Chris Murphy celebrates the 20th anniversary of Sloan's biggest album, One Chord to Another, by sharing songs that bonded the bandmates. (Ben Shannon/CBC)

--taken from: The Globe and Mail

by Vish Khanna

At the risk of putting too fine a point on their impact, Sloan loomed large in Plaskett’s psyche. As O’Kane outlines, the band really did put “nowhere” Halifax on the map in terms of cool, underground art-rock and were the first band to gain external approval, signing an American record deal with the David Geffen Company in the early nineties.

Sloan’s Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson in particular embraced their role as figures in a big brother band that influenced the sound and aesthetic of the younger men in the Hermit, among many others. They even spearheaded their own label, Murderecords, and primarily worked with artists in town.

“For so long, bands had been ignored in Halifax,” Ferguson tells O’Kane. “It was the right time to make sure everything was documented.”

But Sloan eventually moved to Toronto and that initial burst of energy dissipated; Thrush Hermit broke up and members Rob Benvie and Ian McGettigan also headed to western provinces. But Plaskett was undaunted and O’Kane frames this moment as crucial to understanding where Plaskett’s priorities lie.

Plaskett likely should have left for a bigger city, too, but instead he hunkered down, building a new band with local players and even enlisting his own father, musician Bill Plaskett, to collaborate on his new songs. O’Kane writes of the infrastructure Plaskett, like Sloan before him, developed with a Halifax management team that eventually led him to build his own studio and label, under the brand New Scotland Yard.

--taken from: The Globe and Mail