by Erin Lebar
It seems odd that one of the most pivotal albums of a band’s career was created while everyone, including the band members, thought the group had broken up. But such is the case with Sloan’s One Chord to Another, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
"This is the record that, in my mind, is like the first real Sloan record, in that the first two records were quite different from each other... this is kind of the blueprint to what we ended up doing from then on, basically," says Patrick Pentland, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the Halifax-formed, indie-rock act.
Recorded "very cheaply" in a small studio in Halifax over the course of two weeks (though, Pentland says, the drum parts likely took no more than four hours), 1996’s One Chord to Another marked a turning point in Sloan’s career. Prior to working on the album, they parted ways with their U.S. label, Geffen, tensions were high as drummer Andrew Scott had moved to Toronto and the band members were generally unsure of their future together.
After the album was released, things became much more clear.
"At the time, we didn’t have a label because we left Geffen — we sort of asked them to let us out of the contract — and then when we got back together to do One Chord, we went to them and said, ‘Oh, turns out we’re not breaking up after all,’" Pentland says with a chuckle. "But we were sort of doing it on our own; nobody knew we were making the record except for some close friends.
"We had sort of broken up and then got back together again and initially we were just going to record a record and then that would be it. We weren’t going to tour or anything like that. We just felt that we wanted to just do a full stop on the band," he adds. "But then, as it came out and people were interested and really thought it was good, we thought, ‘Well maybe we’ll do some tour dates,’ and then it ended up we were back together and we just kept going."
Pentland, Scott and fellow bandmates Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy ended up releasing One Chord on their own label, Murderecords, and the album — featuring the hit singles The Good in Everyone, Everything You’ve Done Wrong and The Lines You Amend — has since been credited as one of the top Canadian albums of all time, according to a poll by online music magazine Chart.
"I think the first record (Smeared) was a true record, in that it was our first thing that we did; I think the second record (Twice Removed) was us trying to not sound like other people; and this one, I don’t think we cared — we were just like, ‘We’re gonna do our own thing.’"
To mark the anniversary of the album’s release, Sloan has put together a box set (much as they did for 1994’s Twice Removed a few years back) that includes the original album, B-sides, demos, other recordings previously unavailable in Canada and a 32-page book, among other items.
The band will also be hitting the road — making a stop in Winnipeg April 9 at the Pyramid Cabaret — performing a double set every night. The first will run through the entirety of One Chord, front to back, while the second will be made up of career-spanning hits and deep cuts, including tracks from the oft-forgotten 7-inch Same Old Flame/Stood Up, released right before One Chord.
"The timing was right that we wanted to something, some project, and it was 20 years... But we were gonna do it anyway, even if it was 21 years or 19 years," Pentland says of the re-release and accompanying tour. "After we did our Commonwealth record (2014), we didn’t really feel an overwhelming need to do another record right away, so it just seemed like this was the right time to do it."
--taken from: Winnipeg Free Press
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