(RockAndMetal.com) (08/20/04)

Edited By Michael Bennett

NASHVILLE, TN, USA - Canadian Alternative Pop/Rock sensation SAM ROBERTS' album "We Were Born In A Flame" will be released in North America via Lost Highway Records on August 31st.

Roberts may call Montreal home, but his music occupies a less definable space: the place between studious intellect and gut reaction; between psychedelic transcendence and the cold, hard truth; between fist-pumped, hockey-lovin' hellraising and melancholic vulnerability.

Or, in Sam Roberts' universe, it's the place where Rue St-Laurent intersects with Abbey Road.

"This record is not the product of the last year of my life, it's a product of the last 28 years of my life."

To understand Sam Roberts, you have to backtrack to the day he picked up his first stringed instrument: a violin, when he was 4 years old.

"I actually kept taking lessons into my 20s, and I'm glad I did," he says, "because the discipline that it takes to play violin drove me to rock 'n' roll."

"The first time I picked up a guitar I was like, 'Holy shit, I can actually play this in front of people,' whereas with the violin I was shitting myself every single time I picked it up."

Like many kids, Sam Roberts experienced his Rock 'N' Roll epiphany in the place all dreams are made: the bedroom.

"My friend lent me this amp," Roberts recalls.

"It had camouflage fabric and a big metal grate in the front and it said 'Ride The Lightning' on top."

"I plugged in this old electric guitar, and it made the nastiest sound I ever heard in my life. It was powerful."

"From that point on, I listened to music differently, and went from being a kid just listening to a Men At Work album to someone feeling music on a different level, where the hairs start standing up on the back of your neck all the time."

"It made me less analytical because it made me more appreciative of rock 'n' roll."

"And then one day, I just turned on a four track and recorded this song, the worst freakin' tune you ever heard."

Next came the cover bands ("The Jesus And Mary Chain, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses - the same shit I'm into now") and battle-of-the-bands bids, but as Roberts says, "we were never good enough to get accepted into the shows, let alone compete in them."

"After that, it was like, 'I think I might have written a decent song, let's start a real band.'"

Formed in 1993, Sam Roberts' first band William would eventually change its name to Northstar in 1996, but -- being a band of Anglophile pop fans in a Francophone culture at the height of grunge-mania -- Northstar would shine ever so briefly before burning out.

After its demise, Sam lapsed into a vicious cycle: day job, travel for months to escape day job, come back home broke, get another day job, etc.

With his inspiration sapped and his old Northstar mate George Donoso off reaping critical success with Montreal indie darlings The Dears, Sam Roberts was faced with a tough choice.

To quote "The Shawshank Redemption," it was a matter of "get busy living or get busy dying."

And so The Sam Roberts Band was born, an assembly of childhood friends Eric Fares (guitar/keys), James Hall (bass) and more recently acquired members Dave Nugent (guitar) and Corey Zadorozny (drums), all of whom conspired to kick Sam Roberts' ass back into gear in early 2001, when he and the new band debuted at a well-received Canadian Music Week showcase.

"Writing good music isn't really enough; you need the magic the band brings to the table," Roberts says.

"I wrote 'Brother Down' in that period, and while people reacted to it as a song, it wasn't until that band element entered the picture that it took off."

"I'm just not a good loner."

"I like walking down the street with the guys in the band, I like the laughs and the stupid inside jokes and arguments and having people that you're sharing the best fuckin' times of your life with."

In 2002, the hard road finally led to gold.

First, a publishing deal with Universal Music, a Canadian label deal with Maple Music for "The Inhuman Condition" EP, rapturous reviews, then non-stop airplay for 'Brother Down' and 'Don't Walk Away Eileen' on Canadian radio and TV, plus high-profile opening stints for Oasis and The Tragically Hip.

Next, and most importantly for Sam Roberts, came the recording of his first full-length album with producer Brenndan McGuire (Sloan) in Vancouver.

The unique production process for "We Were Born In A Flame" was strangely appropriate for a classically trained prodigy who says his true love is "dirty fuckin' rock 'n' roll."

Roberts and McGuire hibernated for a month to prepare the songs ("the only collaborating I like to do is writer to producer," Sam says).

Old pal Donoso was called in to lay down drum tracks and then the full band arrived to "lay down some of the shit we do live over the top of it."

And so on "We Were Born In A Flame," the listener is treated to electrifying, "more ballsy" new versions of 'Brother Down' and 'Where Have All the Good People Gone?'

Plus intense rockers like 'On The Run' and 'Dead End' - a candid account of that wintertime low.

Also included are epic, pop-narcotic head trips that evoke Roberts' love of early '90s Brit shoegazers ('Every Part Of Me,' 'Taj Mahal'), and some of Sam Roberts' most beautiful, honest and romantic songcraft to date on both the aching waltz 'Wreck Of A Life,' and the song 'No Sleep.'

It really was a long, hard road to get there, but with "We Were Born In A Flame," Sam Roberts has opened up countless new creative paths for himself, earning the freedom to travel down any one he chooses, and the confidence that his fans will come along for the trip - wherever it may lead.

Copyright 2003-2010 Internet Music Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

---

[ Top ]