Eric Fares

SAM ROBERTS BAND

BIOGRAPHY

Eric Fares (born July 6, 1975) is the multi-instrumentalist for the Sam Roberts band playing and recording with the Juno Award winning Canadian rock singer-songwriter since 1996, whose 2001 debut release, The Inhuman Condition, became one of the bestselling independent releases in Quebec and Canadian music history.

Born in Montreal and raised in Boisbriand, Quebec, to Egyptian parents, Fares attended Loyola High School and Concordia University having moved back to the city. He joined the band schoolmates Roberts, Ivo Juretic, WJ Hall, and friend George Donoso had formed known as William. The name was changed to Northstar in 1996.

Although the band gained some notice in independent rock circles, they couldn't break through to a national audience, and broke up in 1999. Bandmate Donoso went on to significant success in indie rock circles with The Dears, but Roberts and co struggled for several years afterward.

After the disbanding of Northstar in 1999, Fares helped Roberts to record the full-length and now very collectible independent debut Brother Down between a rehearsal space and his Verdun apartment shared with Ivo Juretic.

In 2001, Roberts recorded and released a six-song EP, The Inhuman Condition, independently. The EP sold slowly at first, but following a re-release of the EP in the summer of 2002 on MapleMusic Recordings, his first single "Brother Down" became one of the biggest Canadian hits of the year, and the second single, "Don't Walk Away Eileen", followed suit in the Fall.

Roberts then signed to Universal Music and released his full-length major label debut, We Were Born in a Flame, in June 2003. That album's singles, "Where Have All the Good People Gone?" and "Hard Road", received a large amount of success, though mainly just in Canada.

The band's second album, Chemical City, was released in Canada on April 2006. In Canada, the first single was "The Gate" which quickly shot to number one on Canadian rock radio. The second single in Canada was "Bridge to Nowhere". "With a Bullet", the third song used to promote the album on Canadian radio, received little attention and no video was made for it.

Roberts most recent album, Love at the End of the World, was released in May 2008. It debuted at the number one position on the Canadian album chart, a first for Roberts. The lead single, "Them Kids", debuted on iTunes on March 4, 2008.