Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Chris Murphy from Sloan: Toronto Mike'd #229

Episode Date: April 6, 2017

Mike chats with Chris Murphy about his 25 years with Sloan, his new Trans-Canada Highwaymen project and why he lied to us about the word "underwhelmed".

Welcome to episode 229 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week from Sloan and the Trans Canada Highwaymen, Chris Murphy. Welcome, Chris. Yeah, yo. I got to get an applause sound effect just to make it seem bigger. Chris, I can't believe you got Chris on the show.

He's such a catch, yeah. You know, you're right up there with Ron Hawkins from Lowest of the Low and this gentleman, Maestro Fresh West, on the Mount Rushmore of CanCon Rock. You're right up there. Right on. Let's start by talking about your ordeal to get here. Originally, you were going to bike. If it get here because originally you were going to bike. If it was nice out, you were going to bike.

I was going to bike. And I don't know what I was thinking. I kind of had it in my mind that it was close enough to bike. Oh, yeah, it's down there. Get on that path and then just come up. And then this morning, it was raining too hard. I was up at 3, 3 in the morning with a barfing kid. And it was just sort of a mess.

And so I was like, I'm too late to do it. It's raining. I'm just going to rent a car. I don't own a car, so I got an auto share kind of thing, enterprise, and punched in the address. I don't know if you want it. Yeah, no, just keep it big. But anyway, apparently there's a difference between Mississauga and Etobicoke. I'm surprised I did not know this address existed in Mississauga.

I don't think it really does. Like, it wasn't the exact address. It was the same street name, but I was in the hundreds. I was like, how can this be true? But I should have known, because at one point I knew that it was bikeable, and then I was way far, and I was like, I don't be true? But I should have known because I knew at one point I knew that it was bikeable. And then I was way far. I was like, I don't think I could have done this. And had I asked myself, I would have said, this is not right.

I smell a rat. When you called me from way out west in Mississauga or whatever, I felt really like responsible for this. Like I felt this like I was shouldering this guilt, like Chris Murphy rents a car to come visit me and now he's out in the boonies and it's raining out. Yes, but I told you that I would be here

at a certain time and now I'm at least 45 minutes late. So I also, you know, maybe our guilt can cancel each other out and we can just sort of go through life.

The most Canadian conversation ever. Who is responsible for this? A series of sorry. Who's more sorry? guilt can cancel each other out and and we can just sort of go through life the most canadian conversation ever who is responsible a series of sorry who's more sorry i am more sorry than you now on the note of biking so when you were when the weather okay so this is a rainy shitty day like i can understand you don't want to bike today but had it been sunny you might have biked and i'm right on the bike trail the waterfront trail so I have a question for you because I bike every day on this trail. And in 2009, you had an accident while biking. Oh, that's right. Yes, I was hit by a car when I was already on my bike.

And you broke your collarbone. I did, yes. So there's a visual. This is a normal collarbone. And then my other collarbone. Oh, yeah. It's sticking out. So there's a great big piece of metal in here still.

Can you just, because I've had a few crashes, but it's been like me against the ground, and I was able to get up and continue biking. But tell me, can you tell me a little more detail of how this... Well, I was knocked unconscious, but I was out that night. So at that point, I had one kid. I have two now. But my wife and kid were away. I forget what was going on. Maybe they were in New Brunswick, where she's from.

And I happen to be in Toronto, so I'm just like a family guy normally. But that night, the cat was away, as it were, and Jay from Sloan, he was DJing that night. So I was like, I'm going to go out and see Jay DJ. So I went out and I had fun and danced with some of our friends and farted around. So it was late at night when I got hit by a car. And statistically, I think everybody on the road is hammered.

A certain percentage after 11 and then after 12 and then after one, like everybody's drinking. Yeah, that is the statistic. So it was probably two in the morning, I forget. But I was so close to where Jay DJ'd, I was just leaving. So I got hit by a car. He got hit from behind.

I was knocked unconscious. Apparently I was knocked up onto the hood of the car that hit me and smashed my head through the windshield of that car. But I was wearing up onto the hood of the car that hit me and smashed my head through the windshield of that car. But I was wearing a helmet. And so wear your helmet, by the way, everybody. And then I was carried a few car lengths, and then they came to a halt,

and I landed on a parked car and smashed my collarbone. Wow. And then the car took off because I think... Because they were hammered. I think they were probably hammered. And the law, I think you get in more trouble if you leave the scene. But I guess they had to take the gamble

because if you're drinking and driving, you get in trouble too. That person, I think, got caught. Although I didn't have to go to court and identify. I was unconscious anyway. But I was so close to where Jay was DJing, had been DJing, that the people who were on the scene were people that I knew. And it got to Jay that this had happened to me,

and he came with me in the ambulance and everything. But I was unconscious unconscious and he was terrified that I would be brain damaged or paralyzed or something. But nothing, you know, I could have been killed, I could have been brain damaged, I could have been disfigured, I could have been paralyzed, but none of those things happened. You know, I have a kind of gross scar, but who cares?

And I'm not in any kind of pain, so. Well, that's good to hear. What you described is like my great nightmare. So I bike. Well, really, the nightmare is it'll happen to my kids because my two older kids are out biking the streets of Toronto. And I've taught them, you know, all the safety stuff and take the lane if you need it. And don't worry if the guy is honking behind you

that you have the right to that lane if you feel unsafe on the side or whatever. But this whole like hitting you from behind, there's not a lot you can do to protect yourself if a guy's going to ram you from behind. No, but I think that if your kids are out at midnight, that's one thing, but I think it's safe. I do think that obviously you have to be safe, but I'm just telling my wife here that I extended the car.

No worries. You had to because you went to Mississauga. Yeah. And I got lots of stuff for you. You can't get out of here easily. Only Roger Ashby was allowed to do. He said, I got 30 minutes. And he said, I only have 30 minutes.

And I said, okay, for Roger Ashby, fine. But for you, I might keep you here 90 minutes. I don't know. I'm just going to quickly Google that guy. Who's that guy? Let's see. You don't know Roger. You know what?

Because Roger Ashby never played any Sloan songs. No, he's the Chum FM morning guy for like 30 years. Oh, yeah. I don't know what that means. You've never heard the Roger, Rick, and Marilyn? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was the Roger in Roger and Marilyn. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But he used to be on Chum. I know you're not from Toronto, but if you listen to Chum back in the day, he was a... I know who Roger, Rick, and Marilyn yeah, yeah. So he was the Roger in Roger. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he used to be on Chum. I know you're not from Toronto, but if you listen to Chum back in the day, he was on. I know who Roger, Rick, and Marilyn are, yeah. But I do get mixed up. So when I was on, you know, I've lived in Toronto since 1997 or something,

but I've been on, this morning I've been on the QEW and the Queensway, and I'm like, aren't those the same road? You got a lot of stop lights on Queensway and then the QEW is uh I took some comedy comedy uh screenshots of where I was just to show you how how messed up your how messed up yeah well it's it wasn't GPS it was just me think I don't know what I was doing. So I was close to here earlier thinking that, I was like,

it's down around here somewhere. And then I got on and, oh, I'm so stupid. Anyway. Well, I'm glad that you have this. So this collarbone that you broke back in 09, I'm glad there's no like lingering damage. So you're out biking. I guess I'm curious, like you live downtown,

you don't own a car. So if you need to get somewhere within reason, I guess, and the weather is decent, you always bike. Is that the deal? I bike pretty much everywhere, or TTC is pretty good. You know, TTC combined with whatever, the GO train or whatever. But I just have the sort of auto share or whatever it's called. It's called Enterprise Now or whatever. And, you know we've been we go through the math you know if if a car costs whatever it's going to cost and then when you think about gas uh upkeep and uh insurance insurance i'm i mean i'm thinking it must get close to 400 bucks a month like i have no i don't know and they even they ding you for the to renew the license plate

on your birthday every year you Well, like all that stuff. Like if it, like, would I spend $400 a month in, in auto share? Like, I don't think so. So,

you know, for the amount of time that we need a car. Anyway, we were back and forth about it because, you know, we, both my wife and I have connections to the Maritimes and it's like, is it fun to drive to the Maritimes?

And do we have to rent a car every time? And how much is that? This is kind of a boring thing, but this is what goes through my mind a lot of the time. Just last August, so I got four kids. And the six of us took... And one of them was really, really young. You saw her upstairs. She was like four months old at the time.

But the six of us got in a car and drove to Prince Edward Island. This was what we did last August. Like the first time I had been east of Quebec was last August. Right on. Well, I was there. I would have been there. Where did you go?

Okay, I'm trying to remember all the stops. I know there was a couple of nights in Moncton, a couple of nights in Halifax. I know that we did a couple of nights on the Cape Breton Trail. Okay, so you did everything. And we went to PEI, definitely. We spent a couple of nights in PEI. Do you know where you were?

Were you just in Charlottetown, or were you in a cottage? We stayed, it was near what I call a surf shop, and that cows... Cows is everywhere. But were you on the North Shore, kind of? You know, I wish I could know. Or you were in Charlottetown. When I hear the name, because my wife planned all these spots.

She did a real good job, because we did Airbnb everywhere, and it was really well planned. And when I hear the name, because my wife planned all these spots. She did a real good job because we did Airbnb everywhere and it was really well planned. And when I hear the names, I can't remember the name of the place in PEI. But just to be clear, you were not in Charlottetown? We had to drive quite... Yeah, we had to drive to Charlottetown. We were not staying overnight in Charlottetown.

So you were... But you know, in Charlottetown, I guess there's a little mouse in Charlottetown. Let me explain. Like, you follow the mouse to each spot to see... You have to find the mouse and then you read this book or pamphlet thing

that tells you about the history of Charlottetown through these mice that are hidden throughout the city, okay? Okay. So my second born, who was like,

I guess she was 12 at the time, this was the great game we did to learn about Charlottetown was we had to find the mouse. And it's based on some book in Charlottetown, but it was the coolest thing, like, to learn about Confederation and all the different historical things going on in Charlottetown to find this mouse and then find, like, okay, this is the tavern where Johnny McDonald got hammered or whatever.

Right. And all that crap. And then got in his car and hit a cyclist from behind. Here's my question about the cycling real quick before we leave it. Did you have a lighting system? Lights on my bike?

I probably, I don't know if I had one on my back. I probably always have one on the front and then my back might have just been a reflector. Although I can't remember. Just over time I have had this sort of thing where I probably did have a light on. Because at Mac

for $12 you get the kit, the front and the back. And if it's dark out you've got to have that guy blinking. Yeah. Well, I took my bike by the way

to get the car so I did have my bike out today. Well, I go, honestly, unless it's an active blizzard I go out every single day. Well, you go, honestly, I go, unless it's an active blizzard, I go out every single day.

Well, you look fantastic. But I was going to say, how old are you? Am I allowed to ask? 48. Yeah, you look good for 48.

I was thinking, you don't look much different than... Well, you got four kids, so like, you must be, are you not 40? Like,

you look young. I'm over 40. You are? Okay. Yeah. Well, I got, you see the white hairs.

I do, but like, you know, that could be any, Steve Martin had white hair, nothing. That's true. Thank Okay. Well, I got... You see the white hairs. I do, but like, you know, that could be any... Steve Martin had white hair, nothing. That's true. Thank you. See, this is the other Canadian conversation.

So we start by apologizing and then we tell each other how good we look. How good we look, yeah. Just to set the table here, because I'm going to do... I have that exact shirt. Had I worn it, we could have done the sort of who wore it,

who rocked it. I thought, what's my most Canadian shirt? I got Sloan, one of Canada's greatest bands. This is it, the exploding pizza. You don't have to show me that you're a Canadian. It's fine. You can tell by my accent. I can tell by your apologetic nature.

I don't have the maritime accent, though. I got born in Parkdale. All right, set the table. Sorry, do I have the maritime accent? A little bit? I can turn it on. Can you do it for me? Like, what are you talking about?

Or that kind of thing? Yeah. Jonathan Torrens does a character. He's from Truro. Yeah. What does he call her? It's some chick he does. Oh, we're going to there.

I can't do it because I'm not Jonathan Torrens, but it's a pretty spot on. So he does a woman? It's a woman he does. Yeah. Tracy or something like that? I don't know. And him and the drummer from Our Lady Peace, Jeremy.

Yeah. They create like sitcom like skits featuring this woman. And I know he plays a character named Laramie, who I guess is a Toronto guy. Okay. Yeah, because she moves from like, I don't know, Truro or something to Toronto.

And they create these like sitcoms and I don't know, Truro or something to Toronto. And they create these sitcoms. And I don't know how else to describe it, but these audio sitcoms they do of this character from the Maritimes. It's a pretty good... I know that they do a podcast. I don't know much about it. I know both those guys. I know John O'Moore, and I know that he's hysterically funny.

Yeah, and he's a surprisingly good rapper. He's good, and he's just very, very bright. He's very smart. And he's doing that. See, I got the Maestro. I should have brought something for you to sign. I had Maestro over here recently, and he signed the stuff. Maestro.

Maestro Fresh West. You ever heard of this guy? I'm just joking. He's on that Mr. D with Jono. He's on Mr. D, which is a CBC. It all came full circle there. Okay, so everybody listening, 25 years. I don't know how long Sloan's been around. 25 years at a CBC it all came full circle there okay so everybody listening 25

I don't know how long Sloan's been around 25 years at least 25 something 11 LPs 2 EPs a live album a greatest hits album

like 30 singles 9 Juno award nominations you even won one in 97 where's that Juno right now from 97 it's at my house on the third floor did you each get one

so there's four I think what happens in that, I think you get one and then you have to buy subsequent copies. But we each have one, yeah. And that was for...

And it's the old style, old style Juno. I don't know if you can picture the way it is now. It's kind of like a poor man's Oscar, like a see-through Oscar. I can't picture it.

Even though I actually watched a bit of it the other day. I think it's like a glass little Oscar and then there's watched a bit of it the other day. I think it's like a glass little Oscar and then there's like a piece of metal wrapped around it

or something. But it used to be more like a pylon. I like the old ones better. I like the old Geminis and they messed that up and made it like a screen award.

What's the Gemini? It was like a face. The profile of the face? Yeah, those were great. I pretended I won one once but that's a whole other story. Okay. I didn't really win one. but that's a whole other story. Okay. I didn't really win one.

So by the way, your Juno is for best alternative album for one chord to another. That's right, yeah. All right, everybody. Listening Sloan fans and Trans Canada Highway fans, we're going to talk about that

after all my annoying Sloan questions are out of the way. But patreon.com slash Toronto Mike is where you go to help crowdfund this exciting passion project. Give what you can. That's why I have these kick-ass microphones that I know Chris Murphy is impressed by. I was hoping to get out of here with one of those. You can keep your craft beer.

I'll take a microphone. Well, I can't keep it. I'm just kidding. I'll take one of those. The craft beer is everything because that comes to you courtesy of... Who does that come from? Great Lakes Brewery. Yeah, it looks great. I can't wait.

So I gave you an assortment there and you can drink... This gets even better, Chris. The Great Lakes beer that you will consume, you can drink it in that pint glass beside it. Oh, wow. That is courtesy of... Property in the Six. Propertyinthesix.com. it. Oh, wow. That is courtesy of... Property in the Six. Propertyinthesix.com.

That's Brian Gerstein. He is a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. Here's a tip from Brian. Every episode, I ask him for like a real estate Toronto tip, and he says, you may start noticing for sale signs popping up in your neighborhood.

That's because April is the ideal month to sell a home. Really? Because it lets you have a closing before the end of the school year. This is the reason. You know what? That makes sense, too. You own a home? I do, yeah. Good for you, because it's the best investment you can make,

apparently. Do you tell people when you say property in the six? Presumably... Is that what you type in? Do you tell people when you say property in the six, presumably, oh, is it property in six? Is that what you type in? Because it's a number six and then an I-X. Well, I'm glad you asked that question because he's got all three. Oh, he does, right.

So you can't even mess that up. That was my first thought is, well, you know, Brian, there's three ways people can put it. He likes that. That's the Drake way, I guess, with the numerical six and the I-F. Understood, yeah. That goes on the glasses.

Drake. I'm just kidding. I like that little bit you're doing there. I hope you keep doing it. My favorite gag. It's fine. Well, I only do it when it's obvious who you mean. But you really didn't know Roger Ashby.

That was not a bit. That wasn't a bit, but the maestro, like maestro, that's a joke. And Drake. I get it now. I call him Dri drizzy i call him drizzy so yeah uh i don't think i've ever heard a drake song in my life is that right yeah so do you never listen to like how old are your kids yeah they're like six and nine like they they might turn on to that stuff like i hear some weird stuff like not weird but just like uh sia or do you know who that is yeah yeah she covers her face with her hair that's right yeah so like i hear

some of those songs you know it's partly my kids and partly my wife i don't think my wife would necessarily gravitate towards drake though uh she might uh yeah see because and i'm trying to think my two oldest kids are obsessed with uh rap music and drake is a huge part of that like diet so like when he dropped an album you know nowadays when you drop an album it's like you stream it somewhere and then all of a sudden it's like it's different now and uh that night it got streamed they were all over it like for this unveiling of the new uh drake album it was like a big deal for these kids oh yeah no i mean i have nothing against drake and and uh i think that he's like a probably a super cool guy and like uh you know he spreads his influence and and uh to other people who need it

and like he's like a seemingly cool guy i just like i don't have i like rap music but i think the rap music i like was kind of from the time of um like heavy duty sampling and stuff i'm pointing to my public enemy public enemy that's like the top that's like like those records are like the the high point of rap to me i agree but um so i don't i don't you know i i guess i know like you know i uh you should call me on your cell phone and stuff like that. That doesn't really move me very much. No, but that just proves you do know one Drake song. I do know that one, yeah.

All right, let's talk about Sloan for a moment. Okay. First question, tough one. I'm sure you get asked it all the time, but what's the origin of the name Sloan? What's the origin story? It's just our friend had the nickname Sloan. Uh, he played in the band called the straight jackets. They were just kind of one of our contemporaries. And, um, and he was called Sloan because his, he worked in a factory or at one time he worked in a factory and his boss,

who was, I think French, although I don't know if that plays into it, but would refer to him as the slow one. And he was called Sloan. And then the story goes, and I think it's true that we said we wanted to call our band Sloan. And he said, you can call your band Sloan as long as you put a picture of my face on your record. So his picture does appear on the cover of our first EP, which predates our first full-length record. So it came out in the summer of 1992, and it was called Peppermint. And on the front was this guy. His name is Jason Larson, and he was Sloan. So it has nothing to do with Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

No, and that's a movie that I saw at the time, and that came out at a time when I was, you know, becoming aware of counterculture and punk and stuff like that. And so a lot of people loved Ferris Bueller and still do. And I remember I was at the age where it came at the exact time when I was like, really, is it cool to lip sync, twist and shout? I don't know if that's that cool. Like that's bullshit. So I was like, oh, you can swear on this.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you can swear. Well, anyway, so, yeah,. So I was like, oh, you can swear on this? Oh, yeah, yeah, you can swear. Well, anyway, so yeah, I thought that was like bull crap. And yeah, so I, yeah, so it doesn't have anything to do with, I'd have nothing against Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but like I kind of, sometimes I have this sort of,

my persona doesn't like certain things like Americana music or whatever. But it's not really the way I feel. I just sort of exaggerate. So I kind of come out like I was too cool for Ferris Bueller's Day Off when it came out. People think Twist and Shout is a Beatles song. It's actually the Isley Brothers.

That's right. The funny thing about that is their first song was called Shout. You make me want to shout. From Animal House. Yeah. I know. From you, yes. From Animal House. Yeah. Well, from you,

yes. But Animal House, the dramatic time of that is of the time of Shout or whatever. But, and then of course the twist was so big

that they basically, it just reeks of someone saying, okay boys, go back and add twist to that thing. That's right. But Twist and Shout is great and of course I know it mostly as the beatles and i think i believe the

the version that he lip syncs in the movie is the beatles definitely yeah yeah for sure yeah uh i just remember from that movie and i haven't seen it in a long time i just remember the dude uh in the red wings jersey uh what was his name that character he was a cool character yeah it was like when his dad had the fer a cool character. Yeah, it was like... The one whose dad had the Ferrari. He had like a one word, like Carlton or something like that. That sucks. I should know that.

I should Google it, but I have too many devices within like Arm Reach that have Google on it. I can't bother. All right. Now, so Chris Murphy, that's you. And then Andrew Scott and Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson, who was DJing that night. So that's Sloan. So do you want to tell me real briefly how you guys hook up and start a band together in Halifax?

I know you're from PEI, but I guess at some point you ended up in Halifax. Yeah, Cameron was the name of the band. Cameron! You were close on Chandler, I think. I think I didn't say Chandler either, but I can't even remember what I said originally. We met just post we're just post high school.

So I moved out of the house at age 17, but between 17 and 27, I probably lived at my parents' house half the time. So I kept moving home, you know, when I ran out of money and stuff like that. But so I met, you know what, do you know who Matt Murphy is? Matt Murphy, he plays into that sort of Halifax scene. His band was the Super Friends, and he was later in a group called the Flashing Lights. But I met him at work. So I had a job at the Victoria General Hospital

the summer after high school, and so did Matt, and we met there, and we're still friends. And through Matt, I think I met Henry Sangalang and Jay Ferguson, and I played in a band with them

called Kearney Lake Road from 1987 to 1990. And so Jay and I decided that we, sorry, so I broke up with that, And then I met Andrew Scott, just in town. He was like a man about town, a cool kid. He was kind of the DJ at the cool club. I started playing music with him. He was just starting to play music, but he's like to play drums. He wanted to play drums. His father had played drums and he had a drum set, but he was just starting. And, and I was sort of, I, you know, I was kind of teaching him, but within no time he was way better than I wasn't because I had played drums in my band with Jay, Kearney Lake Road. Anyway, so Andrew, so I had played in this group with Andrew. I had played in a group with Jay. And then in 1991, we decided we're going to make, uh, or 1990, the end of 1990, it was decided that fall.

It was like when Andrew gets home, he's doing a term at art school in Toronto, I think. Or he was in Toronto anyway for a while. When he gets home, Jay and Andrew and I are going to make this band. And we didn't have a name. And then Patrick was just a guy I knew him from other bands. He was in a band called Happy Co. He was in a band before that called The Convulsions. I knew him from the kind of hardcore scene. I knew that he could sing, and I knew that he could play guitar. I wanted to play guitar in this new band, Sloan, so Patrick kind of came on as the bass player.

And then we were four. We played our first show. We may have jammed at the end of 1990, but our first show was February 1991, so we kind of think of that as our anniversary of our band. So we're more than 25 years. So Patrick was always the new guy and is still the new guy, but he, within that first year, had switched to guitar because he is a better guitar player than I am, and I was sort of desperate to keep everybody interested

in being in the band, and I thought that he would get bored if he were just the bass player, and I didn't mind playing bass. I had played bass in bands before. Let me play some early Sloan, and then I've been waiting my whole life for you to visit to ask you a question about this song. So, uh... That's one of the skills that I learned in my school.

I was overwhelmed and I'm sure of that one. Because I learned it back in grade school when I was young. Yeah, I can listen to this whole thing now. I got to say a couple of things for me right now, which is I'm a teenager when this comes out. So I'm listening to a lot of CFNY. I think it was The Edge back then. Yep.

And it was the big stuff I was really into after the Public Enemy and after the hair bands all disappear. And we get Nirvana and Pearl Jam and then Bad Motor Finger from Soundgarden, like this grunge, I guess we'd call it. So grunge hits. And we're talking Seattle and stuff. And then CFNY starts playing this track. I loved it.

The first time I heard it, I loved it. I still love this track 25 years later. This is one of yours. Yep. I'm going to try to focus on your stuff. Yeah, I wish you would. I am. I don't care. I can talk. I can speak to any of that stuff. But I'm going to try to focus on your stuff. Yeah, I wish you would. I am. I don't care.

I can talk. I can speak to any of that stuff. But I'm going to, don't worry, I've got my homework done. Well, quick sidebar. Yeah. With this Trans-Canada

Highwaymen thing, am I getting ahead of myself? Should I not mention that? I'm going to do a whole, I mentioned it off the top. I'm going to do a post-Sloan, I have a lot of Trans-Canada You can run it, but in Trans-Canada Highwaymen, I'm supposed to do a post-Sloan. I have a lot of trans. You can run it.

But in Transcended Highwaymen, I'm supposed to bring four songs that I can do kind of thing. You are a little ahead of yourself because that's coming up. Never mind. Strike it from the record. That is the Nirvana album I was listening to in 1992. Understood. Okay, so here's my few questions. The first big question is, and I only learned this as an adult,

and I feel almost like misled by you and I'm angry at you because you tell us right off the top that underwhelmed is not a word, okay? But it is. It's in a dictionary. Speak to that. That's pre-Google. I don't know. I just thought it was funny.

But you didn't have access to a library with the uh oxford dictionary i'm the scope of of of the journal or whatever self-conscious like book this got written in when i was a teenager uh i didn't think oh my god i wonder if maybe it is a word maybe i'm lying in this song and then what then what will happen because that in this song. And then what will happen? Because this song came along at a time when I was literally writing in a journal, like a little goofball, like in the coffee shop writing poetry. And it predates, so this gets recorded in September 1991.

So we recorded this. There are two versions of this song. So the original version was recorded in September 1991. It was the first thing that we ever recorded. And that was right as Nirvana was happening. So we owe a lot to the timing of... Nirvana changed our lives and gave us an opportunity. Basically the one big opportunity we had in our life

that we're still, we haven't had an opportunity since. I mean, that's not true, but that was, we're still blowing, I say, blowing on the ember of the opportunity we were given because of Nirvana. But this song, I think it's from even four or five years before that, it was just in a book. I just had the poem, you know, as it were.

Right. Do you still have that book, by the way? I probably do. Because Kurt Cobain had a book like that. I know Kurt Cobain, you know, blows his brains out

at 27. It's a whole different story. But I bought, I literally bought the copy of his notebook. Right. Like that he was doing the same thing

you're describing. Yeah, mine was decidedly less nihilistic, but, you know, but it was just as, you know, it would be just as embarrassing to read now because I was just saying

stuff like, why do those jerks have those girls or whatever, like pathetic, sensitive boy. Okay, so you mentioned you owe a lot to Nirvana. So two things come to my mind,

which is one, now you got a bunch of, like The Edge is a good example in Toronto. That station now... We didn't have anything like that in Halifax. I didn't even know that existed.

Because that station, now that it's going, of course there's a CanCon rule here too, which we'll get to, but now that they're, that's the music they're going with,

whatever they were calling it, new rock or modern rock or whatever we can call it it grunge, whatever, you fit in, that sound that we just played with Underwhelmed fits so perfectly with that. I heard, like, that was a high rotation on our local modern rock station.

That's right. But the kind of CFNY slash like 102.1 The Edge or whatever, that was a Vanguard station, CFNY slash like 102.1 The Edge or whatever that they were that was a Vanguard station so there weren't very many alternative rock stations at that time so I really that was

the only place that we that that song got any play is that right? outside of the GTA outside of Toronto you know that wouldn't even be on the radar of a lot of Toronto, you know, that wouldn't even be on the radar of a lot of people. You know, we would say, here,

we're going to play Underwhelmed. And within 200 miles of Toronto, people would be like, all right. But outside, they're like, play the Future Shop song or whatever. That's funny. Okay, so we started talking about Halifax as like Canada-Seattle. This was the scene.

We took advantage of that too. We were self-conscious of that and thought it was goofy. But we benefited from that for sure. And who else? Thrush Hermit with Joel Plaskett. Sarah McLachlan was there at the time. Is that right? She was there in high school.

She left right after high school to vancouver or something like that that's right so she's associated with vancouver um that's she didn't yeah so you wouldn't know people didn't know who she was until vancouver but i did i remember her from being kind of on the scene although i didn't really run with her like i i could count the amount of times that i was in the same room with her, like on one hand. But I wasn't, I was really, I come from the sort of like the hardcore punk scene was what I was into. So she was playing music around town,

but I would have thought it was just lightweight. And, you know, I would probably maybe like it now. But at the time I was too rough for that. What about Joel Plaskett? Like what's your relationship like with him? I think at one point I was kind of a mentor character for him. You know, I don't want to put any kind of importance on my role in what he's done. Like he has really kicked ass and really has a little empire down there.

And I think he's good to people and all that stuff. And really has a little empire down there. And I think he's good to people and all that stuff. But I have a romantic memory of hanging out with him. He was literally a 16-year-old boy. And I would have been 23 or whatever. So I'm seven years his senior. And now we're the same age. But at one point, you know what I mean?

At one point I was uh an older kid and and i was kind of hot shit in in uh town and sloan i got a record deal with geffen even before our record deal like we were kind of like the happening band in town and we liked them and uh and we kind of gave them some opportunities but and i remember at one point they were, it got to the point where, uh, not just with them, but the other groups too, our involvement, you know, so originally no one had, uh, aspirations of having a record deal or, or getting out of town or anything. So then all of a sudden Nirvana happens, the world is upside down. The music industry is looking comes looking for people like us and they find us and we got a great a big break and so then the then the the aspirations of everybody else in in halifax

and probably you know all over the world or whatever changed there's like hey i'm in a cool punk basically punk band that can write songs too and so you know we put out the first little ep by thrush hermit and we we supported them and took them on tour and all that stuff but became a time where where our involvement with these groups um almost seemed like a detriment because they they were all seen as like sloan's little brothers and like, just like we, we kind of owned the story of being from Halifax. And so it would have been Nirvana as Nirvana was to serve to Seattle. We, you know, we got to sort of own that story and, and all of the groups, the super friends, um, Thresh Hermit, Hardship Post. I don't know if they are on your radar. Jail. Um, yeah. Jail is like J-A-L-E.

That's right. And that was women. Right. And.E. Yeah, J.A.L.E. is like J-A-L-E. That's right. And that was women. And a lot of these groups had to sort of be these sort of sub-stories of our story. And I felt at one point that it was almost like they were like, I don't want to come on tour with you guys anymore. And we were like, come on, our friends, we're all buds. And they were like, you know, it's kind of not cool anymore. Escaping the shadow. Now you mentioned the word sub there. So tell me how this went. Like, did you sign with Sub Pop? We did not. But why do I think

you signed with Sub Pop? We did a single on Sub Pop and we were buds with the sub pop people. So we, the, the first people that we spoke to were network. Uh, speaking of Sarah McLachlan, that was her, uh, label.

And we talked to people at, at network and they were like, uh, they saw, we, we did a little cross Canada tour, which brought us in May, 1992 to,

um, Vancouver. And, uh, the people at network saw us, but a guy. And the people at Network saw us. But a guy from Geffen came up and saw us. It wasn't David Geffen. I never met David Geffen. But we got signed to Geffen by this guy who was like an underling mailroom guy

who worked under the stream at Geffen of a guy named Tom Zutod who signed Guns N' Roses. He signed Motley Crue to A&M. He was like a big A&R guy. And our guy was like a minion of his named Todd Sullivan, and he signed us. And we didn't do much for Geffen, for sure. But then his next signing after us was Weezer,

and they became so big. You could have been the Weezer, man. We could have been Weezer. Had Weezer's first record been our second record, I would be a giant success. Yeah, you know what? You're funny with Weezer because... Here, so the second...

You guys, your first album... Oh, the one... Your first album, main album is Smeared. Smeared, yeah. And it's got a grungy kind of sound to it. And then you put out Twice Removed and it's a different sound. And I think there's this perception like,

oh, this is different. And then it's... Although we're going to get to how it's a different sound, and I think there's this perception like, oh, this is different, and then it's, although we're going to get to how it's underappreciated, and then time goes by and it's actually super appreciated, but I always think of Weezer, because they put out the, I don't know, the Undone, the Blue Album or something? I think it's just called Weezer or the Blue Album, and then the

second record was a real departure for them. Yeah, exactly, and then everyone's looking for that again, because it's got the Undone, the Sweater song, which is like you're underwhelmed or whatever and we're looking for that and the Buddy Holly or whatever. And then it's different

and then a little time goes by and you realize, that's freaking better. It's different, it's better. A little bit of comparison there. But I have a, so you're caught up in this grunge wave, Geffen,

smeared, of course, played a lot here. I had no idea, like Vancouver at the time in 1992, I had no idea Vancouver didn't have one time in 1992, I had no idea Vancouver didn't have one of their modern rock stations playing the mess out of like

Alice in Chains or whatever. They might have had, like there's a couple stations out there, one called Seafox. They may have been going by then, but you know, CFNY was really early on us

and so Underwhelm was big in Toronto, in this area, but I don't think really anywhere else. And then we didn't really get a lot more radio play until four years later or something. Because as you say, our second record was a big flop. Let's talk about that second album,

because this song is yours as well. See, I'm focusing on the Chris Murphy song. I appreciate it. Although in this era, it was very much about me. It was kind of my band at first to share and I was willing and happy to share it. And luckily I did because the other guys,

Patrick especially, kind of became the main money generator, really, like his songs. But from the beginning, even though early on when all of the songs, most of the songs were written by me, I was really into this idea that we all share them equally. Yeah, you had a Beatles-esque mentality there, right? Where all four of you would write for each album?

Yes, so Beatles in that we wanted to uh four irreplaceable characters within the band uh but the beatles they were just the beatles uh just john and paul made all the money oh and that's right because they that was their deal with their songs so they just put their so they just split their songs and then you know spent less time on george songs and and ringo really ringo just sang songs that were written by john paul george did have some pretty songs though george comes the sun is a george song yep no george had george had i don't think i don't go as crazy for george as a lot of people do but um he's but he's got five unbelievable songs and then is he the mitch marner of uh beatles and that he's playing in the austin

matthews uh Nylander's Shadow? I don't know what you're talking about right now. We'll skip that comment. I'll strike that from the record. All right, so Coax Me, though, and Twice Removed, is not beloved as the follow-up to Smeared at the time, I recall. So, yeah, we kind of felt that the alternative music house of cards was going to come down at some point because it seemed that every candy-ass Candlebox band was in this sort of alternative club.

And I was like, let's get out of here. At some point, someone's going to say Emperor's New Clothes, like, what is up with this crappy music? So let's get out of here. Our first record, I was hard on it for the subsequent years after. It was just like a... It was so du jour.

It was kind of like... It was on the kind of caboose of this sort of shoegaze thing. It was almost like a song-per-song rip-off of the 1988 record isn't anything by mudley valentine like our our reference points were already kind of over internationally were over but in canada it would like seem new but it was like this is pathetic like we're you know when you're from halifax and you know and and we're just like we're kind of the shoegaze band in halifax um but when you like when you're from Halifax and we're just like, we're kind of the shoegaze band in Halifax. But when you're going to England, it's embarrassing.

It's like, this is five years old. Yeah, I hear you. And so we're like, well, let's get out of this. Let's reinvent ourselves. Let's try to make timeless music instead of this sort of like of the times music. music instead of this sort of like of the times music. So from our second record on, Twice Removed, you know, our reference points became John Lennon Plastigono Band, Fleetwood Mac,

you know, these other things. Like this song right here is basically a carbon copy of Go Your Own Way by You can go your own way. Yeah, so it's got that sort of syncopated verses and then the sort of four on the floor chorus or whatever. Love that track. So anyway, so we wanted to make, it's like, oh, Smeared, that's so, that's whatever, hack.

Yeah. And now I like it again because it was like, yeah, it was of the time, but you know, I was, we were whatever, 23, 22 when we were writing it. So like, that's So it's adorable. And in a way, when you write music that you hope is timeless, then in some ways it...

This is maybe an unnecessary sidebar. But when music is really of a certain time, that becomes... There's currency in that. It's like, that really is really of a certain time that becomes there's currency in that it's like that really reminds me of that time but when you have a song that could have come out in 1981 or 1990 or 1965 it's like when was that i don't even know when that was but but twice removed sorry just to speak to your point from earlier it was kind of a commercial flop because we we kind of tried to reinvent ourselves which geffen was like i get it i get it you're doing different thing but really you're making our job difficult we've marketed you as this type of band and now you're this different band this is

the neil young thing where he'd put out like some kind of a but he was already kind of established so we were just like this new band and then and you know on the one hand we were like and remember we have different singers. They thought that was a drag too. It was like, we're trying to market you here. Yeah, they like the front man. And then Patrick sings this one. And then, and they were like, you know,

Chris, you should sing them all. And re-record, twice remove, and just make it like smeared. And we were like, no way, man. This is what we're going to do. And, you know, so a lot of people like that story because it really seemed like we were really sticking it to the man or whatever. Whereas truth be told, I would have probably done anything to be successful at the time. I was like, this is my opportunity to make something of my life. But, um, but that's what we decided to do. And looking looking back i'm glad because people do like

twice removed did become um uh important to music lovers and stuff it was like it was a real about face and it was maybe daring to do and and to and to have done it in the face of commercial failure and all these things i sometimes i cynically think that what people like about it is the sort of commercial failure aspect of it more than the music. It's like, I love that you were such a commercial failure. We love that. There's something to that. It's kind of like an indie rock loser

mentality. In Canada, I noticed that we sort of embrace that. We all turned, at some point, I know deservedly so maybe, but we all turned on Nickelback because because they sell like millions and millions of albums like there's something to that like we we love you because you you didn't sell millions and millions of copies of twice removed or whatnot but just on just to close up this coax me uh sorry twice removed point is that i should and everybody who knows sloan knows this but it's a fun fact, that the 1996 reader poll by Chart, you've got to put an exclamation mark,

the Canadian music magazine Chart, ranked it as the best Canadian album of all time. Like, that's crazy talk, right? Yeah, so it's hyperbolic silliness. And so you want to accept compliments of course like when you're uh you know as vain as i am but um but you think you know if you you if you take that seriously then you have to take seriously everybody who thinks you suck but like i don't really take either seriously but um you can't cherry pick your uh Yeah, so if you're going to accept that,

then you have to accept how terrible you are or how terrible you will become. When you're making your 11th or 12th album, and people say, these guys used to be cool. It's like, well, we're as cool as we can be for 48-year-old men. What do you want us to

do? Heroin or something? Did you ever do any heroin? No. Because in that grunge scene, I know you already said no, but the anniversary of Lane Staley's death was I think yesterday or something, like 12 years ago.

Yeah, that music means nothing to me. He's fine. I have nothing against him. So you did not even... Who is that? Screaming Trees? No, no, no. Alice in Chains.

Oh, whatever, yeah. Not my bag. Okay. But I love Nirvana, and that's a nihilistic guy, but he's also really funny. And Kurt Cobain. Well, yeah, he had his own addictions with heroin.

Yeah. So Sloan avoided that trap fall. That's why you guys are all still with us. Yeah, we were never quite as troubled, I think, as Kurt Cobain. I feel like I'm more like a Dave Grohl character. I think that he just loves music and loves to work hard

and is an affable, nice guy. Yeah, he's like a family guy, right? And he's got the kids and all that, and then he goes and rocks with whatever. You know, a lot of people make fun of him. Like, he's ubiquitous. Like, he's like whatever. And, you know, if I probably had the opportunities,

I would do everything he did too. Like, I'll induct Rush into the Hall of Fame. I love them too. But I didn't get that call. I noticed he likes to go on drums with his idols. If they need a drummer or whatever, he'll jump in there and do that.

Well, he's pretty good. He's a world-class drummer. He's excellent. I heard he was a drummer with a popular band back in the early 90s. I saw Dave Grohl play in 1988 with his band Scream

in Washington, D.C. Wow. I Scream in Washington, D.C. Wow. I went down to Washington, D.C. with some friends from Halifax to see Punk Rockers. And we were about to leave. We had been there already two weeks just sleeping in a van in the boiling hot 40 degree weather. In a place that was way more dangerous than we understood as well. And that's Fahrenheit. No, that's Celsius.

In a place that was way more dangerous than we understood as well. And that's Fahrenheit, right? No, that's Celsius, sorry. We're just like sleeping, you know, in a van, like in a parking lot in D.C., which is like pretty high murder rate and stuff. And then we heard Dave. We didn't know Dave Grohl at the time, but we heard Scream. It was this band we liked. They're playing in a week.

Let's just stay an extra week and see it. And so we did. It was they played probably 25 minutes and they just played covers and stuff. And're like we should have probably gone home we stayed a week for this no because now you got that story now i have that story that's right and what would i've done had i gone home just like fart around that's right so twice removed uh yeah the uh is it true that you guys almost broke up after Twice Removed? Yes. That became kind of a story because we didn't break up in the end. We came back. And then people just thought that we were either pulling a publicity stunt or whatever, just making up a story for fun.

But we actually did want to break up. We were going, we were ready to break up and we were essentially inactive for the better part of a year, but we were playing shows. We were playing the end of the shows that we had, the obligations that we had. And then there were a couple of, um, opportunities to play shows for money that we took because we were broke and young. But I had every intention of forming a new band or whatever I was going to do. Jay and I were kind of working on our little record label that we had down there.

Murder Records. Murder Records, terribly named. That R is shared, though. That's what you get. Murder Records, they share the R. The second R. Like Murder Eckerds kind of thing's what you get. Murder records, they share the R. The second R. Like murder records kind of thing. Yeah.

Yeah. Murder records. And the thing was, I really thought that Andrew was going to leave. I thought that Andrew had already moved to Toronto. The rest of us were living in Halifax. I felt like by doing so, he had sort of established that it wasn't his priority kind of thing. it wasn't his priority kind of thing but at the same time i was so romantic about the the the chemistry of the members that i was unwilling to entertain the idea of getting a new drummer so i was like i'm out so we fought about that because i think that other people probably were just like

let's continue on and make something with our lives and i thought we're young enough let's just like reinvent ourselves we can be in another band. I had other friends, like my friend Matt Murphy, no relation, I was in a band called The Super Friends, and I toured around with them as their drummer for a while, and I kind of thought that I was either going to join that band or I was going to try to poach Matt and be in a band with him. Interesting, but you decide to release one chord to another on Murder Records Records your own label

It started out, the scope of the record the third Sloan record, One Chord to Another was let's release a posthumous record with the idea of it sort of helping our record label and then the decision to continue

being a band was a gradual one where it was like, well, let's, let's do a couple of shows. Okay. Well, let's, well, we got a video grant, so let's make the video. And so, and then it was just sort of this gradual thing. And then it was kind of like, okay, we're going to continue on. But like any beef that I have about Andrew moving, like you have to just let that go. And then, of course, within a year, we were all living in Toronto. In the capital of the universe.

And then we just kept going. Alright, I'm going to... So, one chord to another. Navy blues, pretty together. I'm going a little faster just because I realized you would be here six hours. That's okay. So, I'm fast forward to pretty together.

I'm just going to play another Chris Murphy track. Dun, dun, dun. You know, the thing about you guys, and I want to ask you whether you, okay, so, and I'm going to get to the Tragically Hip later, but I recently posted something on my blog about the Tragically Hip just a little bit. And then somebody said to the Tragically Hip later, but I recently posted something on my blog about the Tragically Hip,

just a little bit, and then somebody said that the Tragically Hip owe their entire career to CanCon. This was the argument. So what role do you think, because these songs, and you've got so many singles, right, lots of airplay, how much of that is due to CanCon? I would say a lot. I would say that without CanCon,

all you have to do to wonder what we would say a lot i would say that that without can con all you have to do to wonder what we would be like without can con is to see how much radio play we get in the states and the answer is zero and you know we don't have to compete with nirvana like we just have to compete with our lady peace our lady peace and the tragically hip and he's you know those those guys those guys eat up a lotically Hip and you know those guys eat up a lot of CanCon you know and then there are groups that are like legitimate international

successes like Nickelback or whatever they eat up a lot of CanCon too but you know Canadian content that's a it's a government enforced what do you call that? It's my vocabulary way into it.

Yeah, quota. Quota, that's exactly right. Of, you know, radio stations and these Canadian broadcasters, whatever, have to play a certain amount of Canadian stuff. I forget what the percentages are. 35 or something? I don't know if that's accurate or not. And the broadcasters, of course, don't want to play any Canadian stuff because the stuff that is really being talked about and the stuff that is like a global success, you know,

is not from Canada for the most part. Although there are lots of exceptions. You know, there are lots of, you know, from Justin Bieber to Drake to, you know, Nickelback or whoever. So groups like the Tragically Hip, I guess, Blue Rodeo, Sloan, 5440, these bands aren't really success outside Canada. And these are, you know, there's part of me, I don't know if I sound cynical saying,

I think there's part of what makes a group beloved, you know, part of what Nickelback does not enjoy that Tragically Hip does is the fact that the mere fact that they weren't a success anywhere else is part of what makes them so beloved. Because they're ours. There's an ownership aspect. That's exactly right.

So Nickelback doesn't belong to Canada. That's an international phenomenon. So who cares? But they're also, P.S., they're terrible. Nickelback is also really terrible. It's a coincidence. I hate to be the guy who might be defending Nickelback because they are terrible in a Creed-like way. But the first album they released, Breathe, I don't know if I was young and dumb,

but I actually. You were. There were songs from Breathe. If you're about to say something, positive. Yeah, yeah. The first album, and I don't remember the name, The State. It was called The State. And it had Breathe and some songs that I actually enjoyed.

And I don't know if it's... Yeah, I think I was young and dumb. I think maybe. The first album. The songs are... The thing is, I'm sure that their songs are probably fine. But they're just... And they also...

Sorry, I don't really have a beef with Nickelback. They work really hard. They... You know, it's just not my they don't my own personal thing they obviously don't see the world through the lens of punk rock and indie rock and those things that you know you can't expect everyone to have that worldview you know i kind of have a bit of tunnel vision that you could say prevents me from liking Nickelback. But, you know, I don't think it makes me unhappy. Did it make you unhappy that you were not able to crack the U.S. market? Like, how important was that to you at the time and how frustrating was that?

Well, we, you know, it certainly right before Nirvana happened, we would have been happy to play at the Rivoli if we could ever come there. So I played, I had a band with Jay in a sort of pre-Nirvana world. We toured up to, with the Straight Jackets, with a member of whom was Jason Larson, a.k.a. Sloan. We opened for them and we played at the Fofoon Electric in Montreal

and we played at Zaphod Bebelbrocks in Ottawa and we played at the Rivoli in Toronto and we just went home like to a ticker tape parade. Like, it was like... You made it. Holy shit. What else is there?

Anyway, so I'll say goodbye everybody. I'm about to become a teacher. Goodbye forever. And then, so I'll say, goodbye, everybody. I'm about to become a teacher. Goodbye forever. And then, so the idea of American domination being a part of something I always dreamt of or something, it's like it became, like, when we first went to the United States, the first thing we did there was we played an in-store

in either Detroit or Buffalo, I forget. I should probably know this by now, what I'm telling the story. And it was packed. And I had, for a moment, I had holy crap, this is going to happen. But Buffalo here is the edge, right? That's exactly right.

Because they love the hip too in Buffalo. And there's also a station called 89X, which is a Detroit station, which is broadcast from Windsor. Right. Yes. So we've also, we also had some luck there. I don't remember if they were playing underwhelmed, for example, but anyway, so, so yes. So to answer your question, I had a brief feeling of like, oh my God, what if, maybe this is going to happen for us, but it was pretty brief. And then we went on a 10-week tour of the United States in 1993

and played to no one most of the time. You know, went down to the South, played to nobody. And like we, like our idea of fun was like we would lip sync some songs, like we'd put on some records and lip sync. Okay. And it's to me, okay. So even by 93, I was like, this is not going to happen. So. And, um, it's, it's to me, okay, I, so even by 93, I was like,

this is not going to happen. So you'd kind of come to accept this, that you were Canada famous. Certainly by the time Twice Removed came out, like it was over and we didn't really, and we was like, I guess it didn't happen for us. And then we had this sort of brief,

when One Chord to Another came out. Yeah. It did so well in Canada that we, and then we signed another record deal in the States. And they were like, that was with, just as a callback, that was with a guy named Tom Zutoff, the guy that had the underling Tom,

Todd Sullivan, who signed us to Geffen. He was now on his own. This is the guy that signed Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses. So he had this new label and money. And part of his motivation, he left Geffen in a bit of a snit and he was going to take this group that Geffen couldn't make stars.

And he was like, this was part of his revenge motivation. And I was like, great. Yeah, use us. But that company went under within six months. So that was probably the last time that we kind of thought that anything would happen for us.

Help me out here. Okay, so I'm born and raised in Toronto. I listen to Toronto radio, which means lots of Sloan, okay? Which, by the way, this argument, like, I mean, I hear it, I like it, I buy tickets, I buy the CDs, I buy tickets to see you live. Like this is this is my I loved this sound. It baffles me. I don't understand because in this segues a bit to the hip in a second here, but I don't understand why your sound is Canadian Canada only like it doesn't my ears don't understand.

only like it doesn't my ears don't understand well because um you know we were briefly on geffen which had uh money and uh you know we could have potentially done something there but there were you know i could get into stories about there was um when we were signed to geffen underwhelmed was doing really well at college radio in the states and it was they were going to in march or whatever 1993 they were going to make this jump to commercial radio with underwhelmed and and just as that was happening this guy named gary gersh who was an anarch guy and he who brought in sonic youth uh nirvana, Hole, Teenage Fan Club, or Joe Rekill, like all of the cool bands that were on Geffen. He quit and he moved to, he became the president of, uh, EMI or something or Capitol rather. And, uh, and so the person who was, who was our radio guy, who was behind us, who was

going to do the, he switched to A&R, inherited all those cool bands. We were not now part of his roster. We came from a different stream. And then the new guy who came in at radio, he was like, I don't like you guys.

And so like we were. So much politics, eh? Like just so much bull crap. Yes, but everybody who has failed or whatever, like has that kind of story. Like it's not because necessarily they did something wrong. Circumstances that you can't control are at play all the time.

This part of me is not like, why is it even worth telling that story? Who cares? But in my mind, it was like, that was our shot. That kind of, kind of that, right. You know, and,

and I don't blame Mark Cates. I don't blame Gary Gersh for quitting. I never met him. I don't blame Mark Cates for inheriting Nirvana and all these great bands. I, I kind of blame, I guess the new radio guy who came in and did, but at the same time,

like we were on Geffen, like we, that was a, that was really exciting. But at the same time, like we had to share, uh, everybody at Geffen was a bigger, uh, phenomenon than we were. We were pretty much the smallest thing there. We were happy to be there, but it was hard to compete. Their resources were for something else. Sonic Youth had the Chuck D jobs into the cool thing. That's right. And our fifth record, when you started lifting off records between the bridges that you didn't even mention. Doesn't matter.

That was mixed by a guy named Chris Shaw who mixed Nation of Millions. Which is like maybe that is the greatest rap album of all time. Probably the greatest rap album of all time. That's crazy. I'm sorry for skipping some albums but there's a lot of them man.

There's a lot of them. Just really briefly though because the other band that's been in the news lately that they talk about, you know, why did they never crack the U.S. market, but they're loved in Canada,

like your band, the Tragically Hip. And I've seen Sloan on bills with the Tragically Hip, be it like Molson Park and Barry or whatever. Like, I've been there. I think we only play

maybe once with them in Canada. Maybe it was the last show in Barry. They called it Last Bash in Barrie. Which wasn't true because the Vans Warped Tour came there the next summer. I remember thinking I got misled. Just like the Underwhelmed. I feel you guys

keep doing that to me. We play with the Tragically Hip a little bit in Europe. But do you have any relationship at all with the Hip or anything you can say about the Tragically Hip since you're both big Canadian bands. No one can see you shaking your head because it's a podcast. Yeah, but that was a clue to you that I don't really have any story.

I know. But not really. I mean, when they played their last show in Kingston, I was by myself in a hotel room in Ottawa, basically kind of in tears, like not really attached to their story in any way. Right. But just like, this is a shame. Inganish.

Inganish is where I was for that August 20 last hip show because that was on my adventure. I was at Cape Breton, I guess, Inganish. Nice. Just to bring it back to the Maritimes,

which is a cool classified. You ever heard of classified? Sure. Okay. He's got one of my favorite classified songs is the Maritimes. He's got a song called the Maritimes. Yeah. Classified. You ever heard of Classified? Sure. He's got one of my favorite Classified songs. It's the Maritimes. He's got a song called the Maritimes. Yeah.

All right. So Chris Murphy on the Tragically Hip. I've got my quote. What is it? I know I don't have any quote because it was a head shake. No, well, I mean, I saw their last show. I thought it was sad. I was at something in Ottawa the other day. I saw Paul Langlois. I said hello last show. I thought it was sad. I was at something in Ottawa the other day. I saw Paul Langlois.

I said hello to him. I don't really know those guys that well. And they got played off at the Junos. Yeah, I didn't see it. Rebecca, my wife, was watching something else, and she wouldn't let me watch the Junos. That's no good. All right.

Now, so I played a lot. Actually, let me play one more Chris Murphy song here because I want to say a few things. That when I heard this song, which is a catchy sing-along. It's so Beatles-esque. A lot of your stuff is very inspired by the Beatles. Yeah, they're my favorite group.

You can hear it. If you listen to this song, it's inspired by Beatles music. I guess so. Can you speak to that specifically or just like it reminds you of the Beatles? Just the sound, music. I guess so. I mean, can you speak to that specifically or just like it reminds you of the Beatles? Just the sound, like when I hear it. And it's funny, I heard it on the radio just the other day.

So there's some stations who are still playing this. And yeah, like just, I can't explain it anymore except the melody and the way it sounds to me, Beatles-esque, which is a compliment to you? Yeah. Beatles are my favorite group. Sometimes I say that Kiss is my favorite group because that was kind of like the big thing that turned me on to music as a little boy.

But the Beatles, I'm kind of an expert on the Beatles, and if I'm copying anyone, it's the Beatles for sure. So this is from Action Pact. Yeah, this is 2003. And the four songs that you played, I don't know if they were randomly chosen,

but those would be the ones that I brought to the Trans-Canada Highwaymen. Oh, I almost played G Turns to D, and she says what she means. I almost played those two, but then I thought for time

I'd cut them. But yeah, and we're so close to Trans-Canada Highway Talk. I got a lot of great questions about that, because a lot of great... Yeah, I'm so close to it. In fact, here, let's wrap this up. questions about that. It's a lot of great... I'm so close to it. In fact, here, let's wrap this up.

No, I don't care. Question from Twitter. This is a Twitter question. Was the bass line... And I know this is not your song, so we're going to introduce someone else's song here. Let me play it a bit here. Kill the rest of my life there.

Was the bass line to Motor City Maniacs intentionally sounding like ACDC's Livewire as a homage, homage, or coincidence. Do you have any insight into that? It's basically Livewire by ACDC. And it's Money City Maniacs. What did I say? Motor, but everybody says that.

Oh, yeah, you know why? Because you said Kiss. And then I started thinking of Motor City. This is a Kiss. Detroit Rock City? Detroit Rock City. Yeah, that's my excuse. All right.

Sorry. Okay, go ahead. Detroit Rock City? Detroit Rock City. Yeah, that's my excuse. All right. Sorry. Okay, go ahead, sorry. No, it's okay. But yeah, it's kind of Live Wire by ACDC. There you go. So who asked that question?

Jason Beattie asked that question. So people now are at home thinking I'm playing Money City Maniacs, which is different from Motor City Maniacs,

which is another song. Money City Maniacs. This is ACDC's Live Wire if people don't know it. So yeah, there you go. Cool. Todd B. wants to know if we're going to see a Feltworth LP anytime soon. I don't know who that is.

You know, I don't know either, but I assumed I was just out of the loop in that issue. So I just copied and pasted it to Twitter. Feltworth. That doesn't mean anything to you, Feltworth. No, what is it? I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. I copied it from a it on Twitter. Feltworth. That doesn't mean anything to you, Feltworth. No, what is it? I don't know. Honestly, I don't know.

I copied it from a guy on Twitter, asked it, Todd B. Okay. Todd Berry? Yeah, Todd Berry. All right. Now, another question from Al Grego. Are you guys planning a 20-year anniversary tour of Navy Blues like you did with One Chord to Another.

It was great, he says. Aw. We're not not planning it. We're just, I think that we're just trying to, you know, we did it as, so as that person says, we did a tour of the 20th anniversary

of our third record just this past year, One Chord to Another. And so now we've done a total of two of those reissue tours. We did Twice Removed and we did One Chord to Another. And now we're sitting here asking ourselves as a 25-year-old band, should we do that? Should we do a Navy Blues tour? Should we do a smeared tour?

Should we make a new record what's the value of new music to a group that already has 200 songs and people want to hear the songs

that they know what's the value of new music for example like as a comparison of a new Rolling Stones record

like what's the value? I always joke that their album is just their excuse for the tour, I think. I don't know if I can be bothered working on a record for eight months or something and then throwing all of the songs in the garbage

and then just going to play Money City Maniacs. Obviously, you're playing four of your songs with the Trans Canada Highwaymen, so we're going to play Money City Maniacs. Does that bother you? I mean, obviously you're playing four of your songs with the Trans Canada Highwaymen, so we're going to get to that in a moment, but does it bother you that you've got to go out there and play the same tunes people want to see, Money City Maniacs, and they want The Good in Everyone,

and they want Coax Me, and yeah. Sure, but it makes sense. If I went to see the Rolling Stones and they play a whole new record, I'd be like, get me out of here. I'd like to think that our record would be better than the new stone uh stones record but uh you know i'm not the person to ask because i have my head up my ass about it and you know i've spent the time on it they probably think their new record is pretty good too but they're wrong it's not good it's not good and and the thing the other thing is like when you're in a group for so long and

your music is attached your music has nostalgia attached to it you just can't you just can't compete even if you made bridge over troubled water this year people still want to hear underwhelmed because of where they were when they first heard it because they were in i was 18 years old when i first heard and that's why when I hear it, I'm 18 again. And just know that's like, that's potent. That's the power of music is, is to transport you,

um, to that time before your life was terrible. Before the mortgage and kids and all that bullshit showed up. You're absolutely freaking right on that one. Uh, now last Sloan question. Uh, do you think Sloan gets the credit they deserve?

Oh, yes and no. Like lots of people I've been on the one hand, I've been overvalidated my whole life. You know, you guys are great. Um, you know, occasionally someone yelling at me, Sloan sucks or whatever. I don't, for the most part, I, I, uh, Whatever, I guess I believe both or I believe neither. I haven't had to dig holes in the ground. I haven't had to do anything crappy my whole life. I still make a living doing this thing. And you own property in Toronto. Yeah, so I carry on like a middle class person.

I'm not rich by any means. And because we have split all of the songwriting and stuff, we're all financially in the same boat, which is good. But had I written everything, I would be kind of rich. Not rich, but I would be doing all right. If I had written everything and retained everything. But it would have meant that the band would be over by now. If you're

in a group and one guy is rich and the other guys are like, when are we going on tour? And the guy who wrote everything and retained everything. This is like Bon Jovi. Sure. Who else? I mean, lots of people. I mean, Nirvana. Almost every band.

The Police or whatever. Andy Summers is like, when are we touring Sting? And Sting's like, I don't know because I'm rich beyond your wildest dreams because of radio play. If Pepsi Cola came to you and said,

hey, we want Underwhelmed for a new ad, do you have any reservations about that? I think at this point, I do not. I might draw the line at cigarettes or something. When we were younger, I didn't want to do anything that had to do with

beer. And then it was just like, okay, well, no cigarettes. But obviously, beer kind of runs the music industry. So if you don't want to play ball like you can't play anything in the summer like so you know i don't um i'm you know i guess less idealistic than i used to be i suppose but like i don't i don't i kind of don't feel like i've had to do anything that's that... You know, musically, everything on our records,

you know, there is compromise on the records, but it's just compromise between the four of us. Nobody made me put out a song... Nobody on a record label made me put out a song that I thought was awful. This is a good song. The parking lot where they filmed this video is going to be the new Mountain Equipment, the MEC location,

because they sold the King Street and they're moving to Queen Street. And that's a little tidbit for you. Maybe they'll call up Mo to play the grand opening. You know, Mo is a guy I got to get on this show, too. My daughter had a podcast when she was 8 and she abandoned it this was a while ago and her theme song was She's So Young and that was her theme song and that Love Junk

man that was got a lot of rotations with me I think I actually had it on cassette I don't think they rotate these cassettes maybe they do so let's talk about the Trans Canada Highwaymen because I I'll run down the rosters. So yourself from Sloan,

Stephen Page from Barenaked Ladies, Moe Berg from The Pursuit of Happiness, and Craig Northey from Odds. And let me see if I got this right. So you each bring four of your songs, so not your band songs, but your songs that you brought to your bands, and you'll play them when you go to see Trans Canada Highwaymen.

Yeah. Okay. By the way, I think that when you say Steve and Paige, I think we're supposed to say co-founder of the Barenaked Ladies, because he's not from the Barenaked Ladies at this point. Yeah, right. He's not with them anymore. But anywho.

So, like, yeah, like, there's, yeah, so obviously, so if John Lennon were in this group and I wouldn't have had him, but he wouldn't be singing Hey Jude. He'd bring Come Together. Sure, exactly. Day in the life. So the four, if you're just joining us now, I guess it doesn't work like that.

You've already played the four songs that I bring like you were right about the songs that's a coincidence by the way I just wanted to make sure but I think that you tried to be me heavy there and those are those are like the songs that I would say you are right those were the songs of mine that were

kind of the most and tell me Mo brings this one. Oh, yeah, for sure. He's got to bring this one, right? And the theme song to your daughter's podcast. She's So Young and that Love Junk. There's a third radio hit. It'll come to me in a second.

Maybe you can remind me. There's a third big... Love Junk had a big radio hit that came with She's So Young and I'm an adult now. Speaking of CFNY, got played. Is it hard to laugh? Yes, it is hard to laugh. Good job. Does he bring that one too? Sure. Yes. Wow.

So, this is cool. And Stephen Page, here, let me fade out. I'm an adult now. By the way, just like how I often, with my kids, I'll break into Underwhelmed and I'll go, we're talking about people that eat meat, and I'll do that part. I'm an adult now.

I'll go into some cheese-eating high school boy dead in a ditch somewhere, and I'll break into that. These are great lyrics from my youth that are still in my head. They just bounce around in there all the time. I have always compared Underwhelmed to I'm an Adult Now partly because they're just like super wordy,

repetitive chord, essentially jokes, but rock, but with rock and roll. I associate them too from the same time. And they both have, they both had this sort of like

independent version with a video that did well. And then both songs were re- independent version with a video that did well. And then both songs were re-recorded with a new video. Yes. So they both... So they had like a second life. Yeah, I always thought of Underwhelmed as sort of like a little brother song to I'm an Adult Now.

And here I am playing I'm an Adult Now with Moe Berg. And so it's a thrill. And he's been so kind of musically inactive in a lot live anyway that people I think are most excited

to see him and so when we played we've only played the one time Transcanada Highwaymen and when we played I'm an adult now people lost their minds

yeah I can imagine and also when we play Underwhelmed Moe Berg sings the harmony with me so it's kind of fun for me people lost their minds. Yeah, I can imagine. And also when we play Underwhelmed, Moe Bird sings the harmony with me. So it's kind of fun for me. So I get to be, you know, in a band, but I also get to be,

it's also kind of like a, I get to be a fan too and be there, be a fan of like, I can't believe I'm here. Tell Steven that Toronto Mike abandoned Barenaked Ladies when he left the band. Because to me, him and Ed Robertson, it was like, I don't know, Lennon McCartney. Like, you can't just take this voice out of that band and it's not the same band. He was instrumental. I think that Stephen and Ed think that Toronto abandoned them after their first record.

After one week, though, I think it took. I think that's to make it even longer. I think that they always kind of felt like, you know, because they certainly, by 97, and they were really becoming an international act, and they did before that, too. Even their first record, I think, was like Sire's second biggest record after Madonna.

Gordon? Yes. Really? In the States? But not in the States. Not in the States. But it was just like the total sales in Canada made it their second biggest album. Like, it was such a big album,

but it didn't get the sort of props because those sales were in provincial Canada. In Toronto. But I agree with what you're saying. Like, how can you take Steve and Paige out of that group? It doesn't really make sense to me. Like this tune, for example, okay? What a classic, great Barenaked Lady song that we all love.

And I don't have a clue if Barenaked Lady performs this anymore, but how do you, like, Ed sings this song? Like, that's different. I don't know. I don't even have a clue if Barenaked Ladies performs this anymore but how do you Ed sings this song? That's different. I don't know. I know Ed and I know Steven and I don't begrudge Steven for leaving. I don't begrudge the band for going on.

When I think of it myself, I have been at that juncture where are we going to lose a guy or are we going to keep going? Like I always say, I always childishly say that I would shut it down if anybody left. Like I can't, like even if it were the drummer who doesn't maybe sing the song, like maybe the Barenaked Ladies could have lost Tyler and not, even though he's like a real character too

and a great player. But I just mean like, I think it's a shame that they had to go through that or whatever. The perception, and I don't know if it's reality, the perception is that Stephen,

it's because of the controversy and some Disney thing that was happening at the time. The perception, I can tell you, is not that Stephen left. It was that they pushed him out somehow.

Yeah, that might be true. I got to get Stephen in here. But I, honest to God, don't even know. But whatever the case, it's a shame because I'm personally a fan of bands more than solo artists. I love David Bowie, but I kind of still, again, childishly, wish that they were a band. I'd be more interested. I'm interested in the Kinks. I saw Ray Davies.

And even though he is the Kinks, I still want it to be the Kinks. Like, I'm still, it's kind of a childish thing I have about bands as a story within itself and sort of like a family unit and stuff like that. Anyway. Steven, is this one of his four that he'll bring? Yes. Good. Yeah.

Cool. So far, I'm doing well with my guesses. You are doing well. What I was going to say, just like Underwhelmed was all over 102.1 The Edge or whatever the heck they were called back in 92, this cassette, forget Gordon,

before Gordon, the yellow tape. Yeah. The songs, and by the way, there was a Fight the Power cover on that yellow tape because I had two copies

of that damn yellow tape. So it all comes back to Public Enemy is what we're learning here today. It does, yeah. They're the greatest band of the last half

of the 80s. Yes, thank you. I agree with that 100%. And I think Fear of a Black Planet is like 1990s, so I'm going to give them a bit of the early 90s too. I just want to say that yellow tape, the songs on that, like Blame It on the Rain,

or was that that? I don't think it would have been that. If you follow those, Blame It on Me. Blame It on the Rain was Milli Vanilli. That's right. Which is name-checked in that song. The other t-shirt you have nailed to the wall there was Milli Vanilli. That's right. Which is name-checked. The other t-shirt you have nailed to the wall there. Milli Vanilli. Girl, you know it's true.

Okay, so what I'm saying here is that CFNY played the mess out of that album too. Yoko Ono, speaking of the Beatles, it all comes full circle. I met those guys then. I met them in 1990 in Halifax. I was in another group called Blackpool. I was the bass player in this sort of like roots rock band and I think

I had Sloan going at the same time. I'm not sure. But anyway, so I met them at the time of that tape and I saw them. And even though I kind of came from a punk background, when I saw their act I was just...

It was so much more pro than anything that had ever played in Halifax I was like holy crap and they have I feel like that group has been much maligned like everybody's like it's goofball look at them they're wearing shorts and they look like shit and all that stuff

and I don't completely disagree with a lot of that stuff but there's a bit of a Moxie Fuvis vibe going on at the beginning but they were they were really not my bag i like i guess i just didn't have like a an in with them but i had met the bernie good lady so young and i just thought i was like i gotta hand it to them like i really and they were supporters of us from the beginning like they went to the cfmy casB awards when we first came to town and we thought we were so cool and we just like played noise and they thought it was so funny and I to me uh I love music but like also the currency for me is comedy like I love talking about comedy more so than

music and uh and those guys are so quick and, and all of their reference points and everything. Like I wholeheartedly, I get all that stuff. I even grew up, I even as a young kid lived in Scarborough from 73 to 78. And I think, I don't know if that gives me some of that sensibility, but like I kind of feel attached to them. But at the same time, like I came from, you time, I came from credibility and college rock and punk and I had cool guys in my band who weren't goofballs like me. I felt like I basically could have been in the Barenaked Ladies, but I got to be in a band that was cooler than they were

and they got to be in a band that was millionaires more than I was. So, you know, the grass is always greener. It is fair to say at this point that bare naked ladies are far more popular in the USA than they are in Canada. It's sort of a strange little, I would, that's a controversial statement I just made as if it's fact. But it feels that way sometimes. It could be. But like, I just think that, I don't think that they're unpopular in Canada. I bet they could probably fill the, whatever, ACZ or something.

Who knows? But I just mean like, you can't, they can't be on the tips of everyone's tongue. No one can be on the tips of the tongue of people for 25 years. But I still think that they do very, very well. And they were a legitimate success in a way that Sloan, I'm proud of our life's work. We have this giant body of work and everything. But we never really broke anywhere,

whereas they really did. Does Craig bring this song to your Trans Canada? Yes. Yeah. I think I batted 1,000 on the... You're batting 1,000 so far. Thank you. I'd like to see you blow it.

See, and I wasn't... But Craig from The odds and steven from uh bernie galady's co-founder bernie galady's and chris from sloan all of us um come from bands where there were multiple writers but mo doesn't mo mo is the pursuit mo is the pursuit of happiness yeah i mean i i mean i don't know if he would say that because you know there are other characters in that group but he definitely wrote everything. I told this story before. I used to work at Dufferin and DuPont at a grocery store.

And I would live in it. Fresh? Now it is. It used to be a price chopper. Oh, that's right. I've been there. So when it was a price chopper, it was Food City when I started there. Okay.

And then I helped convert it to a price chopper. This is as I'm in university. And then now it's a fresh cove. And I'm long gone from there now. But I used to live at like Charles Street and Young. And I would bike like along Davenport to DuPont or whatever to go to work. And I would see Moe Berg regularly just walking like that strip. Like somewhere I guess Davenport and Christie was it?

I don't know. That's his hood. This is like mid-90s maybe. Where was his know. Yeah, that's his hood. But yeah, this is like mid-90s, maybe, his wedding. Where was his hair? Yeah, he had long hair. Long hair? Yeah, he had long hair. Because he's still got, like, it's not short, but it's not long anymore.

He reigned it in a little bit. He reigned it in, yeah. Yeah. How did it come to, how does it come about that you four hook up and decide to start to do this? I... And is Sloan okay with this? Like, is the band blessed as this?

Yeah, like, I had to go through that sort of, like, the awkwardness of that, because I have always been, I have always poo-pooed side projects with Sloan. I've always wanted Sloan to be, you know, the Beatles, like, to always have the best material in the band. There's a group called Eric's Trip that was from our area that was on our Murder Records label,

and they signed a sub-pop. A lot of the groups in our area signed a sub-pop. It might be part of the confusion. Yeah, and that's my memory from like early 90s. So I don't, that's a copy of a copy of a copy. Well, anyway, Eric's Trip was this like super cool group from Moncton, New Brunswick. And they were a group, they were great.

And they had all four of the members had side projects. And so that was constantly going on. And I remember feeling, guys, put your best material on eric's trip like what are you doing and then then there was a group called elevator to hell that was a side project of the lead guy in eric's trip and i was like why bother and then the air then the first elevator to hell record was better than the next eric's trip record and i said guys you're doing a major you're cannibalizing you could be in the greatest group of all time and you're watering it down. So that was my example of like, okay, no side projects for

Sloan. Screw that. But the Trans-Canada Highwaymen, at this point anyway, and I don't know if I foresee a different era for this, but we're not writing. We're just like, everybody come and be an entertainer. Everybody in the Trans-Canada Highwaymen be an entertainer. Everybody in the Transcanada Highwaymen is an entertainer. Everybody in Sloan is not an entertainer. I don't mean to say that Transcanada Highwaymen is without artistry, but we're definitely like there's no push-pull about, you know, should we play the hits? This goes on in Sloan.

It's like I'm tired of that song. And then I want to say it's $55 to get in or whatever. It's like, I'm tired of that song. And then I want to say, it's $55 to get in or whatever. It's like, we're playing that song. And we have this fight. Where in The Highwaymen, it's like, there's no question. We're just going to play the songs that are the most recognizable.

We're going to tell stories and make it fun. I feel like with Sloan, it's so much like a band band of brothers that and the sort of the baggage that comes with family it's like like you but you all get along still we do get along and and and as you spoke to earlier no one is a drug addict or in real trouble you know what i mean like we can all communicate some of this some of the lines of communication are not great, but I feel personally that I have a good line on everybody and that we can play for as long as people will have us. I kind of think that we've been playing so long that I almost think that shouldn't there be at least

10 shows a year that will make us enough money that we can do that for the rest of our lives, even if we don't make any more music. But there are definitely forces within the band that are like, let's make more music. And what is the value of new music to us? When you're a dad and when you have a mortgage and all that stuff, it's like, how much time, money, and energy do you want to put in to a 12-song record? And at the most, we need need four arguably two new songs you know what i mean you know just ron hawkins came in lois hello another band i

loved it that the 90s if you will and then he talks like he's still making new music but he told me like he'd have to come in for a whole different episode about radio in this country like he could record a great song and you can be like what a beautiful song he can't get that song on the radio like i don't know what the politics are but everybody's got a great song like i don't think that i don't think that i almost don't think that songs i don't think that of course i think that songs are valuable but i think that there's obviously more you know you know what i mean like you could make the greatest hamburger in the world it's like how come i'm not mcdonald's it's like because you didn't there's obviously more, you know what I mean? Like you could make the greatest hamburger in the world.

It's like, how come I'm not McDonald's? It's like, because you didn't, because you got to do a bunch of crap, there's more to it than making a great hamburger.

This is a very uncool example, but maybe where the evolution of the Trans-Canada Highwaymen goes, but so I went to see Velvet Revolver at the Molson Amphitheater. Okay, Velvet Revolver. I like to think of us as the new Velvet Revolver.

Well, here's the thing, right? So you get Guns N' Roses songs, okay? Because they'll play Patience, because Slash is there. Scott, he's dead now. Another heroin guy, by the way. And then they'll play Stone Temple Pilots songs, which to the crowd, we love it. We're hearing Guns N' Roses.

We're hearing Stone Temple Pilots. But there's also actual Velvet Revolver songs. So those are the three kind of in the Venn diagram, those three come together. That's right, yeah. So that could be like an evolution. There could be a time when Trans-Canada Highwaymen write their own songs together. That could be. I'm not against it, but I would just like, we've only played one show. The scope of the project right now would be to just get on stage

for a second time. Like, I think that would be... But you don't have this... The next step. I'm going to ask you like a call to action to people if they want to go and see Trans Canada Highwaymen

and go nuts when I'm an adult now is played. Like, do you have dates? Do we have dates? Is there... Like, do you want to just... I know a lot of people are going to want to

see you guys. Yeah. I mean, this is, and you're going to put me on some kind of like a backstage list or whatever

where you guys, I get to go and watch you guys do heroin back there. Of course. Yes. I'm not saying that people won't do heroin,

but it just won't be me. That sounds like I'm accusing someone of doing heroin. I'm not. I think it's going to be pretty clean. What am I looking for? I don't know. Dates for the Trans Canada Highwaymen to see them live. Don't you have that kind of information? No, you're a PR rep. I don't have it,

actually. I was hoping you'd tell me now. God, I don't even know. I think they start April 19th, but I don't know which show is where. But is there a website? You can tell everybody about a website. Yeah, the Trans Canada Highwaymen. I think we have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram, at Trans Canada Highwaymen. You can look up that kind of thing. So we are playing in April in Ontario, just in and around Ontario, going as far as Kingston. I think we go to North Bay. We do go to North Bay.

So I think the shows are like April 19th through the 27th. And it's, uh, I think it'll be really fun. I think we'll, uh, have some laughs. We've got some visuals.

Like it has, like there's a little bit of a theatrical element to it. That's not a straight up gig. Uh, the, the only show that we played so that's not a straight-up gig. The only show that we've played so far was just a straight-up rock gig. And this will be like that, but this has some visual eye candy.

Oh, Miriam is a listener of Toronto Mic'd, and she tweeted at me that she's taking her non-Canadian husband to see you guys on the 27th. So she's got her tickets. What for you? Where? Where is that? What show is that? She doesn't put that in the tweetth. So she's got her tickets. What four... Where? Where is that?

What show is that? Put that in the tweet. Because then maybe I could get specific. I was thinking that too. But she's a... I know she lives in Toronto and she's going to see you on the 27th. So I'm guessing it's around here somewhere.

But what four essential songs does she need to play for her non-Canadian husband before she drags him out to see the Trans-Canada Highwaymen. We probably played them, but did you want to like, I don't know, if you're going to listen to four songs

that you can expect to hear. Well, this is a test because you're wondering, am I going to mention all my own or any of my own? This is a test. Again, four bands, so you have 16 tunes, right?

Each of you bring four. Well, I think if this person is not from Canada, then it's possible that they have heard the Stephen Page songs. So maybe you don't need to go and listen to those.

Although, would it be more effective for him to listen to them and say, oh yeah, I do know those. Maybe I'll go to that. So that's, you know what I mean? Yeah. I don't know.

Just to throw some songs out there. Craig Northey has a song called Someone Who's Cool. I don't know if you know that song just to throw some songs out there. Craig Northey has a song called Someone Who's Cool. I don't know if you know that song. I do. It's a great one. What's the fourth Pursuit of Happiness song

that we haven't mentioned? Cigarette Dangles. No, we're not doing that one. Oh my God, I'm drawing a blank. Hard to laugh. I can't remember the last one. Social consciousness raising as a tool. Whatever the fuck that song was. No, not that.

No. Oh my God. Oh my God. You can't press pause, eh? No. It's real talk. I can't remember. Jane.

You know that one? Jane. Oh, for, yeah. Come on, Gordon? Yeah, sure. Was that on Gordon? Oh, no. I thought it was Gordon. I don't think so. I think it might be on. Oh, Jane, yeah. Come on, Gordon? Yeah, sure. Was that on Gordon? Oh, no. I thought it was Gordon.

I don't think so. I think it might be on. Oh, Jane. Yeah. And also, I used to live near Jane St. Clair. So that was a big deal. Oh, okay. Because her name is Jane St. Clair.

Maybe it's the follow-up. Do you know Jane Says by... Yeah. I almost said Alice in Chains, but it's Jane's Addiction, right? Yeah, yeah. We're not playing that one. I was going to say, does anyone ever get mad? Let's say somebody wants a song from one of your bands that're not playing that one. I was going to say, does anyone ever get mad? Let's say somebody wants a song

from one of your bands that's not one of yours. Right. Let's say heterosexual man. That's right. Do you ever get pissed off that you can't hear heterosexual man? I never get pissed off.

My joke would be like, when Paul McCartney comes, are you going to yell whatever in my life or whatever? So you ran out of the essential songs. But I played a lot of them today, Miriam. Any of those are good. When I was thinking I'm going to play one from each of you,

I played a bunch from you, but I was thinking my thoughts were Brian Wilson for Stephen Page. I was thinking definitely I'm an adult now for Moe Berg and it falls apart to me for Craig. Okay. Last question from Twitter is from Ed the Sock. Are you familiar with Ed the Sock? Are you kidding?

No, I'm not kidding. He's a friend of the show. He's funny. He's really funny. Ed the Sock says, Where's that money he owes me from that bet? And don't let him pretend he doesn't know what I'm talking about. He knows.

Well, I don't know, but I do. I love Ed DeSoc. I wish that I... Give him my email address. He's super cool. Consider it done. He's starting his own digital online... In fact, I heard yesterday Bill Media put some cease and desist on it

because he was doing so much music stuff. I don't know if this is him creating controversy, but there's some story there. But I will definitely pass on your... I think he's really funny. I think he's really bright. I'm a big fan, too. Those fromage specials,

he used to do the fromage at the end of the year. Oh, yeah, very funny. Yeah, very good. Did you have a good time? That was great. I have to pee so bad. I feel bad. I'm literally holding my bird.

All right, so it's going to be in there. You can even go now if you want. No, no. Are you just doing... You don't need me anymore? Here's my question. All right, so it's going to be in there. You can even go now if you want. No, no. So are you just doing it? You don't need me anymore? Here's my question. Are you on Twitter? I'm not.

Sloan is, but Patrick runs it. What's the Sloan Twitter handle? And then you can go pee. Is it at Sloan? People Google it. At Sloan Music? At Sloan Band? I don't know.

And that brings us to the end of our 229th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike. Chris is not on Twitter, but you can find Sloan on Twitter. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. And property in the six is at Brian Gerstein.

Gerstein is G-E-R-S-T-E-I-N. See you all next time.