There is a sense of sincerity in Sam Weber’s music that is as equally mellowing and captivating.
The singer-songwriter from North Saanich has been honing his craft in full-force in the last few years. Weber released his debut full-length album, Shadows in the Road, via Cordova Bay Records. He more recently wrapped up his first national tour, which saw him passing through eight provinces in 51 days.
That sincerity in the music of Sam Weber translates in conversation, as I experienced in my interview a few weeks ago with Sam. We chatted about his music, touring, and music festivals,
asapmusicblog.ca: What was the first song in your memory that inspired you to pursue music?
Sam Weber: It was ‘Bold as Love’ by Jimi Hendrix, off that album of the same name.
A: So you’ve been on tour since April and it’s a pretty big tour spanning 8 provinces over 51 days. What has been some of the biggest highlights on this tour?
SW: It’s a surprise. We all know that the big cities like Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal – those shows are all probably going to be great, because people there like music. But the biggest and best surprise is when you go play like, Red Deer, and it’s awesome. So the smaller shows where people really come out and really get into and align with what you’re doing and are really interested in your music – those seem to be the highlights for us.
A: You also have a few festival shows coming up this summer. Do you have any music festival memories that particularly stand out for you?
SW: Are you familiar with the Rock The Shore festival in Victoria?
A: Yes!
SW: I played that with a band called Jets Overhead years ago, and there are two things. I remember watching Sam Roberts play side-stage at that festival and just looking out in the sea of 16,000 people and just trying to rationalize what I was looking at and the music, and just trying to make sense of all that. The second thing was last year, seeing Death Cab For Cutie play Rifflandia and it was basically their last show of their original line-up. It was the last show of their guitar player and producer, Chris Walla, and during their set a shooting star came across over the sky and burnt out over the stage. That was huge and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that! I mean all the Rifflandia experiences – have you ever been out to Rifflandia?
A: No! That’s definitely one of the festivals that I’ve always wanted to head out to.
SW: You gotta check it out, it’s something else. Actually with the no beer garden thing, I think they’re figuring it out this year, everyone’s just drinking, having a great time, really relaxed, and then at night everything shuts down, and you just tear into all the night venues that they have going and it’s just so much fun, so much good music.
A: Yeah, Rock The Shores and Rifflandia – they both have pretty solid line-ups this year!
SW: Oh yeah, Father John Misty is playing, and The Black Keys – Rock The Shores is going to be crazy.
A: I think it’s pretty much most of the acts that I want to see in Pemberton, but in a better…
SW: Better, and more thought-out festival. They think about every detail, and every year they make it better and better and it’s just gotten more streamlined and fun and better organized. It’s exciting to have that in our backyard, it’s cool.
A: Speaking of Victoria, you’re from the area and in the last few years, there have been a lot of artists from the Island and in BC that have emerged. There’s become a really nice music community. As an artist, is that something that you find nice to have?
SW: Oh, for sure! It’s really small, but it’s really tight and really supportive. There’s a really wide breadth of artists. It’s really welcoming and you just meet people and be a part of their team and the family and everyone’s really happy. It’s pretty sweet.
A: If there was a single message that you would want you would want your music to convey, what might that be?
I really spend a lot of time thinking about my songs and writing songs. I want to convey the message of… it’s not much a semantic message, because all the songs are different thematically, but just generally speaking – for the performance to exude a sense of excitement and surprise and freedom in a way. The message would be, we’re just doing what we want to do and having a really great time and playing songs that we really care about – there’s not much broader of a message than that.
For more information on Sam Weber, head over to: http://samweber.me.
