{"id":64315,"date":"2022-03-10T15:22:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T20:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/?post_type=interviews&p=64315"},"modified":"2022-03-11T08:38:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T13:38:35","slug":"sam-jr-finds-his-psychedelic-fuzz-colour-palette","status":"publish","type":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/sam-jr-finds-his-psychedelic-fuzz-colour-palette\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Jr. finds his psychedelic fuzz colour palette"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sam Goldberg Jr. is a guy who is kind of all over the Canadian music scene map. He\u2019s a guitarist in the supergroup, Broken Social Scene, played bass in Bodega, and helped guide the alternative rock sound in the early 2000s, he\u2019s been nominated for the Producer of the Year at the Felix awards in Quebec\u2014the list of accolades goes on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All throughout his career, peers, and friends always encouraged Sam to release his own solo record, but it wasn\u2019t an easy task. He essentially started from scratch after being disappointed with the result he created and approached the new project as a painter does a painting\u2014by picking a palette of sounds to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The self-titled debut is a fantastic offering of grooving psych-rock but features bongos, flute, saxophone, and a good amount of wah-wah. We spoke to Sam about his creative process, love of the wah-wah and fuzz, and working with the \u2018International It-girl,\u2019 Tess Parks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PAN M 360:<\/strong> I had no idea what to expect for this solo debut from you and I kind of just threw it on and immediately got the psych-rock\/garage influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Goldberg Jr:<\/strong> I wasn’t quite expecting it to turn out that way. I actually, made an entire album before this one. I started in about 2018 and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just knew I wanted to make a record. I had people over the years saying, \u2018Hey, man, you need to do your own record.\u2019 So I made a record and I didn’t like it because there were too many ideas going on. And the songs didn\u2019t fit with the range of my voice\u2014I got a low baritone vocal. And lyrically, it didn’t feel right. And I spent all this money and then I was like, \u2018Fuck this. I’m not putting this out. Because I’m not happy with it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: <\/strong>That sounds like a bummer. Taking all that time and then starting from square one. What made you try again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Goldberg Jr:<\/strong> I was hanging with a friend of mine and he was telling me about how Boards of Canada\u2014before they even start an album\u2014they choose the palette of sounds that they’re going to use before they make an album. So at the time, when I shelved the first record I made\u2014this is probably at the very beginning of the pandemic\u2014I said to myself, \u2018What are the sounds that I like, currently?\u2019 Similar to how you’re gonna make a painting, maybe choose like six or seven colours, and like that’s all I’m going to use. And at the time, I loved fuzz guitars. I still love fuzz tones. And for some reason I developed \u2026 I don’t know where it came from \u2026 but a love for the wah-wah pedal. I don’t know why that happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I said to myself, \u2018I want to have a fuzz guitar, a wah-wah guitar, bass, drums, my vocal and this one synthesizer I really like called the Korg Delta.\u2019 So it was like, \u2018That’s going be the album.\u2019 And then once I had that palette of colours, it just came together so quickly, because there weren\u2019t so many options. Sometimes there are just so many sounds and shit can get stuck and lost. But if you limit yourself to something, it\u2019s really very helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: <\/strong>It was really refreshing to hear the wah-wah pedal all the way throughout this psych-rock record. It’s funny because a lot of guitarists have a wah-wah pedal, but they’ll use it only every now and then. It\u2019s kind of synonymous with the psychedelic genre, but also just like \u201870s funk, but the way that you use it is kind of droney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Goldberg Jr:<\/strong> Yeah, you have to be careful, because you’re right. It’s like there’s a 70s funk thing. And you know, I wanted to use it in a way that wasn’t cheesy. There’s some cheesy wah-wah out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: <\/strong>That\u2019s what I meant, the cheesy wah-wah sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Goldberg Jr: <\/strong>What\u2019s the guy\u2019s name who played with Mazzy Star? I think he died recently. I can’t remember his name [it\u2019s David Roback], but the way he used a wah-wah was really cool. It’s sort of very messy and sort of in the background, it’s not too apparent. I think maybe that’s where I’d heard of and thought \u2018That’s a nice use of the wah-wah.\u2019 But going back to the creation of the record, there was a small window before I made this record, and I shelved the other one, when I wanted to make something mellow. I wanted to make something for like a 3 pm to like 6 pm hanging on the fucking lake or on your deck or whatever. Because I’m a mellow guy and I don’t really like super aggressive music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had just seen that movie The Big Lebowski <\/em>and I was like, \u2018What would the Dude\u2019s band sound like? I’m gonna make a record from his perspective.\u2019 He wants to live this chill existence, like all of us and obviously, there are obstacles every fucking second of the day that we need to deal with, but what would his band sound like. I tried that for a while. And some of the songs were sort of dressed up in a more mellow fashion. But then it wasn\u2019t really working and that\u2019s when I discovered the palettes thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAN M 360: <\/strong>I\u2019d picture The Dude\u2019s band being more acoustic \u201870s folk jam rock like Grateful Dead or something. Very organic sounding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Goldberg Jr: <\/strong>Yeah it was definitely mellower but then it got replaced with the fuzz stuff and I don\u2019t know, maybe I just like more intense tones? And maybe I’m just not ready to be that guy sitting on the beach playing an acoustic quite yet. Either way, I’m kind of shocked, to be honest, that I made an album that I’m happy with. I’m just very happy that I put a record out. And that people like it. And you know, it’s being the CBC is spinning it which is cool. Like I didn’t get a grant or FACTOR or anything. I just paid out of my own pocket to make this stuff because I just love making music and I\u2019ll always make it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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