by Jenny Charlesworth
Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland of Sloan aren't too interested in winning another Juno. Their longtime band are up in the Best Rock Album category for The Double Cross but the guys are pretty blase about it. So are the Canadian indie rock veterans too cool for award season? Nope, they're just design snobs.
"Junos now are horrible!" Pentland tells Spinner. "You don't want to win one, aesthetically."
"Unless they go back to the old design," jokes Ferguson. "Then we'll consider accepting one."
"I have my Juno above my kitchen cabinet, it's prominently displayed," he adds. "But it's the old-style one, the weird three-dimensional isosceles triangle."
The bandmates can have a good laugh over the Juno award revamp but they agree there's no need to mock the honour itself.
"I don't mean to downplay it at all," says Pentland. "Our Juno nomination is for our album, which we made with somebody -- Ryan Haslett was the engineer, Gregory McDonald plays with us and we have management and road crew -- so it's not just about celebrating the band, it's about celebrating everyone involved in the record and who helped to promote it. We don't take that lightly, it's nice to be nominated."
Sloan has been around for longer than most of the groups who will be walking the red carpet at Sunday's star-studded award show in Ottawa. And for that, the guys are truly thankful -- though their gratitude may be concealed by perfectly-timed jokes.
"I'm grateful that our band has been together for 21 years and we're still being recognized," says Ferguson. "There aren't that many bands up for an award that have been making records that long beyond Blue Rodeo and Ron Sexsmith; it's a younger kid's game."
While they band are happy to see The Double Cross rack up some Juno fanfare, they are a bit worried about what that means for the next record.
"We tend to do records in threes and I feel like this record is the third -- Parallel Play, Hit & Run and this record all have a similar feel to them -- which means that the next one will suck and then we need another rebirth," says Pentland.
"Although, I made a demo the other day in my basement that sounds like My Bloody Valentine so maybe we're OK, maybe we'll make a louder record."
"Yes," says Ferguson, "we're due for one of those records."
--taken from: Spinner
