 |
 |
It's ten days before Sloan begins its North American trek with a North By Northeast slot tonight at Toronto's Mod Club and already guitarist Jay Ferguson is rehearsing, just not in the usual way.
"It is backwards how we work," he says inside a College St. coffee shop. "We basically have to buy the record to learn how to play it. I'm kidding, we don't have to buy it but literally we make a record and then we have to learn it."
The quartet released its ninth studio album, Parallel Play, on Tuesday. At 13 songs, it's a far cry from the larger, grandiose 30-song affair 2006's Never Hear the End of It turned out to be.
"For the last one we recorded for a long time so we knew it was going to be long," Ferguson says. "We were trying to figure out how we were going to link songs up so things were a little more considered. With this one it was more like, 'We have to have an album finished by the end of February. What've you got?' "
The album title also perfectly describes the band's songwriting process with all four contributing. Taken from child psychology studies, "parallel play" means children playing side by side without interacting.
Having Ferguson, drummer Andrew Scott, bassist Chris Murphy and guitarist Patrick Pentland on their individual musical islands could result in a messy, unfocused affair. But Ferguson says adding harmonies on the songs brings the album together.
|
"If it was just the music and you didn't hear the voices it would be like flipping through radio stations -- there's a Christian channel, Top 40, Oldies and then Modern Rock," he says. "I think our band is meant to be this four-headed monster that does songs where some are on a four-track and some are slicker. It just is what it is."
Parallel Play is getting some early praise primarily because it's a return to what worked for the band more than a decade ago, falling nicely between 1996's One Chord to Another and 1998's Navy Blues.
Probably the lone curveball on the record is Down in the Basement, a song done by Scott that's about as Bob Dylan-esque as you can (or would like to) get.
"It was definitely an homage to that style," Ferguson says. "It sounds like Bob Dylan and it's almost recorded like the way Bob Dylan would record, the way he would just be off the cuff and do half an album in a day. Andrew likes Bob Dylan and that style. He didn't sweat over it at all and it gives it that ramshackle feel but I quite like that song."
Ferguson also says he had some problems explaining the lyrics to one of his own numbers, Cheap Champagne, to a friend.
"It's just about a friend of mine, a girl who I knew last year and some lines stem from it," he says. "There are a couple of lines that she heard and she was taken aback and almost upset. So I had some explaining to do, 'Oh that part is not about you, the rest of it is fictitious.' "
Following the U.S. tour, Ferguson says the band will do some summer gigs in Canada before starting a proper tour either in September or October. He also says Sloan is getting some new life in the States thanks to signing to American label Yep Roc.
"They're great, they're just really enthusiastic which we hadn't really had in the States for a while," he says.
"Especially for us because this is our ninth album, we've been together for 17 years and it's hard to be the freshest thing or coolest thing so it's really nice to have someone who's really enthusiastic about the records we're making. Sloan is more of an underground phenomenon down there so they feel that there's more room to move.
"In Canada it's like, 'Oh, Sloan are doing another album.' "
Like a family business
When they first began back in 1991, Sloan didn't have to worry about going out on the road and leaving any little bundles of joy behind.
But now with three of the four members with kids, going on tour can be a bit of a double-edged sword.
"I'm the barren one so it's not that bad for me," Ferguson says with a laugh.
"I think sometimes they're glad to be away and don't have to think.
"It's almost like they're on vacation but then after a couple of days they're like, 'Aww.' It's nice for a break but of course they miss their kids.
"I think we've always toured considering that, we haven't toured for like three months (straight) or if there's anything fun far away we try to bring them.
"Luckily because we run our own operation we can carve out how we want to work and when we want to work -- so it's like a family business.
"It's like a small cornerstone run by four brothers."
Sloan also added to its musical family when its label Murderecords signed two new groups to the roster in Will Currie and The Country French as well as Pony Da Look. Pony Da Look features Chris Murphy's girlfriend as their drummer while Ferguson discovered Will Currie and The Country French in Toronto.
"It's very influenced by The Beatles, Rufus Wainwright, Steely Dan, '70s kind of pop," he says.
"And they're all really young, 20 or 21. They're great kids and endearing, nice folks."