Sloan have shared their attempt at making the most Torontonian music video ever with "Scratch the Surface" — the second single from the local stalwarts' forthcoming 13th album Steady, following last month's "Spend the Day."
Yes, all the essentials are here: Patrick Pentland takes in the sights and sounds of Yonge and Dundas Square at night while Jay Ferguson hops off his bike to go crate-digging for gold in Trinity Bellwoods. We've also got Chris Murphy taking a TTC ride to Runnymede station and Andrew Scott reflecting our most common reality by spending the evening at home with the dogs.
"We haven't done a video per se since 'Unkind' from The Double Cross, which was over 10 years ago," Chris Murphy said in a statement, "and we thought it was time we came up with some new visuals because, let's face it, we look pretty good."
He continued:
Sloan crew and friend that requires I pay him, Haris Cehajic, was bringing his drone to Sloan shows and taking this great footage and I insisted we could make a cool video for "Scratch the Surface" using the drone. The song talks about being alone in the city and I thought we could get some drone shots of buildings downtown and make up the rest on the spot à la the videos from our first record, Smeared.I am happy to have this visual representation of Sloan in 2022. If this video doesn't go viral, it's the last video I'm ever making. Maybe it will go fungal. That's my dad's joke. Self-producing the video presented a few challenges — the band even lost one of their soaring cameras along the way! — Hey, if you find a drone near the Eaton Centre, contact me.
Likewise, the new tune expresses that shared strangeness of feeling alone in a city of millions, the band urging us (atop crunchy guitar riffs, obviously) to consider that there's "something living on the other side" of the surface; be it a wall, the ground or our perception.
Watch the video for "Scratch the Surface" below.
Yes, all the essentials are here: Patrick Pentland takes in the sights and sounds of Yonge and Dundas Square at night while Jay Ferguson hops off his bike to go crate-digging for gold in Trinity Bellwoods. We've also got Chris Murphy taking a TTC ride to Runnymede station and Andrew Scott reflecting our most common reality by spending the evening at home with the dogs.
"We haven't done a video per se since 'Unkind' from The Double Cross, which was over 10 years ago," Chris Murphy said in a statement, "and we thought it was time we came up with some new visuals because, let's face it, we look pretty good."
He continued:
Sloan crew and friend that requires I pay him, Haris Cehajic, was bringing his drone to Sloan shows and taking this great footage and I insisted we could make a cool video for "Scratch the Surface" using the drone. The song talks about being alone in the city and I thought we could get some drone shots of buildings downtown and make up the rest on the spot à la the videos from our first record, Smeared.I am happy to have this visual representation of Sloan in 2022. If this video doesn't go viral, it's the last video I'm ever making. Maybe it will go fungal. That's my dad's joke. Self-producing the video presented a few challenges — the band even lost one of their soaring cameras along the way! — Hey, if you find a drone near the Eaton Centre, contact me.
Likewise, the new tune expresses that shared strangeness of feeling alone in a city of millions, the band urging us (atop crunchy guitar riffs, obviously) to consider that there's "something living on the other side" of the surface; be it a wall, the ground or our perception.
Watch the video for "Scratch the Surface" below.