Ryveann: (00:50)
Hello and welcome to episode six of the first half podcast. Today’s special guest, Sam Roberts from Sam Roberts Band. So very excited for that. Um, how are you doing Paul?

Paul: (01:04)
I am very well, how are you Ryveann?

Ryveann: (01:06)
I’m fantastic. I’m, nobody can see this today, but we’re doing a day show and I feel so energized. I think it’s cause it’s just, it’s daylight also. I didn’t run through my whole day, so I might be a little louder.

Paul: (01:21)
Day or night. Doesn’t matter day or night, doesn’t matter. It’s about passion.

Ryveann: (01:24)
You know what it is. It is about passion and it’s about not being on cold meds. Like last week.

Paul: (01:29)
You were on cold meds?

Ryveann: (01:30)
Last week. Remember,

Paul: (01:32)
I can never tell, I can never tell with you. There could be cold meds. There could be. It could be really, uh, and uh, good afternoon. Good morning or good evening to mr Chu. Hello sir. Um, okay, so today, episode six, we’ve got, we’ve got some fun things to cover. We have a fantastic guest in studio, which we’re, we’re very excited about. Um, and I think we should just jump right into it. So there’s this, no, there’s no, there’s no messing around. So let’s just start off right away. This is not my team, but, and, and this is something that we, we, we talked about earlier on.

Paul: (02:06)
It’s official. Liverpool have made their best start to a season in the history of the English premier league. So even if they’re winning the league, everybody, you know, now, now you’re starting to see sort of everybody sort of like crunching up and not wanting to say a word because they don’t want to jinx it.

Ryveann: (02:25)
It’s been since like 1990 or something.

Paul: (02:28)
It’s, it’s been close to 30 years. The Win over spurs a 61 points. First 21 games surpass Man City’s record of 59 points during their title, winning 27, 28 season… A 18, sorry, 17/18 season. This is huge. It’s huge. It’s huge for Liverpool. Uh, you know, Jurgen Klopp is just, he’s just amazing. He’s got great teeth, cool hair. He’s always smiling. He’s always calm.

Ryveann: (02:57)
I’d be smiling too if my team was doing what that team’s doing

Paul: (02:59)
but it’s just everywhere he goes. And again, this isn’t my team.

Paul: (03:02)
I want to, I want to, but you got to give props. So what’s happening? I mean, goodness gracious, right?

Ryveann: (03:09)
They’re running after every record there is to beat too at this point, right. It’s not just, it’s not just trophies. They’re going after records and they’re hitting everything. It’s pretty, they’re doing wild.

Paul: (03:21)
and they’re doing it well like they’re doing, I gotta be honest, like it’s, he, they could, it could escape sort of reality. They could get sort of snooty about it and sort of yappy about it, but there’s an air of like, we’re not saying anything until it’s all said and done. I believe in that ether. I believe in. That’s the way you should do anything anyways. But yeah, it’s impressive because, I mean, they’re at the top of the table, but like by miles it’s not, you know, like we talked about this before and we’ve mentioned on the show, I mean, again, I don’t want to be, no, I’m just catching up and, but they’re still doing it with such, they’re doing it with humility.

Paul: (04:01)
Again, this isn’t a Liverpool show, but for the love of God, they’re really good, it’s really good. The team’s good. You see some players on that team that are most likely going to be with team England in the euros. Like it’s just, it’s, it’s very, it’s cool. I mean, there’s a story in it right? And you can’t say much else than that. And it’s just very exciting. You know? Uh, also this past weekend, there was, uh, some more records, so Liverpool made it, it broke a record and Sergio Aguero made history as well.

Ryveann: (04:30)
He took over Thierry Henrys record.

Paul: (04:33)
That’s great. So he overtook Titi as a foreign player with, with goals. He beat Alan Shearer’s, hat trick record, which is, which is huge, uh, with his 12th. And, uh, he’s the man, he’s really, he’s a, he’s a, he’s somebody that’s just been absolutely prolific, uh, man city destroyed, uh, this weekend with a six one victory. And it’s, you know, it’s pretty amazing how, you know, one player can have that kind of, uh, effect on a game and create history, you know, and in one game, you know, break two, two records and, you know, and be humble about it too. I mean, I, this is maybe the humble show is episode six is all about humility, but it’s a, you know, it’s sort of funny how that’s all come together and congratulations to him. And then, um, that’s been very exciting, right? And then not humble.

Paul: (05:31)
Ya I was gonna say the not so humble…

Paul: (05:33)
Is Zlatan Ibrahimovich right. Got his goal with AC Milan since his return this guys, it’s just ridiculous, right?

Paul: (05:51)
Yeah. First, first we did more than like a month two for them. Right. And all the competitions there was course it was Zlatan…

Ryveann: (05:58)
you know, um, I want to bring up for those who don’t know Zlatan because this is somebody I was researching because we were like, it was crazy talking about him that he’s just on, he’s here, he’s like a mercenary, he’s a Ninja. And I was like, all right, all right, what’s all this hype? But I didn’t realize that he’d played for so many teams. Like Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, like Paris Saint-Germain, Man U, and then obviously LA galaxy, which I thought was pretty interesting going through the story of that. So I wanted to bring it up today because, um, his first year, well, his first year, it’s not like he stayed much more than a year. Bringing in such an insane striker into the MLS. He was nominated for the 2019 FIFA Puskás award for goal of the year. And in his first year he was named the MLS all star, MLS Best, awarded MLS newcomer of the year and MLS goal of the year. And that one was like an acrobatic one anyways. And then he just, he just destroyed, he just destroyed everybody and then he tweeted that he was out.

Paul: (07:00)
Yeah, well that’s, you sorta like that Energizer bunny right with he just keeps going and going and going and it seems whenever you want to sort of think he’s done or it’s an age thing.

Ryveann: (07:14)
He’s like 36?

Paul: (07:16)
I guess in sport and sport world, that’s old. Right. But he just keeps defying the odds. He just keeps doing it and keep it. It’s that he keeps scoring goals. I think it’s really what everyone’s just like, Oh my gosh, thank you. You can’t say anything. You might not like his personality but you can’t say anything about his football.

Ryveann: (07:38)
And one of the best parts about bringing up the non humble is when he did go to the LA Galaxy. Wow, I can’t speak. Um, he pulled, yeah, no, he pulled a entire one page ad in the LA times and it just was a picture of him. And it just says you’re welcome Los Angeles.

Paul: (07:55)
Yeah. But that’s the, I mean the LA galaxy want that as well. Right. That’s fantastic. That’s great. It was fantastic. The lion, right? Like he’s, he talks about himself in the third person. I mean, yeah, the Zlatan, you know, it’s sorta like Castanza. It’s like, you know, it’s like the Seinfeld sort of stuff. Like it’s a, it’s amazing. He’s amazing. Right. And he brings, he brings entertainment value, which is what I think you want with your athlete.

Paul: (08:29)
Team Canada. Okay. So we’re obviously in Canada and our show focuses around football in North America and the men’s national team won. I mean, these are friendlies, but they won twice against Barbados. Uh, they were in the Caribbean and now they’re going to play Iceland. And Iceland is a, you know, a small country that’s added football into their big picture.

Paul: (08:55)
It’s made it part of their, you know, what their identity will be and they are proving to be fantastic footballers too. And obviously Iceland has a lot of temperature issues just like Canada. So there’s a lot of similarities and I’m bringing this up because one, that’s fantastic. It’s great record for the men’s. We’re talking about the men’s national team and we’re talking about, um, you know how they’re, they’re constantly still revolving and they’re moving along and there’s a, there’s a lot of play to go on, but I’m bringing that up because we don’t see much of it in the news and you don’t see much of it in the newspapers on the radio. Um, social media, if you’re following the right boys and girls and right sort of accounts, you see stuff. But if you’re not, it’s just not there. And I find that bothersome.

Paul: (09:45)
I think they’re there. I take issue with that because for this game to properly grow in Canada and in North America, just like the men’s U S team or the way, like, we’ll get into all that, but I mean, why not? Why is there, why is the media not talking enough about this team? Not just that major tournaments, but all the time whenever they’re at camp, whenever they’re playing, it needs to be in the news and it’s the only way it’s going to be ingested by the public and then the public will grow up with it.

Ryveann: (10:15)
I think it’s kinda interesting. Well, at the same time, um, like this weekend or like Friday, they announced the Olympic qualifiers, right. And, uh, in the news there was a hell of a lot more info about the women’s team. That’s for sure. Well, because I mean, at the same time that the men haven’t qualified for the Olympics since like what an 84? Yeah. So, um, and it’s big news. I think their road to the Olympics is going to be El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras, that they have to play first. And none of that’s going to be easy. So

Paul: (10:45)
it’s both. It’s sort of supposed to be easy, but as we all know,

Ryveann: (10:48)
but I think if they’re doing well right now in the friendlies, it’s going to be a little bit more encouraging. If we could post that out in the news. It’s going to encourage people to watch the Olympic qualifiers a bit more because then they’re going to feel like they have a team to support since they haven’t been, they haven’t qualified forever. Um, yeah. I, I think that’s, to me, that’s it. Uh, but I am excited about the Olympic qualifiers for the women.

Paul: (11:12)
So is everybody, I mean, the women’s team is absolutely a beast. They have changed football in Canada. When I saw the women’s world cup here, I mean, I know it was all over, but the fans the game, it’s so fantastic. It’s fast. It’s exactly what I want my daughter to see and, and grow up watching. And yeah, they’re just, they’re fantastic. Pro athletes that are, you know, elevating the game. And again, the women’s team gets, you’re right. More press than the men’s national team. Yeah. But it’s still not enough.

Ryveann: (11:56)
No. God, no, no. Nowhere near.

Paul: (11:59)
And it should be constantly, again, if it’s always on everybody’s mind, it’s in the periphery. If it’s in the paper, if it’s on, if there’s little bits and pieces constantly being put out and you’re constantly ingesting it, it will grow. You will grow up with it. And in turn, I think football as a whole will grow with North Americans. And specifically we’re talking about Canada right now in team Canada, right. So

Ryveann: (12:22)
I think it’s kinda cool because like for, for right now too, we still get, um, our rosters pretty much the same thing as the FIFA world cup. So there’s a lot of big names in there and a lot of veterans, which I mean, at the end of the day that I think that’s nice because you, the people that followed because of Sinclair now are excited because she’s playing again. Um, she’s on the roster again this year, you know, or Sophie Schmidt are there,

Paul: (12:44)
Those are mainstays in those mainstays help with continuity and sort of uh,

Paul: (12:50)
Like everybody wants to watch it. Every scale. Like what if this is her last one? You know, people want to watch it. Um, also the U S team, um, most of the 2019, uh, FIFA women’s world cup team is also coming back. So, um, Megan Rapinoe obviously, but one really cool fact well story for this is that, um, the biggest name not on the provisional list is Alex Morgan. She’s pregnant right now, but she actually said, she’s like, she goes, I’m playing in the Olympics no matter what. And the Olympics, so happens to be less than four months after her due date and she does not care. She’s like, I am in this and I will be playing. I think at that point, Beast mode, full engaged. I love, that’s just a female athlete, like straight up.

Paul: (13:41)
That’s just an athlete, that shows there’s a laser focus on what that an athlete has to have that laser focus to sort of cut out all the noise around and just say this is my end end goal.

Ryveann: (13:54)
You’re making it to the Olympics baby. like after having the baby, not even four months later,

Paul: (14:00)
January a transfer news all over the place. MLS. Uh, I’m going to bring this one up cause this one’s very exciting. I think for me, Chicharito, Hernandez was a Man City guys and you’re, we’re, he’s looking to potentially come to the LA galaxy. That’s huge. That’s a big DP. That is a big time player that’s still got legs that if he gets into the MLS again like the Rooney style thing or Zlatans or you know, really changes the way people are going to watch the game.

Ryveann: (14:37)
Yeah. I mean he plays quite differently too, right? I mean he’s, he’s a big goal score. He, he scores from really close to the net, which is a hard thing to do, especially behind the defender and just like right in. So I’m kind of excited for that. I think that’s really good for LA galaxy.

Paul: (14:54)
Yeah. If that happens, it’d be good for the great for the MLS and again, all this stuff. I mean the MLS season is just about to kick off, but uh, it’s exciting to see what kind of moves they’re going to be making and um, how things are all gonna. The transfer window has been sort of quiet even though we’re only about a week or so into it, which I, I sort of find funny cause I feel like everything is always sorta like over and ready to roll and really intense and it hasn’t been, and we’re in a society where everything is now, now, now, and it’s just like, well, why aren’t more,

Ryveann: (15:27)
Why haven’t you signed anybody yet!?

Paul: (15:28)
Where all the big moves!? You know. But it’s, I guess that’s cool to see.

Ryveann: (15:32)
You know what, that’s how I felt this morning when I opened the newspaper. I was like opening the news to look at all the, like all the footie information for the weekend and like it was very slow moving as far as transfers, what they were like confirmed transfers and there

Paul: (15:44)
are no confirmed, you know, or like a little like little bitty bitty million moves. I was kinda like, Oh, that’s it. I’m, one of the fun things that we like to do on the show is we like to call out on a, on a social media or point something out, uh, that I’m following or we’re looking at or some stuff like that. And Nigel de Jong he is a Dutch player. Um, he is somebody that he’s been around for a long time. Uh, it’s sort of, you know, he’s in Asian now, so it’s one of those things where he’s done his European time and he’s, but I think he’s just super, super cool guy. He’s fun to watch. 17 years still playing. He played for man city, for the galaxy. Funny enough that you bring them up. Um, I think he’s playing in the Qatar right now, but he’s one of those guys that when you check out his social media, he seems like such a nice person. But he also, he’s doing stuff and he’s into into fashion. He’s into all sorts of very, very interesting things. And he’s somebody I just want to call out because I think one of the things that we’re going to do is not just call out social media plat, uh, sort of pages that are business pages or a magazine or a or a blog. But we also, why not? Cause this show isn’t going anywhere. So we’re going to talk about some players.

Ryveann: (17:06)
You can talk player instagrams for eternity…

Paul: (17:06)
You can, but some are really sucky, really boring and it’s just like

Ryveann: (17:11)
I felt like his was nice. It was nice, but he is, he does get into more fun stuff over stories like his sneakers and stuff that’s over stories that he posts them up so you’d have to kind of look through there. I guess. Like I was kinda like, Oh we’re going to start to call out players now. I was like, cause I’m going to call up Mueller. He’s such a troll and he’s such a jokester and like he plays the tuba and he’s been playing with a brass band and so he’s being ridiculous.

Paul: (17:42)
We’ll bring it up on other shows, but I’ve also seen some stuff that he’s done, uh, with Jack Whitehall on the show on youtube. Oh my God. He’s hilarious. Anyways, we’re talking about this Dutchman and so he’s somebody that I wanted to call out. Well, look. So, uh, there’s, we have a fantastic guest, so I can’t wait to, to have a conversation with this guy. Um, mr smooth, mr Sam Roberts.

Second Half

Paul: (18:24)
Second half of The 1st Half Podcats and here we are with, uh, mr smooth as I like to say, mr Sam Roberts from the Sam Roberts band. Um, I’m a musician, an artist, a sports enthusiast, and uh, that’s sort of why you fit the bill to a tee here. Uh, for the first half podcast and want to say thank you very much for coming down and taking some time out of your day to talk with us and to talk a bit about football and about you and about sort of things that are going on. And so, uh, welcome and thank you very much for being here.

Sam Roberts: (18:53)
Well, thank you. Thank you for having me on.

Paul: (18:59)
Yeah, for sure. So, um, for those that don’t know, can you give us a little backstory about you, um, um, the band and sort of what you’re all about?

Sam Roberts: (19:10)
I thought you were going to save my failed football career. That’s a long story. That’s a multiple episode, that could be a whole season,

Paul: (19:17)
a whole season? We’ll take that man, we’re, everyone’s always stretching for content. So yeah. If you could just give us a little backstory about, about who you are in the band and sort of what’s up.

Sam Roberts: (19:25)
Well, like I said, my name Sam Roberts. I grew up in Point-Claire here on the Island of Montreal. Uh, started a band with a couple of people that I grew up with when we were, we were teenagers and we decided that it was a good idea to pursue music again.

Sam Roberts: (19:42)
All the, all the sporting side, as you know now that you live in the West Island sports is a big part of, of how we grew up. But, uh, we recognize quickly that that was not our destiny. So we, we turned our, our, our attention and our energy towards music and we started a band high school and basically it’s the same people we’ve been telling the same jokes since, uh, the ninth grade.

Paul: (20:03)
That’s amazing. No, that’s amazing that the band hasn’t broken up.

Sam Roberts: (20:11)
I’m sure you’ve hung out with plenty of bands in your time, but it’s kind of the biggest miracle of them all is that we’re still not just together as a band, you know, sort of working together, but that we’re still friends and we’ve managed to, uh, to navigate the murky waters of, uh, of a career in music together and, and share all those experiences together and still call ourselves very close friends.

Paul: (20:33)
Friends and collaborators and the whole nine yards. Right. That is very exciting. Um, so one of the things here on the show is that we’re, we, we, we were talking about culture, but we’re also talking about football or soccer, but we call it, we call it football.

Sam Roberts: (20:48)
I love it.

Paul: (20:49)
Well, you know, and one of the things, what I think is very interesting is that some people might not know is that you are a footy fan.

Sam Roberts: (20:56)
I am.

Paul: (20:57)
I mean, um, for those that won’t see this, you are wearing a Liverpool hoodie and that’s, that’s cool man. Like, I mean, you’re a Canadian, right? You’re a Canadian kid. You’re born and raised, like you said. Um, where did the, the, the passion for football or soccer, like where did that all come from? Well it started, it started again in the West Island. You just play sports. It’s just what you do.

Paul: (21:20)
Uh, cause I know about hockey pretty much anyone who knows who you are, Hockey’s like…

Sam Roberts: (21:23)
I know I’ve taught, you know again that was the winter. It was back back in the day when you didn’t sort of divide your energy between where you divided your energy between sports. If it was summer you played football, if you’re, if it was winter you played hockey.

Paul: (21:36)
like most Canadians.

Sam Roberts: (21:37)
Yeah. Now you play, if you play hockey you play hockey all year round. If you play football you play football. It’s sort of streamlined experience that way. Whereas when we were growing up you played different sports in different seasons. And the other thing was that all the coaches were the local parents. And if you had an, if you had an accent from another country, you are automatically the soccer coach. Like that was it. So my dad, my parents are from South Africa. Right? So he was, I don’t think anybody even asked him if he’d ever kicked a ball before, but he was automatically the sort of coach in Pointe-Claire and he had, but he actually was a great, great, he still is a great football player.

Paul: (22:13)
Does he play still?.

Sam Roberts: (22:14)
Yeah, he plays with us in the backyard all the time and still got a few slinky moves so my dad was the coach and a lot like we were talking about the band. I had this same group of guys that I played with from probably the age of five or six, right through my teens. We were on the same team and my dad was the coach the whole time. And of course, I don’t know if he’s listening to this or not, but he was, he was as the coach’s son, I never got any preferential treatment. It was always the good, yeah. Right. Yeah.

Paul: (22:42)
That’s the way it should be. I think.

Sam Roberts: (22:43)
I was benched a little bit too easily sometimes, you know?

Paul: (22:46)
Yeah. Maybe on purpose, right. Just to make sure the other kids knew that it wasn’t, it wasn’t case.

Sam Roberts: (22:51)
Exactly. You kind of suffer reverse favoritism. But, so that was the story. I mean it was a huge part of our, of our household and our, in our, in our lives. And again, as a coach, uh, my dad had to be really, really involved in, in everything and kind of shaped our, our childhoods that way.

Paul: (23:07)
Did he, um, did you guys, so playing is obviously very clear. Did you guys watch football together at home? Did, I mean, where does Liverpool come from? And I, and I think you have a brother and your brother is a man u fan and is your father either one of those teams?

Sam Roberts: (23:22)
Somehow my dad cheers for both. I don’t know how he, how he can justify it.

Paul: (23:26)
He’s a parent.That’s exactly why.

Sam Roberts: (23:28)
But, uh, my grandfather was born in Liverpool. He’s actually Welsh and he’s from North Wales. Uh, but he was born in Liverpool, so I didn’t really know him growing up very well, uh, because he lived in South Africa and I didn’t get a chance to see him all that often. So when I decided to follow a team as a kid, I just said, well, where was my grandfather born? And he, he might’ve been an Everton fan for all I know. But I don’t know and I can’t ask him. No,

Paul: (23:55)
But your pops would have told you?

Sam Roberts: (23:56)
He doesn’t know either. So I asked him again, growing up in South Africa was more about rugby and cricket training and those were the sports. And I don’t know if he ever asked his dad who we followed. It could have been whatever the team is in North Wales for all I know. But I just decided I was going to follow Liverpool.

Paul: (24:25)
And your brother, where did Man U come from?

Sam Roberts: (24:25)
Well I think like just so many brothers just, you know, the beast that is man u, it’s, it’s got this kind of gravitational pull onto itself. And so he’s been an ardent supporter. There’s for a long time as well. Uh, music wise. The Beatles are from Liverpool as well. The Beatles were literally the musical, you know, one of the, if not the,

Paul: (24:55)
Have you gone to the Beatles museum if you’ve walked around going through the tours?Or to the cave where the caverns,

Sam Roberts: (25:04)
The cavern.

Paul: (25:05)
Have you been in there?

Sam Roberts: (25:06)
I haven’t been inside, no. We stood outside smoking cigarettes outside though, just to look cool. I don’t know. It was just one of those things. We’re on tour. There was no rhyme or reason to it, but we did play shows there and I don’t know, whenever you go to a place like that and you kind of connect with the source and you, you kind of feel,

Paul: (25:23)
Have yoiu been to football matches in Europe?

Sam Roberts: (25:25)
I’ve been, I went to a Barcelona game earlier, well I guess last year now.

Paul: (25:29)
How was that experience?

Sam Roberts: (25:30)
Unbelievable.

Paul: (25:31)
Unbelievable.

Sam Roberts: (25:33)
100,000 people and they all come out at, you know, onto the streets at the same trime. Tried to find a … I was with my eight year old son, just the two of us and it’s you know, 1230 at night and I hadn’t even put it together. How the hell are we going to get back to our hotel, our hotel. So I ended up walking him through this. It was a bad parenting moment, you know, dragging him through the streets of Barcelona at about one o’clock in the morning trying to get home from the game. Everybody chanting.

Paul: (25:59)
Did Barsa win?

Paul: (26:00)
They did. And it was pre champions league collapse against Liverpool again. My son is a huge Barcelona fan and so …

Paul: (26:13)
that’s in a conversation its own. So does he follow any English teams or no, he’s not having it.?

Sam Roberts: (26:21)
He’ll watch a Liverpool game but he’s a Barsa fan through and through.

Paul: (26:23)
So is that going to be an issue later?

Sam Roberts: (26:25)
It was an issue last year in the champion league. It was already an issue, you know, against my eight year old son. It makes for some interesting dinnertime tension.

Paul: (26:35)
You know, wait till he’s older too and it’s only going to get worse. It is going to get worse.

Sam Roberts: (26:40)
But I actually, I do love Barsa. I love the way they play. I love watching them.

Paul: (26:45)
So can you compare, uh, playing a stadium? Uh, so could you sort of empathize with the athletes playing in front of a hundred thousand plus? Like, do you get it that not everybody understands sort of what that looks or feels like? Um, many sets of eyes and sort of that, that, you know, the direct energy towards, uh, an ongoing, I mean, can you compare that to what the athletes are, are, are, are experiencing?

Sam Roberts: (27:13)
I mean, I’ve never played in a stadium itself before, but I played in a lot of festival at a lot of festivals, with a lot of people. So, you know, like a sea of humanity for sure. And honestly, I think past a certain number of people, you don’t, uh, you do have to just sort of shut it out. And that kind of happens automatically after the first five or 10 minutes. You just sort of sink into your, into your mode. But I, I get nervous if there’s anybody watching me play football or hockey, you know, even if my wife is in the stands, I’m not playing music necessarily. Cause that’s always interesting. I always wonder about how people are able to perform at that level. You know, it’s like watching somebody tee up a tee off in golf. But like if that were me, yeah, it’s totally stressful.

Sam Roberts: (27:58)
You can’t stand there because you’d be dead. Yeah. Cause my slice, my slice is going right into your eyeballs.

Paul: (28:06)
Even when you’re playing with like three of your mates, like it’s the most stressful moment in golf.

Sam Roberts: (28:11)
So I have no idea how to, I have no idea how, how you can do that at, you know, at Anfield or anything. Get up and have that kind of pressure.

Paul: (28:17)
But they would say that about you with music.

Sam Roberts: (28:20)
Yeah. Perhaps they would. And I think it comes back to this idea of literally preparing for something your entire life so that when you are put to the test you, you have that ability to see, you know, see past the crowd, see past the, the, the pressure.

Paul: (28:37)
Were you going to do anything else other than music . was music like all joking aside about sports and stuff. I mean were you, was this it? Like did you just know this is what you wanted to do and no matter what, no matter how successful you were going to become, you are going to be this music, you were going to be what you are.

Sam Roberts: (28:56)
I, I, you know, I think maybe in my mid teens I started to think that I didn’t necessarily think that when I was seven or eight years old, I probably thought as realistically about becoming a football player or a downhill skier or hockey player, you know, those dreams were still very much alive. I’ve loved playing music, but I didn’t really necessarily consider it as, uh, a career path. I didn’t even know what a career path was at that point. But certainly you in high school when I met people who are like minded and we kind of formed that, the nucleus of what became the band, it, it became something we, we were I guess not just driven by like, I think a little bit obsessed, uh, by.

Paul: (29:37)
Any of the other bandmates uh, sports fans.

Sam Roberts: (29:41)
A cup, one of them.

Paul: (29:43)
football or just a,

Sam Roberts: (29:45)
he’ll talk about newdge. He’ll, he’ll talk about football and talk about hockey, but it’s not, yeah, but it’s not ingrained into them. Know.

Paul: (29:53)
It’s like you meet some bands from the U K let’s say from Europe and then that’s it. Yeah. Like if they’re not performing, they’re talking football. Yeah. It’s just, it’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen and they really go at it like they go, it’s hard.

Sam Roberts: (30:04)
No, it can be, it can be lonely times in my band that way. You know, I taught, we have a, our tour manager, he’s a, he’s a long suffering Newcastle fan.

Paul: (30:13)
Oh, he’s a Nuki fan. So that’s been, it’s tough. That’s great though for you though.

Sam Roberts: (30:18)
That’s great. So we have this thing and we’ll, we’ll get up early and watch the games while we’re out on the road. But my bandmates kind of just leave me, sort of leave me hanging in the wind.

Paul: (30:27)
Yeah. So, uh, we got people that had questions for you that we want to, I want to throw in, uh, that they can get to us through Twitter or Instagram through our social media. And we put out, Hey, this is going to be our guest. You have some interesting questions for them and obviously we keep them nice and clean and safe. So there’s nothing to worry about. But we had a question from somebody that asked about a new album or what’s, what’s coming up for you guys? You, so can you answer that?

Sam Roberts: (30:57)
Uh, yeah. Well, we’ve been working on new album for, for a couple of years now and uh,

Paul: (31:02)
that’s just the way it goes, right?

Paul: (31:03)
Sometimes. Sometimes it’s fast and sometimes it just, you know, it takes more time. It’s a process and it has to be, uh, it has to be right, I suppose. And sometimes songs take longer to come out and, or how you capture them can be sort of a bit more, uh, elusive and,

Paul: (31:26)
but it’s progressing and you guys are excited?

Sam Roberts: (31:28)
We were recording all weekend till last night. So it’s, it’s now in the fine. I’m so glad to say that we’re in this sort of the, the final stretch. I Hope, well, I hope for other people that the, the wait will be worthwhile, but certainly for us, just, uh, it’s, it’s always, uh, starting something and seeing it through to completion as you and anybody knows can be the hardest thing, uh, regardless of what you do.

Paul: (31:54)
So this could be like a Liverpool fan. This could be this is it the, I mean this is, this could be it and 2020 is your thing. This is going to be a big, a big, big year.

Sam Roberts: (32:07)
Yeah. Well we say that every year, you know. Okay. This is the one guys, this is the one that was somehow a good chance that this is during it along year after year.

Paul: (32:16)
But a very funny one. Which member of the High Dials would you pick for a five a side team? How brilliant is that question that I,

Sam Roberts: (32:26)
I mean, if I didn’t say Trevor Anderson, I would just, you’re done. I would go, yeah, exactly. So I’m going with Trevor Anderson on that one, uh, because I know he has, he has those English legs too. Like when he’s, when he’s wearing shorts, like those tough English, especially if we’re playing in a, it was a cold, cold environment. I’m sure Trevor would definitely like, he can just withstand that kind of,

Paul: (32:51)
that beating that, the sort of between the weather and being, you know, chopped at the shop to the ankles.

Sam Roberts: (32:57)
That’s the last question I ever thought, the question’s fantastic.

Paul: (33:04)
I think the name of your album should be English legs. English legs. Yeah. Think about it. There’s, there’s some, there’s some legs to it, but honestly, dude, English, like that’s thing. Okay. Uh, what’s the strangest, the wildest or weirdest thing you’ve ever experienced while on tour?

Sam Roberts: (33:19)
Oh my God, it was probably the night. Um, we,

Paul: (33:25)
you don’t have to keep anything clean and you can swear, cause again, this isn’t right.

Sam Roberts: (33:29)
I don’t even think it requires that. It was, uh, I know we were on tour and uh, I looked to, and this never ever happens. Nobody famous ever comes to our shows. It just doesn’t happen. It’s all, you know. And I looked over and Kid Rock was sitting on the stage and I w why would he be a fan of our band at all? It was just strange. He was sitting in like a fur coat sitting on the side of the edge in the fur coat on our stage. Like how did he even get up there smoking a cigar?

Paul: (34:00)
Cause he’s kid rock and he had a fur coat on, on stage.

Sam Roberts: (34:03)
That was definitely the most unforeseen, unexpected thing that’s ever, and to still.

Paul: (34:08)
Does it throw you off while you’re performing?

Sam Roberts: (34:11)
It threw me right off. I had no idea what to do anymore. And then he brought us home to his house and we watched NASCAR together.

Paul: (34:20)
Of course, of course he’s, you guys sat around.

Sam Roberts: (34:23)
So that was it. That was the weirdest thing.

Paul: (34:26)
I love it. Yeah.

Paul: (34:29)
Where did the name another good question. Where did the name for your home studio uh, come from? The rocking horse.

Sam Roberts: (34:50)
That’s great. Great question man. I’m so glad that the listeners out there actually, you know, probing into things. That’s great question. Well basically I have three kids and I’ve never had a dedicated space to record it. And even in, you know, university, I’d have like a little corner of the room or like put a four track in the closet. And so finally we have our first child or second child and I’m down there kind of moving away, moving toys, clearing clutter out of the way to just create some kind of place where I can do my job, write songs. And uh, this rocking horse was just staring at me, you know, sometimes I think it was rocking on its own without anybody on it. And I just stared at this rocking horse for months and months and months while I was trying to record, you know, there’d be a, a raggedy Anne doll on the one side and Barbies all over the floor and whatever. And I was like, this is how rock and roll is made now. It is apparently so. So um, yeah that’s where rocking horse it came from.

Paul: (35:55)
We have another one. This is the last one from, from, from the letters that we’re going to go into. Cause I just want to ask you a little bit more about football and then, and then we’re going to go to 12 questions. What song has evolved the most from its original recording to what you play live now?

Sam Roberts: (36:09)
That’s a good question. Very good question. These questions are fantastic. Uh, I would say there’s a song called mind flood. It’s on our second record and it was always kind of an open book I suppose, but it started off as a six or seven minute long song and now it’s a 19 minute long song when we play it live. So I think of all of them, that’s the one that sort of, uh, we’ve allowed to be the most fluid or elastic, you know, and uh, every night it’s different. We don’t even know how to play the same way twice if we try.

Paul: (36:45)
Every time that you perform it, it’s completely different.

Sam Roberts: (36:49)
I mean, we have like parts of it that we can, sure we all sort of gravitate back to, Um, but as soon as we get past a certain point, I dunno, you know, maybe the four or five minute Mark of the song then literally it can’t be the same way twice. It’s cool and scary at the same time? It just depends. But that’s part of the thrill of playing is that we all have to find a way on stage in front of a crowd to keep it an actual song, not just completely random random things. So yeah, definitely I’d say mind flood.

Paul: (37:23)
Very cool. That’s very cool. Um, you have any hobbies?

Sam Roberts: (37:28)
I don’t. I used to, I used to have hobbies,

Paul: (37:31)
no time between family and family football and music.

Sam Roberts: (37:34)
Yeah, no, that’s not true. I, I, you know, I’ve, you know, you have to make time for those things in your life too. And it can’t always just be about work. And if you want to be a good parent, you also have to feel like you’re interested in other things and bringing other things to your, you know, your enthusiasm for something is, is, uh, it affects the people around you and, and, uh, I want my kids to kind of feed off of that. So I, uh, I go to up to the mountains a lot. We’re lucky here in Montreal. We have mountains to the, the North and the South of us. And so I’m often up there climbing and skiing.

Paul: (38:18)
Um, football, uh, soccer and this is just, this is important to us on the show is your take. Um, North America will North Americans ingest football, we’ll get into the bloodstream of, of the boys and girls that are coming up that are growing up the way it has in Europe, the way it has in Latin America and Asia and central might like the way it is or be Africa everywhere in the world, basically everywhere else in the world. Will, North Americans, USA and Canada, will they, will it get there? Will it become one of those things where you see 100,000 people, you know, coming out of a stadium, I mean, forget this, you know, Rose bowl size stadiums, but I’m talking about the way people live and breathe hockey, let’s say, or, or, or, or NFL or NFL. Does it have a chance?

Sam Roberts: (39:11)
I want to say yes, but, and, and although I don’t obviously don’t know or can’t predict the future, you know, the fact that you’re doing this podcast is, is sort of symptomatic of a shift and, and there’s a, as much as you know, there isn’t the competition say in African countries or South America between sports, the way we have a, you know, where does football sit in the, in the list realistically in the hierarchy of North Americans, you know, sports, it’s probably, I dunno, maybe it might be above hockey in the sense that there’s so many people in the States who we don’t necessarily account for, uh, who are big football fans. But, uh, I think it’s moving in the right direction and certainly the, it’s changed a lot since those days. Or we were talking about earlier on where you’re, if your dad was from England, he was a soccer coach again, you know, could have two left feet and didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. Uh, now there’s a whole different, I see this with my son for sure. This is a, a different, a shift in the, in the coaching is a shift in the sort of, uh, this, there’s a shift in the population. There is a, there are a lot more people living in Canada moving to Canada, you know, uh, and North America who are bringing that love of football with them to.

Paul: (40:30)
automatically cause that’s what they’ve grown up with.

Sam Roberts: (40:31)
Exactly. And that’s just growing, growing as we become more diverse as a, as a society in North America for sure. I think football is one of the things that benefits from it. Uh, the most, but you know, it’s, I guess time will tell, only time will tell. But look at, uh, look at Iceland, right? You know, that’s a model for, we can never use this sort of, Oh well we are, we’re only 35 million. You look at a country like Iceland, they decided they were going to make football a big part of the national sporting agenda and they went out and they get the best coaches in the world. They’ve built beautiful pitches in every single town regardless of how far flung it is. And they’ve elevated the national level and again, to the point where they’re qualifying for Euro and actually we’re all competing really qualifying for the world cup. So is it beyond us in Canada to ever have that? No, but I think to your point, the real thing that I noticed more is just a growing passion among young people. And sort of identifying where’s, again, we kind of split our attention when we were going up there. A lot of like, my son sees himself as a soccer player, you know, football, not just that, not just in the summer anymore. No, this is his, his thing. And he wants to do, and I think you see, you know, somebody like Alfonso Davies getting named player of the month for Bayern Munich. That’s cute. Huge. And uh, and kids, kids are sensitive to that. And you know, when, when we were watching the, uh, that being announced, you know, my son Ben was like, you know, I can just see it. It’s like, Oh well that can be me for sure.

Paul: (42:08)
And then that might translate for him too, to also follow more team Canada. That might also translate to him saying, you know what, this is something that I really want to do, so I’ll get an education, but I’m also going to hone my footballing skills as best as I possibly can to potentially make it as my career to.

Sam Roberts: (42:23)
Yeah. You know, it seems like a more less of a far-flung sort of pipe dream.

Paul: (42:27)
The way you would have said that e-sport right. Yeah. Video games now = career. You never, when my parents were coming in, turn that off would they would have thought that, wait a second. Yeah.

Paul: (42:38)
And now they’re like, did you play enough? Did you play enough FIFA.

Sam Roberts: (42:42)
Today? Amazing. But you know, I mean, we do that and we have the, we have the impact. We have all these amazing academies around the city now and throughout the country. And you know, Thierry Henry is the coach of our team. When I saw that, that was just the, you know, the best news.

Paul: (42:58)
We also had Drogba here in Montreal. I mean, that’s ridiculous. It’s, it’s, it’s the global game is seeping through in North America, but I think time is, is sort of one of those factors. I think it just needs time to simmer and cook and get to where it’s gotta go. You just can’t fake it. You can’t speed it up.

Sam Roberts: (43:17)
It’s got to come from the ground up.

Paul: (43:19)
You can’t, you just can’t fake that. And I, and.

Sam Roberts: (43:22)
The world cup’s going to do a lot to do 2026 correct. The energy focus that way too.

Paul: (43:26)
So. Well, and it’s been, it’s been proven right that a world cup in any nation, anywhere a world cup goes changes the directory of the sport and the way sort of society there takes it. It just changes everything forever.

Sam Roberts: (43:39)
And we’ve also completely ignored and very unjustly. The fact that our women seem is one of the best soccer teams in the world and they compete at the highest level, every single tournament and are considered, you know, if not favourites and certainly contenders and you know that.

Paul: (43:56)
So why is that? Is that North? Is that, is that got to do with media? Like, what is it that, what is it that uh, TSN or RDS or TVA like I’m not calling out one sports station, I’m saying what is it that that’s not always in the news like it is in the back pages of, of European papers and TV. Like it’s not there. It’s only there when it’s a tournament.

Sam Roberts: (44:21)
Well, and it, and the thing is that it should be because that is where, where else are we going to draw our inspiration from for young people now where we have this team that’s literally competing with the best in the world in, in our women’s team. And if you want to see Canada being able to go toe to toe with the best football playing nations in the world, then you have to look at our women’s team. And absolutely there’s a, there’s a huge hole, uh, in terms of the, the coverage,

Paul: (44:47)
The more that the more the young girls or young boys see these national athletes playing on like all the time. If it’s in their vision, everywhere that they go, the more than like, wait a second. Me too.

Sam Roberts: (44:58)
They’re not seeing, they’re not seeing a man or a woman playing, they’re seeing the Canadian crest on a Jersey, uh, playing great football,

Paul: (45:06)
But they’re not seeing it. They don’t see and that’s part of my point. And only when there’s major tournaments, they don’t even mention qualifiers. They don’t mention friendlies the way they, I mean, it’s, I’m, I’m in shock. I am, and it’s part of this is that, that’s what we want to bring to light. I mean, it’s just not in the daily, and it could be, yeah, it very much could be. It’s not complicated.

Sam Roberts: (45:25)
No, it’s very true. And I mean, to broaden that idea as well, just in terms of like what the, what the whole sort of underlying shift is in terms of football and how we digest football. Uh, when we were growing up, you either went to see Montreal Manic play or you waited for the World Cup to be on once every four years, you saw very, very few football matches televised. And now we have this, you know, uh, digital dearth of, of, of, uh, available games. Literally, I mean sometimes that’s if you want to know why it’s taken so long to finish our record is cause I have to watch a lot of football. So many matches. I’m trying to keep up with that. So kids have access to YouTube, they’re figuring out, you know, watching all these new moves and skills and then they bring in, put it in practice, uh, you know, with their teens and it’s like, it’s a really, really different, uh, sort of environment that way,

Paul: (46:21)
Which is going to be for the benefit I think. So look, now we do a, a part of the show which we enjoy very much. It’s called 12 questions. Now I’m going to rapid fire, ask you a couple of things. Answer however you want. Good to go. A little supercharge. Okay. What’s your favorite sport?

Sam Roberts: (46:40)
See I can’t even answer. I’m going to say to play, it’s been football. I’m not lying cause I do love playing hockey a lot. But I would say I played more football growing up than I did hockey.

Paul: (46:52)
What song or band would you want blasting or listening to as you walked into a stadium? And don’t say you’re own.

Sam Roberts: (47:02)
It was on the tip of my tongue, you know, of course. I’m not going to say no. It would probably be a London calling Clash. That would be the song.

Paul: (47:12)
Favourite footy or sports team.

Sam Roberts: (47:16)
Uh, well I’m, I’m not gonna say that I love Liverpool more than the Habs. I’m saying the Habs.

Paul: (47:22)
Favourite athlete. Dead or alive?

Sam Roberts: (47:25)
Uh, Messi.

Paul: (47:29)
Favourite breakfast item,

Sam Roberts: (47:32)
a flex plus nature’s path. Flax plus cereal.

Paul: (47:37)
Are they a sponsor of the band?

Sam Roberts: (47:38)
Not my favourite necessarily, but it’s what I eat all the time.

Paul: (47:42)
Favourite drink, alcoholic or non alcoholic? Boy. Rock and roll has really changed. You know, man, it’s supposed to be Jack Daniels and smokes not flax seed plus.

Sam Roberts: (47:55)
What would you say for breakfast? You specific specified breakfast? Yeah. I said breakfast should have said bacon and eggs or something. Right. It’s what came out.

Paul: (48:04)
I would put you in the same category as like a Keith Richards and you’re like, Flax seeds haha. I don’t want to get into it. Alcoholic or non alcoholic.

Sam Roberts: (48:12)
beer.

Paul: (48:14)
tea or coffee,

Sam Roberts: (48:17)
coffee,

Paul: (48:18)
dream trip if you haven’t taken it.

Sam Roberts: (48:21)
The Maldives.

Paul: (48:24)
Favourite condiment, ketchup, mustard.

Sam Roberts: (48:29)
Matouk’s hot sauce,

Paul: (48:31)
well that’s very specific. Okay. Pajamas or no pajamas,

Sam Roberts: (48:35)
definitely no pajamas. Although I went from, I did transition from flannel to no…

Paul: (48:42)
uh, you went from flanel to nothing?

Sam Roberts: (48:45)
My wife is, you know, when I, when you’re growing up and you’re, you sleep in a single bed by yourself and then all of a sudden you’re sharing a bed with another person. There’s heat factor, there’s heat. So I got, I ditched the flannel.

Paul: (49:02)
Favourite social media to look at or watch? Are you following something?

Sam Roberts: (49:06)
I watch F2 freestylers. Have you ever watched it’s a football thing. Uh, two guys, two guys, they do amazing things. And my son really loves it, so that’s just a cool thing that we get to do together.

Paul: (49:28)
Superstition. Do you have one?

Sam Roberts: (49:34)
Uh yeah, I do. I, I um, it depends what for, well, there’s so many things like.

Paul: (49:42)
Game day or maybe before a big show. Do you have something? Do you have a superstition you must do before you put on a, you know, you’re about to get on stage.

Sam Roberts: (49:50)
Yeah, I always do three sort of turns to the left, touch my toes four times. Then I button my shirt, unbuttoned it, rebutton it.

Paul: (50:00)
I see you’re smirking. So I’ll play, I’ll play cards with you any day.

Paul: (50:04)
I’m a terrible, terrible liar, dude.

Sam Roberts: (50:07)
I do have one. No, not really, to be honest. Uh, I felt like I needed one there. That’d be very complicated if you didn’t have a button shirt. If you’re wearing a tee shirt or, I know. And that’s what I realized. T-shirt office, because that’s all I knew. You’ve never seen me in a buttoned up shirt in your whole life.

Sam Roberts: (50:23)
That’s how you knew I was lying. Right. Definitely a Jean tee shirt type dude. Okay. And our 12 one call it soccer or football. I am a big proponent of the move back towards calling it football just because that’s what the rest of the world calls it. And I think, um, we, we’re, we’re trying to bridge the gap between Canada and the rest of the world. So I’m going to football.

Paul: (50:46)
Mr smooth or mr Sam Roberts or mr Liverpool, however you want to be called. I want to thank you very much for being on the show with us today. We appreciate your time and your effort. We’re all looking forward to the new album. And again, thank you very much, very much. Thank you for your time. Thanks Sam.

Sam Roberts: (51:00)
Keep doing what you do.

Paul: (51:02)
For everybody else. Please, please follow us, connect with us and start a conversation on all our social media channels. We have them all and we’re looking to hear back from everybody out there. So let us know what you like and what you don’t like and uh, stay in touch. Thanks again.