Hidden Gem: Sam Roberts Band “TerraForm”
Sammy Younan
Girth Radio Presents…
With famous folks there is a natural reduction that occurs (when Carrie Fisher died how many outlets mentioned her book titles…not a footnote that she was a writer like actually mentioned her titles (some of them are quite good books!) vs Princess Leia?). I’ve never accept the reduction.
In preparing for my interview with Sam Roberts I was up until 2 am on Thursday night going over Sam interviews….Strombo, Tom Powers on Q, Edge 102 and much more. They all…all of them reduced Sam Roberts to this guy who makes cool rock n roll. And he is that so it’s not a stretch. See?
But the album I was interviewing him for is called TerraForm which is a sci-fi concept. I stopped listening to the interviews and went over Sam’s 6 albums…turns out they’re littered with sci-fi elements: Shapeshifters, Metal Skin, Tractor Beam Blues (on an album called Collider!).
Dude’s done all these interviews but nobody asked him about all this glorious sci-fi. I know these references! He’s not using them casually he’s using them properly; he knows this stuff.
I believe Sam Roberts is a nerd. So…how do you say that properly without accusing him?
When he came to Girth Radio we secured adult beverages and sat down, got comfortable. One of my first questions was about all these sci-fi elements in his music…let’s get into this and he cuts me off: “Sammy are you asking me if I am a nerd?” I laugh: “Yeah…basically.” He laughs and says “yeah I am.” He gets all excited and passionate and launches into his nerd-history with Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia etc. Lots of excellent sci-fi and nerd properties! Dude has excellent taste.
Thankfully I hadn’t accepted the reduction (even his press materials enforced the reduction). And by not doing that it opened up the conversation; thing is I’ve always done that instinctively. It naturally creates a bigger picture of people…sometimes more than the individual themselves. We are more than we think we are.
