B l u e P a r a d e - A S a r a h S l e a n F a n s i t e
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Canadian Singer/Songwriter Changes Direction with Third Album
TORONTO - The new album "Day One" may be a rebirth for Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Slean, but it was a difficult one.
Faced with a crippling emotional crisis in summer 2003, Slean left her Toronto home and moved to a cabin in rural Almonte, Ontario, for four months. There, she spent time painting (the artwork is featured on "Day One"), writing songs and working out some personal issues.
"I was in pieces, and I couldn't figure out why," Slean recalls from Stockholm in the midst of a 26-date European tour opening for fellow Canadian Ron Sexsmith. "Something in my heart and my spirit was in desperate need of a jump-start."
When she returned to Toronto, renewed and creatively recharged, she was bursting to get into the studio. "I found my muse again," she says. "I felt that if I didn't make a record right now, I'd lose it."
Not surprisingly, "Day One," released here Sept. 14 on Warner Music Canada's WEA Records, focuses lyrically on her spiritual rebirth. The notion to emphasize rhythmic elements on the album-a departure from her previous piano-based recordings-came to Slean as she was dancing alone one night at the cabin.
"I realized the modern music that I like is a symbiosis of bass and drums," she says. "I made a decision to have the piano be mainly my writing tool for this record."
Recorded in Toronto and produced by Slean with programmer/bassist Pete Prilesnik and bassist Dan Kurtz of the New Deal, the album includes appearances by guitarist Ian D'Sa of Billy Talent and singer/songwriter Howie Beck.
"With this album, Sarah has songs that we can move at radio, but she hasn't dumbed her music down," Warner Music Canada president/CEO Steve Kane says. "She put it into sharper focus."
Slean agrees. "With each record I want to do something different," she says. "I realize [the rhythmic direction] may lose me some fans, but I'm not making music to keep fans. I'm making music because I'm inspired by the world, and I have something to say. I hope that's why people are my fans-not because they want me to make the same record over and over."
Such AC radio powerhouses as CKFM Toronto and CKOI Montreal quickly embraced the album's lead single, "Lucky Me." "It's an uptempo, fun track," CKFM music director Wayne Webster says. "It is more straightforward than her previous releases."
Two years after the 1997 independent release of her limited-issue (1,000 copies) EP "Universe," Slean put out her album "Blue Parade" under a joint-venture deal between Atlantic Records U.S. and Warner Canada.
However, Atlantic balked at releasing her next set, "Night Bugs," and Slean parted ways with the company in 2001. Warner Canada released the album in 2002, and it has sold 16,500 units domestically, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In 2003, Slean was named top new artist at the Juno Awards.
Last year, Warner Canada signed Slean directly to a worldwide deal, and she linked up with Nashville-based Michael Dixon, who has managed Sexsmith for a decade.
"We wanted to stay involved with this artist," Kane explains. "We also knew with Michael we'd be working with someone who could take Sarah into new markets."
Dixon says Sexsmith's tour has been a great way to introduce Slean to Warner's European affiliates. "After every show we have heard interest from that territory in releasing her album," he says. At this point, "Day One" has been issued only in Canada.
Slean, who is booked by the Agency Group, reteams with Sexsmith for 25 Canadian dates starting Oct. 25.
October 9, 2004
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