by Susan Doolan
One of Canada's most popular bands, Sloan, will be performing for their third New Year's Eve, Saturday, in Barrie. The headliners for the annual free family Downtown Countdown also mark two significant anniversaries - Canada kicks off a year-long celebration of events in 2017 for its 150th year and Sloan is wrapping up their One Chord to Another 20th Anniversary Tour.
The tour began in Barrie earlier this year. It marked the Canadian reissue of the band's 1996 release of One Chord to Another. The U.S. release was one year later. It was the third album for Sloan and was their most commercially successful record. The group will be playing some of those songs along with the recently released - "Kids Come Back Again at Christmas" and "December 25" - at the Downtown Countdown.
"We will probably do our most recognizable songs," said bass player Chris Murphy, of their plans for the evening. "We've had songs on the radio a lot of people of the right age - 30s and 40s - would know."
Some of their children would also know the songs as the band has been together long enough - 25 years - to attract a second generation of fans. Murphy and Jay Ferguson (guitar, vocals) knew each other from other bands prior to Sloan but didn't join forces until Kearney Lake Road, an underground band they were both members of from 1987-1990.
Currently based out of Toronto, Sloan started out in Halifax, emerging out of the early American punk alt-rock scene before it became mainstream music. Patrick Pentland (guitar, vocals) and Andrew Scott (drums, vocals) both of whom played in other bands in the area, joined them 1991. For the past 10 years, Gregory Macdonald has become their regular keyboard player.
While Sloan never became a world-wide phenomenon, the band did have a lot of exposure on Canadian radio and television from the 1980s to early 2000 and acquired a dedicated following in the U.S. Along the way, they released 20 albums - including two compilations, one of singles and one of 'B' sides - and collected several East Coast Music Awards and nine Juno nominations.
All went university but all studied different subjects. Murphy acquired an English degree at Dalhousie in Halifax. He did it to "stay friends with his dad forever" and then moved on to study at NSCAD (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design).
For Murphy, it was always music, even though as a kid the genre was different, and that impacted any formal training in guitar.
"I was set up to take guitar lesson in Grade 3 and I was so into KISS that I wanted to be a rocker already and when I went to guitar class they wouldn't put me on a guitar - it was all clapping and ta, ta, t,t, ta stuff," he recalled. "I was so turned off. I was an impatient kid, I would have shown up for guitar in full KISS makeup but ta, ta, ta - I'm out of here."
His mother ended up teaching him a few guitar chords and by junior high he was really into music, mostly punk. While Sloan is far from punk, it does tend to defy genres - band members like to argue about whether they are more of a pop rock band or a rock pop band. Whatever the end result, they all come to songwriting a little differently than a typical band.
"Everyone is in charge of their own real estate on the records and the set list and whatever you want to do is your prerogative and we'll all do it," said Murphy, adding that kind of approach could run them into problems but it balances out when 25 per cent of the time, each can do exactly what they want to. "Every decision we made from day one was for the longevity of the band whether it was getting everyone to contribute creatively or splitting the money."
Twenty five years later, the original lineup remains the same. For Murphy, touring with the band and the extended crew is also a lot of fun because they are his best friends. When he's not touring, he's a homebody, living in an artistic household with lots of music and dance. His longtime partner is a dancer and the couple of have two children age nine and six.
--taken from: The Barrie Examiner
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