Image of SamWoy (right) and CJSW Interviewer Brooklyn Billinghurst (left).
SamWoy performed during Sled Island on Friday, 10:40pm at Pin-Bar.
Interview conducted in collaboration with Reverie Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT:
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Can you introduce yourself?
SamWoy
My name is SamWoy, which is short for Sam Woywitka. I’m a musician from Montreal, well that’s where I’m living now. But I grew up in Cumberland, British Columbia on Vancouver Island.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I’ve never been there, how many people live there?
SamWoy
When I was a kid, it was like 700 but then it became, like a lot bigger, but it’s part of the Comox Valley, which is a bigger part, but we were the coal mining town kind of attached to it.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I know about the B.C. small mining town vibe. Do you like Montreal better?
SamWoy
No, not per se. I like it-I mean, from playing music and being a record producer, I like it more but living in Cumberland is awesome. I’m glad I grew up there, and whenever I get to go home-we just played there last weekend, and it was awesome. So I love to go home. Hometown hero.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
This is your first time playing Sled Island. What are you looking forward to most about performing? I know you said you performed last night, was that planned?
SamWoy
Well, no, I just kept emailing them, ‘Hey, I want an extra slot. Hey, I want an extra slot. I want an extra slot’. And then they were like, ‘Oh, good timing’. And not only that, but it was at the Ship & Anchor—which when I lived in Calgary, I lived across the street to go there, like every day of my life when I was 21, I would get real drunk.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Mackenzie, who works here, said that you played last night. She said it was a lot of fun, really enjoyed it. If you need to talk about Ship history with anybody, It’s her. How do you feel about tonight?
SamWoy
I’m ready to rip it up. I’m excited. It’s like me and Jeff, who’s one of my bandmates, we kind of formed for South by Southwest. I did a solo set and figured out how to do my set solo. And then we’ve been kind of building off of that as a duo, which is nice. So now we have the full band set, we have a solo set, we have a duo set, and Jeff’s very swiss army knife. He plays sax, he’s a good bass player, good guitar player. He’s real good, and he’s a great videographer and photographer as well.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
What more could you need?
SamWoy
I think he can cook? He’s never cooked me a meal before.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
So Jeff, if you’re listening—when you listen to this.
SamWoy
He’s literally sleeping in the hotel. He’s probably up now. He was gonna come with me, and then I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to get up’. He’s like, ‘I’m not going’. He’s a good, hard working man. Shout out, Jeff. Literally in Cumberland, I got a Jeff chant going and everyone went crazy.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Jeff is an easy name to chant. Yeah, my name is not Suzanne, it’s not Brooklyn. You can’t chant Brooklyn.
SamWoy
Just so you guys know, she wouldn’t give me her real name before we did this, and then some stuff changed, and now she’s interviewing me. So she had to.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I had to come clean. The next question I have here is, can you describe anything about your musical process? Where do your song ideas come from?
SamWoy
Trauma. I’d say trauma and my past, and a lot of shit that—a lot of stuff that I’ve been through, I suffered from a severe brain injury when I was 17, and I was in a coma for a long time. And when I woke up from a coma, I had the feeling of being like reborn, and I thought that I had been reincarnated for a long time, and I had to go to a therapist for long I was in from when I was 17 till I was 24 I was in rehab, wow. Pretty extensive, I had a really bad brain injury. The side of my face got ripped off. I can only move this eyebrow now. I caught the Rock’s eyebrow. And I feel that I pay homage to who I used to be before my accident. And I feel like my music is like speaking to a ghost or something. I talk to my kind of adolescent self, and I work through a lot of stuff that, the town I grew up in. I can’t really jump into it on this kind of shorter thing, but I lost a lot of people in my life, including my own self, and I just try to kind of connect with. I just do this for kind of those people that I went through the process with, and the people that I’m still friends with that we shared experiences, and yeah, I just feel like I’m trying to talk to my old self and kind of comfort him wherever he is.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
That’s really deep, really special. Not many people can say that they have that division in their life between their past and present.
SamWoy
October 4th, 2008 was when my whole life changed.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
It’s beautiful to see you spin that into a productive or maybe self fullfilling type of thing.
SamWoy
It’s totally a self fulfilling prophecy for sure. My own self actualization through creating music and art is very present in my life. And I’m very lucky to be doing that, yeah, and I’m happy that I have it, because I know a lot of people that struggle with stuff, of course, that don’t have that outlet. And I’m like, ‘Man, this must suck to not have something’. And I also feel I’ve been to the other side and I feel I’m very brave when it comes to all the kind of bull crap around being an artist and pursuing your art, it’s a career in your life. This is my life, and this is what I want to be doing.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Did it almost instill a sense of fearlessness in you, like what do I have to lose?
SamWoy
Totally. And short story here, after my accident, I got out of a coma, and my best friend that was in the car accident with me, he was like, ‘Man, I keep having the same dream every night that I die in a car accident’. And then on December 5th, he died in a car accident. And then the day after his funeral, me and my friends were over at my other friend, Andrew’s house, and we all got trapped in the attic in a house fire, and we all had to jump out of the top window, and after that happened, basically six months after that, a lot of my friends passed away, and it was a really weird kind of dark time. And it’s traumatic. There’s so much that I just draw from, from that time in my life, 2008 really sucked for me.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability. It’s interesting to see how you’ve spun that shit into gold. Totally. So you released your sophomore album, Even Sad Boys Like to Have Fun, on May 30 via Hidden Ship records, the follow up to the 2023 debut, full length Awkward Party, which is largely a solo project. This time around, you’ve got Jeff, as you mentioned, bass, saxophone, keys, you’ve got Thomas on percussion, EV Bird on guitar, synthesizers, and you even feature guests like Ayomari and Virginie B. How did you get these ragtag group of rascals together?
SamWoy
They’re all my homies. It’s very much my whole thought process in creating and my shows. I also do variety shows that I plan. My launch show had so many people at it, and they all did like one or two songs. Love it, and a lot of the people covered my new album. So instead of me playing it all, all the members of Half Moon Run were there. And Mishka from Patrick Watson, Virginie B, APACALDA, Kandil Osborne, Karo D, my friend Caleb was—I’m probably forgetting people right now. Shout out all the people that were involved. It was a really magical night, and it was a room filled with people. I always want my shows to feel like a family dinner, maybe where someone’s gonna get up on the table, or something.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
That’s a beautiful feeling, that sense of community is only boosted by that.
SamWoy
I think there’s a lot of ‘solo looking at me, me, me’ in the music industry right now and I think it’s wack. I think back in the day all those old country artists that would tour together and cover each other songs the and all the Dead Heads and like… I just feel there was so much more of a community in the fans and artists, and I feel everything’s so singular focused nowadays, even though my band is named after just me, and it’s my name, but it’s very much by design, just so I can be doing more stuff. And no one has to be that committed to playing in my project or anything. And I like doing stuff solo, big band, having a choir, having a string quartet.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
So you’re in the driver’s seat, but everybody’s on the bus. And that culture of genuine community and stuff like that is something that Sled Island, is kind of built for. People are being grabbed and shared and she’s singing this song covering her friend.
SamWoy
Stuff doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s fun when stuff goes bad, it’s fun when we’re all struggling, and it’s like, oh my god, this is crazy. I used to be very worried about perfecting stuff and always being really good, and now I do not care.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
and that I was talking to Motherhood yesterday, and they also talked about letting go of that preciousness. They were more talking about it in a collaborative sense. But I think that’s the thing a lot of artists go through.
SamWoy
Shout out to Motherhood. I was just on tour with them, I’m so sad that we’re ending the tour. We ended it in Edmonton, I guess, on Wednesday. But now we’re here, hopefully we’re gonna hang out today. Are you going to come to my show tonight?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
What is a show?
SamWoy
Well, my sets at 10:30 at the Pin Bar.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Your music seems to defy some genres incorporating elements of skate punk, grunge and even hip-hop. What was that a conscious decision going into the studio? Are you just a fan of everything?
SamWoy
Genres are whack. I think genre and putting people in genres is so stupid, especially in 2025. And saying a super “genre” band, this shit is so boring. I get it, I understand that people don’t know how to find music and figure out what they like. I love Roy Orbison, I love Nina Simone, I love Nirvana, I love Snoop Dogg, I love Arca, I love all this stuff. And I think coming from being a producer and engineer, I’m not set in one sound, because I’ve recorded so many albums.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
That list of artists is a definitely very diverse one. And if you love all those musicians if you can make music as diverse as you want, why would you limit yourself?
SamWoy
There’s definitely a lot of people that have been like ‘Oh, it’s too like, spread out, like, we don’t know how to market it’ or whatever. And I’m like, ‘That’s your job.’ I’m just gonna play the music and write it. Every note I get from people, it’s like, ‘Oh, my god, I can’t believe how many sounds there were in your set’, in a positive way. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know’. I don’t know why the “industry”, tries, it’s like a bunch of dinosaurs.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Let SamWoy live. People like it, that’s why we do this in the first place.
SamWoy
All my albums, I feel like are very playlist vibes, and have the pacing of playlists. And people listen to playlists now, not albums. I don’t know, I just think that stuff’s all crap. I’m expressing my stuff, like, ‘Get out of here, don’t tell me what to do’. Radiohead didn’t do every genre. Every album is different, and everyone’s ‘Oh my god, Radiohead is the best’. And there’s a bunch of bands like that that I felt like—The Beatles weren’t trying to be The Beatles, they just made music.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
It just happened because they’re you just let an artist make what they want, and they’ll reward you with good, good stuff. Okay, in an interview with Montreal rocks, you link your early immersion in film from a young age to your music making process you shared. It’s always been about building a world, not just a song, as we talked about that playlist vibe is more of building an environment. Does that manifest on the new record? Do you think, and in what ways do you see that show up on the record?
SamWoy
Building the world? I mean, I think there’s a world there, for sure. And I think it’s like, well, it’s kind of like that playlist vibe. And I also think the videos that we did for it are really cool and all very different, cool, and I love—I feel like I don’t have a great answer for that one.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
What is the first rule of SamWoy World, like rule number one.
SamWoy
Make it weird all the time. Give a twist every time. And and if I’m gonna do something that isn’t a twist, I’m gonna do it so non twist that like it feels like a twist.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Swing the pendulum in the opposite direction.
SamWoy
Keep it keep it weird. Stay weird. Don’t listen to any sort of outside, like, corporate success thoughts in it at all. Be honest, be truthful. And respect the fact that you’re even getting to make music and put it out there in the first place, when so many other people are having to, like, struggle to just be alive.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah, for sure, it’s a sacred process, and it’s cool to see someone respect it thoroughly.
SASamWoy
Literally, when I play my music on stage, like I can feel in the core of my body, like I can just feel like my whatever my soul or spiritual, you know, moment is, is it so it’s so fulfilling, and I can feel like there’s like a vibration inside of me that I’m like, and whatever my consciousness is, is like, Okay, this is like the right thing to be doing. And this like feels if, if there’s ever a feeling that I have of like serenity or something, it’s totally when I’m just playing music and singing,
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I know exactly what you mean. I did like, theater all through, like, high school and stuff and like, that feeling of, like, final bows, to me, like, God, damn, that’s a good
SamWoy
And it’s like, you’re like, ‘Oh, my purpose on this planet fulfilled.’
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Everything’s in tune, like, just the way you like gesture to the middle of your torso. Like, that’s how it feels, is like everything’s aligned, and it’s like, I can’t ignore this,
SamWoy
Yeah, and all the shit that you worry about is, like, totally not there. And nothing matters other than this moment, you know? And it’s like, the only time I’m not thinking about how I have no money, or like, I’m late on this, or like, my mom’s mad at me about something. Or like, you know what it is, I’m like, not thinking of any of that stuff, and I’m just like, I feel fulfilled and grounded, and I hope, like that feeling, like, if, if more people could feel that feeling, I think there’d be so much less problems like in the world, people had the opportunity to really explore like their own gifts and stuff. And I think it’s really hard thing to figure out, and it’s hard to you have to be brave to find it too. It’s not like very much. So it’s not an easy thing to figure out.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
It takes a lot of inward vulnerability to find out what you’re good at, because you have to acknowledge what you’re not good at, I think, in a way too. And yeah, you’re right. Like, if that inward reflection happened more, and like, people found what aligned them totally. I also feel like there less problem. You and me. We’re solving world problems right now. on the mic. We’re actually gonna have our own podcast coming up.
SamWoy
I thought you meant CJSW.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
CJSW has tons of podcasts. Yeah, they don’t need me. So you mentioned the tour with Motherhood. Do you have any favourite tour memories from them or otherwise that you’d like to share? Like, what came to mind as like?
SamWoy
I mean, we had a really weird show in the Hewlett, but I like, don’t want to get into it, because it’s like, too crazy, but it was hilarious, and very funny. I mean, all the shows were good. We were all kind of battling being sick the whole time, which kind of made the tour a little weird. But, like, no, I think we just got to, I mean, we walked in Cathedral Grove together, and we all went inside a tree and we took some photos. Yeah, I don’t know. My favorite thing about it was just getting closer with them. And, you know, got three new, like, really good friends now, and I’m just, like, most stoked on that. I mean, a bunch of my family came to our show in Cumberland, and my uncle Ricky, like, stayed and partied with us till like three in the morning. That was pretty fun. Shout out to Uncle Rickster. Yeah, he’s my favorite, favorite, well, no, actually, he’s not my favorite family member, but he’s one of the home he’s up there. He’s a homie. We’re like, tight.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I’m glad Uncle Ricky made an appearance. This is an interesting question, maybe not a prompt, I guess, name a person in your life whose taste or critique you deeply trust.
SamWoy
Mishka is my musical father. He’s the other half of my duo Project Fang, and he’s one of my best friends. And I’m not crying. I’ve missed there’s something stuck in my nose, but Mishka Stein, he’s like very, I don’t know, he’s taught me so much about music and, like, creativity and kind of like, what works and what doesn’t work. And, like, a lot of the times we don’t, like, agree on stuff, but like, just the thought process of what he’s saying, and most a lot of the time he’s right. So, and I’ll try the thing, and then I’ll be like, okay, he is right. And he’s like, a pro, you know? He’s like, he’s been doing it longer than me. He plays, he’s the bassist in Patrick Watson, okay? And, like, so he’s done so much stuff, and his bass playing and melodic taste is just so inspiring to me, and I trust him very much. And I would say, What was the question again,
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Name a person in your life whose take or critique you deeply trust?
SamWoy
Yeah, okay, I mean I answered it
Brooklyn (CJSW)
You named a person and it wasn’t me so.
SamWoy
Well, whatever, you’re not even gonna come to my show.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
We don’t know that.
SamWoy
You better come, dude, after our convo, you better come.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
After this deep convo. It would be very sad. I agree.
SamWoy
I play at 10:30 dude, just come.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Instead of the lore? Okay, well, this beautiful wristband, a lot of magic it gets me in anywhere. I feel like, okay, some of these questions we kind of already went over, so you’re gonna skip a few. But maybe there’s something you would want to share that’s like a fun tidbit. This is asking about, like, lore. About SAMWOY. Lore, like history. I feel like we kind of went into your lore pretty deeply. Is there any like, other things you want the people to know about you? Do you have a hidden talent?
SamWoy
I don’t think so. I’m a pretty good cook. I make really good margaritas. I’m a pretty good cook.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
What’s your favorite thing to make?
SamWoy
What’s my favorite thing to make? Like, if I’m trying to, like, impress a date, or like, if I’m trying to, I’ll make like, a very good Mexican spread. I feel like I actually shouldn’t say this, because, like, well, then they’ll be like, if they ever get it, they’ll be like, Oh my God, he’s fucking taking me on a date. And, like, anyways, though I make, I make, I make really good fish tacos and sometimes, and I’ll do the whole spread. I’ll make, like, homemade, like, Chipo Mayo that’s so spicy and good. And then I make, like, a mango salsa that’s real good. And then I’ll make the margaritas. Like, I make really good margaritas. A classic lime. And I actually put the, I was just in Range Magazine, and they interviewed me from, like, the summer thing. And I, yeah, I gave my my Margarita recipe in that. I’m famous for Margarita Boy, and in my show, and at my shows that I put on, I asked them to make margaritas, the drink special Love a margarita. Especially if it’s good. It’s like, there’s some crap margaritas out there.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I don’t know if you know this, but like, Costco has like, a, like, pre-mixed jug of just, I guess, tequila and lime juice that they and it’s like, not slushy. You just, like, I went camping one time, and that was the drinks that people brought. And I was like, this is nasty. It is, however, being served to me free of charge, so I will drink it. But when you get a good margarita and it’s that crisp-
SAMWOY
Well, it’s just mostly tequila, yes, like, if you’re making a good margarita, it’s mostly tequila, okay, I put a splash of Triple Sec, like, a little yeah, a little tiny bit, tiny bit. And then a lot of lime juice, like, probably, like, two whole limes, depending on if you’re making, like, how much you’re making, and then that’s it. And you, like, mix it up. And then if you are, like, at the beach or something, it’s like, you put us, the secret thing is, you put a splash of, like, a Corona, or, like, some sort of, like, cheap beer, and you just put a little dollop in there, and that, like, really, like, cuts the-cuts it and, like, makes it like, a lot more, like drinkable sounds, and it’s so good.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Isn’t that what a bulldog is? Isn’t that where you, it’s not a splash, though, but like, there used to be a restaurant here that would serve you this, like fish bowl.
SamWoy
Joey, you’re talking about Joey Chinook?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
No I’m not, I’m talking about Julio Barrios that closed down. Maybe Joey Chinook does it. Shout out Joey Chinook.
SamWoy
Because me and my friends, when I was younger and used to live here, we would always go to the movies at the Chinook mall. And, like, we would go into the Joey Chinook before, and we would all be way too drunk. And we would, because I’d always get that, like, the slushy margarita thing with the Corona upside down in it. And I would drink that, and then I would just fall asleep.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Fall asleep in Revenge of the Sith, and you’re like, 10 minutes.
SamWoy
I mean, that was before I was drinking. But okay, Revenge of the Sith, isn’t that like, you’re like, 99 or something. Are you big Star Wars fan? My song has a Star Wars reference in it. If you come to the show, you get to hear I get to hear it.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Well, now I have more reason to go. No, I’m a big, big fan. Why is the theater there Egyptian themed? Anybody know that? What the hell you guys.
SamWoy
What was I even talking about? Margaritas. Oh, yeah, special talent, special talent. I can roll a good joint.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Okay great.
SamWoy
I’m good at rolling joints, even though I’m even though I’m off of the weed right now. I will still do it for people. If they ask me to.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
A charitable man of the people.
SamWoy
I was a pro, yeah, I’m a pro weed guy, but now I’m not, right now in this moment in time.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Neither am I, for the record, I’m also at work, so. Okay we are—we’re reaching the end of our time together, SamWoy. Believe it or not, we’ve been talking for half an hour, I love it. Oh, this is like, this is fantastic. I’m having a ball. What is next for SamWoy After Sled? What is on the horizon?
SamWoy
Just writing another album.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Okay, is there a song called Brooklyn on it?
SamWoy
I mean, maybe if that’s even your name, I mean, that sounds pretty romantic.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Uh no. Not like that, I meant like the best interview you’ve ever had.
SamWoy
It was the best interview that I ever had. Her name was Brook-Brook-Brook-Brooklyn, she told me her name was Suzanne and Roxanne—
Brooklyn (CJSW)
She is a compulsive liar, BPD maybe—
SamWoy
She’s a liar, just like all my exes. I’m just kidding. That’s not true. I love all my exes, and I’m still friends with all of them, mostly, I mean, mostly friends with all my exes. This really got derailed. But okay, what were we saying?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
What is next for SamWoy after Sled?
SamWoy
Okay, I’m just writing. I mean, I’m gonna go home and I’m gonna start writing another album, even though that just came out. And then I’ve got some shows coming up that I don’t know if they’re announced or not yet, so I probably shouldn’t say anything, but just playing music and writing songs and working with artists and working on other people’s stuff and just trying to keep everything positive all the time and continuing to live the life that I want to live. And nobody telling me what to do.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Hell yeah, don’t tell me what to do.