OcrTosBeR 12, 2006

Matt Mays: Enjoying and creating some nice tunes

THE CADRE @ 10

Matt Mays

David Fleming and Kent Aitken Contributor

“In seeing those things I think I’ve gained a lot. Especially being in a band that’s based on feel. I think we feel the mojo and don’t really base our band on necessarily being the best players.” — Matt Mays on the politics of the music business

An interview with Matt Mays and El Torpedo is a refreshing thing; they don’t share a lot of the pretentious attitudes associated with bands that have achieved their level of success; they remember where their roots are (they lament that “there’s so many great east coast bands that'll never get recognition” when asked about their own success and maintain that PEI is a soft spot for them as it was their first road show)... and they ask you to photograph them with their new Halloween masks on. Not to mention return for their encore wearing them.

“$10 each. In 1985 you’d pay probably $300 for a mask this good,” Mays said.

Sloan: Professional Rock n’ Roll

Andie Bulman

Assignment Editor

Atlantic Canada’s fabulous foursome of the last 15 years made The Wave on Sept. 26 for their third stop on a cross country CD release tour.

Sloan front man Chris Murphy had plenty to say about the band’s longevity.

“T guess we're still around because nobody has major drug problems, no one has changed their musical direction or found another more lucrative line of work. You know everyone wants to make this their life. We’re forty year olds who love making rock and roll.”

Chris Murphy, Andrew Scott, Patrick Pentland and Jay.Furguson make up the band.

Murphy does admit the band has almost called it quits several times over their long career.

“I dated Leslie Feist (Canadian indie artist) for a few years and I almost broke the band up because I wanted to grow old with her beautiful voice. I thought being old and singing would be so great. I spent a good amount of time trying to convince her to quit what she was doing and

Photo: Bulman

Sloan bends some strings at the Wave in September

It was an unconventional

‘conversation with unconventional

artists. When the talk turned serious, we learned that Mays’ pending solo album, When The Angels Make Contact, may attract a completely different audience base.

“Tt’s a lot weirder...it’s a movie soundtrack. We filmed a movie in the summer and couldn’t afford to finish it, so the record is the soundtrack to the movie,” Mays said. The title track’s video, currently en MuchMusic rotation, has actual footage from the movie and includes established musicians Sam Roberts and Buck 65 and CTV anchorman Bruce Frisko. The album, which is available in stores Oct. 31, as well as the full band’s first US album release Oct. 17 and subsequent tour are taking the band places they’ve never been before. They’ve come a long way from strapping a couch to a van for the drive to PEI but the grassroots artist lives on inside the

budding stars.

be the new pretenders with me. She never went for it.”

The bands had other struggles as well.

“Andrew Scott’s number one priority is his kids, which is definitely different then my number one priority, which is be in a sweet rock and roll band. He can’t be on the road a lot and that has been hard for me to digest. Sometimes I think “Fuck it, lets get another drummer for this show, who cares.” But nobody is replaceable. It wouldn’t be Sloan,” Murphy said. Scott views playing with the band differently than he used to.

“T get on the bus, I rock my fucking ass off on stage, then when we’ve played everywhere on the fucking tour list, we get to go home. It’s a job, a fucking cool job, but it’s a job.”

Despite the rumours of a break-up that have haunted the band for years, Murphy believes that the new tour and album has rejuvenated the band.“We’re older sure, but there doesn’t have to be a timeline on musical talent. Yah, rumours of a break-up have been around for years. Who cares we're still here and this CD is our best yet.