Sloan - guitarists Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland, bassist Chris Murphy and drummer Andrew Scott - perform Saturday night at Peterborough Musicfest.
by Kennedy Gordon
There’s nothing formulaic about Sloan, even if it might be easy to think so. There’s that sound, four-part East Coast pop harmony vocals over a blend of crunchy rock riffs and/or acoustic campfire strumming. There’s the look, since mimicked by young musicians across Canada who like shaggy hair and vintage ’70s cords. And there’s the inevitability of it all, the instantly hummable summer single, the hit album, the tour. Twenty years in, Sloan doesn’t disappoint.
But there’s no formula.
“We don’t go in with any kind of plan of attack,” says guitarist Jay Ferguson, one of the four Maritimers who founded the band more than 20 years ago and have stuck it out since. “It’s very scattershot, but it just comes together.”
He gets that people talk about “the Sloan sound,” but he wonders a bit about it.
Each of the four members (Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott round things out) writes his own songs, and they all sing, and they can switch instruments at a moment’s notice. So there’s a lot of things going on, with no single musical voice dominating.
“We’re all very different,” he says, talking about their upcoming recording sessions. “You never know what’s going to happen. I haven’t even heard anything Patrick’s working on yet, but I know it’s going to be great.”
But, Ferguson acknowledges, those four disparate voices do in fact swirl together into that distinctive Sloan mix, so much so that for their next album, they’re trying something new: A special release giving each member a chance to be frontman for a few songs, all in a row.
“We’re doing a double album, and we each get a side,” he says. “That’s about 15 minutes of real estate each.”
Sort of like that project KISS tried in the ’70s.
“Yeah, except we won’t be selling them individually,” Ferguson laughs. “It’ll be one record.”
And it’ll be on vinyl, hopefully with a gatefold cover. You’ll be able to get it on CD, too, and iTunes download. Probably not cassette, Ferguson says (a bit wistfully).
“We’ve always put our stuff out on vinyl,” he says. “That’s important to us.”
That love of vinyl was the first indicator that Sloan had no plans to follow any kind of formula. More than 20 years ago, the young band was signed to Geffen Records, but manager Chip Sutherland convinced them to launch their own label as a backup.
“Chip told us we should have something in case this Geffen thing didn’t last, and he was right,” Ferguson says.
That label was Murderrecords, still going strong. And it allowed Sloan’s foursome to tackle side projects, other music, in addition to their time together in the studio and on the road.
“That comes from my own love of the record industry, of record labels with their own identity and their own story,” says Ferguson, who, like his bandmates, appears to be firmly rooted in the glory days of FM vinyl rock.
Modern FM radio has been good to the band, with single after single hitting Canadian charts. Some are big summer anthems — Motor City Maniacs, If It Feels Good Do It. Others are quieter, including The Other Man.
But Ferguson says the band doesn’t set out to write hit singles. “Not something we think about,” he says. If it happens, though, it’s part of the fun, part of the 20 years of music he and his friends have managed to carve out of the Canadian music scene.
“It’s the best job I could have,” Ferguson says. “This is a fantastic way to make a living.”
--taken from: The Peterborough Examiner
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