Canadian Musician - January/February 2017 | Page 18

PHOTO : VANESSA HEINS

CHRIS MURPHY of Sloan , Tuns & The TransCanada Highwaymen

For the full interview , listen to the Nov . 30 , 2016 episode

AS HEARD ON ...

When you compare the current Canadian music industry with the pre-digital industry Sloan broke into in the ‘ 90s , is it more or less artist friendly ?

CM : I never consider myself qualified to answer questions like that . As you say , we were a pre-internet phenomenon and our only strategy was , you know , we got heard in the first place because we got a lucky break because Nirvana broke and then people came looking for young bands that could write songs but sort of saw music through the lens of punk . We had a lot of the same influences as

CHRIS MURPHY ( CENTRE ) & TUNS

Nirvana and we were their age , we weren ’ t quite as nihilistic , but I liked Black Flag , Black Sabbath , and The Beatles . I liked all the things that Nirvana liked , sort of , so we got a real leg up . So in terms of bands that really had to hustle in the ‘ 90s , we never really had to .

You know , the only way I thought it would make sense to be successful would be to tour a lot . I wish we had toured more because I think we would ’ ve reached a larger critical mass . With Sloan , for example , I think a lot of people mentioned us in the same breath as these other bands like The Tragically Hip , Blue Rodeo , Our Lady Peace , and these bands that have been around since the ‘ 90s . All of those bands had platinum records , maybe million-selling records . I don ’ t know if Blue Rodeo ever had a million-selling record , but they definitely routinely sold like 400,000 records . We were 10 times smaller than The Hip or Our Lady Peace and these bands because we didn ’ t tour that much .

Corey LeRue of

NEON DREAMS

For the full interview , listen to the Nov . 16 , 2016 episode

You guys have been very prolific , and you started in the “ new music industry ” paradigm of releasing tracks regularly instead of an album every two to three years , but I ’ ve just seen stuff about a full-length dropping next year . Does that album format still appeal to Neon Dreams ?

CL : Yes and no . It ’ s different for us because we want to focus on songs instead of projects . I say that because when people sit down and focus on a project , there ’ s going to be two or three songs that are on a project that normally aren ’ t that good – because they said , “ Hey , I ’ m going to make an album ,” and so there ’ s album filler . I think that is the biggest BS ever . I can ’ t stand it . It ’ s like , if you ’ re going to make 10 songs , they ’ ve got to be 10 songs that are strong enough to stand on their own . So that ’ s why the mentality is a little bit different for us . We focus on the songs but once we ’ ve got a collective group of singles that are strong enough on their own , then we maybe potentially look at putting out a project . It ’ s a different approach than saying , “ Yeah , we ’ re going to sit down and write 15 songs , we ’ re going to put 10 on an album , and then that will be that , and we ’ ll have a couple singles .” For me , it ’ s not something I agree with .

DIVINE BROWN

For the full interview , listen to the Nov . 16 , 2016 episode

In addition to your own music , you ’ ve had an extensive musical theatre career . Does that work influence your solo music in any way ?

DB : Yes , and it really depends on the song that I am writing . What I can say is when I was younger and just starting out with the whole musical theatre thing , what I learned from being on stage in theatre is how t o connect with my audience . A lot of people who are inexperienced kind of go through the motions but they don ’ t understand the importance of connecting with the audience and almost projecting to even further beyond the back of the audience . You ’ re playing to the back of the theatre rather than just the front , just so that people get the entire spectrum of your performance . In that way , that has helped me tremendously when I perform live and that is something I ’ ve always held in the back of my head when I perform , which I think has a great impact on people being able to feel what I ’ m doing on stage .

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