And I’ve been going ever since… What’s a typical day like on tour He had some bands who needed a driver, so I went. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to meet Buzz from U-Turn Touring. A week later, he offered me a five-date tour in February 2008 with Marie Modiano, a French artist. They gave me the green light, and it went really well-at the end of the concert, the band’s tour manager asked if I was licensed and took my phone number. I floated the idea of having the band play between four columns, creating a quadriphonic sound with the speakers, and letting the audience surround the band. When I arrived, I realized the venue wasn’t equipped at all for what they needed: it was an old cafeteria with columns everywhere and the band was freaking out. In 2007, I was contacted by an association in Strasbourg that was organizing a visual-kei concert and they needed a sound engineer. But right after a few shows with American stoner band Red Fang and a few days before joining Thee Oh Sees for a month on the road in France, Europe, and North America, he found a moment to open up to us about the struggles of touring, his best (and worst) memories, and the daily rock’n’roll lifestyle.

It takes finesse just to track Sam down to talk about his life on tour, especially at the height of the summer festival season. Trained as a sound engineer, Sam works as a driver, sound engineer, roadie and tour manager (sometimes all at once), and spends his year on the road, living from concert to concert.

Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard, The Intelligence…this Frenchman is friends with some of the best bands of the American and Australian alternative rock scenes. We have to admit we’re a bit jealous of “Sam”.

Thee oh sees ty segall tour