Sam Coomes

The Exclaim! Questionnaire

BY None NonePublished Nov 17, 2016

Quasi singer Sam Coomes hails from Portland, Oregon. Their new album is called "The Sword of God"; they perform in Vancouver on September 20 and Toronto on September 30.

Current fixations:

"Fingerprints of the Gods" by Graham Hancock; "Remembrance of Things Past" by Marcel Proust; home restoration.

Mind-altering work of art:

Pre-Columbian Mexican art.

Most memorable or inspirational gig and why?

Butthole Surfers at the I-Beam in San Francisco in '87. All senses (hearing, sight, touch, smell) violently assaulted, but I liked it. They had to tone it down some after this (I don't think pouring vodka all over audience members & threatening them with a lighter could or should be a permanent part of a rock & roll show, but it was interesting at the time).

What has been your career high and low?

Playing on a French puppet show.

What should everyone shut up about?

I wouldn't know, since I'm never listening anyway.

I would drop everything to play a benefit for:

People.

What trait do you like and dislike most about yourself?

My nose.

What would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed, and have you?

Incompetence. No.

When I think of Canada I think:

Friends, border hassles.

What is your vital daily ritual?

Toast & coffee, first thing in the morning.

How do you spoil yourself?

Psychedelic drugs.

What was your most memorable day job?

I forgot.

If I wasn't playing music I would be:

Deceased.

What is your greatest fear?

Love.

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Invisibility.

What makes you want to take it off and get it on?

Modesty.

Music and sex: Is there a difference? Why?

Music is an ocean, sex is a mountain.

Strangest brush with celebrity:

Sometimes people do treat me as if I were a celebrity, which I'm not by any conventional understanding of the word, and I find that strange. Also, once I sat next to Ernest Borgnine on an airplane.

Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?

I would serve E.M. Cioran Mexican food.

What does your mom wish you were doing instead?

Priest.

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