(stories about SLOAN)
• Members of Sloan have referred to their band as a "four-headed beast."
Maybe for them, the scarier thought would be to strike out as four little monsters on their own.
"Sometimes I fantasize about (making solo records)," Sloan guitarist-singer Jay Ferguson was saying recently over the phone from a tour-stop in Winnipeg, where he was catching up on some used-record shopping.
"I don't know if we ever would."
The mere mention of solo careers for the Halifax-bred, Toronto-based band -- who play their first-ever show at Massey Hall Friday -- is bound to upset their dedicated fanbase.
Stability has never been a Sloan strong suit. They briefly packed it in five years ago before making a relatively successful pair of albums, 1996's One Chord To Another and 1997's Navy Blues. Their latest is Between The Bridges.
Ferguson says that working relations within the band are as sympatico as ever. But considering the fact he, singer-bassist-drummer Chris Murphy, singer-guitarist Patrick Pentland and singer-drummer-keyboardist Andrew Scott contributed equal songwriting parts to Between The Bridges, the notion of four KISS-style solo ventures doesn't seem out of the question.
"I think Chris is probably the most against it, which is surprising because he's the biggest KISS fan," Ferguson says, laughing.
Released last fall, Between The Bridges didn't just feature the most varied mix of songwriting styles to appear on a Sloan record, including particularly fresh work from Ferguson and Scott. It also received a mixed reaction from critics and fans. The disc even rated among both the best and worst albums in the 1999 critics poll issue of local paper Eye Weekly, although the most common reactions to the album -- that each songwriter deserves a bigger platform -- have hardly been terrible put-downs.
"Because everybody in our band writes individually, to some people our records do sometimes seem like compilation records," Ferguson says. "But we have a great practice space and recording situation in Toronto now, so I think we're going to try to write some songs together. We could continue making the kind of records we've been making since One Chord To Another, but I think we want to change it up a bit."
Meantime, Sloan's Massey Hall gig is sort of a case of saving the best for last.
The band recently completed tours of the U.S., Australia and Japan -- the latter territory boasting their biggest following away from home -- and Friday's date winds up their cross-Canada jaunt. According to Ferguson, Sloan will play both the hits and all of Between The Bridges, including two rare Japanese-only tracks, At The Edge Of The Scene and Summer's My Season.
"It was exciting enough to play the Concert Hall a few years ago," Ferguson says. "We've hit most of the really good venues in Toronto. This is the last one."
Still, the guitarist admits, those Edwardian acoustics don't do much to cover up a group's mistakes.
"Yeah, no smokescreens, no hiss," he says, laughing. "That's why we're playing it at the very end. We're a little more confident now."
•
Once upon a time, Sloan was the little band that could.
Formed in Halifax, N.S., the quartet was the darling of the East Coast alternative scene when it started in 1991.
On the basis of an independent EP called Peppermint, Sloan signed a U.S. deal with DGC (Nirvana's label) and was heralded "the next big thing" through its first two albums, the punk/pop Smeared and the slicker, Beatles-influenced Twice Removed.
Twice Removed was named one of the "best albums you never heard" by Spin magazine in its '94 year-end edition, and was voted best Canadian album of all time in a poll by Canadian college mag Chart in 1996.
By mid-decade, though, the Sloan juggernaut had begun to founder. The band extricated itself rather messily from its DGC contract and returned to recording for its own Murderecords imprint. Its members turned inward on a journey of self-discovery that almost led to the group's demise.
After pursuing several side projects, including running Murderecords, managing The Inbreds and playing with Super Friendz and the Sadies, the band's four singer-songwriters -- guitarists Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland, bassist Chris Murphy and drummer Andrew Scott -- regrouped to put together the highly acclaimed One Chord to Another in 1996.
That disc was soon followed by 1998's Navy Blues and two albums last year, the live set 4 Nights at the Palais Royale followed quickly by a new studio effort, Between the Bridges.
The year 2000 finds Sloan making stellar pop/rock albums in a climate that favours Korn, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock.
"It's not a favourable or fashionable time for a band like us, as far as what it is popular," says Scott.
"But we're committed to hanging on until a band like ours can achieve some success," says the 32-year-old drummer from his Toronto home.
Scott believes his group is doing some of its best work. He says Live at the Palais Royale was a way of purging some of the group's older songs from its repertoire and that Between the Bridges is his "favourite record of ours to date."
The new album has been described as a musical autobiography about a young rock band that grows up and moves away from its Halifax home. Scott says that's true -- sort of.
"The four young men leaving home thing -- that's kinda there and it's kinda not. The songs are personal because we write about personal experience, and we went in knowing that we wanted the songs to flow into each other, but it wasn't really thought out.
" A lot of it was happy accidents."
• While Sloan has enjoyed moderate success in the eight years since its debut album Smeared, superstardom has proven elusive.
"We're too nice, that's the problem," deduces Sloan's 31-year-old guitarist Jay Ferguson.
"We're probably not perceived to be rebellious enough to latch on to.... There's not as much of a negative slant to what we do compared to other bands."
Sloan is playing the MacEwan Hall Ballroom on Friday, with special guest Danko Jones.
Ferguson, possibly the nicest person in Canadian rock, ever, admits the band -- including bassist Chris Murphy, guitarist Patrick Pentland and drummer Andrew Scott -- is a little disappointed with the sales of its latest album, Between the Bridges, although not particularly surprised by it.
Released last fall, the Toronto-based band's fifth full-length studio album was overshadowed by major new releases from the Matthew Good Band, Moist, Our Lady Peace and several international acts.
"We don't regret it," Ferguson says of the album's release date.
"We knew it was going to be the busiest quarter ever in terms of album releases, but we wanted to put the album out basically so we could go back to Japan and go to Australia and tour the States again, all last fall.
"We couldn't have just released the album there and released it in Canada later.
"It's almost like we had to sacrifice
Canada a little bit this time."
Although the the record's first single,
Losing California, received some radio play across the country, it paled in comparison to the heavily rotated The Good in Everyone from the 1996 album One Chord to Another and the band's breakthrough hit Money City Maniacs from 1998's Navy Blues.
"We were looking at the year-end list of songs that were played on the radio the most," says Ferguson.
"And Money City Maniacs still beat out Losing California. There's still people catching on to Money City Maniacs, even though we've put out two albums since."
Still, the band was able to play sold-out shows in Japan and made inroads into Australia and the U.S.
Surprisingly, and disappointingly for Sloan's loyal fans, the band was overlooked in every major category in this year's Juno Awards race. The only nomination the band received was for best album design.
But Ferguson isn't exactly despondent over the snub.
"Sure, it would have been nice if we were nominated in one of the rock categories, but it's not the end of the world," he says.
"I have no idea why it got looked over. I can understand when bands like Our Lady Peace get nominated because they sell tonnes of records and they're on the radio a lot ... but I was kind of blown away with Edwin being nominated, because that's a really bad album."
"We've won a Juno before (for best alternative album) and they're sitting on our parents' mantels at home.
"Which is fine -- we've done our duty."
• At the turn of the 1990s, Halifax was the hotbed of a grunge-pop explosion that ignited a frenzy of guitar-based independent bands: Thrush Hermit, jale, Eric's Trip, The Super Friendz ...
And Sloan.
Fast forward to 2000 and of all the above names, only Sloan remains, a feat that amazes drummer Andrew Scott.
"A lot of people of late have been touting the death of guitar-based bands which, if you ask me, is total rubbish," says Scott who, when not behind the kit, is a mean guitarist and keyboardist (more on the latter later). "Our flavour of music has come into vogue again. I don't think it's ever really gonna die out. Let's face it, there's no lack of enthusiasm towards guitar-bass-and-drums rock music.
"But we can't really control what goes on in the music business with regards to trends, what's popular on the radio, or what the big rich executives think the little kids with money want to hear. Whatever is big today, it's going to be something else tomorrow. It always goes in a cyclical fashion."
In vogue again
For Scott, bassist Chris Murphy and guitarists Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland, who play the Congress Centre tonight along with openers Flashing Lights (former Super Friendz' Matt Murphy's new group), perseverance and musical maturity have also helped them become in vogue again.
Their fifth studio effort, the conceptual Between The Bridges, finds the alt-rock foursome in a melodic, reflective mood, chronicling their rise from the Halifax underground indie scene in 1991 to, four studio albums (not counting the Peppermint EP) and one live album later, their present-day success.
"We've got a good solid base for the first time," says Scott, referring to how all four have now set up residence in Toronto. "We feel kind of connected to each other in terms of living together in the same place, and we have a practice space for the first time which also serves as a recording studio.
"As long as we stick to our guns, we'll keep writing songs, make records, tour and just maintain interest. I mean, we're not like best friends all the time. We're business associates in a lot of ways."
Democratic route
Pentland, Murphy, Ferguson and Scott have opted to take the democratic route on Between the Bridges, with each contributing three tracks (Scott opens and closes the CD).
Scott seems satisfied with the indie path Sloan has chosen, too. Following 1992's Twice Removed, released on major label Geffen, the quartet almost tumbled into obscurity, a mix of internal squabbles combined with the care-not attitude of Geffen.
They later rebounded with a one-two-three punch of 1996's One Chord to Another, '98's Navy Blues and last year's live 4 Nights at the Palais Royale, all released on Halifax-based indie label murderrecords in Canada and Enclave in the U.S.
The Palais Royale shows in Toronto proved to be a turning point for the normally mild-mannered Scott. Dissatisfied with the poor condition of the house piano, Scott snapped and literally pounded the instrument to smithereens.
"It was fun at first but I regretted it a day later; every bone in my body was aching," Scott says. "In hindsight, it was kinda stupid; we should have just destroyed all of our instruments."
•
• Look out Hollywood, here comes Sloan.
The Canadian rock group will be getting a taste of Tinseltown with the release of the hotly hyped new film "The Virgin Suicides," which will feature no fewer than five Sloan songs.
The film, the directorial debut of Sofia Coppola (daughter of "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola), is scheduled to play the Sundance Film Festival in January. When it does, audiences will hear Sloan's "On The Horizon," "Everything You've Done Wrong," "The Good In Everyone," "The Lines You Amend" and "Can't Face Up" in the film's score -- all previously released tracks.
Coppola, who recently married video director Spike Jonze, shot the film in Toronto with stars Danny DeVito, Kirsten Dunst, Kathleen Turner, James Woods and Scott Glenn. It reportedly tells the story of a group of suburban men in the '70s obsessed with five sisters.
"I haven't seen it, but I heard some of the characters are humming along or singing some of the songs," Sloan's road manager Mike Nelson told JAM! from Toronto Thursday as the group packed for a lengthy American tour.
So how did Sloan get hooked up with the movie?
"It's kind of odd how things came about," says Nelson.
"When we were in L.A. in the spring to play our show, we were out having a few drinks with one of the guys from the band Air, and he was talking about this soundtrack. And then Sofia Coppola came out to see the show. And (Sloan) basically said she could use whatever she wanted."
One of those songs, "Everything You've Done Wrong," will be featured on the actual soundtrack (due in March from Emperor Norton Records), alongside tracks by Al Green, Air, Todd Rundgren, Heart, Styx and The Hollies.
"It was more one of those things where it can't hurt either person to work together," Nelson said.
Meanwhile, the group's new video compilation, "Second Hand Views," will be available by mail order through the band's website and at shows in VHS format only, and should arrive in stores just before Christmas.
"Mostly, every time we go out in the States, nobody has ever seen the videos, so there is quite a demand there, and of course, all our Canadian fans want it," he said.
If the movie and home video aren't enough to satisfy Sloan fans' demand for visual stimulation, the group plans to post video footage taken from their ongoing tour at the website.
Nelson has been shooting the shows on digital video from the soundboard, while bassist Chris Murphy has been wielding the camera backstage "on the chance he'll catch something embarrassing," Nelson said.
Fans can expect to see some clips from Australia and the U.S. west coast tour soon, with stuff from San Francisco and Seattle possibly to follow.
"We just got back from Sydney (Australia) and it was amazing. They played this old dance hall and it was amazing, everyone singing along. It's great to be able to go that far and get that kind of response," he said.
Canadian Sloan fans should brace themselves for a cross-country Sloan jaunt near the end of March.
Here's the soundtrack listing for "The Virgin Suicides."
"Hello It's Me" (Todd Rundgren),
"I'm Not In Love" (10cc),
"Magic Man" (Heart),
"The Air That I Breathe" (The Hollies),
"Ce Matin La" (Air),
"Alone Again (Naturally)" (Gilbert O'Sullivan),
"How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?" (Al Green),
"Everything You've Done Wrong" (Sloan),
"Come Sail Away" (Styx),
"A Dream Goes On Forever" (Todd Rundgren),
"Crazy On You" (Heart),
"Playground Love (main theme)" (Air).
•
• Sloan fans will get an early Christmas present from the band next month: an anthology of the group's videos.
"Second Hand Views" will arrive in stores Nov. 23 and compiles 47 minutes of Sloan's videos. The set includes everything from their indie version of "Underwhelmed" through to TV commercials for their live set "Four Nights At The Palais Royale."
Here's a full track-listing for the set:
"Underwhelmed," "500 Up," "Coax Me," "People Of The Sky," "The Good In Everyone," "Everything You've Done Wrong," "The Lines You Amend," "Money City Maniacs," "She Says What She Means," "Underwhelmed (Original)," "People Of The Sky (Alternate)," "TV Commercials." •
• Sloan's Chris Murphy would like to go back to the days when men were men and real bands produced albums regularly. No Nine Inch Nails as the model of choice. The pop-rock foursome's latest, Between The Bridges, was recorded in six weeks, which isn't remarkable, except that it's Sloan's third album in 16 months, including 1998's gold-selling Navy Blues and this year's live opus, 4 Nights At The Palais Royale.
The self-deprecating bassist and co-vocalist calls it "the ass end" of recording, whereby each band member -- Jay Ferguson (guitar/vocals), Patrick Pentland (guitar/vocals), Andrew Scott (drums/vocals) and Murphy -- is "the captain of their own thing," in charge of the songs he delivers.
"We're trying to devise a system this time to record all year andf**k this six-week thing. It's funny. We basically just sh*t albums," says Murphy. "'Okay, it's time to make a record. I got three (songs). I got three (songs) Let's go.' And we don't have a producer ever. (But) there's care put into everything."
Despite the seeminly slapdash contribution of each Sloan guy to Between The Bridges, the result is being called a concept album, dealing with band issues like breaking out of Halifax ("The N.S.", "The Marquee And The Moon"), displacement ("Sensory Deprivation), the struggle within ("A Long Time Coming"), survival ("Take Good Care Of The Poor Boy"), the music business ("Losing California") and experiencing the world ("Delivering Maybes").
"It's a little bit after the fact. It's a little bit forced," admits Murphy of the theme. "To me, I guess, we could have fashioned any record as a concept record but before we were recording, I was like, 'I'm going to change the key to this one because this one would flow into this one."
Murphy, who calls the three songs he wrote for Between The Bridges ("So Beyond Me," "All By Ourselves," "The Marquee And The Moon") "all the crappy ones," adds that this album contains "songs that could be the 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' of today.
"I just think that a song like 'Delivering Maybes' is so much better than everything else on the radio. There's a also a song, 'Don't You Believe A Word,' which I feel is a perfect pop songs. But pop music has gotten so shitty that we're not even allowed to play with the pop. Because pop is so f**kin' left field, the minute we plug in an electric guitar we're heavy metal, even though I think we're a pop band. But we're being forced to be a rock band because pop is just out of control. It's so saccharine."
Sloan leaves today for a micro-mini U.S. tour -- Seattle tomorrow night, San Francisco (15) and Los Angeles (16), before boarding a plane to Australia for dates in Melbourne (22) and Sydney (23), with a possible second date in Sydney on the 21st if the first sells out. A Canadian tour is not planned until the new year.
•
• Twelve hours after finishing an invite-only gig at the Night Gallery, Andrew Scott is sitting in his hotel's restaurant with a plate of eggs, sausages and hash browns.
The drummer for Canadian pop-rock quartet Sloan just woke up, yet he's already juggling an early-afternoon breakfast and an interview, all in the interests of promoting his band's fifth studio effort, Between the Bridges.
"We had a lot of resistance about putting this record out, particularly because there are so many other records coming out at the same time," Scott says.
Especially new CDs by compatriots The Matthew Good Band and Our Lady Peace ...
"Drives me nuts," Scott responds bluntly.
"Those bands, we keep hearing about them selling 200,000 albums the first week. We should be selling that many."
Sloan fans would surely agree. Between the Bridges is one of the best pop-rock albums of the year and arguably Sloan's finest long-player. The autobiographical song cycle charts the band's story from its beginning in the Halifax music scene; at the same time, it brings all the members' various
classic-rock influences -- from The Beatles to Todd Rundgren and AC/DC -- to bear on 12 infectious, effortlessly melodic tunes.
"All of our records -- the way we write songs -- are autobiographical.... But this one was just a little more planned out at the a-- end of the recording," says Scott.
"Most concept albums didn't start (as concept albums). They just ended up that way. I don't think people have a clue what they're doing until it's done and you start to arrange it and edit things. That's how we came up with the concept for this record."
New songs such as Friendship, All By Ourselves and A Long Time Coming hint at the strange mix of camaraderie and tension that seemingly gives this quartet its edge.
Scott, bassist Chris Murphy and guitarists Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland all sing lead vocals and contribute songs; onstage they're a tight, symbiotic unit that regularly swaps instruments as necessary (at the Night Gallery, Murphy took over drum duties when Scott picked up a guitar to sing his songs).
Yet, behind the scenes, Scott says: "There's a definite tension. It's just a tension that's never released. We're the ticking time bomb of bands.
"Like, nobody would ever have the heart to kick anybody out of the band because everybody is too chicken. We're passive-aggressive like there's no tomorrow. It's a very delicate little ecosystem we have going.
"I'm probably the most hard-nosed and, if anybody had the ability to do some damage, I think it would be me. But I dunno. It's a weird band, but I think that's what makes it good."
At the same time, they always split money equally and, even though they don't share the same musical passions (Pentland isn't a big Beatles fan; Murphy calls Ferguson's sweet pop confections "fruity"), they have utmost confidence in their own output.
"We all like our band more than any other band, I think," Scott says. "At least I do. I'm my own favourite band."
Solo projects are not even an option.
"It will never happen because we can do that within the band. That's the deal: We all write, there are no rules, there's no boss, we all make the same amount of money, and you can do whatever you want.... We have the most fortunate situation in terms of freedom. That's what keeps us together, essentially."
•
• Sloan is slated to release its first live recording in March. The album is tentatively called "Live At The Palais Royale", because it was recorded at that lakefront venue in Toronto during the band's four sold-out shows there in November.
The 28 songs, which will most likely comprise a double-CD, are presently being mixed by Brenndan McGuire. No overdubs are expected to be done, according to murderecords' Colin MacKenzie. "They're tweaking it in a mixing sense, trying to smooth out the the edges," he said in an interview, Wednesday.
Sloan's latest studio album, "Navy Blues", has been certified gold (50,000 copies) in Canada, and has been released in the U.S., Japan and Australia on the band's own label, murderecords, through various distributors.
MacKenzie says "Live At The Palais Royale" will be released "at a lower level than past records," referring to the promotional budget behind it.
"We'll probably be exporting that album to everywhere. We don't think we'll be releasing it officially in the States or in Japan. Then they're working on their next studio album, which will be released in September or October."
Sloan will start on the new album upon completion of its upcoming American tour, which begins in Pontiac, MI, Jan. 29 and ends Feb. 20 in East Lansing, MI. It hits Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland and other cities in between. Labelmates Local Rabbits will open from Feb. 6 to 13; Toronto band The Deadly Snakes will support on other dates. •
• So what was Chris Murphy's recipe for success when his band Sloan headed for Japan last week?
"I'm just going to bring all my best clothes so they'll think I'm a snappy dresser, with a sense of style, and they'll fall in love with us," laughed Murphy over the phone from Toronto.
It's hard to say if Sloan will become the biggest East Coast splash in the Far East since Rita MacNeil took that fast train to Tokyo, but they've built up a following there since their first album Smeared several years ago and with the release of their latest CD, Navy Blues. The trip will give them some stories to tell when they come back home to Halifax to play in the Dal SUB's MacInnes Room on Wednesday and Thursday.
A fan report of the Sloan show in the Japanese town of Nagoya, posted on the Internet on the alt.music.sloan newsgroup, shows things went well.
The band played to an enthusiastic crowd at Nagoya's Club Quattro, giving a tight show followed by an hour of signing autographs.
Sloan also appeared on MTV Japan and performed an in-store show at HMV Tokyo before flying out on Friday.
It sounds like the trip matched the optimism Murphy expressed before they left.
"We're better prepared this time, we're a better band, and we have four albums behind us. We've been pushing Chip (Sutherland), our manager, to go, but there hadn't exactly been people calling us asking us to come over."
Murphy says there had been plans to cross the Pacific in the past, and that Japan had been "dangled like a carrot" before, when Sloan was signed to the short-lived U.S. label The Enclave, but the timing and opportunity hadn't really been solid until now.
Now that the band is getting over the jetlag at home in Toronto, there's the matter of playing their hometown of Halifax which, with the exception of a spot on the last East Coast Music Awards, hasn't been graced with a Sloan appearance since last year's Halifax On Music festival, which they closed with a slapdash performance in the Lord Nelson ballroom that featured as-yet-unheard Navy Blues material.
"I seem to remember we had some kind of redemption show, because that thing at the Lord Nelson Hotel was terrible. Haven't we played since then?"
Murphy realizes he was thinking of Sloan's slot on Our Lady Peace's Summersault festival in Moncton, but is quick to point out that the past months of touring mean Halifax will get one of the most solid shows they've ever played here.
"We more together now," he says. "It's just a matter of convincing everyone to stick to what we know. Sometimes Andrew gets bored and wants to try something new, and we go along with it, but then we just go, 'Oh, that was terrible.'"
"We're gonna keep it together, keep it pro, for Halifax."
Still, as excited as Murphy claims to be about finally playing Halifax again, it doesn't quite beat what he calls the "biggest thrill I've had in years"; the surprise reunion of his old Halifax band Kearney Lake Rd.-which also featured Sloan guitarist Jay Ferguson as well as bassist Henry Sangalang-on his birthday when Sloan played Toronto's Palais Royale recently.
"Henry and Jay worked it out together, and I didn't know it was happening...It was awesome, I have it on videotape, but it wasn't fair because I couldn't remember any of the words and Henry and Jay had studied the tapes. I had to do play cold.
"We got it on 24-track tape because we're recording a live album. I don't know when it's coming out, it depends on if it's any good or not. I get calls from Brendan, our engineer, who's listening back to it, and he's like, 'I don't know man...'"
A slightly lesser thrill, being named Record of the Week in the glossy celeb mag People, didn't make quite as big an impact on the band, but Murphy says it impressed those who matter most.
"Did you later get to read about why Bill and Hillary stay together? That was a coup, but I don't know if that makes a difference in sales. Mostly it just got my mother psyched, on the phone to all her friends." •
• Sloan guitarist-vocalist Jay Ferguson is panicked when he arrives about 20 minutes late for an interview at his neighbourhood Second Cup recently.
Blame it on Sloan bassist-vocalist Chris Murphy, he says. Murphy called at the last minute to get a drum kit out of Ferguson's basement. The two live a few blocks from each other.
"I was so stressed," says Ferguson, who along with his bandmates begins a sold-out, four-night stint at the Palais Royale on Tuesday.
"I was talking to Chris on the phone like, 'I gotta go!' He was, 'Just put the drums on the porch!' "
All four members of the pop-rock band -- rounded out by guitarist-vocalist Patrick Pentland and drummer-vocalist Andrew Scott -- now live in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood after breaking out of the Halifax music scene in the early '90s with their own record label, Muderrecords.
Since then, the foursome have sold more than 400,000 albums with their most recent record, Navy Blues, the fastest seller of all.
Following its April release, it went gold (50,000 copies sold) in just one month and has now sold more than 70,000 copies.
Helping sales was Sloan's Intimate & Interactive on MuchMusic the same day as Navy Blues' release. It may have not been the group's finest musical moment but it was certainly one of their funniest, as Murphy ended the show by commandeering a passing van outside on the street.
"Some of the songs went well and some of them were a little bit shaky because they were new," admits Ferguson, who would do the show again.
"Sure, yeah, yeah. Live TV to tape and save to watch when I'm 65?
"Any time. That's basically why I'm here with you, Jane, so I can cut out the article and save it," he jokes.
"It's true. I'm happy to talk to anybody. When I was kid, this was my dream, basically.
"When Chris and I were in bands in first-year university and someone from the college paper interviewed us, it was like I'd be thinking about it the night before. 'Oh, my God, I'm doing an interview. That's so awesome. What am I going to say?' And just being excited since I was a kid to either make records, play shows, do interviews, do all those rock-star kind of things.
"I mean, how can I complain about something like this? I'd be like waking up, 'Ah, geez. I've got to talk about myself again for an hour.' "
Sloan began their cross-Canada tour in Victoria earlier this month, but also played 21/2 weeks in the U.S. before that.
The band is also planning to tour overseas in November with three dates in Japan, where Navy Blues was released a month ago.
"We just sold out our Tokyo show," says Ferguson. "About six or 700 people, which is not bad. We've never been there before, so that's pretty good. I would love to be huge in Japan. Be able to go there and make money and be able to go back continually.To me that's totally exciting."
Sloan is also planning to record their live shows there and in Toronto.
"We're going to probably release a live album next year," says Ferguson, predicting a spring release. "But I want to record the live shows in Japan because there's more of an angle. I think a 'live in Japan' record is way more exciting, even though the crowds here will probably be more enthusiastic."
For now, Ferguson promises their Toronto shows will include some new elements, although he wouldn't elaborate.
"We're going to have props on the tour. Stonehenge? Almost. Let's put it this way -- a mixture of Stonehenge with 60-watt lightbulbs." •
• The answer is: Because that's the way KISS did it.
And the question? Why will Sloan's next album be a live recording?
Silly as it may seem, Canada's chart-topping champion of rock has definite plans for its future. After finishing off a cross-Canada tour that brings them to London on Wednesday night, Sloan will head to Japan, tour Australia and the States and then, if all goes as planned, put the finishing touches on a live album.
And as singer/guitarist Jay Ferguson admits, it's all because that's the way Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and the tongue-wagging, face-painted members of KISS did it 20 years ago.
"That's why we're doing a live album," says Ferguson. "That's the only reason. Just to emulate the careers of KISS. Because we're big KISS fans."
During its seven-year career, Sloan has released four albums, including the widely acclaimed Twice Removed (1994) and its most recent release, Navy Blues. And Ferguson admits that KISS released three studio albums before unleashing Alive in 1975, so Sloan isn't completely copying the blueprint of its vinyl hero.
But the Halifax native-turned-Toronto-resident openly admits that he and his cohorts were deeply influenced by the cartoonish antics of KISS.
"I'd seen them on the Grammys or the American Music Awards or whatever, and my mom used to let me stay up late to watch those things," says Ferguson. "And I was so excited by it. I was a big music fan as a kid. I loved the soundtrack to Grease by the Bee Gees, and I loved Cheap Trick and their live album, At Budokan, when that came out.. . . I loved that so much. And KISS, just seeing them up there, being rock stars, there was no turning back."
It seems a tad unusual that Sloan, who epitomize the casual we're-nerds-like-you school of rock, grew up admiring the theatrical excess of KISS, but Ferguson says these rock 'n' roll cycles ebb and flow with the times and trends.
And while some of today's bands, such as Pearl Jam, forsake the limelight, refuse to make videos and insist on being treated like plain folk, performers such as Marilyn Manson offer a full-scale, three-ring circus.
"I think that brings back the excitement of Boy George and Culture Club, and before that Marc Bolan and T Rex -- the whole excitement over pop stars," says Ferguson.
"I think that always has to go in waves because you get sick of people who are all just glitz and glamour. And then you want to go back to people who are real musicians and that's why REM and the Replacements came out. But that sort of loses its flame after a while and then along comes something like Marilyn Manson."
But while Sloan won't be painting faces or firing off flame throwers anytime soon, Ferguson says the band admires the way KISS has remained devoted to its fans.
"That's one of the things I really appreciate about them," he says. "I think they go out of their way, and they're so over the top, for their fans.
"I love talking to our fans. And I always want to go out of the way and talk (to them) and sign whatever they want. To me, that's the ultimate, because I can still remember, when I was a kid, when somebody (from a band) stopped and said hello. I'll always remember that." •
• One of the principles of modern journalism is to incite war between opposing parties - "let's you and him fight."
This is the Jerry Springer Rule.
The members of Sloan, the fab four from Halifax, save a step by doing it themselves.
Playing tonight in the Dinwoodie Lounge (moved from the Shaw Conference Centre due to "technical difficulties"), they're reluctant to gripe among themselves, but seem to have no problem airing their beefs in the media.
For example, during a promotional stop this summer, Patrick Pentland went on a rant about the fact that Jay Ferguson brought in just two songs for the fourth album, Navy Blues, and got them both on, while the other musicians with more songs were heavily edited.
Ferguson found out about this by reading the paper. He defends himself by saying that perhaps he didn't want to burden the process with material that wasn't his best.
"I think Patrick will talk more frankly to a reporter than he would to me," Ferguson says. "Patrick would never say it to my face, because he's too much of a chicken."
Then there's the stylistic differences. One of Ferguson's songs, Come On, Come On, sounds a lot like the Beatles. "I take that as a compliment - we all like the Beatles."
But Patrick told the press, "I'm not even a fan of the Beatles." He's more of a hard-rock guy, having written the single Money City Maniacs, which sounds more like AC/DC.
In a different interview, he said that being in Sloan is "like being in a relationship where you never move in together and you never get married but you're always together. At some point you've just got to go forward or you've got to break up."
All the members of Sloan now live in Toronto - now if only they could be in the same place musically. Each of Sloan's wildly disparate albums amounts to a "best-of our own solo records," Ferguson says, since each member is in complete charge of his songs. While an intensely creative crew, the confusion takes its toll. With inconsistent shows (Sloan was the weakest act at Edgefest), declining attendance (technical difficulties?) and an always uncertain future (the band broke up once before), sometimes it seems as though Sloan is just staying together for the sake of the children.
"For the sake of the money, for sure," Ferguson laughs. "It's a good living. Our band probably would not be together if we weren't set up the way we were with our own record label. If we were just gigging around Toronto on Queen Street, I'm sure we would not be together. We'd probably each be doing stuff with other people that we liked.
"I don't mean to sound negative. Just because we have different styles of songs doesn't mean we don't like them. It's not like we're putting up with each other's songs on the record.
"That's my point of view. Maybe Patrick's cursing under his breath, 'I hate the rest of this s---.'
"Even Chris (Murphy) said that in an interview: 'I'd rather make an album of 12 of my own songs instead of having all that other s--- on the record.' "
He was joking, Ferguson says, but then again, Murphy is notorious for framing his true feelings in humour.
To put this in perspective, consider the battling Gallagher brothers in Oasis, the ever-changing musicians in Big Sugar, the "lead singer disease" suffered by Van Halen or all the great bands sadly split due to so-called "artistic differences" (the Cult, Uncle Tupelo, Crowded House, Soundgarden, the list is endless).
"I think we get along a lot better than a lot of other bands do," Ferguson says. "And I think what keeps our band happy is that we do control our own destiny. We make our own records, we produce our own records, we pay for our own videos, we pay for our own records.
"That's fun. It's like owning your own business although you're owning it with three other guys - but it's doing well, so you don't want to screw it up."
Tickets to Sloan, with opening act the Evaporators, are $17.50 and available at Ticketmaster (451-8000). •
• For those about to rock, Sloan salutes you.
And those about to rock are now saluting Sloan.
Since the release of their most successful album to date, Navy Blues, the Halifax four-piece -- three of whom are now based in Toronto -- have been riding high on the wave of acclaim for their rockier sound.
But guitarist Jay Ferguson says this is just another phase in the band's ever-evolving career.
"We listen to all different types of records," he says.
"I like pop music a lot and I guess Andrew (Scott, the band's drummer) is the one who grew up with AC/DC and stuff like that.
"This time, that influence sort of came out a bit more as well as the whole '70s Who influence."
Ferguson admits he was never a fan of heavy rock or metal while growing up in Halifax, but says he slowly began to warm up to them after being subjected to Scott's record collection.
"When I was in high school, I always thought, 'AC/DC? They're such slugs!' But after listening to a few albums, I can sort of appreciate what they're doing."
As for future Sloan albums, Ferguson says he would like to explore a more cutting and pasting technique, already heard on Sinking Ships and Suppose They Close the Door, his two favorite tracks off Navy Blues.
"We did a one-off white vinyl single that wasn't titled ... it was Andrew playing electric piano the rest of us playing one chord," says Ferguson, who plays Edgefest on Thursday along with bandmates Scott, bassist Chris Murphy and guitarist Patrick Pentland.
"It was kind of a different experiment for us. I'd like to see us doing something more like that ... it ended up sounding like a cross between Canned Heat and Stereolab."
Although the members of Sloan have fairly diverse musical tastes, Ferguson says there were no problems with musical differences during the recording of Navy Blues.
"This is the thing -- we never jam, we never practise. Everybody has an idea of what a song should sound like and we put it together in the studio.
"Everybody sort of writes their own songs, so it's usually not a problem with things pulling in different directions." •
• The Worst Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time, a splendid slag-o-rama that's a must for any rock fan, states that every rock artist worth his salt should infuriate his fans from time to time.
Sloan obviously took the book's advice.
The fab four from Halifax, which plays Edgefest on Wednesday, has made four major studio albums that represent four distinctly different directions. And yet they have remained one of the most critically praised bands in Canada. It's maddening - even more so because the band is so great to see live.
Smeared took the country by storm in 1992. It sounded like a grunge rock album, yielding the great Underwhelmed and causing newspapers to hoot: "Halifax - Seattle of the North!"
Then the band took a radical left turn into slick pop music with Twice Removed, yielding one of the brilliant rock lyrics of the '90s: "It's not the band I hate, it's their fans."
Just when fans bent their ears around the new Sloan sound, poof - One Chord to Another came out in 1996. Riding a wave of dubious hype about the band being "back together," it sounded like it was recorded in the mid-'60s inside a garage that had been invaded by a marauding gang of horn players.
And now we get Navy Blues. It's a recording so derivative of the Beatles without actually ripping off the songs themselves that Sloan must've been channeling the spirits of the Abbey Road-era fab four.
A recent performance on top of a radio station building and four separate covers on the Sloan Fan Club Magazine, aka Chart magazine, didn't alleviate the perception.
What's next, Sloan Anthology?
For the launch of Navy Blues in May, guitarist Patrick Pentland and bassist Chris Murphy stopped by Edmonton for promotional interviews, or, as they put it, "to defend ourselves." They were such intelligent, honest and likable guys that it's impossible to stay infuriated at them.
Says Murphy, "I can't take responsibility, blame or credit for everything. There are four of us. Suppose I Close the Door, which is mine, the first two chords on it sound exactly like I Want You (She's So Heavy). That's my fault."
Murphy doesn't try to be "retro" - he just likes old bands. "I prefer the older-sounding stuff," he says. "I think from the mid '60s to the mid '70s is the best sounding recordings."
It's more a matter of production techniques: "I'm wary of current technology no matter when current is. I just feel that it makes things sound really dated. I think it's most apparent in videos. It's like going with a video director who's up on new technology and deciding to let them to put flash frames and blurry-edged focus in your video and you're like, 'Hey, that looks kind of cool.' And then the next year it's like, 'Oh my God! Why did we do that? Every video looks like that.'
"I'd rather be considered timeless than retro."
As for Pentland, he admits he's frustrated with the Beatles comparison since he's "not even a fan of the Beatles."
He stresses that Sloan's new album isn't all like the Beatles. The single Money City Maniacs, which he wrote, sounds a bit like KISS or AC/DC.
Both musicians express mild frustration at fellow guitarist Jay Ferguson. He writes two songs and gets them both on the album, while Murphy writes a dozen and gets half of them cut. It appears that this kind of dissension is normal for Sloan. Here's a band that essentially writes (and often records) as separate individuals, with each member having absolute control over his material, but splits everything, including publishing royalties, equally.
Comparing the craft of album-making to a Rubick's cube - someone goes harder rock, another member might write a mellow song as a reaction - Murphy admits that one of Sloan's biggest problems has been trying to agree on a set sound.
"We've been criticized for having compilation style albums," he says. " 'This is not a band - this is like four bands,' but I think over time we're influenced by each other and do trust each other to a certain extent."
Says Pentland, "It's as organic as it can be, because there's no plan and there's no boss. So whatever you get is the luck of the draw."
That explains a lot about Sloan's bizarre discography, but the pair promises that when you see the band live, it'll all make sense - sort of.
Murphy jokes, "Actually, I find that live, we're so sloppy that we're just a garage band." •
• Canadian domination.
That is the only slightly tongue-in-cheek new goal for Sloan, Canada's biggest independent rock stars.
On the heels of the well-received, and kinda catchy, new album Navy Blues, Sloan is appearing at this Monday's Edgefest '98 as the first stage in their plan of attack.
Edgefest will be the first tour Sloan has played since September's run through the U.S. with Thrush Hermit.
"I'm looking forward to playing Edgefest 'cause it's a bit of a challenge," says guitarist/vocalist, Patrick Pentland, during a telephone interview from Halifax.
"It'll be nice to just get started. We're going to be playing a lot this year."
Despite being notoriously unappreciative of festival environments, Sloan has thrown in the towel to join the summer's biggest Canadian tour.
"They're a different beast," says Pentland. "When you play your own show, everything's set up for you and everyone's bought tickets to see you and then you play and everyone's into it.
"But with these festivals, most of them probably aren't there to see us. In the past, Chris (Murphy) has reacted kind of badly to some crowd's activities and it's thrown him off."
Murphy, the band's bassist/vocalist, is responsible for responding to fan's queries on their website. His distaste for festival settings is obvious in one of his posts:
"I personally do not like playing outdoors for several reasons. It doesn't feel very Rock and Roll. The people there are there to party/get drunk and the band is inconsequential. Big summer festivals have too many bare feet for my liking and they are jock havens. Also those big shows have too many bands to keep your attention and you're always on right before or after some band that stinks."
Pentland, who insists Murphy was just trying to be funny, is far more diplomatic.
"I'm hoping it will be an enjoyable event. That's my politically correct way of putting it," he says. "Our new attitude will be positive and we'll be more into having fun and playing a good rock show as opposed to being too arty."
The perceived "artiness" of Sloan might be their biggest stumbling block to mainstream success. Despite a fevered fan base, decent record sales and a successful touring history over their seven years together, mainstream radio acceptance has escaped the band.
Pentland says their last release, 1996's One Chord to Another, was ignored by radio programmers despite their strong presence on MuchMusic.
"We didn't consider if it would be sound quality for the radio," says Pentland, referring to the reasons many stations gave for not putting their songs on air. "This time we didn't give them an excuse."
Although Sloan produced the album themselves, they did send the final product off for what Pentland calls, "the most radical mastering job we've ever had."
Once they get radio conquered, which is likely given the response to their first single, Money City Maniacs, Sloan plans on expanding their attack overseas. Their first targets are Australia and Japan.
But in the meantime, Sloan must cross the country with Edgefest. Despite claiming ignorance of most of the bands on the bill -- not counting The Inbreds, who are signed to Sloan's murderecords label -- Pentland is remaining open-minded.
"I'm hoping we'll meet some of these bands that are mysteries to us and we'll all be good friends by the time we roll into Vancouver." •
• There's a common temptation faced by bands with multiple singer-songwriters.
The solo album.
Jay Ferguson vows he will not be led into temptation.
"I really don't like bands that get together to make a record, but everybody has their own solo project on the side," says Ferguson, one of four composers and multi-instrumentalists in the Halifax-based pop-rock quartet Sloan.
"It kills the band because everybody is always saving their best stuff for their own albums and they just bring in the generic stuff for the band.
"I like it when everybody brings in everything to the band, and that makes the band more eclectic, as opposed to being a predetermined idea."
Eclectic is a fine word to describe Sloan's fourth full-length album, Navy Blues, which hits local record shops today. (You'll hear several of the new songs when Sloan performs on Intimate and Interactive today at 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on MuchMusic S.)
Ferguson, Patrick Pentland, Chris Murphy and Andrew Scott bring their influences to bear on the album's 13 songs, a consistently tuneful collection that contains some Sweet- and AC/DC-inspired hard rock and sophisticated pop reminiscent of latter-period Beatles and early Todd Rundgren.
Few modern pop-rock bands show the sort of stylistic reach that Sloan demonstrates on Navy Blues, possibly because many of the songs do not feature the full group.
Ferguson admits the new record is, at times, the work of four solo artists doing their own thing.
"I like our setup completely. Everybody has their own voice, everybody can play different things and everybody brings that to the band. That makes for the most interesting records."
Navy Blues is an interesting record, all right. On one level, it's a guileless pop album whose effortless melodies, old-fashioned production and energetic performances deliver the thrills every time; at the same time, it's also incredibly clever, filled with sly musical allusions to pop music's storied past.
"Sometimes it's conscious; sometimes it's unconscious," Ferguson says.
The Lines You Amend, for instance, had a backing track that echoed The Ballad of John and Yoko. Then there was Scott's song A Side Wins.
"People thought the beginning of it sounds like the first line of Eleanor Rigby -- which, when I listen to it again, I can now notice it," Ferguson says. "But I don't think it dawned on anybody at all when Andrew recorded it. Sometimes things creep in subconsciously."
Which, unfortunately, leads to Sloan being unfairly labelled as a "retro" band.
"I don't think (we're) kitsch or trying to sound like the '60s," he says.
"To me, the best rock records are from the '60s and early '70s -- just the way they're produced and the sounds on them ... rock production should have stopped in 1968. The White Album and Abbey Road are great-sounding recordings. We just try to base our recordings on those classic recordings."
Sloan will perform at Race City Speedway July 9 for the Sun-sponsored Edgefest concert. •
• Canadian pop band Sloan have always done things in their own smart and cheeky way.
So why should their Intimate And Interactive special on MuchMusic on Tuesday -- the same day their new album, Navy Blues, hits record stores -- be different?
"I asked to field the questions myself," says bassist-vocalist Chris Murphy, seated in a Queen St. West restaurant. "That was quickly kiboshed. I personally think I'm good on TV. 'Here's an e-mail from someone and they want to know, blah, blah, blah. What do you think, guys?' I think that would have been kinda cool."
One thing is certain, for a notoriously do-it-yourself group -- they have their own record company, Murderecords in Halifax, and are more critical darlings than commercial successes with album sales of only 375,000 since 1992 -- Sloan is certainly getting the big band treatment for Navy Blues' release.
In addition to the I & I, which starts at 8 p.m., the group is featured in Canadian music magazine Chart, which is publishing -- for the first time -- four different covers of its May issue, one for each bandmember. (Of the four, only guitarist-vocalist Patrick Pentland remains in the group's hometown of Halifax, with the other three now based in Toronto.)
"I think the four covers, it's kind of funny," says guitarist-vocalist Jay Ferguson, at Murphy's side. "It's like when KISS were on SPIN ... It's a little bit corny, but who cares."
Sloan is also set to play on the roof of 101.2 The Edge building at 204 Yonge St. on May 1 at 5 p.m. The group drew 3,500 people when they performed on the same rooftop in 1996. This time, they follow with an autograph session at Sunrise Records, 336 Yonge St., beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Their own tour of Canada won't begin until the fall. But in the meantime, Sloan is part of the recently-announced, eight-city Edgefest tour, which hits Molson Park in Barrie on July 1. Also on the bill are U.S. bands Green Day and Foo Fighters, along with Canadian acts Moist, Tea Party and Econoline Crush.
"We believe that we have to take a step this year and co-opt ourselves into things," says Murphy. "We're trying to play more of a radio game and do things like Edgefest. We're at that awkward stage in our band's career where we have hardcore fans and now we're trying to take it to another level and it's like, 'Well, are they going to be upset with us?' Because we know what it's like to have a favorite band that gets so big that it doesn't seem as interesting anymore."
Meanwhile, Navy Blues is being presented as Sloan's foray into rock, with the press kit trumpeting it as "a kick-ass, rock 'n'roll salute" to such bands as AC/DC, April Wine and Thin Lizzy.
"Chris is always going on about how everything is kick-ass," explains Ferguson. "Like, was he referring to the tea as being kick-ass?"
But Murphy disagrees.
"We never use the word kick-ass to describe anything. In terms of an angle, it's as rock as we get, like we're more of a pop group. But at this time in history, pop music is more associated with the Spice Girls. I think we're a rock group by default, but I think we're a pop group, first and foremost." •
At least one Toronto-based musician isn't pleased with plans to remake Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic film Psycho in color with a "young, hip cast, new locations," and director Gus Van Sant at the helm.
Sloan's Chris Murphy, who is wrapping up postproduction on the band's new video, Money City Maniacs, the first single from their new album, Navy Blues, sums it up like this: "What a waste. I just watched it the other day. If they really want to bastardize it, why don't they just colorize the original, which is equally as gross. That's psycho."
Murphy, 29, feels particularly close to the subject matter since Sloan has opted for a bright, retro look for Money City Maniacs, which includes incorporating the graphics of Psycho title designer Saul Bass.
"We watched the beginning of Psycho, the opening credits -- and the last shot before the first scene of the movie -- the lines come down in an uneven fashion to form a cityscape of sorts. So we might do a bit of that," says Murphy. "The look that I want is the band in a red and white duotone on a black background. I just think that will look really sharp. So we have red, white, black and yellow, and we're just going to make it really graphic, with harsh side lighting. It'll have lines in it, sort of Saul Bass-style." The video is slated to be delivered to MuchMusic next Tuesday and will debut before Sloan's Intimate & Interactive special on April 28, the same day Navy Blues hits stores.
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• Canada's best pure pop band, Sloan, has finally completed its follow-up to the gold-plus "One Chord To Another". The new album, bearing the appropriately humorous moniker "Navy Blues", will be in stores in Canada on April 28.
The band has abandoned an earlier plan to put out two albums at the same time and has instead opted for a 13-song release, which will be preceded by the first single and video, "Money City Maniacs", likely in the second week of April.
"Money City Maniacs" (which I heard a rough mix of late last year in the studio) is a surprisingly tough rocker that pays unabashed homage to late-'70s era AC/DC, a direction that apparently carries over to much of the material on "Navy Blues".
The other material I heard sounded like a mix of hard rock and intricate piano-based epics, with several songs consisting of two or three distinct "movements".
"On this album there's definitely more 'harder rock' songs than we've ever done before," Jay Ferguson said in a news release yesterday, "but at the same time there's also more piano and different instrumentation than we've incorporated in the past."
Adds bassist/vocalist Chris Murphy: "We recorded the record all together in the studio this time, which we hadn't done since 'Twice Removed'. It was really great because it led to more collaboration. It's more romantic when you all work together."
The album was recorded in Toronto at Chemical Sound over the fall of '97 and the winter of '98. It was mixed at Reaction Studios.
Sloan will tour across Canada this year, starting with festival dates in the summer and a cross-country tour in the fall.
Meanwhile, the band has also regained the rights to the two albums released in the U.S. on Geffen -- "Smeared" and "Twice Removed" -- and "One Chord To Another", from the now-defunct Enclave label. All three will be re-released through the group's own murderecords label this spring.
"Navy Blues" is not scheduled for release in the U.S. at this time, says band spokesperson Cori Ferguson. •
• It seems high school dances are improving on the live entertainment.
At least for the 565 lucky students of St. Stephen's Secondary School in Bowmanville, Ont., who are getting great Canadian band Sloan to play the school auditorium tomorrow night.
Student Amy Trimble won the concert in Grand & Toy's "Back To School Extreme Music Experience."
Sloan, who won the 1997 Juno for best new alternative rock band, are currently working on their new album in Toronto which is expected to be released in late spring of 1998.
Their previous albums, Smeared and One Chord To Another, went gold in Canada.
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TORONTO -- Guns N' Roses did it. So did Bruce Springsteen. Now Canada's best pure pop band, Sloan, is considering the possibility of releasing two new albums at the same time.
"When you've got a collective in which everyone writes, a single CD ends up taking on almost cartoonish representations of what each of us does," bassist-singer Chris Murphy is saying this week at a cramped Toronto studio, where Murphy, Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott have laid down 18 new songs over the course of a pair of two-week sessions.
"It kind of becomes like, Andrew is the brooding one, Patrick is the metalhead-slash-sensitive guy, I'm the wall-to-wall bridges guy with no choruses, and Jay's the cute, heart-wrenching, adorable one.
"We've got enough songs to put a double album now, and there are more songs that we didn't even record," says Murphy.
Though the band is still deciding what to do with the bounty of material they've accumulated since 1996's "One Chord To Another", the possibilities include releasing two albums at the same time, releasing a second album five months after the first, and releasing one album to retail and another that could only be bought at Sloan's concerts.
"It could be commercial suicide," jokes Jay Ferguson (the "cute, heart-wrenching, adorable" one), "but it's not like we haven't done that before."
"We could put everything onto one CD, but I just think that 75 minutes is a long time to have to sit through for one album."
Plus, Ferguson adds, hardly anyone has tried to pull it off. In 1991, Guns N' Roses released the hugely successful "Use Your Illusion I" and "II". The following year, Bruce Springsteen tried the same ploy with "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town", with substantially less success.
Meanwhile, Sloan intends to wrap up the current sessions with one final two-week push after Christmas. The results -- in whatever form they take -- should be out in May.
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• Sloan will get to work on its new album after a brief U.S. tour that culminates in a showcase gig in New York City.
The Halifax pop band, whose Smeared and One Chord To Another albums are both gold in Canada, is once again without a U.S. record deal after the recent dissolution of The Enclave. (Previously, the band was on Geffen).
"We aggressively fought being picked up," Sloan manager/lawyer Chip Sutherland said Thursday of The Enclave's intention to farm out its roster to one of several labels under the EMI Group of companies. "We just said, 'We don't want to be on EMI or Virgin or Capitol or whatever their plans were because we didn't want to try to fit into someone else's roster'."
Now, Sloan has its catalogue back, which is one of the major signing points for Sutherland.
Another is that Sloan won't give up its Canadian territory. The four-piece has successfully maintained its independence at home through its own Murderecords label, which is distributed by Universal.
"It doesn't really matter to us in terms of America," Sutherland says. "I've got my lines open to open up Murderecords in America on a distribution structure. They could run the label themselves if they want to. They've done enough now that that's a pretty attractive option. Of course, we're happy to talk to anybody. And I've had lots of calls already."
So even though Sloan's eight-city U.S. tour ends in a coveted all-ages show at the 600-capacity West Beth Theatre in The Village, Sept. 20 -- and which will undoubtedly attract a broad field of A&R scouts -- Sutherland isn't concerned about getting the band its third U.S. deal.
"That's why I'm getting calls, because everybody knows they're coming," he says. "We set up the tour in June as a way of following up the next Enclave single, 'Everything You've Done Wrong', and now it's turned into a showcasing type of tour. We decided to go ahead with the tour (after The Enclave demise) because it's an important step to be headlining a show in New York in a 600-capacity venue. That makes you a real band, as opposed to just a club band. And I've been getting lots of call about that. I'm going down a few days ahead of time so I can have a yack with a few people who've spoken to me."
When Sloan returns to Toronto -- where three of the four members are now based -- it will enter the studio in October to begin work on the follow-up to One Chord To Another. As usual, they will produce it themselves. Sutherland says the new material is "shamelessly hits, hits, hits. I heard the demos and I just laughed all the way through -- there's no question about it, they have an urge for a rockin' radio hit."
The album will be finished by Christmas, with a projected release date in Canada of February or March. As for the U.S. release, Sutherland says, "They'll finish making the record and see how they feel about it and then see what people are willing to offer, versus them doing it themselves. But they have the unique luxury of being entirely viable and happy just making records."
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• "Basically, I don't care about the U.S. I want to go to Japan. I think we could be big in Japan," says Sloan bassist and co-vocalist Chris Murphy, only half goofing around.
The four-piece Halifax pop group whose near-platinum murderecords/Universal album, One Chord To Another, was released in the U.S. on The Enclave last month, along with a bonus "party album" that includes covers of April Wine, Roxy Music, Canned Heat and Jonathan Richman; limited imports are available via Sonic Unyon, and Universal is contemplating a domestic release.
Sloan has been opening for Fountains of Wayne in the eastern U.S., then joins Matthew Sweet in the southwest until the first week of May. The short and snappy first single,"The Good In Everyone", was reportedly a top-5 add at alternative radio the first week out and the video received play on MTV's 120 Minutes.
"We might go back by ourselves in June, and I'm hopeful for a Japanese tour in July," says Murphy. "I think you have to have a bit of American success to guarantee you foreign releases."
A critical favorite, One Chord To Another was recently given a 31/2 star review in Rolling Stone. 1994's Geffen release Twice Removed was given the same rating by the magazine as well as being named one of Spin's top 10 records of 1994 you'll probably never hear.
"We have supporters at Spin. I talked to some of them in Austin (at South By Southwest), but I don't know if we'll get a story in there...We have an ad in Spin," he says laughing of the self-bought coverage.
No other territories are on the release schedule just yet. "I don't think the foreign territories are looking just at the band, especially with our situation, they're looking at the label as well," admits Murphy. "Just get me to Japan."
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Though their next album likely won't be out 'til the spring of 1998, Sloan is about to release some new original music.
The band -- which headlines at Toronto's Varsity Arena tonight (Saturday, March 29) -- recorded an "experimental" jam last month in Halifax, and is putting it out as a 7" single. If the pressing arrives in time, it could be on sale at the Toronto gig.
"We recorded a 10-minute instrumental with Andrew (Scott), our drummer, playing an old Fender Rhodes keyboard," Sloan guitarist/vocalist Jay Ferguson is saying this week from Cornerbrook, Nfld.
"It was kinda fun just playing this instrumental jam basically over one chord. It was all done live in a room with just a few microphones. Then we recorded a melody over it for about one minute in the middle -- there's some 'bop-bahs', then three lines of words -- and we made it into part one and part two of a single."
As they did with the recently released American version of their latest album, "One Chord To Another" -- which comes with a bonus "party" CD but is available in Canada in small quantities only as an import -- Sloan isn't making it easy to find their new music.
"It's in a white sleeve, on white vinyl, with white labels, and with no writing on it anywhere," Ferguson says. "There's no mention of Sloan on it. It's just got a little embossed sleeve that says 'murderecords' on it. And the song isn't named at all.
"We're only making 500 of them. We'll probably only sell it at our shows, though we might put it into some stores.
"It's more just an experiment to try something different that we haven't done before, but doing it out of the spotlight of one of our records," adds Ferguson. "But if we did want to try and pursue something that sounds like the single again, at least we'll have a reference point for it."
As for the next proper Sloan release, Ferguson warns fans not to expect anything this year, even though the band has amassed almost enough material for a full album.
"Personally, I'm pretty low on the song scale, but I know Chris (Murphy) and Patrick (Pentland) both have a lot of songs. We could almost record another album now, but we'll probably wait, just because our American record is coming out now. And we'll probably want to sync up our record next time, so it comes out in Canada and U.S. at the same time. ("One Chord To Another" came out in Canada last June. It was finally released in the U.S. two weeks ago.) So there probably won't be anything new for a year."
HALIFAX (CP) -- Aloof, introspective and cool as a cucumber. Sloan's Andrew Scott has always been a reluctant pop star.
Even as the Halifax band's fortunes soar with their critically-acclaimed third CD, One Chord To Another, the 29-year-old drummer seems to keep everything at arm's length.
He lives in Toronto and plays in other bands. He writes and records his own songs and rarely does interviews.
So when rumors of Sloan's demise were at a fever pitch a year ago, Scott was often singled out as the cause.
But Scott talked enthusiastically recently about his place in one of Canada's more interesting young bands.
Sloan plays in Toronto tonight, with The Super Friendz opening, at Varsity Arena.
"That stuff about me causing the breakup, it was completely wrong," he said. "I guess I was an easy explanation because I live in Toronto, but it wasn't like I precipitated anything by moving.
"I've lived in Toronto for years. I was living in Toronto even before we signed with Geffen."
It seems odd for a band's membership to be divided by such a vast swath of terrain. Setting up rehearsals and recording dates is an exercise in travel agents and arrangements.
Communal songwriting is all but impossible.
But while Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland decided to build their musical careers in Halifax, Scott yearned for the busier streets and brighter lights of the big city.
He became plugged into Toronto's pop scene; playing drums in a punk-country band called The Sadies and guitar in the harder-edged punk outfit, The Maker's Mark.
"Playing with these bands is pretty fun because they're both pretty low-key," he said. "It's so different from playing with Chris and Jay and Patrick."
Scott insists Sloan is still his main gig. The foursome survives and even thrives.
That's largely because it's a steadfastly democratic set-up -- the band has no discernible leader and everyone writes his own songs and sings.
The production of One Chord To Another, released on Sloan's own Murderrecords label after two albums with Geffen, is a perfect example of how well the band works independently.
Scott was never in the same studio as the others. He recorded all his drum parts on a simple, four-track recorder in the band's Halifax practice space before the others cut their parts.
"We just set up a couple of room mikes and I banged out all the parts," Scott explained. "We did it that way to get a boxy, compressed Who-like drum sound."
Scott contributed two songs to the album, which is flavored heavily by the '60s pop of The Beatles and Who.
He wrote and recorded the abstract and discordant 400 metres and A Side Wins by himself (guitar parts and all) in a Toronto studio and sent the finished tapes to Halifax.
"I was nervous as hell sending those songs in," Scott recalled. "They had no idea at all what they were getting.
"I guess they liked them. Nobody is afraid to speak up about things they don't like."
Murderecords,
P.O. Box 2372,
Halifax Central,
Halifax, N.S.,
B3J 3E4.
Don't forget to specify if you want the album on CD or vinyl.
You can also get more info by e-mailing murderecords at details@murderecords.com.
HALIFAX (CP) -- Aloof, introspective and cool as a cucumber. Sloan's Andrew Scott has always been a reluctant pop star.
Even as the Halifax band's fortunes soar with their critically acclaimed third CD, One Chord to Another, the 29-year-old drummer seems to keep everything at arm's length.
He lives in Toronto and plays in other bands. He writes and records his own songs and rarely does interviews.
So when rumors of Sloan's demise were at a fever pitch a year ago, Scott was often singled out as the cause.
But in Halifax last week as Sloan prepared for a short East Coast tour, Scott talked enthusiastically about his place in one of Canada's more interesting young bands.
"That stuff about me causing the breakup, it was completely wrong," he said. "I guess I was an easy explanation because I live in Toronto, but it wasn't like I precipitated anything by moving.
"I've lived in Toronto for years. I was living in Toronto even before we signed with Geffen."
Still, it seems odd for a band's membership to be divided by such a vast swath of terrain. Setting up rehearsals and recording dates is an exercise involving travel agents, and communal songwriting is all but impossible.
But while Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland decided to build their musical careers in Halifax, Scott yearned for the busier streets and brighter lights of the big city.
He became plugged in to Toronto's pop scene; playing drums in a punk-country band called The Sadies and guitar in the harder-edged punk outfit, The Maker's Mark.
"Playing with these bands is pretty fun because they're both pretty low-key," he said. "It's so different from playing with Chris and Jay and Patrick."
Scott insists Sloan is still his main gig. The foursome survives and even thrives. That's largely because it's steadfastly democratic -- the band has no discernible leader and everyone writes their own songs and sings.
The production of One Chord to Another, released on Sloan's own Murderrecords label after two albums with Geffen, is a perfect example of how well the band works independently.
Scott was never in the same studio as the others. He recorded all his drum parts on a simple, four-track recorder in the band's Halifax practice space before the others cut their parts.
"We just set up a couple of room mikes and I banged out all the parts," Scott explained. "We did it that way to get a boxy, compressed Who-like drum sound."
Scott contributed two songs to the album, which is flavored heavily by the '60s pop of The Beatles and Who.
He wrote and recorded the abstract and discordant 400 metres and A Side Wins by himself (guitar parts and all) in a Toronto studio and sent the finished tapes to Halifax.
"I was nervous as hell sending those songs in," Scott recalled. "They had no idea at all what they were getting.
"I guess they liked them. Nobody is afraid to speak up about things they don't like."
Ottawa Sun
WHO WOULD have guessed that the secret to success is pulling a disappearing act?
That's what the Halifax group Sloan found in the months leading up to the release of their most recent album, One Chord To Another.
After issuing their epochal second record, Twice Removed, in 1994 and enduring the frustration of confronting indifference in the U.S. -- especially after their success here at home -- Sloan decided to lay low for a while.
Fans and reporters took that to mean Sloan was finished. Drummer Andrew Scott moved to Toronto and started working with two new bands, The Sadies and The Maker's Mark. The obituaries, laments and tributes to Sloan started pouring in. Chart magazine even asked the record industry to help name the best Canadian albums of all time, and the shocking first-place winner was Twice Removed.
Sloan was being smothered with love, at the very moment they were nowhere to be found.
"I think we took a lot of pressure off ourselves after Twice Removed by basically trying to hibernate, which got blown up into you're breaking up, which we turned into: `Sure we're breaking up, if you say we are. We'll come out with a new record whenever we want.' " The speaker is guitarist-singer Patrick Pentland, who brings Sloan to Carleton University's Porter Hall on Sept. 27 for a show with Local Rabbits and Elevator To Hell.
"We took a break and then we started working together again, but without any outside pressures. We realized we still really enjoyed playing together again, as a band," says Pentland, adding the turning point came when the band extricated itself from their contact with Geffen Records in the U.S.
One Chord To Another is a tuneful blast. Pentland attributes that to a more unified band vision, increased confidence and an indulgence in their love for the '60s sound of the Beatles, Zombies and Hollies.
"We were seeing things all the same way -- for the first time ever. We all wanted to make the same record.
"By and large, everyone is very cautious about stepping on each others toes, because we respect each other. I think the people I work with are very talented. I have to trust their instincts."
After three years as Canada's flagship alt-pop band, Halifax's Sloan have decided to pack it in. Sort of.
"It's kind of a split," says Sloan guitarist Jay Ferguson. "Our official response to the question is `maybe.' "
Although the band does not rule out future projects together, Sloan's headlining gig at Edgefest 3 - this Saturday at the Molson Amphitheatre - has been deemed their last.
One symptom of Sloan's troubles: It seems that all those stories of a rocky relationship with Geffen Records after their 1992 debut album Smeared were true.
"Geffen basically wanted Smeared 2," Feguson says of the label's negative reaction to last year's followup, the superior Twice Removed. "They wanted something that would stand up next to the new Smashing Pumpkins record. We didn't deliver that record and it really frustrated them."
Ferguson is quick to add that the band's reservations about how they were treated south of the border do not carry over to MCA, which handles Geffen's acts in Canada.
"We have no problems with MCA Canada," he says. "And there are different opinions within our band about Geffen. My opinion is that there are people at Geffen in the States who are very supportive. But even with certain people working for you, if there's certain people working against you it's like a brick wall. It was totally frustrating."
No less frustrating are the misunderstandings that have surrounded Sloan's demise.
Says Ferguson: "A lot of people think we got dropped, and therefore we're just gonna split up and drift away. That wasn't the case. Geffen wanted to pick up our next two albums, but we decided against it and told them that we're not going to make any more records."
At least for now. As long as the official word is effectively hiatus, the band can always restart things and save face without it being a Sloan `comeback.'
"Right," says Ferguson. "Like, The Who's re-formation in 1989 was a bad idea because they'd sworn they would never do that. We don't want to be The Who."
Incidentally, The Who's so-called last show, in 1982, took place in Toronto, which does put Sloan on a potential parallel.
"Well, I wanna be Pete Townshend," Ferguson muses. "Start a publishing company ... You'll be seeing my Broadway musical soon."