by Jane Stevenson
Canadian rock-power-pop band Sloan’s long-standing democratic songwriting philosophy became more formalized on their 11th studio release, Commonwealth.
Each of the four members got their own side of the double disc titled after playing card suit names like Diamond (singer-rhythm guitarist Jay Ferguson), Heart (singer-bassist Chris Murphy), Shamrock (singer-lead guitarist Patrick Pentland) and Spade (singer-drummer Andrew Scott).
“At the risk of suggesting that this is not really very special – the writing process was all the same – it’s really only a sequential difference,” said Murphy, 45, recently in a coffee shop in T.O’s Bloor West Village before the group’s Canadian tour kicks off next Tuesday.
“We play as much or as little on each other’s songs as ever. Each of us splits the real estate of the records fairly evenly. I probably wrote the majority of the stuff at the beginning (of Sloan’s 1991 formation in Halifax)...and to us (on Commonwealth) it was just a fun experiment like, ‘How much of ME can you handle?’”
That being said, Murphy says Pentland – the hardest rocking of the bunch – has written the most hits for Sloan, including Commonwealth’s first single Keep Swinging (Downtown), while Scott, whose contribution is one 17:49 minute song called Portal has written the least.
“(Patrick) probably feels a lot of commercial responsibility that Andrew does not feel,” said Murphy.
“You could frame it that Patrick is financing Andrew’s art project or that Andrew lends credibility to a professional rock band. I really think that he’s a world class player both on drums and guitar. He plays most of the lead guitar on most of my songs.”
As for Jay Ferguson, Murphy states: “I’m kind of Jay’s henchman in a way. Like Jay has this vision...he wakes up in the night and writes down ideas. Jay and I work together really well and we love to work. Had we become really rich off this we may have retired and been sitting on our asses in Palm Springs. But we haven’t made enough money to retire EVER. I’m already 45. I’m in a young person’s game.”
So how much longer can Sloan continue then?
“Well, I look at 54-40 and Blue Rodeo and I say, ‘Well, if they can do it, they’re 10 years ahead of us.’ And they look at Rush and The Guess Who. I joke sometimes, ‘If you’re around for 20 years doesn’t that mean that you can do it forever?’ ”
Still, Murphy is definitely proud of Sloan’s legacy – 200 released songs over the last 23 years with the same four members still intact. And he’s happy that Commonwealth, which debuted at No. 9 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, is the group’s highest position on that chart in their history.
“It’s the culmination of everything we’ve been working towards – our ability to do this.”
--taken from: Toronto Sun
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