Samiam is a name everyone knows in one fashion or another. One
thought conjures up images of Dr. Seuss and his crazy characters
running around some weird plant infested land, with rancid eggs
and a side of pork. Alternately, you might think of a group
of super hardworking, enthusiastic and talented musicians that
have played with Rancid.
I wanted to do an article on Samiam because I have been into
these guys for so long. Their music has always found a way to
penetrate my shell and make me feel the band as well as hear
their music. Irresistible lyrics and driving guitars made Samiam
a hit with me. Six full-length albums and many, many tours later
I finally got a chance to speak with this remarkably powerful
and dedicated band. Samiam has 12 years of amazing and unforgettable
music behind them they’ve played with bands like Green
Day, Bad Religion, Millencolin, and the Mr. T Experience. For
me, they hold a big chunk of punk rock history under their belts.
It seem like they’ve switched record labels a lot trying
to find one that fits them. They started on small indie labels
and made the jump to a major label. I was wondering what the
bands thoughts were on the roller coaster of labels they had
been on? Samiam’s guitarist Sergie Loobkoff had this to
say.
“Well for the first time in Samiam’s history we are
on labels that are working hard for us. We are on Epitaph’s
Burning Heart label in Europe, and Hopeless in America. We have
never had any labels dedicate any decent amount of time to us.
NRA (New Red Archives) just didn’t have the manpower, it
was just one guy, and their main concern was getting the records
in the stores, which was really important. While Atlantic had
all the money in the world, it was more of a job than a lifestyle,
and the employees are already thinking about punching out at
3:00 and planning their weekends. Darren at Hopeless will call
me at 8:00 Friday night to check on something. Samiam has never
been on a label before where anybody cared as much about our
band as Hopeless. They know exactly where our audience is and
how to reach them.” Not
only has their been a couple of label changes, but the band
has experienced what seems to be a Spinal Tap effect on drummers.
Between losing drummers and having some just try out for a short
while, Samiam has had nearly 10 drummers. While some just didn’t
work out, a few like Adam from Jawbreaker sat in and played
for a while but had other obligations. Then there were others
who just had offers they couldn’t refuse like playing for
Beck and Elliot Smith. Asking Sergie if he felt hurt because
they left to play with such big projects, he simply replied,
“I am happy to see them succeed and do what made them happy.
I know that they worked hard all their lives and to see them
succeed makes me happy.”
But now, Samiam has a label that they are happy with, a new
drummer, a video coming out, and a new CD Astray. How did ‘Astray’
come about? “When we were tossing names around for the
new record, Sean asked us what we thought of the title Stray?
And the first thing that came to mind to me was some runaway
kid that did drugs forever and went astray. I kind of liked
it, but I wanted the title to reflect a general feeling of malcontent;
not fitting in. Which is basically a re-occurring Samiam kind
of theme. I thought that ‘Astray’ was more plural.”
Samiam is a name everyone knows in one fashion or another. One
thought conjures up images of Dr. Seuss and his crazy characters
running around some weird plant infested land, with rancid eggs
and a side of pork. Alternately, you might think of a group
of super hardworking, enthusiastic and talented musicians that
have played with Rancid. 
Not
only has their been a couple of label changes, but the band
has experienced what seems to be a Spinal Tap effect on drummers.
Between losing drummers and having some just try out for a short
while, Samiam has had nearly 10 drummers. While some just didn’t
work out, a few like Adam from Jawbreaker sat in and played
for a while but had other obligations. Then there were others
who just had offers they couldn’t refuse like playing for
Beck and Elliot Smith. Asking Sergie if he felt hurt because
they left to play with such big projects, he simply replied,
“I am happy to see them succeed and do what made them happy.
I know that they worked hard all their lives and to see them
succeed makes me happy.”