For the Canadian band Sloan, there are endless possibilities in writing harmony-driven, intensely catchy, three-minute pop songs. Enough possibilities in fact to keep the same lineup going for 30 years and counting.
“Playing in a band is something I’ve wanted to do since I was very young,” says singer/guitarist Jay Ferguson, who hits Brighton Music Hall with the band on Wednesday. “Each time we make a record, I still don’t feel that I’ve become cynical about enjoying what I do. There’s a lot of people who turn what they love into their career, and it turns them off to what they loved about it — like people in record companies who have to sit and listen to demo tapes all day, or someone who loves to ski and becomes a ski instructor. We’ve never been like that.”
Sloan’s new album “Steady” doesn’t pass four minutes on any of its 12 tracks, and the hooks keep coming even when the lyrics get mournful. “I think a little restriction is a good thing,” Ferguson says. “With a smaller palette, you’re trying to do something new and creative within a short song that still has some melody to it — tThat’s a fun challenge.” An eternal music fan, he points to a Paul McCartney track, “The Pound is Sinking,” that he reconnected with recently. “It’s only two and a half minutes long, but within that the song has three separate parts, and they all hold together. When you hear something like that, it’s a fun challenge to rise to.”
Ferguson is himself a record collector with a preference for British Invasion-era 45’s, so he relates to the fans with shelves of obscure Sloan records. “I always want to write a song called ‘Collect Yourself,’ because I always dreamed of making records. Back when we first did [their 1993 debut] ‘Smeared’ and got vinyl copies from Europe, that to me was the ultimate — something we created was on a record. Now there are fans coming up to me who have more stuff that I do. And I’ll say, ‘I don’t have that poster, how did you get that’?”
Aside from their longevity, Sloan are unique in that all four members sing lead, write songs and play most instruments; they all develop material on their own before bringing it to the band. They’ve even had one album, 2014’s “Commonwealth,” where each member got one side of a double LP.
“We were kind of built for the pandemic because we don’t get together to record our songs. For me personally, I’m always working at home so it didn’t even make much difference when the pandemic hit. Andrew [drummer Andrew Scott] may play all the instruments on some of his songs. But generally, we try to get everybody to sing on everybody else’s songs, and the vocal blend is often what ties the records together. Plus, our songs tend to have a lot in common — it’s not like somebody’s going to write a metal song or an electronic song. But I’m glad that it didn’t come out sounding like some disparate bunch of pieces we were forcing together.”
When Sloan last toured just before shutdown, they revisited one of their older albums, “Navy Blues” and played it from start to finish. This year they’re playing all of “Steady,” but with two long sets planned there’ll be room for plenty of oldies as well. “We’re spreading the new songs out, so it won’t be a punishing 40 minutes of new material. We’re getting to have some fun with it — basically, we’re opening for ourselves.”