After a sold-out show at Blackflag Brewing in Coolum, YELO’s Penny Brand caught up with The Rubens frontman Sam Margin to talk sobriety, the struggles facing live music venues, and why live music will always have a future.
For Sam Margin, life on the road with his band The Rubens wasn’t always about playing “Hoops” to new faces in far-flung corners of Australia. With free drinks flowing and another gig around the corner, the music sometimes took a back seat.
“If you don’t have self control, it’s very easy to just find yourself hungover all the time and tired,” Margin says, reflecting on the early years of touring.
But beyond the hangovers, Margin was beginning to realise he could lose the very thing that put him on the road in the first place: his love of music.
“At some point you sort of stop enjoying the music side of things. It’s like almost like hanging on for dear life.”
Margin describes his personal touring low points as “booze-related”, saying January will mark two years without alcohol.
Giving up alcohol changed his relationship with performing, too.
“Once I stopped doing that, I started to enjoy it.”
Sam Margin of The Rubens backstage at Blackflag Brewing in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast. Photos: Penny Brand.
Why live music won’t disappear
Asked about the loss of Sunshine Coast venues including The Station and Solbar, Margin says he worries about the future of independent venues, but believes live music will survive.
“I worry about some of the larger companies that sort of have monopolies on the live music industry and the venues,” he says. Independent operators, he adds, are “doing God’s work”.
Small venues matter because they’re where new artists learn to become live bands.
“It’s sad when small venues especially go under because upcoming bands need somewhere to cut their teeth,” Margin says.
For Margin, the future of live music comes down to something more fundamental than ticket sales: human connection. As everyday life becomes increasingly digital and disconnected, he believes people will continue seeking out the shared experience of a gig.
That belief shapes his view of artificial intelligence, too. Songs, film and other creative work may face difficult questions, he suggests, but the communal experience of a gig is harder to replicate.
“I think we’re actually going to be fine,” he says of live music. “I don’t know, but live music I think is irreplaceable.”
The same attitude has helped The Rubens navigate a business that changes with every album release. Whether audiences are buying vinyl or streaming, the mechanics of putting music out keep shifting.
His advice is simple: “Don’t get too comfortable with the way things are.” And know why you’re doing it in the first place.
“We’ve survived this long because we love making music and playing music live. And everything else is secondary.”
From the golden age of festivals to growing up on tour
There have, of course, been extraordinary highs. When asked to pick a standout from roughly a decade on the road, Margin goes straight to Splendour in the Grass and the thrill of playing its main stage.
“Back in Splendour in the Grass’s heyday, like playing the main stage there was special,” he recalls. “And it’s kind of thing where it’s like even more special now that it’s not a thing you can do.”
Touring also gave the band a different kind of education. Rather than simply flying from city to city, they’ve driven through remote parts of Australia, searching for an interesting pub or stopping at a swimming hole when there’s time. Margin jokes that they’re like “grey nomads but we’re in our thirties”.
What stays with him isn’t just the scenery. In smaller and more remote communities, he says, audiences genuinely appreciate a band making the effort to come to them.
His own brother and bandmate Elliot offers a useful contrast to his younger approach to life in music. Margin describes himself as the one who did everything at “110%”, while Elliot was “a sensible guy”. Eventually, Margin realised, “something has to give”.
Olivia Rodrigo, fatherhood and the appeal of home
One artist on Margin’s playlist might surprise fans: Olivia Rodrigo.
It started with his daughter exploring pop music. After listening to Taylor Swift, he found himself digging deeper into Rodrigo’s catalogue, beyond the big singles, and noticing the craft in the album tracks.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” he says, pointing to the production and songwriting that caught his ear.
After seeing so much of Australia, his favourite place is still home, near Wollongong, south of Sydney.
“I want to go to a place where I can mow my lawn and I can swim in the ocean and just like live a quieter life,” he says.
Watch the full YELO interview
See more from the night in YELO’s photo gallery of The Rubens and Selve at Blackflag Coolum.
