“My life’s ambition has been to create an album that could stand alongside the records I studied as a kid,” says Edmonton, Alberta native and Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter Sammy Volkov via press release about his sophomore solo album Songs From the Goodbye Garden, which was released in March.
“Not just literally on the shelf, but as a personality in my life—a voice that I could return to and come to trust. As a young, queer person on the Canadian prairies, I found the permission and comfort that I sorely craved in music. I went searching for songs, new and old, as a way to fill myself up and explore when I did not feel comfortable doing so with real, living people. I want to be that comfort for future generations of young people. I think with this new album, I’ve actually made something that will stand the test of time.”
It’s a sentiment that we here at SWT can totally get behind. There’s so much to like about the album. Socially, Volkov’s new album is an immersive listen, as it jumps between psych-folk, indie rock and chamber pop. And lyrically and vocally, there’s a special power in what he has to say and how he says it. According to the press release the album balances themes of “bittersweet nostalgia and melancholy with upward momentum and drive.”
The songs are enhanced by some special collaborations. Renny Wilson of Canadian based band Faith Healer produced the album and key collaborators such as singer-songwriter Cassia Hardy and violinist (and two-time GRAMMY nominee) Drew Jurecka further brought the songs to life.
The album is the follow-up to Sammy’s 2022 debut album Be Alright!, which hit #1 on the local CKUA radio station’s Top 30 in Canada. Two years later, Sammy’s collaboration with Dana Wylie, The Day Had To Come, was – according to the press release “a classic country tour de force, landing on Bandcamp’s Best Country Albums year-end list.”
For us at SWT, Songs From the Goodbye Garden continues that upward momentum. The songs especially thrive in the live setting, as evidenced by his contribution to our Water Tower Sessions series. For the Anthony Goertz-filmed session, which you can watch here, Volkov and his bandmates gathered last year at keyboard player Dylan Greenhough’s family farm outside of Edmonton, Alberta, to perform several songs from the album.
Below, you can read an accompanying interview where Volkov discusses the behind-the-scenes making of the session and the album. Make sure to check to catch Sammy if he’s touring in your area!
About The Session
Why did you pick the location to film the session?
I picked that location mostly out of necessity because I didn’t want to have to pay for a studio. And my friend who played on the album, Dylan Greenhough, he played a lot of keys and synth, and he volunteered his family farm out in Alberta, I think it was an hour outside of Edmonton, Alberta. It was a really beautiful farm, and they had a lot of great spaces we could use. So yeah, it was perfect. It was an old tractor repair shop, like a mechanic shop, so it was a perfect space.
What were some specific details about that building that really caught your eye when you were there?
Well, we saw a few locations, a few kinds of shops, and a big hangar thing and a barn, and that one was just the most photogenic. It had a kind of cool skylight and some chains hanging from the ceiling and a bunch of old equipment lying around. So, it was more atmospheric. Also, it sounded good in there. The acoustics were really great. It was kind of fun to play in there.
Any specific items around the building that you thought were neat?
Well, I think, like I said, the skylight was cool. The kind of chain engine lifting thing was cool. They have some beautiful canola fields around there. Those are a trademark Alberta thing. They’re a really bright yellow flower, and yeah, just generally cool vibe out there.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the acoustics?
Yeah, it did sound really nice. It’s sort of challenging to record with limited equipment, with everyone always in the same room. So, Luke, the drummer, had to really hold back a lot. But yeah, it was fun. It sounded really good in there, and I wish we’d had time to record more.
What was your experience like filming the session? What were your favorite moments or stories?
Well, the whole thing was just really fun. I was really grateful to my friends, my band members, for taking the time to show up. And a friend of mine who I had worked with before named Anthony Goertz, he made the video. And just really kind, generous people. Everyone was so generous with their time, and it was just fun being out there in the countryside. And yeah, the band tracks went really seamlessly. We didn’t need much tuning to figure out arrangements or anything because I guess it hadn’t been that long since we recorded the album together. And yet, then the solo track in the middle, “The Way You Smile,” that was kind of special and cool because we really did that as an afterthought. We were all packed up and ready to go. And then I said to Andy, “It would be really nice if I had a higher quality video of me doing a solo song because I just don’t really have that.”
So, we just very quickly found a place where I could stand, and Andy just figured out that kind of cool perspective with the skylight behind me. And we just did that immediately. And everyone in the band just tried to sit and stay as quiet as they could. And I think it turned out really well. I’m really happy with all those performances. So yeah, Andy did a great job capturing everything. And Connor Snell, who plays guitar in the video, he did all the sound work.
Why did you pick those three songs? Can little bit about the inspiration behind them?
So, the songs are “Blue”, “The Way You Smile”, and “Strangest Thing”. “Strangest Thing” is obviously a Crazy Horse song. Neil Young was the primary inspiration for that. And for a really long time, I had wanted to do more of a rock song, less cute and sappy, but more just kind of badass and rock. So, I started writing that song 10 years ago, actually. And then my friend, Cassia Hardy, who couldn’t make the video, she co-wrote the song with me. I started it 10 years ago, and I just couldn’t figure out how to finish it. It was really weird. I’m normally not that slow, but yeah, we sat down one day to try and figure out how to finish the song, and she sort of tied it all together with some additional chord changes and some verses. I’m really happy with that one, and it’s super fun to play live.
And “The Way You Smile” is just purely a love song. It’s pretty straightforward in that way. My main inspiration for that one was Paul Simon, kind of later Paul Simon. Actually, I love his album In The Blue Light, which is an album he did I think five years ago, where he re-recorded some of his songs that he thought kind of flew under the radar. And it’s just a fantastic album. The sounds are amazing. So, I think I was listening to that a lot when I came up with “The Way You Smile”. It’s a little more poetic for me than some of my lyrics, but it came pretty easily.
“Blue” is totally, it was me trying really hard to write an Eldon John power ballad, like “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”. And I don’t think I achieved that, but it turned into something else entirely. And I think it’s pretty cool.
Doing it live is kind of funny because the whole idea is that the production would be way, way over the top. So, to get the sort of full impact for that song, you’d have to check out the album because it’s got this sweeping string arrangement and backup vocals. It’s really fun. So yeah, I think those are the main influences for those songs. And I picked them mostly because they’re fun to play live. And all of us in the band unanimously picked those songs. They’re just fun band songs to play. Well, the two band ones, and then the one solo track I picked just because I think it’s maybe my best writing. I’m proud of that one. I think the chord progression is kind of cool, and I like how it’s sort of cyclical. I just think it’s a pretty song, so I thought it’d be good for a solo piece.
I imagine with stripping it down to the essentials that you kind of get something unique compared to the regular version.
Yeah, definitely. To do it with just a small band with none of the fancy production and over-the-top arrangements, it’s a very different feel. I think “Strangest Thing” naturally works that way because it’s really just a band, a rock song. But yeah, “Blue” was interesting because it came out way grittier and kind of more lo-fi than I’d ever imagined the song sounding. And I actually played it for a friend of mine, and he pointed out right away that it reminded him of Velvet Underground, which I thought was really cool. I listened to Velvet Underground a lot, and I loved them, but I never thought someone would draw a comparison between one of my songs and a Velvet Underground song. But something about that arrangement and that live video. Now that he said that, I kind of hear it. I think it’s something about the sort of dry lo-fi guitar sound, and it’s sort of a simple, sweet rock sound for a ballad, maybe something like “Candy Says” or “Pale Blue Eyes”. Those might be the songs he was thinking of when he said that.
Can you talk a little bit about the other band members and what they add to the chemistry? Like maybe a short soundbite about each?
Oh, sure. So, Luke Breiteneder plays drums, and he’s just a great guy and really steady and very accomplished. And he actually recently won a Juno award for Mariel Buckley album he’s on. So, it’s a real delight to get to record and play with him. Connor Snell plays guitar in the video and plays with me a lot and recorded on the album. And he’s like the sweetest guy ever and always looks really cool. He’s got the best wardrobe of any guitar player I’ve seen and also a beautiful sound, obviously. Jenni Roberts plays bass, and she’s also really accomplished. And I’d seen her play in a bunch of bands over the years and was really happy that she agreed to perform and record with me, and she’s just the best. And I think that was it for the video of Jenny, Luke, and Connor.
But I’d also like to say that we all really wished that Cassia Hardy could have been there. She’s an amazing rock punk singer songwriter who is like a legend in the Edmonton, Alberta scene and beyond. I’m really inspired by her work, and I’ve looked up to her for a long time. And I had seen her play in a bunch of shows, and her own solo stuff is amazing. If you look up Cassia Hardy, you’ll see it’s really, really great stuff. And yeah, I was just thrilled to get to work with her, and to co-write with her was really fun. And she was a huge influence on the album. She was a musical guide and inspiration throughout the whole production of the new album.
Oh, one person I forgot, sorry. So, Dylan Greenhough also performs as Sam The Living, and he’s a fantastic musician and amazing person. He plays beautiful keys throughout the album, and you can hear he does some really pretty stuff in the live videos, and he’s just such a generous person in many ways. But as far as these videos were concerned, he let us use his family’s property, and that was really, really kind of him. He’s a great guy.
Can you talk a little more about Anthony and why you picked him to film the video?
Anthony Gertz is an extremely talented filmmaker, and I’ve known him for a long time. I actually first saw him attending the same sort of shows that I went to. So, I didn’t know he was a filmmaker for a long time, but I knew we had sort of similar interests musically. And then years later, I got to work with him in the making of a music video that I did for a song called “Weather Report”.
And he just has a real sensitivity and kindness in everything he does and a beautiful eye for things. He captures things very naturally, or he makes it feel natural, which is really impressive. Everything I’ve ever seen that he worked on is just, it feels flawless and very soulful, and that’s sort of what he’s like as a person. He’s one of those weirdly perfect people, but he’s also way too nice, so it’s great.
He’s a really great friend. So yeah, he was the first person that came to mind, and yeah, he was really generous with his time. I think he had just come back from a long trip with his family that morning, and then he got right back in his car and drove for an hour on a hot summer day out to this farm to do these three videos for not nearly enough pay. So, I’m really grateful to him.
About The Album
How do you think the session connects with what you were hoping to achieve with the album?
I think going into the album, I knew I would need to combine the new recordings with some new video, and I wasn’t so interested in making music videos, traditional music videos. I think mostly because I put a lot of my resources into music videos for my last album, and hardly anyone watched them, so it felt like kind of a waste of resources, almost. They were a delight to make, and I’m proud of them, but this time I thought it would be more useful and maybe effective as far as booking shows could go, to just make some straight-ahead live performance videos. And I wanted to do some live performance videos where we had more control over the sound and how they looked than you would get at a conventional concert recording. So yeah, they’re still totally live. Those are all the same take.
So, it really does give you that feeling of being at a show, but we were able to dial in the sound more and have more control of how the end result looked and sounded. So yeah, I think they’re effective tools for the sort of promotion of this new album, and hopefully there’ll be something that people can enjoy for a while. I don’t have much high-quality video out there. So, if anyone’s interested, this will be, I think, a nice way for them to take a look at how we look and sound live.
How did your goals in creating this album compare with those for your solo debut album?
To be honest, it’s always challenging. I mean, I’ve done three albums now. This is my second solo one. I did an album in 2022, I think, and then 2024, I did a country album that’s a country album of duets with Dana Wylie, and then this latest one, so I guess an album every two years. And you can’t help but have some high expectations for yourself or how the album may be received. And it’s hard to get music across to people when you’re an independent artist, but my main goal, this is kind of weird, but honestly, my biggest goal has always been to make my own vinyl record, which is maybe a vanity project or something, but I just always loved records. I collected them my whole life and was dangerously obsessed with them. And ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always had this goal of making my own album. And it’s in a beautiful gatefold cover, and it’s got liner notes from a friend of mine, and it just feels like this whole package that I’ve always wanted to make.
So that was really my main goal. And I think that I achieved that, and I’m proud of that. As far as commercial success goes, it’s hard to quantify at such an artist as small as me, but I can say that friends and family have enjoyed it and it has reached a bit of a wider audience than I expected so far. It’s still pretty young, but one thing I’m proud of is that CKUA Network is a great radio station here in Alberta and they have listeners all over the world and they have been super supportive and the album has done really well there and it’s connected me with a lot of people who, without CKUA’s exposure, I don’t think I would’ve reached. So it’s independent arts bodies like that that are an invaluable help for artists like myself, because if not for people like that and people like yourself who take the time to speak with small artists, it would be really, really hard to make any meaningful connection with people outside of our immediate circles of friends and family.
So yeah, that was really exciting to have some success on CKUA. The album reached number two on their chart, which is cool because they play music from all over the world. And in fact, the number one album was a vocal jazz album by a Russian singer. So, it’s neat that we could be beside each other in the same chart. It’s indicative of how eclectic that radio station is and how they truly just play what they’re interested in, which I think is really rare.
Why do you like drawing from a variety of different genres? What about being able to be flexible like that, do you enjoy?
Yeah, I think I just naturally have an eclectic sound when it comes to a whole album because that’s just how my brain works, depending on my mood or whatever I’ve been watching or listening to or whoever I’ve been talking to. So maybe it sounds kind of arrogant, but I think I really do have a pretty broad palette of genres and musical colors in my brain, just not because I’m trying to or because I’m smart, just because I’ve listened to so much music my whole life. So, I don’t think I’ve applied myself to anything in life as much as I have just to listening to music. So yeah, my songs just sort of come out that way in a whole bunch of different colors, and it is really fun. And I think it’s kind of fun to listen to stuff like that. I like it when an album takes me by surprise, but I can sort of trust that the voice will lead me through.
There’s some sort of unifying voice that I can trust through the album, and so I hope I can do something like that. It is pretty eclectic, from a kind of chamber folk stripped down dreamy ballad to a song that is clearly just me trying to do a Motown song, but I think it all kind of fits. So, I hope people feel that way too.
Why did you pick the title for the album, and how do you think it captures the themes on it?
Yeah, so the album title came to me just kind of … I don’t know what the word is. It just sort of came to me. I didn’t think about it very much, but I like it a lot, maybe because of that. It sort of came to me like a song lyric would. It just sort of came out of the mood that was created when I sat down and played through the songs that I chose for the album. And I think it really does represent these sort of overall themes of nostalgia and loss and parting ways and moving on. There’s a lot of goodbyes on the album. And there’s also … Well, I hope that there’s a lot of beauty in the arrangements, that there’s a lot of lush stuff going on in the production. So, I guess that’s the garden. It is quite colorful and kind of a lush green place to sit. So, I think it works as a title. It’s kind of sad and kind of poetic, but pretty too.
What songs most paved the direction of the album?
That’s a good question. I think when I knew I could make the album, because I got a grant here in Canada that we’re lucky to have a bunch of these government grants and you can apply for them. And if you’re really lucky, you get funded. So, I was able to actually record an album that was sort of more ambitious arrangement-wise than I ever could have done without that support. So, when I knew that I’d be able to do those more ambitious arrangements, the first song that came to mind was probably “Marjorie”. That was a song I actually wrote quite a few years ago. I think that’s track two.
And I had sort of been saving it because I didn’t feel I could do it justice with the sort of smaller arrangements that I was able to pay for before, honestly. So, when I knew I could have strings and all kinds of gifted musicians on the album and the time to mix it and have arrangements written and all that stuff, I thought, ‘Okay, well, now’s the time when I can do ‘Marjorie’’. So, when you ask which song … I guess the way I took your question is almost like which song is most representative of the album in my mind? And I think if I had to think of a song that best suits the title of the album, it would be “Marjorie” because it’s got that sort of dream equality and it’s pretty ambitious, I think, in its sounds and its tones and its modulations, and it’s got a lot going on, but it’s also pretty achingly nostalgic and sentimental. And I just love that stuff. I can’t help but love pretty ballads. So yeah, I think that’s probably the mascot for the album.
Collaboration was a big part of the album. Why was it important to bring in people besides the core band?
Yeah, definitely. Collaboration was key to this, as it is with anything creative, I guess, if you’re not just painting or something or doing a solo recording. But in making a band recording, there’s inevitably going to be collaboration. And I was excited this time to expand my scope in terms of who I would let in on the album because it was all kind of precious to me. And I had worked with just wonderful people before, and I’d love to work with them again. But for this album, I wanted to go in a new direction and get some very different sounds, including some kind of grungy and more dirty hipster lo-fi sounds mixed in with the pretty ones. So, I was feeling like I was going to need some, I don’t know if the right word is, not frenetic, but just some more sort of vitality and energy and risk-taking than maybe I would be naturally inclined to.
So, I heard an album by a great Canadian band called Faith Healer. Their last album, called The Hand Fits the Glove, is incredible. And I got the vinyl and took it home and played it one day. And as soon as I heard that record, as soon as I had finished listening to it, I decided I’d reach out to that producer, [Renny Wilson], and see if he’d be willing to work with me. And luckily, he was. He had exactly the energy I was looking for, a real eclectic, kind of broad interest in different sounds, and really willing to make just weird, dirty, grungy music and just to be experimental. It was really fun working with him.
And another key collaborator was someone I mentioned before, named Cassia Hardy, and she’s a great rock and punk musician, and a really incredible singer-songwriter.
So those people brought a lot to the album that I just definitely wouldn’t have been able to do myself. And not only in their sort of artistic approaches, but musically, almost like athletically, Cassia Hardy is just amazing as a guitar player and has so many great ideas. So that brought so much to the album. Any song where there’s a really badass guitar solo was Cass. And yeah, so I’m really happy that I got to collaborate with those people. It kind of lifted the album up to places where I wouldn’t have been able to take it.
You also had strings from Drew Jurecka, who has been nominated for a couple of GRAMMYs. What was that like?
Yeah, so that was super exciting. I had wanted to do strings forever, and I was aware of Drew for a long time. He’s done strings for everybody. So, I got in touch with him through an old friend of mine, who also does really beautiful arrangements named Jonathan Kawchuk. So, John Kawchuk did strings for the album as well. It was really not collaborative, I don’t think, but they shared the load, both John Kochuk and Drew Jurecka. And yeah, I was thrilled with what they came up with. John Kawchuk is a great friend of mine, and he works in scoring for TV and film predominantly. And I think he was also excited to get a chance to do scoring or arrangements for songs like mine. I don’t think he’d ever done that before. So, we had a lot of fun doing that. And you can hear that there’s some really cool choices.
He makes adventurous arrangements. They’re not quite as straightforward as they could have been, and that took me by surprise, and I was thrilled with that. And Drew Jurecka just does beautiful arrangements. One of my favorite things that he did was the strings on “Over The Hardest Part”. I don’t know who else could do such a perfect kind of Motown/Philly soul kind of sweet string part as he got on “Over The Hardest Part”. So yeah, it was just really exciting to get to work with both of them. I think it turned out really well.
Songwriting has always been a place of comfort and a testing ground for you. Can you talk a little bit about that and how your songwriting process has grown since the last album?
Yeah, so I do definitely take a lot of comfort in songwriting. I think that it’s something still for me, even from the first songs I wrote until the ones I’ve been working on yesterday, it’s always something that I do when I feel I kind of have to. It’s obviously just for myself. I mean, nobody needs my music, but it is sort of, for whatever reason, the only way that I feel … I mean, well, really, when I sing, when I get to sing a song, that’s the most fully realized version of myself. It sounds cliché, but I really do feel more alive when I get to do that. And writing music, though, is less intense. It’s more, not meditative, but I guess of a peaceful practice, and you can take your time with it. And it’s nice to give yourself moments to open up your mind and let your instinct go right through into your hand with very little inhibition.
That’s a real nice thing to be able to do once in a while that you don’t really get to do in normal life. I don’t really talk about it that much, so thanks for asking about that. I guess it’s just something I’ve always done. I’ve always come up with melodies, and it’s just a good way to let things out of your brain. And once in a while, it feels good to perform as well. And the best thing ever is obviously when it connects with somebody, that’s really, really the best thing ever. If someone comes up to me and says a song of mine that I thought was just a silly thing, sometimes it actually will mean a lot to someone, even if it is just a silly song or just a ’60s kind of upbeat thing. A couple people have told me that that’s meant a lot to them and helped them.
So yeah, that’s the best thing ever. That’s the best sort of payment ever to hear that your music has meant something to somebody.
There was a great quote from you in the press release [mentioned in the intro] about using songwriting to help you fit into the world or something along those lines. Can you explain that a little more?
Yeah, definitely. It’s like, I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I know what you’re referring to. It was sort of this idea that with music, I could create a world where I felt … It sounds dramatic to say where I felt at home, but it’s sort of true. It’s not that I didn’t feel at home in my normal life, but with music, you can create a place that’s all your own, and it’s really limitless. And I imagine that’s how it is for maybe a writer, like a more conventional writer of fiction. It’s kind of an escape, I guess. And I think maybe I started doing it because I felt kind of disconnected a lot of the time. I think back on childhood into young adulthood, and even now, sometimes I feel like an alien. And I do find that sometimes I’ll write a song, I don’t really know where it’s coming from, and then years later, I’ll realize it’s a self-soothing thing, which is kind of weird.
A song like “Marianne” that’s on the new album, I really do think that was a lullaby I wrote to myself because I wrote it at a time where I was really stressed out, and I felt like I had messed up a bunch of relationships. And so yeah, it was creating a space where I felt like I could fit in and I could be safe and record collecting was like that for me too.
I think I might’ve mentioned that in that quote you’re referring to. It was like I surrounded myself with music that kind of comforted me and filled me up. And I found that in these random old records that I found at thrift stores and flea markets and stuff, and I couldn’t really find that anywhere else. So, I think just naturally, through absorbing that stuff forever, I started to put that stuff back out.
What’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to in the months ahead?
So next I have some shows that I’m really excited about, some Canadian stuff mostly, but I’m also really excited to go to Nashville for a show and Memphis for a show. And that’s really thrilling to me for a few reasons. They’re cool shows, and you can see details on my website or whatever, but they’re with people who are really accomplished and talented. So, I’m really, really honored, truly to be included in those shows. And also, music performing aside, I’m just excited to see those cities because I’m a weird Canadian loser from the Prairies who has always dreamed of places like Memphis and Nashville as places where I could dig through dirty boxes of old records. So, I gave myself a little extra time there just so I can go to thrift stores and stuff and realize my hipster dream. And so that’ll be fun.
I’m really looking forward to that. And I’m looking forward to connecting with people in those different communities because it really is such a small world. And I’m really hoping that as I play more of these locations, that I’ll expand my network, and who knows what can come of those connections. It’s really exciting. Every little show I’ve done, or every little recording I’ve made, has always resulted in a lasting connection or two. I’m excited to see where that takes me, and yeah, who knows what’ll happen for the next project, but in the meantime, I’m just excited to see what this album facilitates.
So, you’ll be touring in the next few months?
Mostly this month, and then there are some things in May as well, but I should be all wrapped up, I guess, after the first week of May, and then I have some time until I think some June stuff and a July thing. But the main body of the tour is over, I think, after the first week of May.
I live in Portland, Oregon now, but I started doing all this in Edmonton, Alberta, where I grew up. So, I’m still slowly trying to make little inroads in the U.S. So, any help I can get on that front is super, super great.
Imagine it’s kind of an interesting comparison between the two places.
Yeah, very, very different for me. I mean, so far, just because, as everyone knows, it’s just hard to start over. It’s hard to live somewhere with no community after having spent pretty much your whole life building one. So, it’s sometimes pretty frustrating, but slowly it’s happening. I’ve made a couple of friends in Oregon and a couple of connections in Tennessee, so it’s kind of funny. Right now, my connections are in Oregon, Tennessee, and maybe two people in New York. It’s pretty small.
You can connect with and listen to Sammy Volkov at the following links:
Website: Sammyvolkov.com/
Facebook: Facebook.com/sammyvolkovmusic
Instagram: Instagram.com/sammyvolkov
Spotify: Sammy Volkov on Spotify
YouTube: Youtube.com/@sammyvolkov3009
Bandcamp: Sammyvolkov.bandcamp.com/
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
