Play it Again, Sam

Rocker Roberts returns to town on Chemical City tour

By DAVID SCHMEICHEL

Sophomore slump? Not if Sam Roberts can help it.

Following the smash success of his debut album -- 2003's Juno-winner We Were Born in a Flame -- the Canuck rocker could have easily met the same fate as others who'd once been in his shoes (anyone remember Sky? Tal Bachman? We could keep going).

Instead, the 31-year-old Montreal native took time to get focused, trekking to South Africa's Kalahari Desert for a little rest-and-relaxation before jetting to Australia to record his followup.

That album, Chemical City, is a far more expansive (and dare we say rocking) effort than Born in a Flame, replete with eight-minute jams, trippy keyboards and an organic, less meticulous vibe.

"I don't want to say (the album) was necessarily influenced by the experience, but travelling was definitely the catalyst for getting ideas out and into song form," says Roberts. "I wasn't writing lyrics about African landscapes or anything, more like just being there and clearing my head."

The sojourn may have been more of a holiday for Roberts, but the trip to Australia (specifically Byron Bay, on the eastern coast) was decidedly work-related.

Roberts wanted to make Chemical City in a warm climate and in a location -- in this case an abandoned church -- that would give the album the same lived-in vibe as Exile on Main Street or Music From Big Pink.

"There's more of a live feel on this record, and we needed a place that would coax that out of us," he explains. "So that whenever inspiration hit us, we could bottle it somehow."

Roberts is careful to point out he didn't mind the process behind Flame, which sometimes saw him holed up in a studio by himself for 16 hours a day.

"But I like the idea of making music with other people, and I like the idea of not being in a big expensive studio. If you encourage that sense of live performance, then with that comes a lot of freedom, so you're not just trying to play the same thing over and over again."

Since the CD's release, Roberts has made news as a member of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, a group of artists (including Randy Bachman, Sarah McLachlan, and Barenaked Ladies) opposed to legislation that would allows record labels to sue fans who illegally download music.

"The whole point is to not set up a confrontational showdown between artists and the labels and the fans," says Roberts. "The notion of bringing lawsuits against teenagers sitting in their basements listening to music ... it's just something I don't think we understand the full implications of yet."

---

SAM ROBERTS

Tonight & The Venue. With Ben Lee.
Previous story: Nothing doing for Lee
Next story: Strokes on fire