For Canadian rocker Sam Roberts and his band of long-time friends, crossing over the divide into music stardom has been a journey of catchy guitar riffs, juicy pop and rock melodies and mind-tunneling self-discoveries hidden in lyrics -- one that's full of twists and turns and humbling experiences for the quintet.
After becoming quite the household name in his hometown of Montreal and the rest of Canada, Roberts lately has turned his attention to the United States, where he's experienced some critical success and positive experiences including Lollapalooza and Milwaukee's own Cream City Music Festival.
Many have called Roberts one of the best new most electrifying front men touring today and many who saw him tear it up in Milwaukee will attest to that statement.
OnMilwaukee.com caught up with the singer-songwriter to talk about the music and the road to self-discovery before the Sam Roberts Band's show on Wednesday, Nov. 25, a double-bill with Milwaukee's own The Championship at Club Garibaldi.
OnMilwaukee.com: It sounds like the band really has had an exciting time mining out what it can do with rock and roll. How would you describe the band's sound?
Sam Roberts: Well, that's an answer that morphs every day. I think we change constantly or what we like or how we like to play seems to change on a daily basis almost. It never stays the same for long.
We've always said we're a rock and roll band and, to me, that's a broad enough term to cover any of the twists and turns of the direction we go in. Right now, I'm thinking the new record that I've been working on is more of a spaghetti western, Vaudeville-pyschedelia sound.
OMC: Are there any things that have stayed the same or has it all pretty much changed?
SR: Yeah, I think you're right. We definitely have a core that stays true to certain -- I don't want to say principles but an emphasis on melody and writing songs that hopefully will stay with people and mean something to them over a long period of time; kind of songs that people come back to and redefine their relationship with it. That's one thing as a songwriter that I want to remain consistent throughout records.
So whatever shift the music goes through the certain periods those are the values that I try to apply to every song I'm writing and as a band we have to uphold that.
OMC: You kind of bring up that point in your song "Them Kids" which you mention your hopes that your music sticks around and people listen to it.
SR: Yeah that's part of it. It's about the fear of people not listening anymore and people in general, not just musicians, feel the need for their voices to be heard and to matter; the person next door to us. There's always that fear that that voice is going to be silenced at some point or people will turn away and stop listening. It's something you have to overcome. You lose and then you regain the confidence of what you say matters and matters to other people.
It's about the feeling that you have the world in the palm of your hand only to find out that the world keeps moving on with or without you and passes the reigns from generation to generation. There's always the struggle to keep up and get heard above the crowd.
OMC: What are some of the big music influences for the band?
SR: Well, I listen to the Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Paul Simon and Bob Marley growing up; also The Kinks, the Stone Roses, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, you know, bands when they first came out, those were all bands I was into.
Our influences go anywhere from Chuck Berry to Spiritualized, it runs the gamut. I try not to pigeon-hole or hold myself to one style of music. I also listen to a lot of Afrobeat music from the '70s and out of Nigeria; I listen to South African music and listen to French music as I live in Montreal. We've always had connection to French culture. So, our music is a collection of those things; I guess there's so many things that I like, and there's never been one thing that's fully captured my attention.
OMC: Your music certainly evokes a similar moving power as some of the acts you're influenced by. How do you work toward finding your unique kind of magic?
SR: You can only hope that you get a fraction of what they've been able to do and hope your music can attain, as you say, to find that magic. I think we soon realize that you have to go about finding that in your own way and the only way to do that is to find your own voice and own sound amongst all that great music.
You're constantly listening to it and being inspired by it, whether consciously or subconsciously getting inspired by your influences, but at some point it needs to be filtered and translated through your own vision and what the music has to be. The further you go down the road as a songwriter, the more you're able to hear what you're trying to say.
OMC: It sounds like you've known everyone in the band for quite a while, at least high school or earlier. Could you talk a little about what that relationship means for the band?
SR: We're a tight knit bunch and I think with life on the road and the rigors of that existence, I would find it much more difficult without that solid foundation that all those relationships provide for us. I depend on them, on a lot of things besides music including their friendship and camaraderie; people that help prop you up when you're finding yourself flipping a little bit.
OMC: What do you think of the success you and your band mates have achieved so far in Canada and now this country?
SR: Well, we're more used to not being that. When we signed our first record deal I was only 27 years old. So all those years prior we'd be hacking it out and trying to get their ears and attention in some way, and listen to the music that we were playing. So when we started touring in the States, even though propelled forward by our song "Brother Down" in Canada, it was basically a return to the band we'd always been. It wasn't uncomfortable in any way; it was more familiar than anything.
If you look at it from a glass half-empty, half-full prospective, whatever we have managed to get going down in the States -- the fact that I'm talking to you today -- is really based on our hard work and the merits of being in a band that performs the way we want to perform everyday. I think years of touring and persistence and stubbornness in the States has actually finally been able to bear some fruit.
Obviously there's a long way to go and I don't know where it's suppose to lead to or what it is that we're chasing. The process seems to be that you want to play for more and more people and more people to get on board with what you're doing. Maybe it's at the early stages, but at least we can see it develop from one show or tour to the next.
OMC: Right now you're touring in support of your latest album, "Love at the End of the World." Could you tell me a little bit about what you were going for in that one?
SR: Well the record was written and recorded here in our hometown of Montreal. I have two little girls now, but at the time I was writing it I only had one and she was born. I think I got a lot of fuel from that experience, that transformation from going from someone that worries about themselves all the time to someone that has another life to care for and to devote themselves to.
I think a lot of the songs, a lot of what they're saying and issues that they're addressing deal with not only finding my place in the world but of growing in becoming a dad. I'm obviously learning about that more and more each day, and I think every song I write from now on will be touched by that experience in some way.
We didn't travel far and wide like we had on previous records ... this album became more a journey within one's self rather than a physical one.
OMC: When you guys were here this summer, you put on a really powerful show. You yourself have gotten compliments about being a very energetic front man as well. What's your philosophy of playing live?
SR: When I'm on stage I'm not necessary all that conscious of what's happening and I really just give myself over to the show and the music and the people out there. But it's when you get off the stage and have the feeling you left it all on stage, then it was a good show. If you didn't, you did[n't] do what you were suppose to be doing.
It's pretty explicable. You go from being a bunch of mild-mannered Canadians to letting the beast out in a way. You have to give as much of yourself as you possibly can every time. If you do that people are going to hear the music clearer and hear it what it really is.
OMC: What are some of the best moments for you and the band so far?
SR: Some of the best gigs are the humble experiences ... Playing Detroit '67 for the first time there and seeing the audience lose it was unbelievable. You really feel like you're doing the right thing. They're moments that help keep you going.
