Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrew Scott: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1679

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

In this 1679th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Sloan drummer Andrew Scott about the complicated history of the band. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Silverwax, Yes We Are Open, Nick Ainis and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1679 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Yes, we are open. An award-winning podcast from Minaris, hosted by FOTM Al Gregor.

Silverwax.ca. Use the promo code TRONOMYK 10 at checkout and save 10%. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline. A podcast and book from Nick Ienies, sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pill pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto Mike debut is Andrew Scott. Welcome Andrew.

Hi, thanks for having me. So when I saw you walking down the street, I noticed right away, a beautiful red baseball cap, Cincinnati Reds cap. And then I started talking to you about Chris Sabo and you're like, who? And I realized, oh, maybe you're not a Reds fan. So you I started talking to you about Chris Sable and you're like, who? And I realized, oh, maybe you're not a Reds fan. So you're not a baseball fan.

Not at all. Not at all. And I know that a red baseball cap these days is not necessarily smiled upon item, especially in this country. Yet you wore one. Or one. It's the Cincinnati. It's a Cincinnati Reds cap. And, you know, I like to sort of spin it like a like it's a Cincinnati Reds cap. And you know, I like to sort of spin it like it's red and whites and a big C for Canada.

But on my guess, I'm naturally curious, why a baseball cap if you're not a baseball fan? Like is it style? You like how it looks? I just like a good hat. You're not, it's not a tribute to Pete Rose or anything like that. Not at all, no. No to Pete Rose or anything like that. Not at all. No, no.

It's more complicated than that. Well, do you enjoy other sports? I do. I play hockey every day of the week except for Thursday. Where do you play? I play all over the city. Do you play in like a rock band league or something? Like you're taking shots on Dave Badini or something? Well, I do play with him occasionally. But no, the people that I play with, some of them are commercial airline pilots. Some of them are real estate agents. Some of them are restaurant managers.

Some of them are journalists. Some of them are retired, blah, blah, blah. OK, just common people. Yep. Shout out to Pulp. OK. So are you a Leafs fan? I wouldn't say I'm a Leafs fan.

I'm not, I don't really have a team. I do follow hockey. Like I'm a student of the game. I just, I just watch it all the time to my wife's and, and daughter's dismay, but they've been having kind of fun watching these opening rounds of the playoffs with me. Like you're, I'm just trying to understand when you become a Maritimer so you're because you're born in Ottawa, right?

I was born in Ottawa, but I moved to the Maritimes when I was like five so typically with a Maritimer route for the Leafs or the Habs like is there an allegiance there? There were no Maritimers that I really know of Except for my brother-in-law who's just an outlier. He's the only Maritimer I know who Roots for the maple leafs. So you're either Montreal or Boston when when you live there, of course Boston, right? That makes sense with the yeah, New England there. Okay. So, okay So I'm just wondering if you'd be tuned in tonight for the for the leafs. Oh, definitely. Yeah Okay, but you didn't wear a leaf cap because the the red hat, you know, I'm thinking pre pre Trump, right?

So Trump's got the red hat thing Fred Durst used to rock a red cap Do you remember this the the Limp Bizkit years so he would wear like a backwards red cap so he was kind of ahead of the game on the whole what red cap meaning kind of a asshat I didn't pay attention to him or the Limp Bizkit Ban whatsoever. So I kind of don't Any other DJ lethal? Okay. I'm gonna play a different tune bring you back and by the way, I'm glad you're here You know, you're the final member of Sloan to visit the basement like I'm honored you're here. Oh, thank you

I yeah, I understood that the rest of my co-workers have all been here. But I saved the best for last, right? Well, we'll find out. Yeah, I'll be the judge of that. Okay, Andrew, I'll be the judge of that. So, in the headphones you're going to hear a jam here and then we're going to talk about it. Maybe. Last song. Last song. This is another one of ours. It's all ours. It's called Power. Power! Power! Power!

Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power!

Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Power! Apologies for the potato quality audio recording, but I think it's amazing I've got audio at

all. Please tell me what we're listening to. I'm going to just guess is it either jail or the fees? No damn fears. Oh, no damn fears. Okay. Songs called power. Close.

Yeah. No, absolutely close. Okay, so take me way back First of all, maybe share a word or two about no damn fears Yeah, no damn fears of the band that exists. I played with them for a brief period toward the end of their existence there in the very late 80s early 90s But they were already performing. And it was, the singer was Jennifer Pierce,

who was also in jail and sang on a bunch of Sloan tracks in the back of the day. The band was sort of, not sort of, but definitely comprised by a guy named Dave Marsh, who plays drums with Joe Plaskett and he does his own stuff to Dave Marsh and the true love rules and it's his stuff is fantastic. And the super friends too right? He played with the super friends here and there too yeah they had a bit of a revolving door drummer situation and

then the bass player in that band No No Damn Fears, was Doug McDonald. He still lives up in Halifax. Okay, and did Matt Murphy play with No Damn Fears? Probably, possibly? I'm sure Matt probably got up here and there or played on a recording maybe once or twice, but he never played live that I recall when I was playing drums for them. So I got to, you know, declare some ignorance on No Damn Fears. So I'm digging into like pre-Sloan roots when it comes to music and stuff,

and I'm listening to some No Damn Fears, and I dug that up. So they released one cassette, it was called Spring 1990, that was recorded apparently in 1989, and then they broke up. So kind of a super group there. When you think about these members of jail and Sloan and Joel Plaskett

emergency and super friends, kind of interesting to have them all come together in this band. Yeah. And it was really an unforced thing. Like it's just sort of, they had the drummer that played with them. Originally a guy named Pete DeGesu who's a visual artist out there in Halifax. He was an American and he spent a lot of time, I think, in the Southwest. And I guess for some reason he was gone

for an indefinite period of time, and Dave and I were becoming friends, and I knew Jennifer pretty well just through my wife Fiona Hyatt and Chris Murphy. I mean Halifax was a very small scene. So you knew everybody whether you knew them or not. Well, that's what I'm kind of digging here for is that like paint the picture of that scene because we know of course Sloan

and we know Joel Plaskett Emergency and Jail and Super Friends. Like these are all bands we know Joe Plaskett Emergency and jail and super friends like these are all Bands we know coming out of the Maritimes in the like late 80s early 90s And it seems like it's like people often talked about it as like you know Canada Seattle like this is like we have this movement There's a scene happening here. Yeah, I mean there was a there was a large very there was a large, very fertile scene before any of us came around too. So there was, you know, it was all Halifax had always had a very rich musical kind of underworld. And we just got, when you slow them down, lucky. We were right place, right time.

Yeah. Did April Wine mean something to you back then? Of course. Loved them. Yeah. So, the late great Miles Goodwin. That's right. Okay. We had him on the show.

Shout out to Miles Goodwin. Sorry to lose him, of course. But by the way, that audio I played from No Damn Fears, it was the Pub Flamingo. Yeah. And it was the Maritime Music Awards showcase. So I don't know if that was you banging the drums or what was going on. That might have been Pete. Gotta correct this for the the public record. And while we're on this, and then it's funny,

I got a recording of I want to watch this leaf game. Okay, so because my 11 year old is suddenly into it, which adds this all new dimension as you know, right, because he didn't seem to care. And now suddenly he cares. So it's like, oh, this is exciting, because I get to do it again here with the 11 year old. And I want to watch this game. But I get this note from Donovan Bailey, who's like, we need to record tonight. And I'm explaining like, I kind of want to watch this leaf game. Like I, you know, so we reached this compromise, we'll do a quick recording at eight o'clock, but I'm not bringing up Donovan Bailey to humble break. I'm trying to segue over to track and field because if you go to the Wikipedia page for you, it says,

I'll read it. If you've never seen it again, I'll read it for you. Scott was once the holder of several provincial track and field records. Lives. So this is a chance to correct the public record because it suggests on your Wikipedia page that you abandon your athletic aspirations to become a visual artist. Like I'm reading that verbatim. Give me the real talk here. Well, it's just such simplified falsehoods. I had, I had held one provincial high jump record for whatever. Not several.

Not several. No, God. How do you go from one to several? Who wrote this? I don't know. I don't know. That's why I've never seen it. Cause I know it's all bullshit. Did Chris write this? What's going on here? No. Okay. So you had a high, you did have a high jump record though for For a time Nova Scotia Yeah, I think so for high school. Okay. Well, that is awesome

It was kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah, okay, but did you have athletic aspirations? Yeah, I really I had a choice after I graduated from high school I was like, okay, am I gonna go to st. FX University, which I have no idea after I graduated from high school. I was like, okay, am I going to go to St. FX university, which I, I have no idea how I got accepted to with my academic, uh, career. Cause I was a terrible student. Like there's the D student. Well, maybe they saw your records and they said, we need him for his athleticism. We need him. I was thinking I would go to St.

FX and maybe try and play basketball. Because that was my sport all through high school. And that's a good basketball team. They were, yeah. I mean, and you know, I just had, it was fun. It wasn't like I thought I'd make it to the NBA or anything, but I was also very interested in art. And I knew from a very young age like what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be an artist. So I also got accepted to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design which is now called NASCAD University and I went

there right out of high school and I don't regret one second. Okay, so when do you fall in love with music though? Because obviously we're on our way to getting you in Sloan. I fell in love with music as a young child. I was brought up in a very musical household. My dad was a jazz musician, self-taught drummer and piano player, guitar player. Oh, so you watched your dad bang in the drums and you're like, I wanna do that. Well, it wasn't even that I wanna do that. I was just like, well, that's in my DNA.

And I didn't even really, I didn't pick up a pair of drumsticks until I was about 19 years old. I started playing guitar when I was about 15. Okay. Quick question on our way to Sloan. What was Oreo reversed? Well it was just Oreo reverse. It wasn't... No D? No D. A lot of corrections to make. And that was a that was my first band and it was comprised of myself and but my name in that band was the Batman and my friend Doug Ferguson his

name was Doug E. Fresh Doug capital E. Fresh pretty sure that was taken though yeah I think he had he I think the other guy was Doug E. D. O. U. G. Y. and then the other guy was a guy named Tyrone Williams who was a His name in in the band was TIC stands for totally in control and so Tyrone was a is a black man and Doug and myself were white and we we formed this band for For the high school talent show at Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax in 1986. Now I get Oreo reverse because Oreos are like there's the black layer and there's the white layer and the black layer and you're the flip. Yeah it's not too complicated.

But you do several trademark violations. My lawyer, Lauren Honigman, wants me to point out that the Batman is owned by DC Comics. Yeah. They want to talk to you. And Oreo, is it Mr. Christie? I don't know, but they want to talk to you as well. Nabisco. Nabisco. OK, so they want to talk to you as well. And Reverse is owned by any car transmission manufacturer.

And Dougie Fresh is online too. He says, hey, I've already taken that name. What are you doing here, buddy? And also, in the one song that we wrote and performed, I played note for note the guitar. I was, I was a guitar player in this band. Um, and, but it was, it was finger quotes, a rap group. Um, but I also played the note for note solo from, uh,

Rumble and Brighton by the Stray Cats. Rumble and Brighton tonight, ringside seats for the neighborhood fight. I love that bill for speed cassette. Oh, so good. Yeah. One of my first favorite, uh, cassettes is built for speed and Rumble and Brighton tonight, ringside seats for the neighborhood fight. I love that Bill for Speed cassette. Oh, so good. Yeah, it's like one of my first favorite cassettes is Bill for Speed and Rumble and Brighton was a standout track. Yeah, killer. Okay, can't believe I have a fellow Rumble

and Brighton head in the basement here. I saved the best Sloan member for last. So let's get you to Sloan. How do you end up in Sloan? Well, it was a complicated sort of Rubik's Cube because Chris and Jay had a band called the Carny Lake Road, which I'm sure you guys all spoke about when they were on these shows. So Carny Lake Road was a great band on a sad note. The third member of that three piece, the bass player Henry Sanglang just passed away

just literally last week. I saw this on Instagram. Yeah, really terrible, really terrible. So, Carnegie Lake Road were way ahead of their time when they were playing in the mid 80s in Halifax and I used to be, I would be working as a DJ at the club Flamingo or whatever, at these certain clubs in Halifax that would have live bands

and Carnegie Lake Road would play open up for whoever, DLA or SNFU or the Nills and stuff like that. And so over time, I got to know Chris, got to know Jay a little bit and Henry even less so. But then Kearney Lick Road, I'm trying to piece together the, thinking if I could remember, I guess Kearney Lick was still going,

but there was another friend of ours, this guy named John Goodrich, he now lives in Mexico City. He was also a great player, and Chris started just playing with him, just fooling around, and then it kinda came around to, hey Andrew, you wanna come and play drums? And I was such a novice drummer at that point. But we would go to John's apartment and just try stuff.

So we kind of came up with this band. I think we played five or six shows, Chris Murphy, myself, and John Goodrich. But we changed our name to every show. So we were Furious George, one show. We were Clothesline, one show. We were the Slack show we were the slack We were the despots. We were right arm

I think one more I can't remember But that was sort of a sort of around This weird band that just changed the name every time they played Kearney Lake Road just kind of fell apart sadly changed the name every time they played. Carny Lake Road just kind of fell apart, sadly. So they break up in, I guess, 1990 or so. I guess so, I can't remember the exact timeframe. And around that time, I was trying my hand, I was like, I'm gonna just go to Toronto

and just see what it's like there, because my sister lives here. That early? Late 80s, I came out here. And I lived with the band the Jellyfish Babies out here. When they were still playing around, they would be playing and not touring, touring, but playing shows in Southern Ontario

with like Change the Heart and stuff like that. Well I'm seeing tomorrow. Oh wow. Yeah, can't wait actually. Yeah. Gary Road there, you get the first LP in like 27 years or something Say hi to them for me. Are you kidding me? Absolutely Who do you have Ian and Rob? I had Ian over

He'd know so I'm going to their concert tomorrow. Ian was over last week if I remember correctly I think I did this like three in a row of people who played on smile like it was Glenn Milcham Mm-hmm who played on a track on smile and it was Gilmore a fun story which I'm actually building a little documentary thing about because Gilmore Bobby Wiseman produced Gilmore hitting a gong. I remember seeing this clip. I think okay yeah so I feel like I've uncovered I feel like this should be like a mini series okay there. There's a whole thing. So, so there's a gong and I've, I actually asked Ian Blurden, which song has the gong in it? He doesn't remember. I went through, there's a lot of tracks on Smile. It's like 26 songs.

I went through note by note, every song on Smile to try to find a gong. I found one song that sounded like it might have a gong in it. And I sent it to some musical experts like Rob Pruss and some people who know music. I'm just a phony. And then I think, yeah, there's a gong there or whatever. So I found a gong and then Ian Blurden, I jogged his memory like about, are we sure Gilmore hit this gong or whatever? He has, I asked Gil, so Gil was over after Glenn Milcham. He has no memory of hitting any gong for Smile, but Ian tells me it absolutely happened. And then we found out the guy who produced the gong for smile was Bob Wiseman Wow like it's just there's a this is an unbelievable story Right. Thank you for validating because I feel like I'm this is a big big

Discovery, but I want more people to care as much as I do but okay, so can't remember where I was going here, but Slow it so we have the foursome intact at this point? What's surprising to me as we walk through the story is I actually didn't think you moved to Toronto until like, I don't know, 93 or something like that. No, I moved permanently. Well, saying that now because I've been here,

I've lived here longer than I ever lived in the maritime now. But I moved here in in the maritime and now right but I moved here permanently in yeah it would have been like late 1992 sort of right when the band Sloan was on a kind of a perceived vertical post-rejectory okay so okay because we're gonna talk about that because I want to go into a little depth on twice removed. Okay, so on our way to twice removed, of course, we got it, there's a Peppermint EP, then of course smeared. And I'm going to play a song in a minute from smeared, just to really

warm us up here. But on our way to on our way to the Peppermint EP. So we have the band intact, it's like after the breakup of Kearney Lake Road, you joined the band and then Patrick, I guess, is picked up at some point along the way? Yeah, Jay knew Patrick from, the two of them attended King's College in Halifax. And we had played briefly with another guy, Lucas Pierce. And it was just, you know, it's not like we were actively auditioning people

or anything, it was just like, let's see what happens. And anyway, it didn't really seem like it was going in the right direction with Lucas at that time. So then Jay thought, I have this friend Patrick who played in various punk bands in Halifax in the late 80s as well. And he came along and Patrick was originally playing the bass and Chris was playing guitar.

And I guess it wasn't until we were recording Smear, the first LP, that Patrick really kind of decided, I'm more appropriate as a guitar player. Yeah, fascinating. And Chris just kind of took over on the bass. Okay, so let's get into Smeared here. And I think most people listening discover Sloan because they probably heard Underwhelmed on alt rock radio.

I know I heard Underwhelmed on CFNY and like 91 or whatever. And it's like, what is this? And then I bought the album, but there's another song on smeared that it's just amazing and I'm going to play for you right now. She comes running down like water To splash around with the ones that taught her She's just like that farmer's daughter Everybody laughs at the joke It would happen She don't know what it feels She just blows it, it's not what it seems She just loves it as I would it seems

Everybody knows that she's going nowhere Everybody always tells her how much they care But all they really care about is growing their hair And getting cut And when I think she'll know what it means She just loves it as I would've seemed I actually didn't mean to play that much, but I fucking love this song. Seriously, great song. Thank you. Is there a gong in this song?

There's no gong. Did you consider adding a gong? I don't think we've ever employed the gong. Because I know a guy who can do it. Hit that gong for you. Enough cymbals. I'll call up Gil. He'll get you a gong. Okay. What can you share? Obviously you get the vibe by now. I'm interested in the nitty-gritty details here

But what can you share with me about 500 up? That's an Andrew Scott song. Well, it's an Andrew Scott ish song like early in our songwriting Days like a lot of stuff was Was a lot more collaborative than say it is or has been over the past 10 15 years so, I mean, I came up with the main body guitar riff for this song and maybe a couple of lyrics, but Chris and Patrick kind of added their own two cents here and there. I wouldn't call it an Andrew Scott song. So that's kind of the perception out there is that the four of you bring songs to the

table for albums. Like that is the perception. That's how we do. But that's not necessarily how it was when Smear was coming together. It was a lot more, there was a lot more say, Chris would bring a lot more songs to the table and, and, uh, everybody, everybody would just kind of fall in. However, it, it seemed like it made sense and there was no real roadmap that we had had,

like in terms of a static or there here, there were the bands that we were all kind of, of a static or there here there were the bands that we were all kind of influenced by at that time a lot of alternative bands from America or UK or whatever but then there was also everybody kind of agreed on the Beatles and the who and and stuff like that so we were you know we were just having fun at this stage. There was no expectation from any of us that this was going to turn into anything

other than maybe we'll play a show or two and make a cassette tape and give it to our friends or whatever. We never thought for a minute that we'd still be doing it today and making a living off it. Yeah, amazing. Amazing. So, but smeared, which again, I'm only a guy in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, so I can't speak to the, for the rest of the world, but, uh,

it was a big deal for me in my world amongst my friend group too. Like this was like, how old are you? I just turned 50. So yeah, 50. So how old are you? You're 57. I feel like we did a level check and you revealed your top secret age. Just rounded up, I'm 60. Push in 60, cause I was saying I was pushing 50, I think after I turned like 46 or something,

like pushing 50, but, 50s are the best. 50 on, is that right? Oh yeah, you're gonna love it. But you're not done yet. Like what if it goes all downhill the next three years? Just play hockey every day. I mean, you know what? That's impressive that you play hockey every single day. Like the fact that you have a time, no weekends. Okay. But how do you find the

time? Well, I don't have a normal job. Do you have a like is your and with all the respect, a lot of great rock stars come over and they got like a, they got the music as a career and then they have another career. Like, do you have another job or is your job to be an artist? My other job is to make visual art. So you know, it's a careful what you wish for thing. What do you want to be when you grow up kid? I want to be an artist. All right, poof.

There you are. Now what? But that's, you know, I'm literally living my dream. And I get to play hockey every morning. It's like it takes an hour of my day. What position do you play? I'm a left-shooting right-winger. That's not to be...

Is that your political slim? The red hat? It goes along with the red hat. No, I'm not a political... I'm apolitical. You're apolitical? Do you have a... Do you care about Monday? This is the big federal election on Monday? Very much so, but I voted on the advance voting days. I did it day one. I was pretty jazzed to get it done day one, but it's your business who you voted for. I'll never not vote, but I tried to turn off the noise as much as I can.

It's tough to do these days. Holy fuck. Can we swear on this shit? Yeah. Okay. You just did, man. You might. I don't know.

I say CRTC has no, you know, no jurisdiction here. Yeah. No, it's nightmarish right now in terms of world politics, but I don't know. I'm optimistic. Has Sloan reconsidered playing, you know, some of these border towns like Buffalo? Sloan is one thing. I'm not going to the United States for the foreseeable future. Well, you're a 25% of Sloan.

Yeah, but I can't I can't hold anyone else back from doing whatever one needs to do. But I'm personally not going to the States for a minimum four years. You're not alone, man. You're not alone. No, I know. And it's not out of... It's not to punish the American public, who I know a lot of them, and they're very intelligent caring Wonderful people but yeah, it's like Control your dogs America

I'm not coming to your house until you get your dogs under control Well, I'm actually happy to hear you say this because sometimes you don't know what's going on I got a call yesterday from the manager of an upcoming guest who just wanted to give me a heads up that my upcoming guest was a big fan of Donald J. Trump. Like this was the call I got yesterday. Yeah. Can you imagine? Big, big, big musician, big star. Got a number one hit on the billboard, Hot 100. God love him. Big Trump fan. Just give me a heads up. And I said, Oh, are you telling me because you don't want me to go there? Cause like, I don't play that game. And, uh, he's like, nah,

you can do whatever you want. I just thought you might be wanting to know that ahead of time in advance. Stick it in your back pocket so you can pull it out. Good Intel. Meanwhile, the guy who showed up in the red hat, uh, not a Trump fan nor a Reds fan. Neither. Okay. There's other red hats out there. We can, uh, we can get you a Reds fan. Neither. Okay there's other red hats out there we can we can get you a different red hat okay but where am I I'm in smeared land

okay so I played 500 up and I will say and I always considered 500 up and Andrew Scott jam so it sounds like you have the you have the mechanics there and then the room will add to it and flesh it out and then slow and as a foursome kind of. Yeah. And when did it change that you said that now you bring your own songs to the table or whatever? When did that change? I'm going to say for Twice Removed, it kind of changed where everybody was a little more

focused on, okay, I'm gonna write my songs and Chris is gonna write his songs and Jay is gonna write his songs and Patrick is gonna write his songs. I think that's when it actually kind of took that turn. Well, that's quick, right? Cause that's second album. Yeah.

Okay, so before I leave smeared in the rear view mirror, cause I'm gonna spend quite a bit of time on twice removed. I did dig this up on your official Sloan YouTube channel so let me just play a bit of this. So for the Sloan heads, this is a demo, so a little 500-up demo. Yeah, sounds like Murph singing lead on that one. Yeah, almost like he's cracking up while he does it or something. Probably. We were having a lot of fun.

It's just a demo. Have a good time out there. Okay, so just a little little bonus 500 up. So with the critical and I don't know commercial success of Smeared, did it alter what you thought the band could be? Like at this point you're like hey maybe this can be, maybe we are the next Nirvana, I don't know. Well we definitely didn't think that but we thought wow we've just signed to the same label as Nirvana and Sonic Youth and all these other bands in America

at a time when it was just like, God, maybe we'll be huge. What does that mean? Maybe we'll be rich. Like rich what? Which how? Maybe we'll have more money than we've ever known or could imagine.

And if that hadn't been the case off that first record, we sure as hell would not be here now. There's no way in. Like intact as a band. No, we wouldn't have kept it up if we had had these finger quote huge success right out of the gates.

You say that so confidently, but it's tough when as Krusty the Clown taught me, like when they park that Brinks truck in your driveway, sometimes it's tough to say no. I mean, the Brinks truck has never been in my driveway. In this scenario, right? In this alternate universe where you are massive with the money. We had the carrot of success dangled so quickly in front of us that we really didn't know one another very well, so the first tour that we ever went on, which involved being in the States,

was like eight weeks long or something, and the first three weeks of it were opening up for the Lemonheads on the Shameabout Ray tour. That's a big one. So they, you know, we're playing in front of 2000 people every night and then after that was over, we're in the American South playing for literally 12 people and we're just like slogging along,

getting to know one another intimately while we're also just kind of being disillusioned by our own situation. It's just kind of bummed out, you know, like, God, what are we doing in El Paso playing in front of five people on a Tuesday? Although, I mean, I hear, you know, I have the, the Gary's on for example, and they talk about bringing the police to Horseshoe Tavern. And depending on which one you ask and which day,

it's somewhere between nine and 18 people come out to see the police at Horseshoe Tavern. It's like many of big fucking bands started with. No, I know. And it's just here, we were young, we had expectations, I had my wife now, my girlfriend then. You know, I wanted to be at home with her, as much as I wanted to be out here playing music with my new friends slash coworkers,

but there was definitely a push and pull, and depending on who you speak to, it affected each of us individually in radically different ways. So there was a point toward the end of the smeared campaign, and then when we started up, coming up with songs to throw in the hat

for Twice Removed, there was a lot of suspicion Between us as individuals whether anybody wants to admit it or not. It was just like everybody everybody wanted to be in control of the situation, but nobody could be in control because We're there's four bosses here. You're pulling at a thread that I think after my twice removed part and then I actually pulled a quote of something Patrick told me like last month that I want to ask you about twice removed. I think I'm going to revisit

that because I now I feel like an armchair psychiatrist having now chatting with all four of you that there's some interesting common threads here. By the way I like your use of the term smeared campaign. Oh, I didn't mean that. No, but it's good because people always talk about the smear campaign, but this is the smeared campaign. I totally didn't even catch on to my own. You're playing 3D chess here.

By the way, were you involved in the name of the band, Sloan, like were you part of that discussion? I mean, we were all a part of it. I think it just kind of landed on the table and we all just thought, yeah, sure. And is the legend true? You had a friend Jason Larson or the band had a friend named Jason Larson who was nicknamed Slow One? Yeah I mean he was not that was not my uh I knew who Jason was he wasn't a friend of mine personally, but this was yeah, I could this is the this is the story I'm sticking with it Okay, so smeared

It's like oh, this is grungy great alt rock coming out of Halifax It's like we all got very very excited sub pop and and all that and then the next release of course is twice removed So I'm gonna play what I deem to be another Andrew Scott jam So so I'll play it and you can tell me, like, it's not an Andrew Scott jam, but I'm just telling you what I believe it to be, and it's great. I once knew a pair that used to fit very tight, but now a man standing tall in the wake of this night. His eyes are watering anger at the thought of her sight The scene of adultery sets the stage for his plight

On an innocent trip how can one ruin so much a belief in a soul, in a beauty, or in a touch? Bop bop bada baaaaaa It's like a three-legged dog in search of a crush Bop bop bada baaaaaa Dissecting and past all the motives as such She once loved this person a trial out of sight Disposing of their present situation It felt right Ba da ba da ba da ba da ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba But I'm fine And now the two of them are lost in a screaming battleground With some ward all around him like a fence or a drink

He realizes his sadness but now he must begin to cry Andrew, is this an Andrew Scott song, People of the Sky? This one is, yes. Phew, I feel better, but feel validated. Please tell me everything you can about one of the absolute standout tracks from Twice Removed. Well, I'm gonna say it's the only song that I've ever written where I took, no, check out the second song, where it's the, lyrically, I'm telling a story about something that actually happened.

Where is it? What was the first song? You corrected yourself to say the second song, I need to ask. Well, this would be the first one. There's another song on a record called 12. The song's called Gone For Good, which is also based on a record called 12, the song's called Gone For Good, which is also based on a true

story. So true story, now the band Sloan, I find it interesting because you all write, you all sing. Is it just you, you know, you bring your song and then you get to sing it? Is that the deal? Well that's the, that was always the plan with the band and then when when we did get signed to Geffen They were like wait a minute what you guys have four singers? No, no, no, no We want one guy to sing all the songs. It's too confusing and we were just like

Fucking forget it. This is how we this is how our band works So take us or leave us and that was that would have been essentially when this record came out under the same label, the higher-ups at that time were just like, fucking bury this shit. Let's promote whoever else. So they just didn't promote the record. But it was also right at the, at 94, right at the time when the whole Napster thing was happening and it was basically the major label System and the music industry as we once knew it was just a giant Titanic

Waiting to go down and we just kind of got swept up in the maelstrom I'm so glad you brought this I feel like we're in cahoots here like you're reading my mental notes here because I'm so glad you brought this. I feel like we're in cahoots here. Like you're reading my mental notes here because I'm going to play a clip of Patrick Pentland who is in this very basement. So this is on Toronto Mike, like, I don't know a month ago, two minutes, but buckle up, listen to Patrick and it sort of speaks to something. A very smart individual. Yeah. Patrick, a bright guy. Let's listen. Speaking of Weezer, it's fair to say I think that Pinkerton

Was there twice removed? It would be in that I've barely listened to The big the first album twice big this big kind of sound certain sound and then the second album very different right over time People are gonna hear it come out and say oh, here's the thing though And this is why I'm always down on twice removed. I shouldn't be down on it, but here's the reason is because of Weezer, is because while we were making that record, while we were mixing that record twice removed in New York, and we had the same A&R guy, and Weezer had been signed by him after we were

signed, and I don't even know if we knew he signed them. We played with them on Smeared. And so we're mixing, we're mixing twice removed. I was really worried because it didn't sound like Smeared. I felt it was way too Beatles. It's not really, but I thought it was at the time and I was like the label, I don't know what we're doing. And they were like, no, no, it's going to be great screwed. So whatever we're doing. And it sounded great and whatever. And then Todd Sullivan, the A and R guy shows up with the newly mastered blue L this record by this band Weezer that you played with an L A one time. Remember that I

signed them. I was like, okay, I take it home to the hotel. I put it into my whatever it was CD player. And I was just like, Oh my, cause I don't any track is my name is Jonas. It just, it hits you like a title. This is the record we were supposed to, this is what I've been talking. This is the record we should have made. I just didn't know how to, not that I was claiming to be, I mean, we either have their own sort of, you know, like Rico casting being involved in some very carzy new ways thing. But,

but I just meant like, this is a, this is the power pop, which was an auto term I used then that we should be making. And in, and in fact we kind of did anyway, but like I was just blown away by their use of the guitars and it was like a big guitar record, but it wasn't a heavy metal record. And I was so jealous. And I was just, and it was the same. Here's my thing. Now I'm so pissed about it. I love Todd, but was that he knew that they were making that record and he knew we were

making this record and he knew this record was going to be difficult for us to put out. And he should have said, listen to these Weezer demos. Why don't you try to sound like this? But he didn't. And then they, they're the band that went off that we should have gone off. You know what I mean? Please respond to Andrew Scott. Well, thank God we didn't make a record like a Weezer record because had we,

we wouldn't be here today yet again. Like we made, there's no, you can look back on whatever you want to look back on. You know, Patrick, again, this is a, this is an example of the complicated feelings that we all had as individuals or as little cliques or what, however you want to disseminate the band Sloan and how their thought processes work. You know, everybody's invested in as an individual, but we're also invested as a group and how do you how do you keep that cohesive and keep it trustworthy and it's like a

I've been lately I've been on this kind of like trying to really peel apart the meaning of the word compete and my wife and I can lock horns on this sometimes but it's just like I looked up the etymology of the word and calm is together and Pete comes from Petra or something in Greek which means seek together seek so it's not like an army defeating another army it's working together to find a common goal and a band is very much like a like a team a sports team if you will you know every night we play a show we want to compete against the expectations of our audience. And we want to deliver the win, so to speak.

You win some, you lose some. Anyway, the same thing when you're recording a record or anything. you only want to do the best you can possibly do to stand up to your own aesthetic values. And when we're talking about songwriting and individuals and stuff, compared to when we wrote smeared songs, there was a lot less, I'm gonna come in with my songs and Chris is gonna come,

that was really twice removed where that began to become the model. And it's like, my real estate is mine to mold and shape, however I deem fit, your real estate is yours to mold. And nobody can, nobody can say, you know what, I don't like the guitar playing on this on your song. It's just like, that's off the table. So

inevitably some, some people are going to kind of like, oh man that song's awesome I love the way it's turning out or or there's but there's going to be occasions where it's just like I wish that was a little different but it's not my song so I can't really suggest it so I'm hearing you but I don't understand why you didn't just do he did unsmeared and you're a ba- you know you can bring your songs and then in the room you can massage and work it like why does it need to be like four solo albums like the guys from Outkast put out like a double album but one was one guy's solo

album and the other one was the other guy's solo album like it's like a basketball team that signs like three stars who don't want to share the ball and then they realize there's only one ball and they're actually a poor team Because they're not working together Yeah, I mean, you know we come we we really come together as the team as a live band so we we We learn how to play our records after they've been made as, as a band, but when, when we're recording records, like I think it was, uh, I guess we're still on twice removed, but was, uh, it was like, uh, the, the next record was it was like the next record after a brief hiatus,

we decided we kind of were a little sick one another. So around 95, we kind of was like, let's break up. But we were also really disillusioned by what had happened, what had gone down with Geffen at the time and then basically they wanted us to re-record, twice removed to sound more like smear, like, and we were almost finished this record that was costing an extraordinary amount of money in serious studios in New York city. And we were just like, we're not rerecording anything to go back and tell

your, go tell your dogs that take it or leave it and they took it, but they just basically buried it. They buried it. And I mean, I didn't have to read between the lines in the Patrick Pentland chat to quickly decipher the fact that he does not like Twice Removed. He didn't like Twice Removed. Well, I think it's a complicated, it was a complicated record for all of us because it was the it was the sophomore big major label follow-up to this very different sounding first record.

That's why I called it Pinkerton, which I know you never listened to. I've never listened to, I've never been a Weezer fan, period, and it's not out of, they screwed us over, it's just like I'm just not a fan. Right, right, right. Anyway, that's irrelevant. But I remember at the time, because I did enjoy the Blue album from just not a fan. Right, right, right. Anyway, that's irrelevant. But I remember at the time, because I did enjoy the Blue album from Weezer quite a bit.

And I remember at the time, people disappointed that Pinkerton didn't sound like the Blue album. And I always felt like at the time when Twice Removed came out, and I quite liked Twice Removed, in 1996 Chart Magazine ranked it the best Canadian album of all time.

But a couple of years after its release, that was kind of big news, like okay. But without a doubt, Twice Removed sounded, Patrick called it more Beatles-y, but I don't know if that's fair, but it definitely didn't sound like Smeared. No, and it was a conscious effort to not make another record that sounded just like Smeared.

So the label wanted you to re-record it? Yep. I didn't, I don't know if I knew this, I forgot I knew it. So it's like, you're telling me again for the first time. I mean, I remember Todd Sullivan in the studio at AXIS Studio at the top of the Studio 54 building telling us that they want us to re-record it to sound more like Smeared and And we're almost done. We're almost done, Twice Removed, as you know it.

And now that we're on episode 16, 70, whatever, I'm at 79 or whatever, I've talked to enough musicians where you find out the game's kinda rigged because it's like you get this bank loan from the label and then they charge you for all this stuff. Right, you have to pay everything back. Right, because there is a misconception

amongst people that like, okay, Sloan gets signed, you get this money, and then the videos and stuff are paid for by the label. This misconception exists. Nothing is free. No, no. So, so you, you wouldn't be in set, you wouldn't want to, you know, throw more money at it by recording an album that you guys were all happy with. Yeah and to say that we were all happy with is like we were all, we made this other thing like oh yeah we made another thing

and we did it together and and we're a band and there's the picture of our four heads on the cover and you know there was a from certain camps within the band, there was a real strong push to, to, to really try and emulate what the Beatles brought to the table. And then there were other camps in the band that were maybe not so interested in

that, but just went along with it just to keep the peace or whatever. But looking back now, it's just like, thank God we didn't make that Weezer record then, because then our story would be completely corrupted and not what it is. You would reset the time-space continuum. Yeah, and you can't go back and redo anything.

It's just like, all this stuff happened for a reason. So you have no regrets? No, none whatsoever. I mean, at the time, I was pretty burnt out for a lot of reasons, and I think everybody else was in their own way too and We did decide to let's let's kind of shut it down Not not knowing whether this was a permanent choice or

What what it actually turned out to be was just like a year and a half long break Okay, let's dive into that because I know you're the first member of slow and to say, I'm moving to Toronto. Yeah. And from talking to the other, was that an impetus for breaking up? Like, okay, now, now we've, we don't all live in the same city or whatever. Cause of course we're in a pre internet age. It was a whole different ball game back then. Was that a part of why the the band was essentially done?

No it was before that. I moved to Toronto before we started recording or writing songs for Twice Removed and I moved to Toronto to pursue a relationship with my wife, a woman I've been together with for 36 years. Very talented actress. Yeah, wonderful person and am I ever glad I made that decision. And at the time, everybody was pretty pissed off at me because it's just like, what in the wait? You're fucking it all up. I'm like, well, I'm taking a chance. I'm taking a chance and I'm hoping that we can still do what we're doing, but I'm just going to go and, uh, find them the mother of my two lovely kids.

Yeah. You were in love. Yeah, deeply. Yeah. And you're still in love. Uh, I can tell by looking in your eyes. Yep. Smartest business.

I'm a divorce guy. Okay. I know the band outside of you Maybe different things have happened or whatever, but the smartest Financial decision you can make is stay in love with the woman you're in this stay in love and be happy Love the one you're with the one you're with and just be faithful and don't be a dick Okay, I'm taking notes over here 35 years years of touring I've never ever crossed any line ever. And you're a good-looking guy there must have been some interested people. No. No. Well you'd be oblivious to it. Yeah. You got the the blinders on you you're madly in love. Good for you man. That's good. Okay so again I'm a So it's after, how many times has this band

almost broke up, Sloan? Just once. Just once. Okay, and it's after Twice Removed, right? Yes, after a long touring campaign and realizing that our label was just not supporting us. And I'm trying to remember, I think Jay was telling me this in the backyard

during the COVID, Jay was telling me about you had a commitment to play like a Canada Day CF and why festival maybe? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it was a commitment as much as it was kind of it was almost a let's put together this, this sort of farewell show. So we, somehow, I was never really involved in the inner workings of like how everything gets booked and who are we dealing with and blah, blah, blah. It's like, what time do I show up? That's all I wanna know.

So who handled that stuff? Well, Jay would have a tighter handle on it between our management at the time, um, and our, our label and booking agents. Um, so I, I guess we sort of threw this thing together at the Molson Amplitheater in August or something. It was really hot and humid. And it was a, it was billed as our last show.

And it was for a couple of years. Okay. So, so how, how did you come together again to, uh, resurrect Sloan and keep her going where, you know, you're still performing today? Well, when we had decided to take a break, I was living in Toronto here. Everybody else was still living in Halifax. Um, and you know, we're all lifelong musicians and we're going to, we're going to continue to make music, whether it's with each other or with just by ourselves or with other people.

So during the, during sort of 95,96, I lived next door to the late great Dallas be good from the Sadies. And he and I struck up a pretty instant friendship. And I started playing with Dallas and Sean after their original drummer, the guy's name was also Andrew, I can't remember his last name, Sweetheart. He had to leave for whatever reason. So Dallas and Sean and I would be playing music together kind of just for fun, just literally jamming.

And Sean was not playing an upright acoustic bass. He was playing an electric bass. And the stuff that we were making, the music that we were coming up with was basically like instrumental dirge metal. It was not anything like the Sadies that we know of today. like the Sadies that we know of today. But then soon after we'd done a bunch of recordings

with Don Pyle from the Shadowy Men and from PhonoComb and a couple other bands that he's been in. He's engineered some eight track tape recordings of that era of the cities. And I've recently reached out to him actually to see if it's like, can you get me a copy of that? Just shoot me a digital copy. And he's just trying to find out all these old tapes and stuff like that. And we did some recording with Jad Fair, like just his being his band that Dawn also engineered.

just being his band that Don also engineered. And then eventually Travis, Dallas' brother, kinda just showed up. And then it just slowly started to morph into this little more sort of psycho-billy, contrived feel. And my wife Fiona also, she would perform with the Sadies at the time, sing back up and some leads and stuff at shows, various shows. And then around the same time, Chris and Jay

would get in touch with me and they were sort of saying like, we're just doing these recordings, like no pressure. Maybe at Christmas time, like I would go back home to my folks at Christmas or whatever. Maybe you can just come down to the studio and we'll just like bang out some four track drums for these songs.

And I'm like totally happy to. four-track drums for these songs. And I'm like, totally. But happy to. And very just kind of unbeknownst to us in a real urgent way, we were just kind of putting one core to another together without even really realizing it. And then I went back to Toronto,

and who was then our front of house engineer, Brendan McGuire. He had a studio not far from where I lived. And I just, I was making just four track demos of my own stuff at the time too. And then it became kind of clear that why don't we just make another record just for posterity not not to go and tour the world or anything like that just put it out on our own murder records imprint and just like just just do it just like Nike says and We had had enough time apart. We had played with other people and realized, you know, jeez, like, you're always gonna run

into some horns to lock with no matter who you play with. Like, it's just a simple fact of working with other people, especially in a creative endeavor. You're going to come up against some resistance, so how do you navigate that? some resistance, so how do you navigate that? Looking back now, as a 57 year old member of a band with the same original members,

you just let people do what they have to do. Like everybody's, we're the same people, only older. You know all the routines, you know all the patterns. Just, just let things happen. Like you don't have to get your back up against the wall because you have a disagreement about A, B, C or D. It's just, let's keep the peace. Keep the peace, one chord to another. I'm glad you brought up Dallas Good because one of the questions that came in when I went on Blue Sky and said you were going to make your Toronto Mike debut is Cam Gordon who wanted, we just got it actually, but wanted the origin story of how you ended up joining the Sadies and he wanted, uh, he was asking for any memories of the late,

great Dallas kid. Yeah. Dallas was a, he was a Zenith, one of a kind individual for sure. And I really lost touch with Dallas. Uh, unfortunately when Fiona and I had our kids, you know, my kids are adults. I have a 23 year old, a 21 year old. You know what?

I have a 23 year old and a 21 year old. Wow. Fun fact. Which, what gender? So I have a 23 year old boy, my first born, and then my daughter who's in Montreal right now going to McGill is turning, well she turns 21 in July, so she's almost firstborn and then my daughter who's in Montreal right now going to McGill is turning well She turns 21 in July so almost 21 and then I also have a 11 year old and a 9 year old Oh my god, there's the set right there Wow. Yeah, my daughter's 23 and son is 21 and

So, you know when we had kids like, you know when you have kids your your whole world just kind of takes a rapid change of direction so for whatever reason I was not playing in the Sadie's anymore this you know when I had kids Mike Blitzky was firmly the drummer for that band and I just for I just didn't really see Dallas for like 20 years. So when he passed away, it was a huge shocker for me as well as everybody else. No, absolutely the worst news and so sudden in that manner. Now, it's interesting, you talked about your dad

would be banging on drums and you saw that and then you started with guitar and then moved to drums. But of course, Dallas Good from such a musical family, like it was like his birthright to be a musician. Oh, he was born to play music. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, shout out to the Goods, okay, the Good Brothers. So I have, so I got a few spots here I wanna just touch on.

You've been amazing, by the way, so I really appreciate you dropping by and giving me this one-on-one time. And again, because I'm writing, in my mind, I'm writing this like book on Sloan. So I need to talk to a four of you Okay, cuz and I want to touch on the whole four headed monster of Sloan in a moment here with much love and respect But I'm gonna just take a moment to give you some some gifts if I may because you came all the way here So Andrew I'm gonna give you a wireless speaker here. This is from Minaris.

What? Wireless speaker, quality wireless speaker, but Minaris doesn't sell speakers, but Minaris wants you to do with that speaker is they want you to subscribe and listen to Yes We Are Open, which is an award-winning podcast hosted by Al Grego. Al went to Regina.

I guess you, I mean how many times approximately, I don't expect an exact number, but how many times approximately has Sloan played Regina? Too many dimensions. 150. I thought it would be close to 150 times. So Al went to Regina and sat down with Amanda Ray who owns Bass Studio, a thriving hair salon in Regina. And Amanda shared her story from being a stylist to a business owner and all the challenges, she's Sloan faced challenges. Well, Amanda faced challenges and had to overcome them

like the COVID-19 pandemic, et cetera, et cetera. So inspiring stories from small business owners on, yes, we are open. There's a measuring tape here, Andrew, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home, proud Canadian company that only sells Canadian caskets. So I think it's cool that they only sell Canadian products at Ridley Funeral Home. Much love to Brad Jones, the host of Life's Undertaking. Speaking of great podcasts, Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success are two podcasts from Nick Ienis from Fusion Corp.

He recently did an episode on the 50th birthday of the CN Tower, 50 years old. 50 years old, okay. I've only been up at once. I think I've only been up at a couple of times. It's expensive to go up to that. Yeah, it's dumb. You know, if you have guests from out of town or something like you like,

what do I do if these guests sometimes you think you should... You guys go up. I'll be back at the house. Have you ever eaten in that rotating restaurant? Negative. Negative. Okay. I was, I don't remember like what I ate or how it tasted. I just remembered the view was pretty spectacular up there. But yeah, shout out to Nick Aini's and building Toronto skyline. I have in my freezer, man. This is, you know, the 23 year old, the 21 year old, your wife and you, you will love the lasagna that's in my freezer right now, courtesy of Palma pasta, delicious Italian food at palmapasta.com. They're

in Mississauga and Oakville. So just to recap here, Andrew, I feel like a Monty Hall here, but you got the lasagna from Poma Pasta. Is it gluten free? Oh shit, it's got lots of gluten in there. You need gluten free? Well, my wife's tough. But you know, I'll eat it. Well, I apologize to your wife.

And I was on your wife's IMDB page. Quite the lengthy list of production she's been in. She's been she's been doing it. She's the star of the family. She's definitely the the glue glue. These the call Phil Hartman, the glue on Saturday Night Live. Shout out to Phil. OK, so I don't have a gluten free lasagna, but theoretically I could get you one and then bike it over.

But the one in my freezer loaded extra gluten, I think get you one and then bike it over Oh, but the one in my freezer load it out extra gluten I think is how that one works, but palma pasta does have gluten free options just not in my freezer right now so thank you palma pasta and Recycle my electronics dot CA that's where you go. If you have old electronics old devices You don't throw that in the garbage Andrew you go to recycle my electronics dot CA Put in your postal code find out where to drop it off to be properly recycled And this is a new sponsor only here for April. So Patrick didn't get this Okay, he's gonna be very jealous when he finds out you have a robust cleaning kit from silver wax

This bucket seriously see this bucket. Yeah So the interior and exterior of your car and your you know other people's cars because you could share the love will be spotless and it'll have this beautiful sheen and it's easy to use and they sell pro-grade auto care and cleaning technology that's easy for everyone to use kits for beginners experts or. That's yours just for making the track to Toronto Mike. And I got to tell the listenership though, that if you want to save 10% off your next order at silver wax.ca, please use the promo code Toronto Mike 10. It lets them know that it works a sponsoring Toronto Mike and it saves you 10%.

So the promo code is Toronto Mike one zero silver wax dot CA is the address. Andrew, you got some kick ass swag here, buddy. Yeah, I'm psyched. Yeah. You look, I can tell gluten free cleaning. Yeah. It's a, it's good for your breath too. It just, you know, um, allegedly I don't want to be responsible when you do that.

Okay. So, uh, enjoy the clean car and all the other wonderful gifts for making the track here. Thank you. You're welcome, man. You're welcome. Big fan here. Okay, so we are going to wrap up with a few random things,

but one question I had and I thought Patrick's reply was very interesting to this. We'll see if you're just as interesting. Okay, no, we don't compete like that though. You mentioned that the American label wants you to have one lead singer, like give us an Eddie Vedder, right? Give us a Kurt Cobain, put somebody up front.

Yeah. And you guys, of course, famously have four lead singers. Yeah. And you're saying it was never a conversation in turn in the band like there was never a conversation about maybe Chris becomes the lead singer. No there was no conversation it was just flat out that's not how we do things. So forget it. There is no you know Chris didn't want to be the lead singer in the band Sloan because that's because that's not how the Beatles did it.

No, no, the Beatles though, the Beatles did have, although four members would sing, they only had two primary front people. So two, that's not like, you know, there was, you know, it was a George song or it was a John's, I'm sorry. It was a John song or a Paul, name the Beatles for me, just kidding. John or Paul typically up front and you guys it was non-starter for you guys

yeah it was just the way we set out to assemble this group that we just we just wanted to have fun with out of the gates and by by making it fun, we wanted everybody to have equal amounts of fun. So everybody got to contribute as much as they wanted to, or as little as they wanted to. Side projects. Are you in any current side projects? Are you in any current side projects? Um... In... Directly at the moment, no. But just getting back to the reason why I wear a red Cincinnati hat.

It's because I'm in talks with a new friend down in in Philadelphia The guy named his name is Charles Patterson but he goes by the name Sandman or aka sand cannon all caps sand man all caps aka sand cannon and he's a he's a rapper and He and I are gonna, we're gonna put something together, but it's yet to be figured out, but we're just.

This is real. Yeah. That's amazing. We're just in the courting phase. But he wears a C hat because his sign is cannons. So now I'm wearing a C hat instead of a sea hat because his sign is cannons so now I'm wearing a sea hat it all makes sense now it all used to wear a p hat oh like the Phillies or something no the Pirates Pirates yeah but the only reason I wore a Pirates cap was because Chuck D wore one hundred percent that's what I was thinking and

now I now I wear a Cincy hat Earlier in this combo when you said you're not going to the states during I guess during this presidency of Trump Yeah, I was any and I said well, you know, you're without you There's no Sloan and then you just made a comment about like you're you you can only choose for you You're not going but they go whatever and then I was thinking when I saw I had Chuck D on this program But I I chatted with him at the C&E band shell and I I love I fucking love Public Enemy Like one of my favorite bands of all time. Oh, yeah, and I went to see they weren't Public Enemy though They were Public Enemy radio because flavor flav couldn't cross the border

So they basically they won't they without flave there's no Public Enemy their Public Enemy radio. And in my mind, I didn't blurt it into my mic like an idiot, but I'm thinking it would be like Sloan radio, like some kind of like, you know what I mean? Like 75% Sloan or whatever, if they toured without Andrew Scott. Yeah, I don't think it's gonna happen. But speaking of seeing Chuck D, I went and saw him talk at Convocation Hall at U of T in 1988.

Yeah. Yeah, God, what a smart individual that guy is. Very smart. Very smart. And I saw him, where did I see him? I forget, with Sound Academy. Like last time they played as a full public enemy with Flav. And it was promoted to me, it was promoted in the flyers and stuff.

They were going to play it takes a nation of millions in its entirety and I didn't care I was gonna see possible I say that's fine, but They played everything like it was like this is just some bullshit like Marketing and getting back to the Sloan sort of origin story that if there was one band that we could all All agree upon it was public enemy and before our band was even formed the four of us were unknowingly at the time in the same room at a Public Enemy show at the Dartmouth Sportsplex in like 1987, 88. We've been 88 because it was Takes a Nation. Yes because they name-checked the year in fight the power which is on

Fear of a black planet. Mm-hmm, and they it's 89 is name-checked. That's how my brain but yeah So yo bummers the show is like 88. I think yo bummers the show is it I think so I think so it could be 87 maybe 87 yeah, maybe 87 Time bombs on that album and I still like if a word triggers I still have all the lyrics to time bomb memorize and I'll still just go into it like I can't stop myself and just But don't ask me to do it. No, I won't because you don't hear it. Okay, so shut up the public enemy fucking love it Okay, so we look forward to that side project

Patrick made a comment to me that Chris Murphy was really against side projects because he felt like all your energy should be focused on Sloan and then he found it interesting that Chris is in a hundred side projects now. Any comment from you Andrew Scott? Funny that eh? You know anybody can do whatever the hell they want at any time. Nobody has any control over anybody else's needs, wants, desires. But when it comes to the band Sloan, just be in Sloan.

And then outside of those work hours, do whatever the hell you want. So how do you determine what are work hours? I mean, last time I saw Chris Murphy was with Trans Canada Highwaymen at the horseshoe. How do you determine what are work hours like? I mean, I last time I saw Chris Murphy was with Trans Canada Highwayman at the horseshoe. Like how do you determine what's Sloan Time and what's your other stuff? Well, actual Sloan Time are book dates on the calendar. And when there are no book dates, then you're free to do whatever you want.

Okay, so let me tell the listenership that Sloan music.com slash shows is a great portal to dates on the calendar because I was checking it out the other day. So Sloan music.com slash shows go there and go see go see Sloan. I've seen him. I don't know a dozen dozen times or so great live band still kicking ass. We love our job. You got a cool job man. I have a really great job. You got a cool job, man. I have a really great job. You got a great job. Okay. Very grateful. Any, I guess you have no regrets. I get the vibe from you

that everything happened in a way for the best. Like where you are today, you're so happy that you wouldn't change anything along the way because then you would be in a different place today. you're so happy that you wouldn't change anything along the way because then you would be in a different place today. Yeah, and I do. I'm so proud of our story as we stand right now, that we never hit it big. We never got huge. None of us are, finger quotes, rich. I'm filthy rich in other ways and thank my lucky stars every day.

I don't want billions of dollars. You're like George Bailey. You're the richest man in town. I feel like the richest man in town. I get to go home to my wife, my daughter, my animals, and my world and just live a good life. Was this fuse ice tea deal lucrative and a good thing for your family? Yeah, I mean who doesn't want a little cushion? No, I asked you to bring in the paperwork. Do you have it with you? I want to see the video. I don't have the work But we could get our management on the phone

Okay, final you've been amazing. I feel I don't want to take advantage here, but I will share a fun fact that I think is a little shocking and wild to me that Is it true that Sloan has only ever won one Juneau award? That's true. So it's for Navy blues. I think you'd. I think it's for one court to another. Geez, we got lots of corrections to make here. Okay, I think you'd win a lot of bar bets by betting that Sloan had won more than one Juneau award.

Yeah, and what's even more kind of funny is we don't have any East Coast Music Awards. Never won one of those. My brains are on the fucking wall right now with that mind blow. And thank God. I think awards, keep your dumb awards. I don't want your.

You know what Chuck D said? Who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy? Fuck that. Yeah. What are you gonna, what are you grading fucking art? That song gets an 87% out of a hundred fuck off Well, what have you done with your one Juno? I don't even know where it is. Hey Not on display not on the mantle. No, no, I don't proudly display it

You know no disrespect to anybody or anything, but I honestly I don't give a shit about awards for art Did you like did everyone in the band get one or did you have to like pay for it? Do you have any memory of me all got one? Did you all four members get one for just winning the award? Yeah, I mean they're not particularly handsome really Amazing looking item.

It's just like a piece of see-through plastic. So before I play us out with a cover of a lowest of the low song that Rob Bruce put together, which has some Easter eggs, including a song composed by Don Pyle as one of the Easter eggs. So it's all gonna come full circle. Could you share a little more, firstly, no, lastly, I'm gonna stick to this last thing.

Can you share more detail on this side project that you're considering, the reason you're wearing the red Cincinnati Reds hat? Just a little more detail, like is it a rapper and then you were drumming on it? Like- Yeah, I'm not a rapper. I do not, I don't make rap music.

You're no snow. No, never will. Never will happen. I don't even generate hip hop music, but I'm a big fan, have been since like 84. And I discovered this guy through clips in the Re-Up Gang and just got to communicating with them and said, I, I basically, I just said, I want in. And by, by that, I mean,

I just want to participate with hip hop in some kind of meaningful way, which, you know, from where I'm sitting, yes, I'm a drummer. The let's what's hip hop? It's drums and words at its core. But this guy's, he's the greatest living MC, hands down. Does he know you're not gonna visit him in person? He's gonna have to come to you? We haven't really gotten to that stage yet,

but we're gonna make some music and we're gonna make some fucking heavy heavy hip-hop. So thank you because some of my favorite music is when hip-hop and rock collide. Like I'm thinking of like an anthrax joins Public Enemy for Bring the Noise. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't really on that map, but I totally respect anything like that. And he's really excited at the prospect of something like that too. I'm more excited about just being a fly on the wall. I wanna see how hip hop music is made.

How do you actually do this? I know how to make rock music, but I do not know how you you guys put these hip-hop talks together, and I'm really really really curious He me posted because I'm very Curious too like I want to yes. No you'll never find him on on iTunes or Spotify. It's all just YouTube or SoundCloud. Okay. But he's got a lot of great stuff out there.

But I mean, whenever you guys get to laying down some tracks or whatever. Oh, yeah. I want to hear that. We'll let you know. Okay. How was this for you? Totally fine. 100% great. Okay. I realize I'm playing the closing theme now and I guess people don't care but I'm gonna Maybe what I'm gonna do here. I'm gonna call an audible on the line of scrimmage here

I'm gonna play just a bit of the demo for people of the sky. Okay, cuz everybody knows how it starts Is that like what is that? What is that technique that makes the audio at the beginning of people of the sky? It's are you talking into like a megaphone or a... You know what I mean? It would have just been like some rinky-dink little mic, I guess. Okay, so here's how it sounded on Twice Removed. I once knew a pair that used to fit very tight

But now a man standing tall in the wake of this night And now we're in the night Okay, then I'm going to play the demo I uncovered. I meant to play this earlier, but I don't want to leave it on the cutting room floor. Here we go. I prefer the demo to the album track. I once knew a couple who seemed to fit very tight, but now a man standing tall in the wake of this night.

His eyes watering in anger at the thought of feeling the pain. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this again. in the wake of this night his eyes watering in anger at the thought of her sight i was trying to be like rick white from a scene of adultery that's just the stage for his plight on an innocent trip.

Very interesting. Okay. I realized I didn't play it, so I wanted to get it done there, Andrew. Thanks for doing this, buddy. We got to take a photo by the tree. Thanks for having me. And I'll see you on the road, man. All right.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,679th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Again, get a ticket to Sloan. Go to slonemusic.com slash shows. Check out their upcoming tour schedule or schedule, if you will, either or. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery, that's Palma Pasta, that's Benares, that's Silver Wax, that's RecycleMyElectronics.ca, that's Building Toronto Skyline, and of course, Ridley Funeral Home, Toronto Skyline, and of course, Ridley Funeral Home.

See you all. Checking my calendar. Oh, Monday, my guest is Devin Herow. You've seen him covering the Olympics for CBC, curling, et cetera. Devin makes his Toronto Mic debut on Monday. Did you ever watch The Friendly Giant? Of course. So these are the Easter eggs. We should enjoy them because he's going to get a new version for me very soon, Rob Proust.

This is Alfie's Apacosta. He's doing the Pizzanova jingle. This is Rob's song he wrote with Gord Dep of Spoons. He was in Spoons. This is Romantic Traffic. Good Burlington band. Yeah, love them. Here's Don Pyle. And the late, great Reed Diamond.