54-40 remain one of this country’s most unshakeable rock institutions. Fresh off a recent thunderous night at the Danforth Music Hall, the band is gearing up for the release of PORTO. Due out on January 23rd, 2026, PORTO is a record steeped in grit, reflection, and the kind of hard-earned renewal only over four decades on the road can teach you. With new singles “Running for the Fence,” “Die To Heaven,” “Time Will Tell,” and “Virgil” hitting like battle cries and a legacy that shaped the DNA of Canadian alt-rock, the band led by enigmatic frontman Neil Osborne is just as vital as ever. I had the pleasure of sitting down with bassist and co-founder Brad Merritt to talk about evolution, longevity, and how the power of acceptance is key to 54-40’s success.
JG: You recently played Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall (Nov 29th) with both the classics and some of the new tracks from PORTO. How did the new material go over live?
Brad Merritt: So great. I’m usually oblivious to that. You know, I play with my eyes closed. But I heard back from the other guys afterwards. We’re very pleased with the way the new material is going over.
JG: I know you recorded the album in Porto, Portugal. What is it about Portugal that has caused it to have such an affinity with the band?
Brad Merritt: It comes down to Neil; this was his third time going to Portugal. He walked the Camino, both times starting at Porto and then obviously going to Santiago. And so he would take a few days before he started to acclimatize and just fell in love with the city of Porto and the Portuguese people. And we always had it in our mind that we were going to do a destination record.
Most of our records have been done either in Vancouver or Los Angeles. We just wanted to do something a bit more exotic. We found a fantastic studio in Arda Recorders. They record the way we like to be recorded, which was all analog, older gear. And it just worked great. It was absolutely a fantastic experience.
JG: Oh, nice. I guess speaking on that analog feel, the new songs on PORTO really capture the feeling of where you’ve been, while also still being forward-looking. How do you keep your sound evolving over 40-plus years while still maintaining that core 54-40 DNA that fans have come to love?
Brad Merritt: Yeah, that’s interesting. What a great way to frame it. We call it limitations. It’s like we can’t be anything other than ourselves and the way we do things, but we’re always pushing against that and trying to expand our horizons or maybe even accept some of these things and actually try to work with them.
This record is a Neil concept. He wanted it to be very riff-rock oriented, very simple, very blocky guitars. Something that would evoke timeless rock and roll or rock and roll of the mid-60s through the end of punk rock. You know, stuff that would be riffy and have a classic rock feel to it. That was the framework that we started with. As far as like, doing different things but still keeping our original DNA intact, that’s just a foregone conclusion. We start and end with that, no matter what we do. I think a lot of that’s Neil’s voice, and then we gravitate towards how we play and how we interact musically with each other. You’re always gonna get that, but we’re always gonna have ideas about how we want to present ourselves, which is maybe just a little bit different from the last record.
JG: This far into your career, where do you draw inspiration from to keep things fresh? Are you keeping an eye out for bands that are happening now? Or are you looking at what you’ve done and thinking of ways to tweak them and present them in new ways?
Brad Merritt: Lyrically, it starts and ends with Neil. We’ve had conversations where we talk about melody and words. We both agreed that there are unlimited melodies out there. There are still great, simple melodies that are out there, as well as stuff that’s a bit more complex. The words are a little harder to come by. With Neil, especially, it can’t just be moon, spoon, June. It can’t just be a construct. It has to be something that resonates with him. And so I can’t speak for him on this, but he was working on analyzing dreams and that kind of stuff and worked very hard at that. Some of the inspiration comes from that. And then a lot of it’s just sort of interpersonal stuff that we may or may not be aware of in his life. And so it’s ever-present. It’s just a question of whether he’s got his antennae up so he could pick up on this stuff and then relate it to everybody else.
JG: 54-40 really helped carve out a distinct Canadian alt-rock identity, alongside The Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo. When you see bands like Arkells or Our Lady Peace cite you as an influence, how does that feel? And what does legacy mean to you?
Brad Merritt: That’s gratifying. I couldn’t feel any other way than that. So it’s nice. And legacy. I think we are concerned a little bit with that. But I would call it a selfish thing. Because first of all, it means that we’re trying to control how people perceive us as we near the end of our careers and then beyond. And we have no control over that. We’re just going to continue to do what we do, which we’ve done faithfully for coming up on 45 years. And we’re going to try to keep it going as long as we can, you know, as long as we’re capable of presenting ourselves in the way that we want and that we feel comfortable and that we feel confident in doing so. I think we really have to be way more fatalistic about the legacy thing. A lot of this is about acceptance. We have that skill. We’re pretty good at that.
JG: The band’s music has been threaded through Canadian life for decades now. Soundtracking weddings, road trips, nights out at bars and everything in between. When you look at PORTO through that lens, what do you hope fans carry with them from the new album?
Brad Merritt: I guess you probably heard the four singles, but there are another seven songs on the record. It’s quite a trip right from beginning to end. I think each song stands on its own. Some of them are a bit more demanding of people, some of them are very pop accessible, but it’s a very cohesive package. I say, it’s a trip, right? It’s like putting on an old record where you put on the first song, you drop the needle, and then you go through, and it’s really interesting. Then you flip it over and listen all the way through. It’s that kind of record. We don’t control how people perceive what it is we’ve created or how they appreciate it or don’t, for that matter.
It comes down to being somewhat fatalistic and accepting what people think and say. But I think that it’s a record that also reveals itself more with more listens. Sonically, if you like rock and roll, it pushes a lot of buttons that I think people are going to respond to. Neil’s singing is incredible. It’s emotional and evocative. There’s also whimsy in certain spots and maybe even a bit of a wink to people in certain points. Even though I say it’s cohesive, there’s still an eclectic quality. There are different influences on each song. I’m thinking out loud and visualizing what it is that we’ve done and the whole process of creating it from the original writing of the record together to our own pre-production, to our pre-production with our producer and then the actual recording of the record, which we all did together at the same time. It’s something I’m immensely proud of.
Getting back to this idea of acceptance. Part of that is not being concerned with how your audience perceives things. We learned a long time ago that you’re better off making a record for yourself on your own terms and being happy with the result rather than listening to people who think they know better, or have more experience, or are in a position of power with you. Trying to make something which they like or pleases them or that they think can promote or all that kind of stuff. Thankfully, I think we’ve only done that once in our career. When we were neophytes and we thought we were not gonna let that happen again. This record is a very positive demonstration of that.
JG: Lastly, after nearly 45 years, what keeps 54-40 together? Like, the chemistry, that bond, how do you keep that going?
Brad Merritt: It’s a good question, and we get it a lot. It’s a rare thing. We genuinely like each other. And then of course, we’re like family, we love each other, right? We don’t always like each other, but we love each other, and we appreciate each other. We all have a sense of humour, so it’s very easy to get along. That’s helpful.
We’ve always been united by a common sense of purpose. We started this band with the right reasons in mind, and we still have that. We consider what we do its own reward. You know, it wasn’t a lifestyle thing, or however you want to put it. It was always because we really wanted to write and record and play in front of people. That’s it. Pretty simple. And that’s still the case. Some disagreements come up from time to time, but there’s a maturity after those first few records. After your 20s, you have a way of dealing with each other that is respectful and usually kind of funny, and it just makes it a little bit easier for everybody to get what they think that they need out of our relationship and allows us to go to the next record and the next gig.
PORTO is set for release on January 23rd, 2026.
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