Sam Roberts Band (QC)
Canadian singer-songwriter Sam Roberts released his debut album, We Were Born in a Flame, in 2002, following a popular independent demo recording he made in Montréal. Before then, he had been a violinist who eventually moved on to guitar and started a rock band with his friends. The Inhuman Condition was released and became the best-selling independent EP in Canadian history. Since then, he has released six albums, earning himself just as many Juno Awards and propelling himself to certified Gold, Platinum, and Double-Platinum status.
Beginning with his fourth album, 2011’s Collider, Roberts changed from using his name to using the moniker “Sam Roberts Band.” They continue to take over airwaves with hit singles that fuel their legendary live shows. The fiery spirit of Sam Roberts Band has carried them to stages everywhere from Letterman and Conan to Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza, and Bumbershoot, and alongside heroes like the Rolling Stones and AC/DC.
In March 2016, Sam Roberts Band holed up at the Bathouse, the Tragically Hip’s studio near Kingston, Ontario, to record their sixth full-length album, TerraForm. They went in with the lake still covered by ice and emerged four weeks later, with an album that abandons well-trodden paths for new, uncertain terrain full of infectious grooves and inventive rhythms.
“Terraforming is the idea of going to another planet and making it viable for humans. For this record, I saw it as planting the seeds for that same sort of renewal in your own life – that regardless of how much you have broken the parts of your life along the way, there is always a chance to start over… for yourself and the people you care about,” says Roberts. “Most of these songs are love songs, but love songs that grapple with its many faces – beautiful and ugly, healing and destructive.”
As Roberts sings on TerraForm‘s closing track, “Spring Fever,” “We’re on our way. Don’t know where we’re going, but we’re here today.” It’s an acknowledgement that the future is a web of unknown possibilities but that we have the gift of being alive right now.