If you're Canadian or happened to be kicking around the Great White North for any length of time during the early '90s, chances are you were aware of Toronto-based rockers Slik Toxik making the rounds. Given the chance, they could have / would have given any of their Los Angeles-based hair metal peers a run for their money, but alas, breaking big in the US was next to impossible as a Canadian band at a time when rock labels were snapping up everything at home that had hooks and looks. Thus, Slik Toxik became Canada's best kept "secret", hitting hard with their 1991 debut EP, Smooth And Deadly, and following up with the Juno Award-winning full-length record, Doin' The Nasty a year later. This year marks the album's 30th Anniversary, which has been surprisingly unavailable in the digital world until now.

Celebrating the landmark occasion, vocalist Nick Walsh - who now fronts Famous Underground - succeeded in finally getting Doin' The Nasty re-issued via streaming platforms for the fans in November 2021. Unfortunately, thanks to an unexplainable promotional hiccup the official re-release came and went without much notice, but BraveWords got on board to solve that problem.

"This was never about this being a big Slik Toxik re-release will all kinds of bells and whistles or a box set," says Walsh. "It was about making the album available digitally and that was it. First and foremost, it's something I've been thinking about for a long time and obviously talked about here and there with various members of the band over the years. I've also spoken with people over the years who were previously involved with EMI, and it didn't really get me anywhere until I reached out to some people who put me in touch with Universal. Universal had absorbed the EMI catalogue, and believe it or not they didn't know Doin' The Nasty wasn't out in the digital world."

Oddly enough, Doin' The Nasty getting the digital treatment comes years after Slik Toxik's less loved second album, Irrelevant, hit the internet through legal distribution.

"Irrelevant was different because that wasn't on EMI," Walsh explains. "We had gotten those masters many years ago and I was able to secure a release through Perris Records for Moxy when I got involved with them. Tom Mathers reached out to me and asked if I had any Slik Toxik material available for release. But the big record, Doin' The Nasty, and the companion EP, Smooth And Deadly, they were on EMI back from the days when half a million dollars was invested into a band and never got paid back (laughs)."

Going back to what Walsh said at the start: the digital release of Doin' The Nasty is about availability to the fans and nothing more.

"There's absolutely no money in doing this re-release. The money that was invested in Doin' The Nasty was never paid back, and that's just how the industry used to work. You'd get a deal, put out a record, and all the profits you were perceived to receive percentage-wise went to paying back the recoupables. That's why it's pretty funny to hear an artist say 'Oh, we've signed with a record label...' which is to some extent a marketing company."

While the digital re-issue is Walsh's labour of love, he made a point of keeping his former bandmates in the loop as best he could.

"A couple of guys in the band have gone by the wayside; I have no way of contacting them, I have no idea what their lives are like," Walsh says. "We all went separate ways a long, long time and went down different roads. The only two people I've had any contact with in Neal Busby (drums) and Kevin Gale (guitar). I reached out to everybody to let them know what I was doing and when the release would be coming out."

"Our paths have crossed here and there," he adds, "but by no means are we having Sunday dinners together. I've had more dinners with you over the years (laughs)."

For all other intents and purposes Slik Toxik is dead and buried. There won't be a 30th Anniversary reunion, nor will there be a new studio album. That isn't to say Walsh won't and doesn't revisit Slik Toxik's music, as anyone who has attended a Famous Underground show can attest.

"We do play the songs sometimes," he says. "It's not a staple thing in the Famous Underground set, but sometimes we'll pull out 'Helluvatime' or 'White Lies'. We've even done a medley where we threw in 'By The Fireside' and 'Sweet Asylum', we've done 'Twentysomething' off Irrelevant. So yes, Slik Toxik can live on in that respect when I feel like it. But as you said, it's been 30 years, so the idea of a reunion... honestly, for me it's not appealing. I think I get along better with those guys now than I would if we decided to reunite."

That said, 2021 did see Walsh reunite briefly with Busby to sing on a couple tracks by Busby's relaunched '80s metal band, Chyld.

"Neal and Pete Dove (bass / Slash Puppet) had something cooking," Walsh says of the one-off. "It's their project and I was asked to do a task, and it was good to do. I have my own project where I'm the be-all end-all, so it was no problem for me to go and do something with them because whenever I get the opportunity to do something different, I embrace it. It's fun to do."

Next up for Walsh is to get the Smooth And Deadly EP out in the digital world sometime this year.

"As I said, this was never a big, involved project so nothing has been put in stone as far as a release date. It's important for us, though, since we're celebrating the 30th Anniversary. To finally have this stuff come out and see the light of day is awesome. My wife and I were listening to the album on Spotify and I thought 'You know what, I'm damn proud of this record.' It was a good record and we gave it our all, we had some great times. It couldn't have been a Nick Walsh record or a Rob Bruce record or a Neal Busby record. All the hugs, the shows, fist fights, getting drunk together, being pissed off at each other... all of that stuff made Doin' The Nasty."

"Nostalgia is a powerful drug, but it's not powerful enough to make me delusional," Walsh cautions anybody thinking that there may in fact be a Slik Toxik reunion somewhere down the line after all. "Just enjoy this for what it is. Could I see Neal or Kevin getting on stage with Famous Underground to do a few songs? Sure. That would be so much fun. But is it a plan? No."