous time for the record business right now. A lot of labels are going under, it’s so difficult to stay afloat and their whole financial reason for being is undercut. And well, they’re not different people than we are. We have a tendency as Canadians to think that a border will create this huge difference in people, but we actually share a lot in common with America. We share their customs, and they share ours. I’d say they appreciate it as much as people here do, its just, we’re not quite on the front page of the paper yet. It’s been a slow build in the States, we’ve been playing shows there the same amount of time as we’ve been playing in Canada, but we’re slowly getting up there.
TV: It’s interesting how bands can become so wildly popular in Canada but when people start to notice them in the States, it is sometimes in a very different way — different songs become popular with different crowds.
SR: It’s true, but in a way it’s because they don’t have access to the same resources in terms of media and television even, I suppose that’s changing now though. But I mean, Feist and Arcade Fire can go down there and blow the doors wide open and all of a sudden people are saying, “who are these bands from Canada?” and it draws attention northward, which is nice for us.
TV: You guys are playing with Land of Talk today, another fantastic Montreal band that’s becoming more and more recognized. Will they be supporting you for the rest of the tour?
SR: No, we’re only playing with them today. We’re touring with Zeus, another great Canadian band from Toronto, actually. We did our two Massey Hall shows with them. They’re really good, I mean they’ve played some fantastic shows already.
TV: I have to ask, why ‘the band’ in your name, in addition to Sam Roberts? And why now?
SR: You know, we played here in this exact same field nine or ten years ago. It was one of our first paying gigs that I can actually remember that we played together as a band. We got up on stage and there were only about twenty people in the crowd. Anyway, amazingly we were the exact same group of guys back then, all committed to the same thing, all the same compassion. My name was on the bill because I’m the one who writes the music, and back then it was even more me and less of the band. As we got musically closer together, we wanted to bring that into the studio more. I think the records are always an attempt to capture the live spirits of all of us together, and I think at this point, to not include the band is really misleading. So, it’s more so an acknowledgement for ourselves as well.
This interview has been edited for length.
