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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Opening for Ron Sexsmith. Thu, Nov 25. The Music Hall, 147 Danforth.
$25 from Rotate This, Soundscapes, ticketpro.ca, 416-645-9090]
BY TABASSUM SIDDIQUI
Sarah Slean isn't a tortured soul, she just plays one on CD. And forget
about that fairy/elf/sprite stuff, though she does sport wings on the
back cover of her latest CD. Truth is, the Pickering-bred piano
songstress is one tough cookie, having single-mindedly overseen a
steady career that now encompasses four albums over the past six years.
Slean's latest, Day One, with its fanciful imagery and cabaret-style
sound, has done nothing to quell the quasi-mystical shroud in which
some critics seem to want to envelop her. In fact, practically every
story written on her lately has breathlessly played up how she
sequestered herself in a cabin in the woods near Ottawa in the months
leading up to making the album. That may make for a charming tale, but
much like Slean's songs themselves, it's what lies underneath that's
really interesting.
"Something in me just kind of broke down," Slean explains over a
crackling phone while riding in her tour van over the bridge to PEI.
"I'm obsessed with the notion of trying to live a noble existence, and
doing as little harm as possible. And I couldn't really reconcile the
way I chose to live my life with being noble. It seemed to me sort of
vain and indulgent. The advertising, the posturing, the ambition just
started to absolutely disgust me -- it was like I got the nausea that
existentialists talk about, and I couldn't shake it. So I had to do
something drastic."
A return to the big city prompted some changes. Slean enlisted
producers Peter Prilesnik (Sarah Harmer) and Dan Kurtz (Feist) to
construct a more rhythmic template for Day One in the line of her
favourite Radiohead albums. There were more adjustments -- last year,
Slean parted ways with her long-time manager and signed up with current
tour-mate Ron Sexsmith's management. And while she's now at peace with
being on a major label (Warner), she wasn't too happy with the way they
dropped the ball after her buoyant 2002 single/video, "Sweet Ones,"
gained momentum.
"They don't want to spend money," Slean says, "and they look at me and
go, 'You're not Avril Lavigne, we're not spending 50 grand on another
video. Why would we?' It's a Catch-22 with record companies because
there's so much risk involved. Especially nowadays, when records aren't
selling as they used to. I'm just going to continue to do my thing like
all the other songwriters out there. It's who you are, it's what you
do. The bumblebee doesn't go, 'Hmm, well, what should I do today?
Should I do bumblebee things? Do I have integrity as a bumblebee?' A
bumblebee is just a bumblebee."
Slean's own headlining cross-Canada tour is expected in March; she
hopes to finish the stage musical she's been working on, Boy Wonder, in
January, and next month, she'll really get to indulge her theatrical
bent when she stars as notorious Hamilton murderess Evelyn Dick in
Black Widow, a musical film due for release late next year. And as if
that weren't enough, the accomplished painter even put together a book
of poetry and paintings that's being sold at her shows.
Her art may start off in the shadows, but Slean hopes all her projects
shed some light on what it means to be human.
"I think all art comes from one place, and that's the sort of backdrop
of negation -- that blackness, the beginning-ness where your nameless,
faceless soul is," she says. "It all comes from there. And if you can
get there, it's thrilling."
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