Back from the
end of the world

>> Montreal’s Sam Roberts returns home
with some hard-earned insights

TOUGH SKINS AND BLIND EYES:
Sam Roberts (c) and his band

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The first time singer/songwriter Sam Roberts appeared in the Mirror, it was in the Rant Line, as muck was slung between him and now-defunct band Thelma. For longer than Roberts would care to admit, this was the only item in his lean press kit. Since then, Roberts has of course become a Can-con radio staple, collecting his fair share of Junos. With his new record Love at the End of the World hitting shelves this week, don’t expect this hardworking guitar-slinger to stop slugging now.

Mirror: The last time we spoke, there seemed to be a fair amount of tension and frustration between you and labels. Have things gotten better?

Sam Roberts: Well, that feeling has subsided somewhat, but there’s always potential for drama. In Canada, we’ve had a pretty steady relationship and have been able to make the records we want to make, but in the States we’ve now been on four labels and things haven’t come together as much as we wanted them to. We put our last record out on our own label in the U.S., which was satisfying in some respects, but it was also a lot of really hard work. In the U.S., it always alarmed me, the speed the tables would turn at. You would go from being the new prize pig to, if the first single didn’t take off on radio right away, you couldn’t get your phone calls answered.

M: Has the dynamic of being so successful in Canada, and then crossing the border and having to work twice as hard for even a modicum of success, made the band hungrier?

SR: I think it has definitely kept us more grounded and really kept us on our toes, as far as being a live band goes. I think it has made us a lot tougher and because we’ve developed thick skin, I think we have never caved and just make music that comes to us naturally.

M: You finally got to record in Montreal, unlike your previous recordings, done in Vancouver and Australia. Was it easier knowing you would fall asleep in your own bed at night?

SR: I don’t know if we would’ve done it in Montreal if not for the fact that I now have a daughter, so it wasn’t really an option to consider recording in far-flung places. Now that it’s done, though, I would definitely record here again.

M: Having spent so much time on the road since your first EP [The Inhuman Condition, 2002], you must’ve gathered a fair perspective on the evolution of the Montreal music scene.

SR: It’s certainly changed in the respect of bands just having so many venues to play now. When we were starting, there was really nowhere to play, so we would rent out Stornaway with people like the Dears and just hope people would show up. Now bands have places to play and people will support them. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that attention will come and go with the city, but bands still just make music for themselves and have somewhat of a blind eye to the industry, which of course can only be healthy for any kind of art.

With guests at Cabaret du Musée
Juste Pour Rire on Tuesday,
May 27, 9 p.m., $26