When the four-man Colorado band the Samples comes to town, guitarist/vocalist Sean Kelly said it feels like coming home.
"Salt Lake is an excellent place to play," Kelly said during a telephone interview from his home in Boulder. "In fact, the last time we were there at Saltair, we made up `Seasons in the City."'The song is featured on the band's upcoming album "Autopilot" which was partially mixed at Pinnacle Studios in Orem. Its release date is Tuesday.
Two days after the release, the Samples will embark on a nationwide tour beginning Thursday, Sept. 15, at the Saltair pavilion. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
"We will tour for two weeks in the states and take a week off," said Kelly. "Then we're off to Europe for five more."
Unlike some bands, touring isn't just an option for the Samples - it's a necessity.
"Since we're not on a major label, we need to tour to promote our songs," said Kelly.
The nucleus of the Samples originates in Boulder. Kelly, bassist/vocalist Andy Sheldon and drummer Jeep MacNichol met in a hair salon and began talking about music. Eventually, they formed the Samples and recruited keyboardist Al Laughlin.
"We lived off the free samples given out in grocery stores and decided that was a good name for a band," remembered Kelly. "We also gigged consistently. But the touring was just an outlet. We played and still do for our audience and no one else. We never really had any type of goal to make an album."
After signing on with Arista Records in 1990, the band released a self-titled album but also experienced "major" artistic control disputes and left the label.
The Samples joined the independent and newly formed What Are Records? (W.A.R.?) label in 1992.
W.A.R.? was founded earlier that year by Rob Gordon, who left EMI Records to make albums free of major label interference. And like the other bands on W.A.R.?, the Samples pays to produce its albums while employees and volunteers at the main office sell them directly to national chains and other retailers.
"We found how oppressive being under a major label could become," said Kelly. "When we signed with W.A.R.?, we felt trusted. It was like the label pretty much gave us the ball to run with."
Since signing on and recording four albums on W.A.R.?, including a re-release of the debut, the Samples proved to be a major attraction, especially in its homestate where fame has "forced" it to perform its own style of folksy-modern rock every year at the Red Rocks amphitheater.
"Every single time we record an album its different," explained Kelly. "Every approach is different and there is no set way on how we record. The last album `The Last Drag,' was recorded in L.A. under tight time restrictions. But `Autopilot' was recorded in Boulder and the sessions were more relaxed. We had the freedom to spend more time on our individual parts and not worry about the time."
Kelly said a majority of the songs found on "Autopilot" were completed during the last tour.
"We used them in soundchecks and kept writing while we traveled," he said. "By the time we got to the studio in May of this year, we had drilled every arrangement into our heads. We felt like we were on autopilot. Hence the album's name."
The thing about W.A.R.?, said Kelly, is the determination in every employee and volunteer to let the bands make the music.
"It's nice to know that we didn't have to change or compromise anything," he said.