Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Sloan: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1769

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

In this 1769th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson of Sloan about their new music, the band's longevity, and musings from Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott on previous episodes of Toronto Mike'd. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, the Waterfront BIA, Blue Sky Agency and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hello, Toronto, Mike. Here we go. Probably the same condition I was in that night. I recorded this in 1994. Would you please, welcome to Toronto Mike's Mike. Sloan. What up, Mike? Toronto.

VK on a beat. Check. I'm in Toronto where you want to get a city love. I'm from Toronto where you want to get a city love. Okay. Welcome to episode 1,769 of Toronto-Miked, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA.

Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh. Homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Toronto's Waterfront, BIA. We talked about the Waterfall Festival in yesterday's episode. It's this weekend, it's next weekend, check it out. Blue Sky Agency, the official distributor of Cylent's quiet, comfortable, and customizable office pods. Create Sanctuary within your works, Face. Recycle myelectronics.C.A. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling

our electronics of the past and Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mike, it's Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy. Hello, hello. I'm Sloan. What? Hey, Mike, thanks for having us. Honestly, I'm honored you're here. Every time I get the talk to members of Sloan.

I'm excited, so thank you for making the trek. You bet. What did you two think of the cold open? I had to find them in White Rock. Shall I contextualize that for the people at home? So that was, I don't even know his real name. Neil Morrison is his real name, but we'll call him Brother Bill. I think of him as Brother Bill, and that was from August 5th?

Yeah, something like that. 1950, 1995, 1995, good Lord. 1995 at what was now called the Budweiser stage, which was then called the Moulson Amphitheater. And it was, sorry, it was to have been our last show ever. Yes, that's right. We decided that would have been our last show ever, even though we had a show the very next day in Buffalo

and about a month later in Windsor. That's right, yes. But, yeah, he came out and gave that great opening. Would you please, welcome to the stage. Sloan! But the thing was, after he said that, so that's captured from a video tape, and he said, Sloan, and then about five minutes later,

we turned up. And we all had like armfuls of pedals and chords. Yeah, very disorganized. It was extremely disorganized. Probably the most disorganized performances at the most snaven. And there was no one kind of at the helm. No guitar tech. You know, 13 engines had just been on for about an hour and a half.

So we had to play for about 30 minutes. And they wouldn't stop. Anyway, they were fine, but whatever, they wouldn't stop. But, yeah, so that was to have been our last show over. And it was fun and cathartic and all that stuff, but it was bittersweet. But then we were kind of going again proper within a year, even though it was kind of a gradual process. That's right.

But the funny thing about that audio is the audio we eventually used that on our next album, which was sort of our comeback record on murder records. And the beginning of it is that the top of the album and leads into the good and everyone. And then you hear crowd noise at the end of the good and everyone. And that's sort of Chris's joke that that's just the crowd noise playing out. You know, we still hadn't started playing yet. Right, because there's five minutes gap.

I know that's not even edited. Because Brother Bill. So thank you to Brother Bill for, I think he had a rough night last night. And late last night, he cobbled that together. I gave him my vision. I said, here's what I want you to do like that. And he did it. So thank you to FOTM, Brother Bill.

but it's and thank you for doing it that's a thoughtful thing to do thank him thank him for doing it this year and thank him for doing it in the at the time it was in 1994 yeah we used it on our 1996 record and it's a it's a truly kind of iconic

opening that's true and a few years ago I guess 2016 we were doing the one chord to another kind of anniversary tour we were playing the album front to back and we would play that tape you know the of brother Bill doing that announcement and then we would kick in. So you got to hear his voice from coast to coast.

Amazing. You guys are doing some press. So this is all going to tie together, but you just released your 14th album based on the bestseller. So maybe before I read some lovely notes that came in around this album, but how does it feel now that it's in the wild? I mean, I was playing it on the live stream before you arrived. I'm always psyched to have a new record.

I just think it's, I'm happy. that it's as good as it is. It's not for me to say or for us to say whether it's good. I mean, I guess we're allowed to say, but, you know, everybody would say that their latest stuff is the best. Everyone loves their children. Yes. And, but I, I'm just relieved, partly because of the way that we're structured where we don't, uh, none of us control more than, you know, theoretically 25% of what's going on. I could, I could theoretically not like 75% of what's going on. Yeah, that's not true. But I'm just relieved that everybody's still trying and still bringing good material. I just think it's a solid record to add to our body of work.

Would you concur, Jay Ferguson? Yes, yes, I would. Yes, yes, I would. Yeah, no, it's exciting to have, it's exciting to have new music. It's also exciting to have a new tangible item to hold onto, which I like. I like the tangible item. I like records and CDs and things like that, and it's another opportunity to make cool, cool artwork. And, Chris, did you bring it here? You got it right there, yeah. This is radio, but, or sorry, podcast, man. Okay, so I, live, live together.

Listen, so I had a correspondent. Is this on camera somewhere? Yeah, well, there's a camera on you right here. Oh, geez. Did you see me sleeping earlier? Oh, yeah, oh, gosh. I had a correspondent at a chorus key for the performance last night at 6 o'clock. In fact, let me just get to a couple of notes here, and then already I have,

you have a hard out like is there a and that's a very corporate term i'm using right there but is there a time by which you must leave this basement um well i want i'm not threatening to take four i do have a i do have a car rented by the hour but uh all because i just realize there's a lot of ground i need to cover here and let me just start by reading the note that i got from a gentleman named jim if you're just if you're just praising us for like an hour and that's fine but it's mostly praise if you get critical i'm out of out of here. I'm even wearing the band's t-shirt.

That's how big a fan I am. I'm wearing my Sloan shirt. Okay, I got to wear it for the Toronto Tree photo. This is from Jim Romanco. Hey, Jay and Chris. I was able to briefly see you guys play last night at Sugar Beach while promoting your new album. Good luck on the upcoming tour.

Unfortunately, I had to leave after only one song to attend TMLX20 at Great Lakes Brewery. That's the GLB brew pub at Jarvis and Queens, Kate. You can blame Toronto Mike for that one. You go, and I'll revisit this in a moment, but he says, in 2018, I saw Sloan in concert at Dundas Valley Montessori School. I was not entirely convinced it was legit, even after I saw Sloan written on a sandwich board out front. But then I saw your tour bus parked nearby. It was a great show in the small gymnasium.

What is Sloan's connection to Dundas Valley Montessori School? I guess it's, you know, often we play shows in Hamilton, and there was a gentleman who was promoting shows who ended up uh doing them at that montessori school and it was in a gym and it just made for a unique uh fun all ages uh venue and uh we just kept returning there dundas is lovely it's a lovely small town and the golden horseshoe absolutely and uh it was just a great opportunity to play in a in a fun venue and also backstage all the sinks are about up to my knee because it's everything is there for so you've been you ever been in like a jail like a giant yeah exactly the urinals and the you know Have you ever had to go to Pete visiting your kids' teacher or something?

And yeah, those urinals are really short. Yeah, they're short. But is there another story to that promoters? Only just that our friend Dylan Hudecki also worked there for a time. And we know him from, he played him by Devine Wright. He has an act called The Dill. And he called me the other night and said, hey, do you want to go, I got free tickets to see the B-52s in Devo and Lehman Lovage.

And so I went with him and we had a fun time. What did you think? I have some friends who went who said Diva was very good and the B-52s were disappointing. Well, I would never say that about them. Like I think that they are a band of people from outer space and people who are brave and openly gay from the South. And I just think that they're cool beyond.

You know, they showed footage of them, you know, on Saturday Night Live in 1980 or whenever it was. And it brings me to tears. like they're so cool looking and and you know you cut back they're standing in front of that footage and they do not look young or that spry you know what I mean so but but they they did that they I would never criticize I think the main criticism was that they only played an hour and there was no encore and they felt like maybe other stops on this tour got like an hour 40 minutes or so like I wasn't there well there were three acts

I think they played long enough. Okay. And they're also, how old are those guys? Are they 70? Are they 68? Right. Well, sounds like a cool show. I wish I was.

It was cool. Devo was great and I had never seen either of those acts before. And Leila Lovitch, about whom I know nothing, people were being receptive to her too. I would have feared that she would just be falling on deaf ears, but people were into it. All right. So we're going to get into it,

but just to clarify something. Jim wrote in that note. That's why I wanted to lead with it. Is that just a coincidence. Yeah, so that was Ian Service. Oh. He was in a byway shirt? Yes.

That's Ian service. Okay, so he was also at the event. And I was there, I was trying to see if I could catch your attention because I had to be at six o'clock at my own event. So it was just a weird coincidence before I knew you guys would ever be playing at the Chorus Key there by Sugar Beach. I had planned a listener experience at the GLB Brew Pub, which is down the street, Jarvis and Queens King.

Oh, that's why everybody left early. So, I was wondering why everybody was walking away. So everybody was being the way to the day. Please call us next time. They seemed torn at least, but they did leave. But Ian did tell me at TMLX20, which was fantastic. Thank you to everybody who came out. He told me he invited you guys after your, you know, your performance.

He said, you guys could come to GLB brew pub and I would buy you a beer and get you some grub. But none of you took them up on that. This is the first I'm hearing of that. I think I may have heard that, but my son's band played. up on Mount Pleasant last night. So I went straight from there to there. What's the name of your son's band? They're called Borealia, and they played at the Smokehouse.

That's cool. How old's your son now? 18. That's my older son. Well, my son who plays music. Okay, that's cool. Francisco. That's cool.

All right. So another quick note, we're going to get to based on the bestseller, and then I have some historical questions for you. I have some audio. There's a diehard listener who sent in a clip, and you might recognize his name, or at least you'll know his former band. But Sven, CD,

wrote. Oh, nice. I'm a huge Sloan fan, and they're always a great interview. No pressure to you guys. Looking forward to the new album, which leads to my question, given albums are expensive to make and difficult to make substantial revenue from, what drives them to create new music? Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that they do. We don't need to make new music to play in the summer and play and you know we haven't you could you could you could you could argue that we haven't had to make any of the last seven records we made but you know because we are we benefit from being a heritage act that has a repertoire from the 90s when we were on much music and on the radio but we just do it because we're cool at well but because we why wouldn't we you know

it takes time, money, and energy, as Sven C-A-D-D-N, C-D-N suggests. But we just think it's worth it because it's exciting for us to have new records in our hands and add to our body of work. And luckily, I mean, I do feel like we do have enough of an audience that has followed us along and there's new people joining all the time. And I think it is good to make new music. Chris is right. You know, we don't need new, we don't need more songs to play an outdoor festival.

summer, but I think there's value in it. And I think there is, without sounding like the business side, but I think there is still money to be made from, we're lucky enough that we have enough of an audience that will buy our records and buy shirts and buy tickets that are related to a specific tour

for a new album. So I think we're, we're one of the bands that's fortunate enough that has an audience that is still willing to absorb some new stuff, and it makes business sense for us as well. I'm glad you're still making the new stuff, because there are some, I know some legacy 90s bands. I still listen to but they don't record anymore like it's like you got to you just get the greatest hits if

you will another band that i do appreciate putting out new music that i quite like is lowest of the low so i just want to shut out lowest low because they're still pumping out new material that sounds very good and your new album based on the bestseller your 14th album sounds very good so here's a note and some audio from a gentleman named rob bruce do you know the name rob bruce by any chance yeah who's uh again he was a keyboardist with spoons oh what and then honeymoon Sweet. Oh, wow, is that right? Okay. And he's going to be actually in this basement on October 1st, so that's for Toast. Rob Pruse, good guy, turned 60 the other day. I'll write him a note here.

Send him a note. You know what, right on the wall. Maybe get a Sharpie, right in the wall. No, likes. Chris Murphy was here. Okay. But he wrote, and then I'll play with it you sent. He wrote, I'm headphone listening to the new Sloan album based on the bestseller, top to bottom, to prepare for your chat. Love it in all caps. He's loving it. But can I just play a little audio? He just said. me like a half an hour ago. So this is actually Rob talking to you too. Okay. So I'm listening. I just listened to the new album, the new Sloan album, and I love it so much. I mean, I just am really enjoying it. And the last song I love, because there's a chord that I freaking love, and I had to figure it out and learn the song. So I'm going to just play it,

and I'm going to show you. Because it's just one of those chords that as soon as it hits me, it's, I don't know what it is. It's magic. Anyways, it's this, it's this song. I already know. Right? So the, first of all, you get that great piano intro. What? Which is reminiscent of my favorite. Oh, yeah.

It's a little abbot thing, but you get a nice. Okay, so then the chords. Nice. I'm loving this. Here's the corner I love. It's a D over an E bass. It's like that. Anyways, you guys, I love this album.

And what a way to finish it off. Thank you. Wow, that's amazing. So we have used those chords before, and Patrick shorthand refers to those types of chords as the medical drama chord. Like Grey's Anatomy? Yeah, well, just like sounds like, yeah.

The key of Grays, anatomy. That's the best review I've heard so far. That's fantastic here. Yeah, let this guy cook. So he's back in October 1. He'll be down here. I can get him to elaborate. Tell him to do every song on the album like that on piano.

Well, I was excited. for him to get to the end of that song because there's a whole modulates, but then it gets back into the home key, whatever. Maybe you couldn't figure it out. Well, here's what I pitched to you guys. I'll be in your... Chris, I'll set up my studio in your

garage, Chris Murphy. And all four of you have to be there. Oh, here we go. But... Shane knew I was going to pitch this. Be easier to get all four members of Honeymoot, Sweden. Or five. I've had them. I've had them. So I would like to have

Rob do that for every song. Like, he'll do that tearing part. he's a piano prodigy this, you know, he was on CB, way before Spoons as like a 14-year-old, he was on CBC as this piano prodigy. He's quite a talented musician. Are you saying, are you conspicuously saying spoons and not the spoons? You know, I'm not sure, I asked Gore-Dep ones.

I literally, my woman, I said, is it spoons or the spoons? And he says either or. So I don't know if there's a wrong answer, but what do you guys say? The Spoons? Well, the thing is there is a band called Spoon. Spoon, yes. Yeah. Who are after spoons.

Yes, right. So I would have always said, and I still say the spoons. I feel like when I can picture the tell no lies 12-inch single that I owned as a child, I thought it said spoons, but I could be wrong. I'd need to see the actual thing. It's one of the great Canadian debates, spoons or the spoons. They've got great songs, spoons. Well, one of their songs was, romantic traffic was the big one of the big ones for sure.

Arios and symphonies. That was a big one, but romantic traffic had the memorable video, because they filmed it in the subway system. And Rob Proust has a co-write credit on romantic traffic. Good for him, that's great. I love Telmo lies. That was the one I quite liked as well. Absolutely.

Yeah, that's, was that a hit in the States? That's a great song. I don't know. I don't think any Spoon's songs were hit in the States. I don't think so either. I don't say, but that's their problem. I'm now, like, I'm now quoting the hip.

They have that line. It's better for us if you don't understand in the locked in the trunk of a car. And now whenever I hear about Americans trying to figure out the tragical hip. I'm like, who fucking cares? This specific to the tragic leap. Like, it's better for us if they don't understand.

Like, fuck them if they don't get the spoons. Can we swear on this? Yeah, I just did. All right. Well, we'll get back to the States later. Oh, the other thing I loved about Rob was the ABBA comparison. I think that's good. That's pretty high praise right there.

He's working right now on Mamma Mia. Oh, no way. The Broadway show. So he's got ABBA on the brain. Cool. We're fans for sure. Now, a little, again, I have another

interesting note about another song in the new album, and I have some I'm going to play a little bit of and questions I mentioned. Historical Sloan questions for my mickeymentry I'm actively working on. But can you tell the masses about this garage sale you have every year? So I attended for the first time.

I don't know how I missed it. But I... Why don't you tell people what it is? Okay, so I... There's a literal garage sale where people can buy, they can buy vinyl and some... You can buy I bought the T-shirt I'm wearing now at this garage sale, which is at Chris Murphy, your garage in West Toronto. And I guess you would

publicize it via your Instagram page, for example. I know there's an active, so own thing. That's kind of all we do. So how many years have you been doing this garage sale? Four or three. Four so far. Yeah. Okay. It was amazing. I thought it was an amazing, it was amazing to be there. It was a long lineup. So, but it was a bunch of people I recognized and knew. And it was just a really good crowd. And I just want to point out, because I noticed this at chorus key yesterday as well it's not just old farts like me like I noticed there's a lot of youngsters

kind of excited to get their Sloan shirts and meet you guys and I noticed that yesterday when I went to see you at 530 but couldn't make eye contact with any of you well yeah the garage sale is just something we did in the first place we did it because we had to get rid of our

rehearsal space and storage space at the time and we just had so much stuff we threw a lot of in the garbage to be honest, but we had a lot of it. It's like, oh, I didn't know we had this box of never at the end of it or whatever. Like we had, so we're like, oh, let's have a garage sale. We had, like, rules and rolls of posters and things like that. Like, more than we would need just for our own archive.

You know, we have 200, like, should we keep 50, you know, and sell 150? And we also had the remnants of 30 of the twice removed box set that came out in 2012. We didn't have the physical boxes, but we had all the contents. So we made these twice removed tote bags and put all the contents in it. So it was like a limited edition, 30 only that we sold for, you know, $100 or whatever. But it was Chris's idea. Originally I was like, oh, we'll just put these online. But then he thought like, oh, let's have a garage sale.

So originally it was about getting rid of stuff. And then as it continued, like next year, well, we should have some new stuff. So we started manufacturing stuff for each new garage sale, basically. So it's like a pop-up store that we do each year. It's like a little record store day of just us and murder records kind of friends. But it's also like a little, you know, Sloan convention. And, you know, I kind of work the line and Jay does the transactions. And the other guys fill in the gaps.

So I was hanging around that laneway. And I saw such famous Canadians as Moberg. He came by with his boy. And I saw, I didn't expect. back to see him, because I didn't even know he was in town, but I saw Stephen Page. Little Stephen, yeah. And I met his wife.

Matt Murphy? Yeah. Like, I didn't even know Matt Murphy lived here. Oh, yeah, he lives just down the street from me. Yeah, I'm just, I couldn't believe it. And on that note, I do want to offer my condolences because since you were last here, Chris Murphy, I know Henry Sengelang passed away. Right.

Well, Jay and I both played with Henry prior to Sloan in our group called Kearney Lake Road. yeah so it was yeah it was horrendous but um uh i went up to the day he had on his so i forget when he died early in this year but in june on what would have been his birthday june first um right the day after that that garage sale i flew up matt and i flew up and we did a couple flashing light songs uh and steve pickin and gavin diana so it was you know we're laughing a lot but we were crying a lot it was heavy yeah it's too bad I was reading what you wrote online. I'm sorry for your loss, because no Kearney Lake Road, no Sloan.

That's true. And just a side note, I saw a guy the other day, there's a group that also have a record coming out today called Absolute Losers. They're from PEI, and we've kind of befriended them. And when I was at their last show here at the Baby G in Toronto, I saw a guy that I knew, that we both knew, Moujay and I, we knew from the Kearney Lake Road days, and his name is Chris Voucher, and he said, oh, I have all these old negatives of Early Sloan and Carney Lake Road.

So I went over to his house, and he gave me, he had kind of like a big shoebox full of stuff, and he gave me a bunch, and I scanned a bunch of Carney Lake Road stuff and Early Sloan. It was great. So I was happy to have all that stuff. That's cool. When we alluded off the top, we talked about the last show in 94. You know, here we are talking in 2025. Well, that was 95, but it is.

But this is an even number after that. That's a good round number. Okay. But remind me, and I know this because I've chatted with all of you, but Andrew Scott was the impetus behind the we're done. Like he just said, I'm moving to Toronto because I fell in love. No, he was, he wasn't saying he was done.

He was just, but he did move. And I, I was pissed. I was just like, well, now what are we going to do? What about the, he just, you know, he rightfully or whatever, and he prioritized his love relationship but I was too immature or whatever I didn't I was like what are you doing to us

do you realize that we were given such an opportunity we were assigned to Geffen we live in the middle of nowhere we don't know anybody except for the jellyfish babies who made a record and they made probably 300 and 250 of them are unsold

like we have a chance to do something so I was mad and and so he didn't want to quit he just thought he could do it all and you know I was impatient and you know other groups were coming Eric's trip was so good and Hartship Post just moved to town and and they were so good live and I was just I was just in a rage the whole time was like they're getting so good and we suck and you know we I remember

we went down and played New York and we played a bunch of songs on stuff that ended up on twice removed and I just thought we were terrible and um we were just unrehearsed and it anyway so I I basically thought that we were going to basically come to a head and it would be like we would either kick him out or force him to quit or whatever and I was just already mad that that was going to happen and I'm just such a romantic I was just like well I don't want that but then after kind of sucking it up for the better part of a year I was just like well if if you know I have to forgive the fact that he moved away even though it wasn't anything against me it was just something else he was doing.

and I just had to sort of accept that. And it's just like, well, if we can keep all of us interested, let's go. And I was going to play a clip from Andrew Scott, and that's why I introduced him there, except now you said the G word GFIN. So I just want to read another question I'm curious about. Did you get David Geffen? And here he is. So, as you guys know, since you were each here, you were here separately,

although your last appearance, Chris, was with Stephen Page, so people can find a Jay Ferguson episode. You can find a Chris Murphy episode. You can find a Chris Murphy and Stephen Page episode. But you can also find a Patrick Pentland episode. And this question says, I would love to hear Chris and Jay comment on Patrick's dissatisfaction with Twice Removed.

And his thoughts that they should have made something more like Weezer's Blue album, assuming they'll respond as Andrew did, but it would be good to get them all on the record. What did Andrew say? Andrew said that he didn't like Twice Removed, And then he said the same label, I guess, had the blue album from Weezer, which was produced by Rick O'Kasek. And he got, he said, when he heard that, he realized that was the album that Sloan should have made.

That's what Patrick said. Patrick said this. That's not what Andrew said. No, this is Patrick. Patrick. I thought you said that. No, I was going to go, I switched it up because you said Geff and I'll come back to Andrew in a minute. This was Patrick.

Okay. Disatisfied with twice removed. I know that hot take. I don't think it's that weird. Like, maybe we should have strategically, but that was the, We all liked the blue record too, but we just, we thought that twice removed was a cool about face, but admittedly, the dynamics of the band that has become, or hopefully always was open to all ideas, but I think at the time, Jay and I probably ruled it a little bit more, or, you know,

there were rules about what you could and couldn't do, rules that we kind of broke once we kind of got to one court to another. I think at the time, you know, there was, you know, once Nirvana was signed and then our, you know, our record had come out and stuff like that, and I just feel like there was like a glut of noisy guitar bands that were coming out. And it just felt like what was once exciting now just seemed like the middle of the road kind of thing. And from my perspective, the kind of record that may, or maybe the songs that I had, I would have liked them to sound like would have been a little bit different. And I think there were other references instead of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth and things like that. maybe we were referencing things like the third Velvet Underground album or Fleetwood Mac, you know, just a sort of different set of influence. And I thought, like, oh, this would be a fun way to make a record that will stand out from the pack.

And maybe people will appreciate that more. But, you know, I do think that there's, I think Patrick is kind of right. Like, we probably at the time, because twice removed was not necessarily accepted by Geffen. The guy who signed us, Todd Sullivan, was aware of the record we were making all along. But when I went to the marketing department, they're like, we signed a band that sounded like smeared. This is something completely different. And we understood their perspective.

But we stuck by our guns and just put this record out. But, you know, we sort of were aware of what we were getting into. But in hindsight, you know, Patrick is not, you know, you don't know. Hindsight is 20, of course. But, you know, Patrick is not incorrect saying that maybe we should have made twice removed for our third album. And maybe we needed another kind of album that sounded like smeared to perhaps cement a reputation or, or, or, or, a style first before we

diverted from it. Is it true, Jay, that Geffen wanted you to re-record the album, the album, twice removed? I think there was, I think they had told, I think Chip, who's our manager, he went to L.A. and was at the marketing meeting,

and I remember he called us afterwards. And I think there was an ocean, like, would you be willing to re-record some of this? I think maybe make it more, you know, Crunchy? Yeah, exactly, or something like that. I don't know if there was any question about the songs themselves,

but I think it was more perhaps the production in the style and you know it didn't really sound but ironically the moment while we were recording twice removed crooked rain crooked rain by pavement came out and to me I was like I was jealous of it I was like wow this sounds cool but when I listen back like twice removed

shares a lot more in common with crooked rain which got you know a four and a half star review in Rolling Stone it has a lot more in common I think or twice removed has a lot more in common with that than you know Stone Temple pilots or something something like that or whatever.

I just want to say of that, you know, when Jay rightfully references, you know, the Velvet Underground, Third Ragnar, a Plastogono band, we were into that, but like, Patrick was never into that. Yeah, sorry, I don't mean to speak for everybody. No, I mean, whatever, I don't mean to call you out, but I just mean, you know, Patrick's point is like these were the influences of Chris and Jay and maybe somewhat Andrew, but, you know, Jay and I, you know, had been playing music together since 87 and, and, and even little things like Andrew was born in 67, Jay and I were born in 68, Patrick's born in 69, so who's the younger

guy? And, and when we, maybe I've told this story before, but like, when we kind of let Patrick loose, basically, or when he let himself loose, you know, specifically with the good and everyone, and the big guitar solo in that, you know, we were still, you know, having trouble letting go of the reins in a way. It was just like, Jesus, listen to this. I remember when he was recording that, and I was like, oh, my God, what the heck is that?

That doesn't sound like. You talk to all my. I remember lying on the floor and just watching one. But the way it turned out, it's fantastic. The good and everyone is excellent, and that I love it, you know, I think it's great. And not, and whether or not we love it and we do, I still think, I think,

when somebody said, what's the archetypal, Sloan song to me it's that and ironically that was the thing that I thought was getting away from what we set out to be but I just mean like just allowing him to do that and just allowing it to also be his band you know that was an important step to have done and it's

you know another reason that we're still here and also you know it reason that that Patrick was able to have the confidence to write the songs that let's face it have made us most money. Yeah, I mean, we all saw the iced tea ads. I don't know what you're talking about. But Patrick already had written, I can feel it, and I don't think that he was felt

like under the gun to make it a certain way, although he might say that of worried now that he wanted to be bigger guitars. This is for twice removed. And I also think that I can feel it as good, or that might be the best Sloan song. Yeah, that's great. In the catalog, it's fantastic. All right, I need to drill in a little bit in the way that you guys create your albums. So there's, and it's smeared and then everything since.

So the latest album, everybody, based on the bestseller, we will get back to more based on the bestseller chatter. But Andrew Scott, I'm just going to play a minute of Andrew in this very basement earlier in 2025, talking about how you guys collaborate and then I'll have a follow-up question. So that's kind of the perception out there is that the four of you bring songs to the table for, albums like that is the perception like that's how we do but that's not necessarily how it was when smeared was coming together it was a lot more there was a lot more say chris would bring a lot more songs to the table and and uh everybody everybody would just kind of fall in however it it seemed like it made sense and there was no real roadmap that we had like in terms of a

static or there, here, there were the bands that we were all kind of, uh, influenced by at that time, a lot of, uh, alternative bands from America or UK or whatever, but then, there was also everybody kind of agreed on the Beatles and the who and stuff like that. So we were, you know, we were just having fun at this stage. There was no expectation for many of us that this was going to turn into anything other than maybe we'll play a show or two and make a cassette tape and give it to our friends or whatever. We never thought for a minute

that we'd still be doing it today and making a living off it. Okay. So I guess my question is it sounds like, and you guys can tell me if you agree, but it sounds like when Smears came together, it was like the four guys in a room kind of maybe working together. And it sounds like every album since then

is everybody brings songs to the room. and then you work it out. I'm wondering, why did that collaborative style change if it did change? Well, part of it was that when Andrew moved, then we were making demos and, you know, I would play the drums and maybe we would send him a tape. Here's what we're working on. And then he might send a tape of what he's working on.

Certainly for when we did one course, another, the third record he was living in Toronto we were actually broken up at the time or you know we hadn't been writing together we had been playing some shows but we hadn't really written together for over a year and we and Jay and Patrick and I were getting together

I was playing drums I had seen Supergrass that summer and I was really into that style of drumming that guy Danny and and I was playing all the demos kind of like that and we were sending them to Andrew then he came down for Christmas and banged out all the drums in one day and kind of copied my style but made it way better because he's amazing

and I don't know my point is but but sorry we had all kind of just been writing separately and we were just encouraging yeah so yes we did a lot it was a lot more jammy but really before we even made the second record we weren't living in the same town anymore so that's just kind of how it evolved No, we made a concerted effort to make sure that we all played our respective instruments when we made our seventh record action packs, which is fine, and I like it, I think it's good, but you could also argue that it is kind of the most unidimensional of the records. But it was a fun experiment.

I didn't like it for a while at the time because our schedule was slowing down, and that was our latest record for three years, and it was driving me. bananas but there's nothing wrong with it it's interesting but sorry there's no Andrew songs on that record is the other thing that's not technically I would dock a point

I would dock a star you lose points for that okay Jay what do you like how would you describe the collaborative process for the four members of Sloan for this 14th album based on the bestseller I think it's kind of different for every I think

I think I would say for Chris's songs. Well, Chris is here, you can speak for himself, but maybe he would work out a lot. Pretend he's not here. Yeah. So, uh, that guy, uh, he, I would say he probably has a lot of parts worked out for all of the elements of his songs, like the guitar part, the bass part, vocals, like probably his demo harmonies and things like that already. Uh, you know, Andrew on his songs, he'll often play all of the instruments, but then get, you know, he knows all his parts, but then he'll get Chris and perhaps Gregory, who plays keyboards and records with us, uh, Gregory McDonald will come in and put harmonies all over the place on Andrew songs.

Patrick, like, it's different. Patrick is very insular. He has specific, he's the guitar player, one of the guitar players in the band, and he just, he's very particular about the way he wants his to sound and the bass and everything, and he's usually making pretty fully formed demos, and he'll record guitars at home and bring them into the studio. So he can be very particular like that, and he'll get harmonies and stuff. For me, I'm particularly.

And I know what I like and what I want to hear, but I will lean on Chris, or I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give my demos to Chris ahead of time, or hoping that he would listen and just be like, oh, I like this. Let's pursue this song. Or, you know what? That doesn't happen. Which has never happened. I've never said I liked any of this. That's true. Yeah. So I've had to fight to get my songs on the album. I hate this one the least. Yeah, that's right. That's what usually comes out. So, and also, I really don't have great. bass ideas. I like Chris's bass playing, so I'll say, like, what do you want to do? And he takes the time to come out with a cool bass part. I'll listen to arrangement ideas, and he'll come up with good harmony stuff. So I feel like for my songs, I tend to feel like I collaborate with Chris or will listen to what he has to say. You know, and Andrew played drums on one of my songs. This time, Chris played drums on the other two. It's sort of that switches around. So anyhow, it's very insular each one, but with different degrees of involvement of other band members.

And I like to think that I'm as, I'm, I cannot, sometimes I'm, sometimes I'm not open-minded, but I like to think I can be open-minded about certain instruments that I'm not great at, harmonies and bass playing. There was a, a drum approach to the lead track, Capital Cooler that was, we arrived at after, and you had, you had to kind of, you had already kind of gone way down the road of demos and you're like oh i don't know i don't know that's true and you kind of got whatever i i was excited about the different drum beat and the susy cue beat and uh the yeah the song he's talking about is capital cooler which is the first song on the new album and originally was just like a straight

rock beat through throughout the song and we were jamming on it at a sound check one time last fall i guess and i think gregory was even on the drums for a minute and chris was playing the bass line And I feel like Gregory couldn't hear the guitar, but he could hear the bass. And I feel like the drum pattern that he came up with really went along with Chris's bass part that I thought was great. And I was like, oh, I don't know if that goes with the guitar and all that stuff. And it was kind of a beat that I, it wasn't especially my thing, but Chris was excited by it. Chris was excited, Gregor. And Andrew, I was also like, do you like this?

Like, he was like, well, it's kind of a different thing that we don't play all the time. And I, you know, it's more fun to play. So I just sort of said, okay, well, let's, let's pursue that. And to your credit, you went with the enthusiasm of the others. Sure. I mean, that's hard to fight upstream if you're like, this is going to be great. And everybody's like, I don't want to do this. You know, I would like, I like to think that I will, you know, that I would appreciate the enthusiasm of the others or the push in a certain direction that would make it fun for everybody.

But you also, like, the other thing, like, it's. you don't want to be shooting down people's ideas either. I like to think that we spend enough time. I like to kind of get in and get my ideas in to everybody's songs. But I don't take offense if they're not done. Sometimes I think you're dumb. This is a good idea. But I know that it's not up to me.

But I like to, but I get in with everybody. Like you're good. You let me play bass and sing all over these things. Patrick is a little more guarded like I'll have I'll say something and then he might just immediately say no and I'm like well maybe if he waits a week he'll he'll think about it

so he he was cool about it too and Andrew Andrew writes in a weird way where he just writes a bunch he'll write a whole song he'll have it all figured out and he doesn't know what he's going to sing on it yet like there's doesn't have anything to do with any kind of melody I'm like what are you going to sing over this

yeah I don't know what and so and sometimes I'll email him ideas and he's like oh that's good idea and he'll just take it from there okay and whatever i'm not taking credit for it i just jen trying to turn him on to something it's like this is exciting like what if you did this he's so he's good about going with it too okay i have i have more questions as you can imagine but i want to play a clip from patrick i don't think you've been listening to either's for the last five you can probably quiz me and i'll nail it i do want to just quickly give you some gifts because you're here and uh then we'll get into a

a Patrick clip, and that'll lead to another question I have for you, too. But Great Lakes Brewery did send over some fresh craft beer for you. Since you didn't drop by the GLB Brew Pub at TMLX20 yesterday, they sent over some beer for you to bring home with you today. Nice. Thank you very much. Did they send a hamburger? That's at Jarvis and Queens.

Okay, I'll go pick it up. 11 Lower Jarvis Street. I also have in my freezer upstairs a large beef, well, a meat lasagna, it's beef, but frozen lasagna from Palma pasta. Oh, I've had that before. It's really good. Jay, did you get one last time you were here? I did. I got one last time.

Thank you very much. Yes, thank you very much. You're going to enjoy it again. So, and let me just take this opportunity to tell everyone, including you two, that the next Toronto miced listener experience, which will be the 21st TMLX event, is happening the last Saturday of November. So that's November 29 at noon at Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga. So show up.

We're going to do a live recording. If either of you showed up, you'd jump on a mic and say hi to everybody. We'll all be in a festive mood, I'm sure. And Palma pasta will feed everybody, and I will bring fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. No charge. Just come out, enjoy the afternoon at Palma's Kitchen. Again, November 29 at noon. Be there.

What day of the week is that on? It's a Saturday. You should be doing Palma Sunday. Is that too Catholic? Oh, that's, I was raised Catholic. I know about the Palma. The Palma sending is. That's a good idea.

I'm going to raise that with the Pachucci family. Absolutely. And you guys were playing. You can have like Brian DePama movies in the background. See? You guys are creative. I have, you guys were playing up the measuring tapes.

That is courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. So you each get a measuring tape. Oh, great. Measure what you wish, Jay and Chris. Yeah, I wanted to do some renovation at home, so this is going to come in super handy. There you go. Absolutely.

I'm measuring something right now. Okay. And I'm done. I won't tell the listenership what Chris just measured. I can't believe he took it out. Okay. There was a camera on and I wasn't.

Below the fold, though. Patrick, had this to say, and I'm going to play it for you. It's about 90 seconds, and then you're each going to react to this. Sloan's got four guys going at it. Do you think it works against you that you don't have one front man,

like REM's got one guy in front? 100%. That's, of course. The music business isn't built for four people. You can't keep going back to the frigging Beatles. That's my problem is, like, everybody keeps acting like that's something that you could do. Or maybe, where you do, no, that's, again, that's a whole other thing. That's just a pop thing, like a boy band thing, and that became something else.

But, like, with, yeah, you need to have, like, no label is prepared for a band. No major label in America and the U.S. gave a shit about a band with multiple singers. They just want a star. They want to push the Scott Weiland or the Chris Cornell or the Eddie Vedder. they don't want to push the frigging bass player or the you know what I mean like and and with us it was like no we want to be taken seriously as four of us I I 100% have said a bunch of times I really wish we just put like Chris up front and just get him to sing because like it's for label or whatever I pushed against it for a while I didn't like the fact that like

when we were with Sony I felt like he got a lot of favoritism that really bothered me because I had written songs that were being played on the radio and then they were you know giving him some attention but at some point I realized oh wait he i remember what it happened was like um he was being asked with i think he was being asked to go to uh the edge to show them how to play money city maniacs i wasn't asked to go is my friggin thing and they didn't ask me to go and so and i and i was like pissed and i was really mad i i hurt because it was just like really i wrote that and you're going to get him to go do it like i can't even go down like i'm not one of my hunch like the fucking norton yeah all right

I lost to unpacked there, but what do you think about this, you know, Patrick wishing just put Chris Murphy out front, handsome mofo, then it's more marketable having like an eddie vetter up there? Well, there's still time. And he's not a hunchback. No, no way, is he a hunchback? I'm just kidding. He's probably correct, you know? I mean, maybe that is the case. We did make it hard for ourselves in a way.

Yes, yeah. At the time, but I think that when now when you look at what we've done, it's understandable. Sure, yeah. But, I mean, his perspective, I didn't know that he felt that way. This is sort of like therapy. I'll invoice you later.

Sure. No, but I mean, he sort of said, I've been saying it all along. It's like, I guess I've, maybe I hadn't noticed him say that, but I didn't realize that they had felt that.

But I do recognize that, that perhaps that is a, yeah, he could be correct there. But yes, and he was going back to the Beatles and that is sort of a, I've always said like,

oh, what about the Beatles and kiss, but maybe it's because they're more in boy band, They're in the territory and Led Zeppelin. Cars had two. Yeah, cars, the cores. Eagle, I mean, the cars and the cores did it.

And Queen, like, there are multiple writers and all, but, you know, Freddy is the guy, Queen. The Eagles had multiple singers. Yeah, Eagles did, yeah, yeah. The Dixie Chicks, sorry, the chicks. Did they all sing? No, Natalie Mainz became the, when they became big, it was just Natalie Mains up front. I think that's what helped the break, I think. Okay, so I just disprove my own theory. I think so. Forget, I didn't say that.

I just saw the Lilith Fair documentary, so. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, right. And I just had on, Paula Cole was on earlier this week. So there's a lot of Lilifair talk on the show. Nice. Well, I wasn't Sloan playing Lilifair is what I want to know. Well, the local rabbits backed up Nico, I think.

Did they really? Maybe. I didn't know that. Prince showed up, actually, as well. He showed up and played with Cheryl Crow. So there you go. I went one year. I saw Emmylou Harris.

Oh, that's cool. Really, really, really good. Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, I mean, the pretenders played Lilifair, and I think only the lead singer is a woman, I think. That's right. At this stage, yeah, I don't know if they've ever had another woman over the many members. But she's iconic.

If I may, now this is Mike talking for Mike because I can't speak for anyone else. I'm glad you didn't just, oh, we're going to make a big change for marketing purposes. So maybe we'll make more money from some big, like the fact that you all sing to me is amazing. Like I fucking love it. But I do understand, like, you know, the tragically hip, all the songs were sung by Gord Downey. But I mean, they had big, they didn't break big in the States either. but geez I think it's cool what you did like it's artistic and it's like you have integrity and I'm glad you didn't remake twice removed too like you guys show a lot of integrity but I do find

it interesting that if you could go back in time maybe post smeared or something and just put I'm just picking on you Chris because he picked on you but well I mean realistically do does he wish that when we made one court to another that I had stopped him from playing that guitar solo and I said you know maybe I should sing that like do you think that he would have said that's a good idea like I don't think so I think our band developed naturally, just the way it did. I think if you try and make a choice, like whether it was making, say, twice removed in a...

I don't know if that's a... I don't know how I'm saying it here. I feel like if you listen to other people who say, here's what you should do to make it big and it doesn't work out, then where does it leave you? You know what I mean? Or even more empty feeling. More empty feelings.

It's like, oh, I changed, I did, maybe did something that was unnatural. Our band was for singer-songwriters. It's like, okay, well, I mean, maybe that would be great. But if we did that and it was unsuccessful, it's like, oh, crap, maybe we should have stuck to our own path. Or what if twice removed became a massive hit in America by our own, you know, sort of stubbornness and just wanting it to be released as it didn't. But I think you sort of have to follow your own path.

I mean, there's so many bands that we know that even were on Geffen, who, you know, made a record and then went to the marketing department. Like, can you do it again? Like, we need one more single. We record the whole album. Then they do that. Like, I don't know. Get another producer.

Do it again. Like on your third album. Then they release it. They're like, okay, it's good now. And nothing happens. Like, can you imagine how frustrating that four years of wasted time to not even get the success that you're promised by, because of someone else's opinion?

That's happened to a couple of bands that we know. And so what do you do? Well, the other thing I was going to say is like when, you know, the idea of our story being, you know, we told Geffen where to go. because they wanted to re-record. Had it just been me, I would have said, yes, sir.

Like, I was just like, I can't believe we're here. Like, I'll do whatever it takes. I don't want to go back to being a messenger reporter at the VG hospital. But, you know, we had each other to be brave, and we had a manager to help us be brave, who was an arrogant, very smart man, but also he loved telling people to fuck off.

And I think it's his favorite part, of the job. But, and we had, and we had a supporter in, support in Todd Sullivan. The thing is, like, I also, Canada was also welcoming a new Sloan record. When we talk about twice removed, not doing great, I mean, it didn't go, it wasn't massive, it went gold in Canada, but it wasn't, we're talking about the United States, basically. We had a bit more of a, uh, an in-home support system in Canada for sure. But also, like, I think twice removed went gold after one court or another, maybe. I think it was an initial kind of failure. That's right. But, um, not in care i don't think it was a failure i think it sold more than smear did at the time but still

i think it was a perceived disappointment but whatever yeah that's right yep yep you're a critical darling though yeah and then be loved i mean and then i could get into the idea of like is it beloved because it was a commercial failure is that what critics really like the most about it is it commercial poor showing i mean that's not how i really but also it wasn't like such a also in my mind it wasn't such a commercial so it's sold better than our first record maybe it didn't live up at expectations, but I understand what you're getting at, but I don't think it was a complete tank to resurrect.

Well, I'm not here to prove that anyway, and I think twice we're great. The thing is, the main components of, like, you can ask me anything, and I'll try to come up with an answer, but we are still here, and I don't regret really anything. I mean, had,

we could have done something that maybe would have made the money that we've made over the past 30 years come in a year, and then would we have been happier, like the thing is, but we don't even, but I mean, and my argument is, how do you know that? You, you would never know that. Like, what could you do? Maybe you would do something that someone would tell you to do that, but that's not always a guarantee. Well, what I'm saying is like, even if, even if we had, let's just say, we made a million dollars

in 1994, um, um, or millions, you know, we did make millions of dollars, but it took us 30 years, but you know what I mean? Like, we've, we've been milking it, but, and, and luckily, um, we like the we like working you know you know if we if you get all your money in in the first couple of years maybe you don't make a 14th record well you definitely don't well i want to explore this we remained hungry we've been getting and you know we get enough validation to continue but we never get so much validation that we can retire right that's my job it's kind of i kind of want to explore this idea that you're intact like a foursome that what when does a list off do you also have listed there a list of bands that have been

together, same... They're still active? Do you have that list? I'll be disappointed if you don't. You too? Yes. Although they had a recent tour without one of the members. Yeah, it was the, uh, the bio, the sphere.

The sphere shows, yeah. It's called the bio. But here, so to introduce this, because I do want to talk... Logan's run, I forget. The, the renew. Yeah, I believe, so Sloan's birthday is in 91. Yeah. Is that fair?

Okay. So we're almost at 35 years of you, you guys being intact, the original lineup. It really is no small feat. I just get to throw the mic back to. Patrick for a moment here. Okay, just one last, this is my last Patrick clip. So I just want to talk.

Is he in the closet and he's saying this right now? But you guys have 35 years of the same four guys. This is no small feat. Like that's awesome. It is. I don't think we were, well, I mean, it's not like, I mean,

we have done things to try to keep us everybody happy. And we don't often, we don't always get along. But, uh, yeah, no, the idea would be if somebody had left and then somebody else comes in and then there's another drummer

or another bass player or another guitar player and then you know like it just becomes then it just becomes about a couple of people who are left behind and it's not really the same thing and and I think it would be different if like who's the can you name me the bass player maroon five no no so like but they may be the original guys too but they're not writing songs and singing songs and doing things like that that's why it's different for us is because we're four four frontmen fronting four different bands within the one band. If it was just somebody playing the keyboards in the background or something, it might not be as important, but it's very important for us. Because if one of us, if I left or if Andrew left or something when we've been

unhappy, it wouldn't be the same band anymore. We would just be, it wouldn't be the same band. Like, we could go out and do it. We could get a new drummer or a new guitar player or a new bass player, but like it just wouldn't be the same thing. So it is kind of, it is very valuable, even as friends too because more than friends we're like family we're like brothers or cousins like we don't always get along but like you sometimes have to just let like they've definitely given me um space at times when i've needed it or and so uh and then that's helped to keep things together i think sometimes you just have to step away from people how's everybody getting along these days and uh you guys are like brothers right you're i was laughing just uh when he said brothers or cousins

he demoted you he's like he's like well brothers is a little close let's make a cousin but it doesn't and again i'm just reading between the lines that you know through the years you're not all going to be on the same page with everything and that would be ridiculous and impossible but how are you guys getting along as you release this 14th album fine yeah it's good i i i don't know i mean i guess we haven't been out on the road but i guess we do a lot of summer shows and we've been together and whatever, just everybody seems excited about, you know, the new record, you know, interested in the new record and, you know, we'd get together and rehearse and I don't know, it seems fine by me. I mean, I don't know, I guess you could get really specific or something

like that, but I think we're luckier than a lot of bands, I think. I don't, I don't know how to take stock of that, but I do feel, um, a feeling that I had as early as one chord to another one, Andrew was, in my mind, kind of threatening to be out of the band, and then he sent songs that in my mind made it, made me feel like he wanted to be there. And I feel like the songs that everybody have contributed makes me feel like they're all still interested. So that's about as good as an indicator as I can conjure. Well, you're still together. You're not only making new music, which you can pick up now. The new album, but you're also going on the road.

So I'm just going to let the listenership know that if you go to sloanmusic.com, you can see new shows. Sloan's got some show dates up starting October 16th in Sudbury, Ontario. So there's some Sudbury. You're going to Charlotte Town? Yeah, I'm from there. I know you are. I know you are. And then you're going to Halifax. So there's some, you're going who's born there? I'm from there. Look at that. And then St. John,

Moncton, and then you're going to the West Coast, some Victoria, some Vancouver. Lake Country. I don't even know Lake Country. That's exciting. Vernon Sherwood Park. That's not far from where my wife is from. That's Edmonton. Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon. I won't run them down them all, but you'll be back in Ontario. No, we're getting back to Ontario. This is Toronto-Miked,

and I'm building up to tell the Toronto mic listeners, no. March 21st, 2026, Danforth Music Hall, Sloan, be there. The reason we chose the equinox is because we share everything equally, and we just wanted, we're playing actually at sundown on the equinox. Is that true? Is that the equinox that day? How would you know that?

We talked about this. Every year spring starts at the 21st of March, right? So, a quick question about Guelph real quick before I forget. So Ian Service is the guy you met yesterday in the buy-way shirt. At least he talked to you, Chris. He says, please ask Chris Murphy if he knows Bryden from Guelth. Bryden? From Guelph.

I don't know what this means. The answer is yes. every time someone asks me on the air if I know them. Sure, Briden, they have sort of brownish, blonde, black, blonde. Between 5-2 and 6-5, somewhere like that guy?

That's funny. The birthday boy or girl. May I ask about the, if you have any update, you may opt out of this one, I'm not going to pry any further if you wish to. Chris Murphy, this is for Chris Murphy, but do you know how things are between your trans-Canada highwayman and colleague

Stephen Page and his former band Bar Naked Ladies, which by the way, also had two lead singers before Stephen left the band. That's true. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Do I know how... Like, do you know, do you have any update on any regard? I know last time you were here, you had Stephen beside you. I just wondered if there was an update on any potential thawing in the bar naked ladies, Stephen Page relationship.

Well, I mean, how how dare you? But, no, I told you the story that Tyler called me after he heard Stephen and I on here. Well, he didn't say it to me in public, so this is my way finding out if you're willing to put that in public. Tyler called me and went back when Stephen and I were on here and he said, oh, I listened to that show and it was so funny and Stephen was so funny and made me miss a guy and you can tell him that.

So that was a nice thing, you know, a nice little, all the franchise. I don't think they have much of a relationship. I think Ed and, I think Ed and Stephen texted when Brian Wilson died. And, you know, but, you know, but we did, Sloan just played with Bernad Ladies the other night. And whatever, I'm friends with everybody, but we don't, you know, well, they, I was texting Ed and Tyler, and they were like, must have, must have seemed weird seeing us play all those transgant of the high women songs. Like, they're just joking about it. That's true.

The reason I asked that, that's because when you shared, we were at the, oh, there's the junk house album right here. We were at the Tom Wilson, the beautiful scar is musical. That's where I bumped into you. And your sister. I saw him there. Yeah. And my sister Allison. You shared some stuff, but you share, when someone shares something to you, you know, privately, I don't put it on Toronto mic, right?

You just ask them on the air about it. But actually, I wasn't going to pry. If you didn't want to tell that story, I was going to move right on. Okay. But it's nice that Tyler Stewart heard that episode. Well, he said, well, and just he said that he listened to the show all the time and he loves it. And I love Tyler Stewart. And I know that I can say that I talk to Kevin Hearn, who does have a good relationship with Stephen Page.

so there are members of Bear Naked Ladies. Kevin, I was on a Stevens, maybe 50th birthday Zoom a couple years ago, and, yeah, Kevin was on there. I see Kevin in town. I hang with the guy, Kurt's Winghammer. Yeah, and... Yeah, and... Exactly, and Don Kerr.

And I play ping pong with those guys, and, you know, I see Tyler around. I see Kevin, you know, we'll come to Kurt's house for Christmas or something. I see those guys. I see Ed Les. But, you know, I text with him sometimes. He's always flying. He flies. Exactly.

He's up in the air right now, probably. Movie Vigilante wrote in, I saw Sloan perform at a wine festival years ago, and Chris stopped mid-song because he witnessed a man punch a woman near the stage. He summons security to apprehend the man before the band continued. And now movie, he shares that story, then he asks. That sounds horrible. And I don't even know gender of movie vigilante.

Why do I assume this is a he? But this person says, what is the craziest thing they witnessed while performing on stage? Do you have a good one? Maybe that was it. I don't know. Well, you got, I mean, maybe this isn't the right answer, but Jay got a full glass of beer in the sternum one time. Yeah, I think maybe just seeing that coming towards me was probably the most unusual thing. We got beer canned off the stage at Memorial University in St. John's. and also you know how they serve booze or serve beer in red cups or you know plastic cups

sure they were serving them in cans and cans full cans of beer are heavy and empty cans of beer collapse conveniently into throwing stars yes exactly so there's a reason that they serve beer in plastic cups i was at an edge fest at most in park once and cake was like cake was on just before nickel back believe it or not this was cake the nickel back the nickel back The Nickelback fans were throwing everything at cake and they ended up, like, leaving the stage after three songs. It was really unfortunate. So sometimes it doesn't quite work. Okay.

So I'm going to play one more clip. And this one is from, you know, I'm going to save it. This is from Andrew Scott. Here, let me confirm for you guys that on the live stream, Rob Proust has said it is all the albums just said spoons. None of the albums said these spoons. Oh, really? That makes sense. Yeah, exactly.

Have him back on. That was the best part. It's been all downhill since that. I'm telling you, when we do that garage episode, I can fantasize about here. Cam Gordon runs a Instagram account called Track Changes. Do you know him, Chris? He said he's met you a hundred times. Cam Gordon's a good guy.

When or did they start paying attention to the Sloan Net mailing list in the mid-90s? And did they ever use Sloan Net Convos for free market research or vibe checks? sorry i don't have my dictionary here can you tell me what a vibe check is well if i could people dig in your stuff uh would we i mean yeah i mean when i feel like when sloanet was around i don't even know if i had a computer at home like i would go down to the murder records office and check my email like i had to walk from home to go to an office check the email i remember these days these so that's kind of i mean sloanet was a very early uh internet message board uh going on about on it. I don't think I checked it regularly to see what people thought of our recent shows or

recent albums at that time. I don't know what that would have even been. Twice removed or one chord to another would have been that? Yeah. Yeah, it's, yeah, 96, I think of it as. Yeah. I mean, it's a great resource that exists out there, I suppose. But it was a really interesting. We weren't really paying attention to it. And if anything, we were probably, you know, Patrick especially, I think was kind of perturbed by it because they would be kind of like internet gossip or something. it affected us specifically i can remember so this is 95 when we said we were breaking up at the end of 94 and then we weren't really telling the press but we had told friends and then of course so it wasn't going to be in the press but now there was essentially some sort of almost social

proto social media so people were talking well chris told me that they're breaking up so this was So it was getting into, it's Sloan breaking up. And so that started, you know, on a small scale, a little, you know, controversy. But, you know, the sort of the online fandom, like we, our band goes back far enough that we were, we were early in on that. Sorry, it wasn't us, it was the fans. And that's a story that's probably worth telling, but we're not the ones to tell it. But I can, I know some of the people who were early in that, that guys. who ran sloanet, his name was James Covey,

James R. Covey, is that how he went? And, you know, those guys, Adam Rodinizer, the Roddenizer brothers and Sean Pelly and all those, and Katrina and Marnie, like they were all in early on that Sloan net and talking about all the kind of murder records acts. And I would, I have another just quick thing about that. I think the message boards that happened in the late 90s,

early 2000s, I feel like. like they were a lot of people a lot of sloan fans really love between the bridges and part of me thinks part of me has just turned on to the idea that maybe part of the reason they love it so much is because there was so much discourse about it through message boards and so many people kind of communicated that way i wasn't communicating that way but i think a lot of fans met each other that way, you know, and dug deep into the analysis of, of music in a way that was beyond, you know, the article that they read in Exclaim or something. Okay, a quick shout out here to Blue Sky Agency.

And specifically Doug Mills at Blue Sky Agency, Doug has forged partnerships with established office furniture brands like Silent and Green Furniture Concept in Ruellyard. And he's eager to chat with any and all Toronto mic listeners, look. for dynamic and creative work environment. So write Doug, he's Doug at blue sky agency.ca. Let him know you're an FOTM and, yeah, pick his brain. He's a, he's a good man. And recycle my electronics.

I just want to let people know that if they have old electronics, old cables, old devices, you don't throw it in the garbage, those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to recycle my electronics.com. And find out where you can drop them off to be properly recycled. Yeah. Gentlemen, I want to get back to this new album because I just have a couple of questions about the new album

and it's called Based on the Best Seller. Are You aware, even though this just dropped, like, I think it dropped at midnight. Is that right? Did it drop at midnight? You bet. Oh, my God, it just dropped. I can't believe how many times I've already heard it.

It's great, but there is some huge controversy online, okay? Huge controversy. And we're going to lean in on this one, okay? So Far Down. So Far Down is a song in the new album by Patrick Pentland. Am I right? He wrote that one, yep.

He wrote that one here. Is it intentional or is it an homage that it has the same hook as Barney Bentall's can Con staple something to live for? I was aware that he was saying got something to live for a reason to do more, that that was a Barney Bentall song. I don't think it was a specific reference. If you look back, the expression got something to live for predates the Barney Benton song. I don't know. I think that's the first time I ever heard that. Got something to live for.

I'm kidding. But I mean, so, I mean, Your Honor, I don't think there's any... No, I think it might be an homage. Like, I know I need to ask Patrick this question, but I wonder if it's an intentional homage. I don't, we have talked about it, but I don't think that he...

Definitely not, that's not his... That's not his o'er. But... Sent to love and rock as Jews and Mary Chain and Barney Mantle. Not Barney Bentle in the legendary hearts? Yes. Just into the legendary heart. It's not so much Barney Bentel.

I'm unfamiliar of the legendary hearts work with Barney Bentall. I know there are other stuff. No, that's a cool song, but I don't think he's referencing it. That's cool, cool chords and melody and stuff. That was good. Twists and turns, as you might say. Two Patrick's song. Yes.

But I think the, yeah. What is going to listen to this? That was a different song, yeah. Different song. I'm just going to bring up a fun fact I learned from Instagram, Andrew Scott and Instagram, and then it's going to lead to a one last clip, and then final question, and then the biggest

question of all. So this is an Andrew Scott penned jam, right? Yep, yes. No damn fears. Don't text me every night. Don't tempt me, I just might.

It's ever been so expensive To find the time to come to your senses I won't ask you for a life Right, sir, on an ocean warming Running into the fire There's no damn fears There's a lyric in this song If I wait long enough, it'll actually, we can hear it

But it says this Ice Raids and the Death Flag flying, This is the time to rise. The interesting fact that Andrew Scott revealed on Instagram is that I guess there's an error on the lyric sheet That's my fault. Is that your fault? Yeah.

I wondered if it was an intent, like I didn't know if there was any fear. I don't know what the vibe is. Oh, yeah, I thought about that later too. It's like, oh, maybe it's good that way didn't write it properly anyway. No, it's a, I wrote out all his lyrics of what I thought they were, and I wrote it to him and I said, is this correct? And he corrected me in a text. And I just had a whole bunch of different, you know, corrections.

Jay would have sent his corrections in an email. I just, I didn't get to it. And when he told me that, I think he didn't really realize it until it was on streaming. And then he was reading it. And he's like, oh, God, this is all wrong? And he's like, is it too late to change? I was like, oh, my God, yes, this stuff is printed. But that's, that, I, I apologize to him and to his face and in an email.

But it's, yeah, so it's worth making a second, I think even in. Second pressing? I think you have, off the top, I got to type on your, Oh, yeah, yeah, I think it's... What typo did you get on your song? I don't know, it's like so instead of two or some baloney, whatever. It doesn't matter. So the mistake here was you, I guess it says, an ice race.

Yeah, I didn't know what an ice raid was blissfully. Yeah. Well, on that note here, let me play my last Andrew Scott clip here. That's no damn fears off the new album. But this here, let me... Less than four minutes? It's 26 seconds, 26 minutes. Has Sloan reconsidered?

playing, you know, some of these border towns like Buffalo? Sloan is one thing. I'm not going to the United States for the foreseeable future. Well, you're 25% of Sloan. Yeah, but I can't hold anyone else back from doing whatever one needs to do. But I'm personally not going to the States for minimum four years. So I actually played that clip for Ron Hawkins and Lawrence Nichols of Lois of the Lowell. And then Ron let me into some,

that there was a plan to have a Sloan lowest of the low double bill in Buffalo. It was canceled for this very reason here. So is that right? Like during this administration, Sloan's not going to play the United States? We don't have a, we don't have a memorandum or whatever it would be. But, you know, we would have to,

I don't think we can go without Andrew. Okay, he dropped a lot. line in that episode, he said, you know, there are great, lovely Americans, but he's not going to visit until you, and his line was, control your dogs, America. And I've been using it. Like, it's a good way to explain everything. Like, yeah, there's great Canadians, but he says, I'm not visiting your home until you control your dogs. That's Andrew. I mean, I don't know what to say about it. He said that, but yeah, sure. Okay, so there's no Sloan without all four members right now, is basically what you're saying. So if, if, uh, if he's not going to play a show,

in Buffalo. Then there's no Sloan show in Buffalo. Is that what I'm hearing? Not so far. Okay. How to bring the combo to a complete stop there. You did it. I did it. I did it. Okay. One last. That was my goal this whole time. Okay, we're winding down now. I'm sorry for taking so long, but I've had these questions built up for some time. And I find the band very interesting, not just because of the longevity of the band, but how you have four frontmen and it's a 25% each and it's such an equal band. And so talented, and so amazing, and I still love your music, so I'm so glad that you guys are here.

This question came in from Tyler. He said, Andrew talked about Sloan Time. This is in quote, Sloan Time, in reference to the fact that you're all busy people with families, side projects, and other interests. How do you determine when it's Sloan time and has it gotten harder to get everybody on the same page for when that time should be?

Well, if by Sloan Time, he means getting everybody together, That's not that often, but Sloan time is almost all the time for me. I'm always working on something. I'm here. I'm Sloan time right now for me. It doesn't make me unhappy or anything, but I just mean I spend a lot of time editing video and doing, you know, doing stuff or what are we going to do next? And so I think about it all the time.

And I do have other things on the go, but, you know, because part of having Sloan continue is to let people take time off. You know, I can't push Andrew to do more than he'll do. And, you know, he's kind of painted himself as someone who's like an immovable object, but whatever, he'll do some stuff. Sometimes, you know, sometimes we need to make some money. But... You got a big tour coming up.

Yeah. And we don't even have to go to the States, for example. It's not this calendar year. We wouldn't have gone to the States in this calendar year. year anyway because we have lots to do. And, but, yeah, Sloan time for me is certainly every day, like part of the day. And, you know, Jay and I talk a lot more than Andrew and I talk. We're always trying to think about what we should do next.

What do you want to have at the garage sale next year? You can't have that conversation. Did you have that date yet? Maybe late May or something. Probably, yeah. But you can't have that conversation in April. Like, you have to think, you know, if you're going to make a manufacture vinyl, you got to, we kind of have talked about that already.

Or there's always thinking about, like, what do you want to, I mean, even as well as stuff with the garage sale, just like, do you want to do another box set? When do you want to do that? What would be a nice new deluxe item for direct-to-fan kind of stuff? So there's always Sloan work to be done that's beyond the brand-new record or press and stuff like that. So as Chris, there's always stuff to think about and plan for it for sure. So there's, there's, it's kind of running it in the presence, you know, new record, what can we do, touring, and then when we've kind of done all those things, then it's like spinning the plate of like, do we need to manufacture more twice removed records?

Because we're trying to, trying to, we're like a small business and we have, you know, there are manufacturing issues, there are timing issues, there are, should we, you know, should we be upraising these videos? They look like, they look terrible. you know, this kind of stuff. But it's all stuff I enjoy. Yes, you're always on Sloan time. Even when you're doing, you know, you're doing stuff. Because even when you're in TransCanada Highwaymen, you're singing Sloan songs, right? We're going to get underwhelmed and we're going to get all these great Chris Murphy's Sloan songs. So, Jay, you're always on Sloan song?

Sorry, Sloan time. I feel like I think about Sloan a lot or other times just working on, I mean, I don't have kids like the way Chris does and the other guys and things like that. So maybe I have a little bit more free time to think about. Sloan stuff but also time to work on new songs thinking about oh would it be fun to release a one-off single or a one-off streaming song or it'd be nice to have you know a stockpile of songs if Sloan makes another record I'd be kind of you know you know up and running a little more than just starting from go if it's like here we have to start making a new record next month you know so there's always stuff to think about and plan for sure I think about it a lot and and I enjoy it too

like especially the reissue campaigns that we've done on all the limited edition things and I think we have more stuff in the can that we can release. It's just about, you know, how to partition it out throughout the next few years. For the record, I'm also always on Sloan Time. We kind of need, like, a little light in all our rooms just because of Sloan Time is on there and something like that. Absolutely here. A little bulb in the corner of your basement. You guys were awesome.

I hope that was okay. We're okay. Chris looked like you got mad at me at some point at the end there. Oh, it's good to see me. You've got to give me a big hug after. What do you say? Big hug after this. Do you guys remember Mark Daly from City TV?

Subdivisions. I was going to ask you, I was going to play a AI took the, so Rush had a big song called Subdivisions, as Chris Murphy just said. It's the best song. It's a great song, but I'm going to play it like 10 seconds of it or less, where the music is down in the mix and the vocals are up in the mix. Okay, so here it is. How do you get this?

Subdivisions. In the hot school halls, in the shopping malls, conform to be cast out in the basement bars, in the backs of cars. Do you believe, we're not done, cast out, any escape would help to sue the unattractive truth with the suburbs. It's awesome. Do you believe that voice saying subdivisions, do you believe that to be a sample of city? Pulse News on City TV from Mark Daley. I thought that was true. The band is to abandonize it.

Really? The band said this Neil Peart. I believe 100% in my heart of hearts that that is Mark Daly. Well, in the video, it's Alex. Yeah, Alex Lipsynx in it in the video, for sure. But they say Neil's doing that vocal, and I believe it is absolutely a sample of Mark Daly delivering the news on City TV. Do you concur, Chris Murphy?

I do, but I wouldn't put money on it, but I've always thought that. I like the story, and hopefully it's true. Everybody go to sloanmusic.com and find out when Sloan is visiting your town and buy a ticket or two. And make sure you pick up the new album, the 14th album. It's called Based on the Best Seller. Thank you both for my vinyl copy. I'm going to maybe bring it with me for my picture of you at the Toronto Tree. And that!

This version, by the way, of Rosie and Gray by Lois and Lois is put together by the aforementioned Rob Pruse. So Rob's all over this episode He's talented. He's great. And shout out to Bryden from Guelph. Okay, whoever that is. I know that guy or girl. And that brings us to the end of our 1,769th show. Go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs.

Much love to all who made this possible. That's patrons like you. Go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and become a member right now. I'm actually posting there. Great Lakes. Brewery. Thanks for sending over the beer and for hosting us yesterday. Palma Pasta. They'll be hosting us on November 29th at noon. I hope to see you all there at TMLX21. Toronto's Waterfront, BIA, listen to yesterday's episode about the waterfall festival, recycle myelectronics.ca, blue sky agency and of course,

Ridley Funeral Home, see you all Monday when Peter Gross. Speaking of City TV and Mark Daly, Peter Gross returns to the show. See you all then. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Here's to another 17,000 episodes.