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The pop-rock Canadian band Sloan started in Nova Scotia with band members Jay Ferguson (guitar and vocals), Chris Murphy (bass), Patrick Pentland (guitar and vocals) and Andrew Scott (drums).

Ferguson and Murphy were with the band Kearney Lake Road before meeting Pentland and Scott, whom they met while studying at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design. In the spring of 1991, the group Sloan emerged. A few months later they recorded their first single entitled Underwhelmed. In 1992, they released Peppermint under an independent record label, Murderecords. The record company DGC then discovered the group. A contract was signed that summer. Their first album, Smeared came in the fall. It received local popularity, but was not successful in the United States.
 
Sloan released Twice Removed in 1994. The melody was pop, much to their record company’s dismay. The company preferred the group using rock and it created a rift with DGC and the band. The album was not well-promoted in Canada and even worse in the United States. The group started a tour, which was interrupted towards the end of the year. The Sloan band members questioned their desire to pursue their music. 

The members started becoming more dispersed while many worked on separate projects. Sloan released a single in the summer of 1995, Same Old Flame, under the label Murderecords.  At the end of the summer, the band members decided to put their band back on track and from then on started on the path to becoming one of the most popular Canadian bands of the 1990s.

In June 1996, the group released a third album entitled, One Chord to Another, which was very successful in Canada. At the beginning of 1997, the band signed with the label EMI and launched One Chord to Another in the United States in the spring. The album was a hit. Sloan then started producing a lot more. In 1998, they released Navy Blues, and in 1999 the albums Four Nights at the Palais Royale and Between the Bridges. The group started an international tour, with concerts in Japan, Australia, Europe and the United States.

The group’s creativity was endless. In 2001, the album Pretty Together was released. Two years later, the album Action Pact followed. In the spring of 2005 the band released a compilation A Sides Win : Singles 1992-2005. Their tenth album, Never Hear the End of It, came out the year after where each of the members contributed to the songs. Sloan is planning on launching an eleventh album in the summer of 2008.

The group is thankful to have pursued their career in 1995, rather than throw in the towel. They are not only popular in North America, but around the world. The albums Twice Removed, One Chord to Another and Smeared are in the 14^th, 34^th, and 86^th spots on the Billboards for Canada’s 100 best albums, according to a survey done in 2007.