Four solo artists in one band? How about four producers? Four multi-instrumentalists? Four distinct egos?
Veteran indie rockers Sloan have defied all odds and then some. Nine studio records and eighteen years into this Toronto quartet’s rollercoaster career, Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott’s creative output, both collectively and individually, shows no signs subsiding any time in the near or distant future.
Sloan’s latest album Parallel Play emerges a leaner, meaner effort as compared to last year’s thirty track epic: the aptly titled Never Hear The End of It. Recalls Murphy “it was luxurious to record so many songs but we couldn’t afford the time or money to do it this time. We concluded that something much shorter would be merciful to ourselves and anyone else who was following along.”
For Parallel Play each Sloan member was allotted three songs with the exception of Scott, who, for some unknown reason, got four. The band’s modus operandi vacillated between total control (Scott plays all the instruments on his tracks) to mixing and matching various members according to their strengths and specialties. “Andrew is the wildest card in our deck” quips Murphy, “I exploit him to the fullest, laying out chords for him to play piano or guitar.”
Pentland chimes in “I think we create better separately than when we try to do it together. Some times collaboration works, but we’re such different people, that it doesn’t make sense to try to force the band to adhere to some preconceived idea of the typical rock band architecture.”
Yet before a song reaches the masses, all Sloan members must sign off on it. “It’s more like each guy is in charge of his own real estate” notes Murphy. “There aren’t a bunch of songs that have been vetoed from an obstinate fourth voter…if that were the case, we would only have released a handful of 7 inches!”
Sloan’s longevity in a vocation that traditionally eats its young is a point of pride for Murphy regardless of the fact that he and his mates are not as revered in the States as compared to their homeland. “By Navy Blues (1998) we had already exceeded our expectations and it’s a good thing too because some people haven’t paid much attention to us since. There aren’t a lot of examples of bands that sustain interest after record number four, so we’re still happy to be around all this time.”
As Oliver Stone immortalized The Doors and Scorsese and the Mayseles Brothers captured the Rolling Stones in all their glory on film, the question remains as to who will play Sloan in a dramatic bio-pic. Though none is planned, Murphy does have a cast in mind. “Val Kilmer would play me - though he would have to continue bulking up - Stewart Copeland would play Andrew, Beck would play Jay and Damian Hurst could play Patrick!”
--Tom Semioli [May 26, 2008]
Photo: Chris Butcher
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Sloan’s Parallel Play will be out on June 10, 2008 on Yep Roc Records.
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