Studio Sessions

Sloan in-studio, 2-17-10

Recording engineer: Steven Kray, with assistance from Bill St. James

For nearly twenty years now, the Halifax-born, Toronto-based quartet Sloan have been writing note-perfect power pop songs, the kind often called Beatles-esque though they probably owe more to bands like Cheap Trick and Big Star. Over the course of nine full-length releases, they've also managed to become staples of Canadian radio, while maintaining a cultish underground following in the U.S. Even as the band's gotten on in years, they've managed a steady and prolific output, due perhaps in part to having four bonafide songwriters in the band-- a fact explicitly toyed with on 2008's Parallel Play.

Their latest release is a retrospective of sorts: the 26-track collection B-Sides Win: extras, bonus tracks and b-sides 1992-2008 (following, as you might recall, 2005's  A-Sides Win singles collection). It's a digital-only release available at the band's new on-line store (including a full streaming preview), and we talk to them about that shift in creative immediacy and commerce. They also manage to touch upon the Olympics, Kiss, George Lucas and Robin Zander, among other topics, along the way, and play a stripped down trio of songs spanning their catalog.

Photos: Inger Klekacz

See the full photo set here

Video: Anthony DelCalzo / Jarratt Taylor

Audio Files