Sloan's Chris Murphy Talks About Hit & Run Accident, EP

Chris Murphy is kidding, of course, considering both the press coverage of his bike accident in late July and the fact that Sloan's new online-only EP is titled 'Hit & Run.' But the accident itself was no laughing matter.

"I got my collar bone smashed in, but I was not disfigured or paralyzed," the singer/bassist tells Spinner from his downtown Toronto home -- though he could have just as easily died.

Having finished laying down the vocals for his second song on the band's then-untitled five-track EP, Murphy biked to a local bar on Dundas Street where bandmate Jay Ferguson was DJing.

"I was excited to go out because my family was away and I usually never go out at night," he recalls. "I went right from recording and had fun at the Magpie. Then I got hit from behind by a car."

It happened around 3AM and after Murphy bounced off the windshield, the car promptly took off.

"I don't remember any of the actual accident. But Jay was there -- he called 911, not realizing it was me. He was just walking along the street. He went with me in the ambulance. I had my neck brace on and I was on the board, so he was pretty nervous."

It took weeks until Murphy was able to get an operation for his collarbone, during which the band had to cancel several dates -- "the summer's when we make all our money," he says, "so I really f---ed the band over" -- though they squeaked through a Toronto Virgin festival gig by having friends fill in on Murphy's bass while he stuck to singing.

Though the band's about to head off on another tour, performing remains a concern for Murphy since the surgical plate in his shoulder sticks out where the bass strap sits. "That's the worst part of it," he gripes. "I can go through most of my day and It's fine but just doing my job is the biggest drag."

It's not all bad news, though -- at least his "bionic collarbone" doesn't set off airport metal detectors! Murphy also doesn't hold a grudge against the driver. "I don't want to be sanctimonious. He probably was drinking -- and he left the scene, that's bad form, I guess. But I've driven in a car, too. I probably wouldn't have left the scene," he adds, "and I don't drink."

The accident also left Murphy with a perfect title for their catchy new EP, though the songs were written beforehand, with Murphy penning two tracks while Ferguson, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott wrote one apiece.

Murphy considers 'Hit & Run' a "a digestible amount" of new songs to plug into their live sets and though making music may be nothing new for the indie rockers -- who formed in Nova Scotia nearly two decades ago -- releasing it digitally on their website is.

"It's an experiment to test the waters of this type of model. I'm behind it. I hate the whole manufacturing of CDs. When you sell music this way you cut out a lot of the unknowns and a lot of the middlemen and manufacturing costs," Murphy says, adding that running their own label, Murderecords, means they know all about the problems with physical CDs.

"The rehearsal space where we record is lined with boxes of unsold records from past releases. So that's part of our sound," he laughs, "the insulation provided by unsold records."