Dreaming of Labatt 50, watching the game and big, fluffy robes
Sam Roberts hits the road to tour with the Hip and play street hockey in a parking lot near you
PREVIEW
SAM ROBERTS
with The Tragically Hip
September 23 & 24
Jubilee Auditorium
At the exact same time that I am speaking with Sam Roberts, who is on a pay phone on the highway in rural Southern Manitoba, the Portage La Prairie Canadian Tire is being overrun with Roberts’s bandmates. They have been cooped up in a van together for more than two weeks and are desparate to partake in their beloved activity – street hockey. God help the good folks at Canadian Tire if they do not have any street hockey equipment left in stock.
While hockey played a huge role in Roberts’s life growing up in Montreal, music was always on the forefront as well. But even though he took violin lessons from age four until he was 22, his classically trained ear wasn’t satisfied until he picked up the guitar.
"I was a very nervous kid, could never really do it (play the violin) onstage properly," says Roberts. "I think I was about 13 – I don’t know if it was hormones or just frustration with the violin, but I picked up an electric guitar and plugged it in. All of a sudden it was – where have you been all my life?"
The natural next step? Form a band with your buddies, of course, play cheesy covers at basement dances and change your band name multiple times. It seems unclear where any of the bands began or ended, but the current crew have all been around for a while.
"Basically, we’ve had the same band for almost 10 years," says Roberts, laughing.
Eventually settling on Northstar ("The other bandmates vetoed the Minnesota Northstars," Roberts laments wistfully), they released an EP that received moderate airplay on the college radio circuit. "Not much, judging by my SOCAN cheques," he quips about his meagre royalties.
Roberts spent some time in L.A. after the band dispersed, relaxing with friends and conducting the occasional business meeting. But the music industry didn’t quite meet Roberts’ own ideological standards, so he went back to Montreal to continue working on his music. It was there that he recorded the double-CD Brother Down (2000).
"I was stressed out when the band broke up because you lose that vehicle to perform in front of people," says Roberts. "I’m not much of a folk-night, open-mic kind of guy, so I was hoping that someday we’d get another band together. In the meantime, I was just going to sit down and record as many tunes as I could."
The fruits of those labours and more collaborations with his bandmates resulted in The Inhuman Condition, released independently in 2001 and featuring the track "Brother Down" from his previous release. The album was then picked up by Toronto label MapleMusic Recordings, a company that had visions for the band that were in sync with Roberts’s own expectations.
"They were the first people who came up and expressed a sincere interest in the music first and then discussed business after," says Roberts.
Featuring great pop songs full of wit and melody, The Inhuman Condition and its ensuing hype landed Roberts a much-coveted opening slot for The Tragically Hip (previously held by Canadian stalwarts like Rheostatics).
"It’s like winning the lottery in a lot of ways. We’re just going to take full advantage of the experience in every possible way, from being able to play in big venues every night to watching them do what they do and what they’ve done for so long and so well. I can’t even imaging what it’s like to get onstage and have every one of 15,000 people there to see you," says Roberts with reverence.
With big stadium tours looming in his future, Roberts can fantasize about unrealistic dressing room requests.
"I would have 108 bottles of Labatt 50 (five bandmates plus one manager, at a case each…), a big screen TV with satellite to watch the Canadiens play (the tour was almost nixed due to the large number of games that would be missed!), a really expensive bathrobe (hey, a guy’s gotta be comfortable) and a La-Z-Boy recliner. That’s all I’d need," he says, daydreaming in typical alpha-male fashion.
But first Roberts will head back into the studio in November to record a new album and more touring ahead, Roberts is finding it more and more difficult to find the one thing he had in abundance only a year ago – time. Time for hockey, time for relaxing, just plain old spare time. He and his bandmates have spent so much time cooped up together on the road that their mode of transportation is now referred to as "that freakin’ van," but still in a somewhat affectionate tone.
"My imagination has been running wild for the last 15 years. I always thought that anything could happen, but the numbers, the odds, seem stacked against you when you’ve been doing it for so long. Then, all of a sudden, it just clicks," muses Roberts.
Sounds like a case of "he shoots, he scores." |
