After filming our house concert in front of a full house, we sat down with Neil and Brad in the ‘study’ to talk about their long and illustrious careers. The wisdom of their years was evident in their relaxed demeanour as well as the perspective they had about their lives from 54-40 in the early years to the mature state of the band now. This is a relatively ‘uncut’ transcript of that interview.

‘Uncut’

[off camera] Go ahead

[Allen] Well here we are with Neil Osborne and Brad Merritt, 5440. You've been a band for a considerable…

[Neil] You have a mic on, too?

[off camera] No, his voice won’t be in the show... (blah blah blah)

[Allen] So what is the secret to your longevity?

[Neil] Well, you know, I don't know who said this but somebody I know or saw - it' s one of those things 'cause the older you get you're not sure where your memories and information comes in… it's hard to pinpoint, but it's been, like, Brad's been married for 25 years…? I've been married for 26 years and, uh, somebody said, "Yeah, so what's the secret to a long marriage?" It's just like being in a band. It's like, don't get divorced. That's the secret. What's the secret to longevity? Stay together. That's really as simple as that. I think. Don't break up!

[Brad] I sense a follow up question…

[Allen] So has the creative process changed over that time?

[Neil] The creative process has definitely changed over that time.

[Brad] The creative process of the band initially was a band which was Neil and I and other people getting together lots, many hours a week and just sort of making noise and everything got recorded and sometimes Neil would sing along as we are kinda jamming' stuff out... take the tape away or whatever. It was a very long, organic process. And now it is almost exactly the opposite.

[Neil] [playing devil's advocate] It's short and 'inorganic' [laughs] Like all music today.

[Brad] [recognizing what Neil is doing] That's not what I mean.

[Neil] [to Allen] I don't know what he means.

[Brad] Well, I was trying to make it concise there because we have very little time… What I'd say, what I mean by that we all have our little centres and we get together for brief periods of time to get some ideas, something to coalesce around but then we generally sort of go our separate ways and work on our own little areas.

[Allen] So what does the future have in store for 5440 - new music and that kind of thing?

[Brad] Well, I plan on making more music… with my band. I don't know… It's a question of how it comes out. We will always write and record music and then… uh how it's released is more of the question.

[Allen] So, over the course of time, since you've been a band, when you started you were making vinyl and possibly cassettes. A lot has changed. So how has 5440 adapted to those changes over the years?

[Neil] Technology changes?

[Allen] Yeah.

[Neil] Well, not too much. There's not much that needs to be done. You're still making music, right? It's just the vehicle that its being presented in, really. You can go up on stage, I'm still playing Telecaster through a Twin-Reverb or Deluxe Reverb - some kinda Fender amp. Matt's still paling drums with drumsticks. You're [Brad] playing on a Fender bass. We're playing instruments that are older than we are… some of us. So that hasn't changed. The delivery of it has. The making of records has. Yeah, I find that it is, perhaps maybe too easy. Used to be, studios were expensive. You go in there, your'e gonna go into a 24 track studio, you're paying a thousand bucks a day or upwards of that, y'know. You had to be rehearsed or you're wasting a lot of time and money. Nowadays, with computers you can make it all up without wasting money at all. It's just bizarre that way. I find that its harder for bands to be good. And also, because everything is locked in a 'grid' and played to a click track a lot of the time, there's no bands with 'feeling' anymore. And we're just as guilty of that in some respects - although the last record - no click track…

[Allen] You've played concerts all over the world. you've played possibly more places in Canada than any other band. Give me a few examples of the more interesting shows that you've done in Canada over the years.

Brad Merrit and Neil Osborne of 54-40 sit down with ‘the neighbors dog’