An Interview over the Sloan-Phone with Jay Ferguson

Many, many moons ago (about 7 months ago, actually) I did an interview using my powers of influence bestowed upon my by the Caper Times to do an interview with a band that would be playing the Savoy at the end of that week. That band was SLOAN! The interview had to be done over the phone, as there were no backstage passes, or some such nonsense, but it was still really fun. The call came from Jay Ferguson of said Sloan. That's the really fun part. I just sat in the office, and the phone rang: "Hello, is James there? Hi, this is Jay Ferguson from Sloan." How often is a guy from one of yer favorite bands gonna call you? Not all that often, I suppose, but there we have it! Actually, I had to get him to call back because the recorder thing was on the wrong phone. That in itself was fun.

Anyways, this isn't actually the whole interview, but rather a highly editted version (not for content but for length) version I ddi about 7 months ago for the paper. There's still lots and lots of stuff that could still be typed up, but I'm lazy. But, for now, here's the interview! Ring, ring!

TPS - Who are you, and what do ya do?

Jay Ferguson - My name is Jay, I play guitar in the band Sloan. Everybody in our band sings and writes, so everybody writes songs as well. Everybody does play different instruments as well, and sometimes I play bass on stage, and piano sometimes when we have one. We’ve been a band for a long time, and we will probably be a band for a long time to come.

TPS - A lot of Sloan’s songs seem to have a lot of back-stories to them: is that usually the case, or do you find the need to have songs takes charge?

TPS - I think sometimes you would try to write about an experience, or some experience spurs you on to write a song, but not necessarily, ‘ya know what? I gotta write some songs!’ and I gotta figure out ‘what the hell am I gonna write about?’ So, sometimes there are specific instances. But, most of them have to do with our own personal lives. We don’t really write about political events or anything, or social commentary, unless it’s somehow something to do with us. We’re not the Clash, but we’re more like the Beatles, who decided to just write about their personal lives.

TPS- With your record label (along with the other members of Sloan) what kind of bands are you looking for? Though there’s not many bands on it anymore...

JF - Most of them kinda broke up. In the mid-90s, we definitely had it going, where we put out a number of albums and singles, but after a while, it became kinda time consuming especially when Sloan got busy again, around the time of ‘One Chord to Another,’ and ‘Navy Blues.’ And it was really hard to work on our own band, and also try to run a record label. Originally it started almost as a hobby, or as a way to document bands from our area. Then it became hard to be business men, and try to run our band as well, and the band side of it was where we made more money and also where we would have more fun. So, we just kept Murder alive for ourselves, for our own records, then some of the other bands, like the Superfriendz, Local Rabbits just kinda broke up anyways. But, mainly what we were looking for was mostly bands from Halifax, or the Maritimes that we really liked, and were friends of ours and we kinda thought, should be able to put records out, and we were happy to be able to help.

TPS - On a hot day, would you rather iced cream, or a tasty beverage?

JF - Tasty beverage.

TPS - What kind of tasty beverage?

JF - I would have lemonade. We were just in Austin, actually last week, playing this thing called the Austin City Limits festival, and we were playing outdoors. It was like 100 degrees, and it was so painful. It was a bit humid too - really a pain in the ass. Anyways, yes, I really could have used a tasty beverage at that time.

TPS - What do you think of the state of rock music today?

JF - I think rock music has become more popular in the past few years, or it’s become more hip or something like that. Most of the rock bands I would like are probably not necessarily on the radio, or anything like that. I find it a little bit exhausting, all the bands that are coming out in light of the Strokes, and it’s a lot of second-rate stuff. It’s the same thing that happened after Nirvana - once Nirvana became huge, then all of a sudden, there’s a slew of 3rd rate Nirvana- bands, everywhere. And that just happens. Anytime there’s one pinnacle in the music business, or one band that really stands out and takes off, then everybody scrambles to find a band that’s like it. And I find that’s kinda what’s happened with the Strokes. The Stokes, I think, are fantastic. I think their records are really great. There’s a lot of great bands, but I just find that there’s so many, that I just don’t care about them. It’s kinda watering itself down. But, as far as music that’s on the radio, there’s a lot of good R&B records: I like the Beyonce record, and I like Destiny’s Child. I like Missy Eliot singles. I think those are kinda fun. I think those are keeping AM radio from being a total wash. Just Jessica Simpson’s or whatever. I think the modern R&B stuff is making the charts a lot more interesting. But, I think in Canada, the whole independent scene is really strong. It’s really going through a period of recognition, I find there’s so many bands from Canada that are doing well internationally. Bands like Broken Social Scene, there’s this other band from Toronto called Death from Above, and even bands like the New Pornographers, or the Organ from Vancouver. The independent scene in Canada is doing really well in Canada, but also abroad as well. That’s really encouraging.

TPS - Where is ‘Money City’?

JF - I don’t know, you’d have to ask Patrick, cuz he wrote the song. I was thinking about those lyrics, and I was really just confounded... I don’t understand half of them. So I dunno... it’s, heh, wherever you want it to be! I’m just kidding.

TPS - Aww, that coulda been a thoughtful line!

TPS - Ah, yes. Well, if you use it, you have to say I’m kidding. Sounds like I’m being a goof. Where are you at right now? Are you at UCCB?

TPS - I’m not at UCCB. I’m at Breton University.

JF - Oh you are? I’m sorry.

TPS - No, that’s alright. They just changed the name.

JF - Oh, okay. Wait... what’s that?

TPS - They changed the name from UCCB to Breton University.

JF - Oh, no kidding? I didn’t know that. Okay well for... sorry - Breton University?!

TPS - Alright, now it’s time for the Intergalactic Super Brawl!

JF - The wha..?

TPS - Intergalactic Super Brawl.

JF - Oh, okay.

TPS - Alright. In your opinion, who would win in a fight between the Smufs - all of ‘em - and Wayne Gretzky?

JF - uh... ya know, I’m gonna say Wayne Gretzky, because he is the greatest.

TPS - It’s true. He is the Great One.

JF - No doubt. I have a picture of myself with Wayne Gretzky in his first year. And he’s got completely feathered hair. It’s outrageous - it’s awesome. But, I don’t know why I just told you that... I’m gonna say, from a guy who has met Wayne Gretzky, and had a lot of Smurf dolls when he was a kid, I’m gonna say that Wayne Gretzky would win there.

TPS - Wow. That was a lot of admissions.

JF - I know. Pretty lame.

Of course, there is much, much more to this really fun interview, but I just never got around to typing it all out. Perhaps I will... someday. Til then, it will remain a classic, lost forever. Er, wait... that didn’t make any sense. Ignore that. Maybe I’ll type it up, maybe I won’t. Stop pressuring me!