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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By Jessica Warren
Sarah Slean
Scavenging for berries, tracking moose, hiding from the law, hosting illegal bush parties: these are reasons why most people might choose to retreat into the woods. Sarah Slean, however, just spent the last four months living in a shack on the edge of nowhere for an entirely different reason: she was writing a new album.
�I was in the forest being �the Baroness,�� she laughs. �That�s what I called my location, �the House of the Baroness.� I didn�t bring a TV or any sort of modern things, except for my little laptop.�
In 2002, Slean released Night Bugs, which was recorded at a secluded studio in the midst of foliage and twittering bugs in upstate New York, and the experience was so positive she again returned to solitude for the writing of her upcoming release. Prior to that, the cabaret-style songstress also put out three, lesser-known independent albums, but Slean says the only real difference having a major label deal makes is a bigger budget to fuel her and her isolated ideals. �When you�re indie you�re always strapped for cash,� she notes. �With a label it�s easier; it�s much easier.�
While Slean admits her style of writing is not typical of the mainstream, the extra funding has helped her to see a �slow, but steady� increase in her audience. �Every time I go into a city there�s a few more people, and I get to keep doing what I love doing,� she notes.
Slean says a lot of the inspiration she gets also comes from visual artists like Viennese painter Egon Schiele, whose work she recently saw while visiting his native city. �I was sitting in the middle of the room in the Leopold, where the Schiele paintings are displayed, crying. It was overwhelming,� she exclaims. Slean notes that paintings, and other works, help to stimulate her imagination and aid in the creation of the characters in her songs. �They do sometimes just pop into my mind; I will see a whole picture and characters, but a lot of times, dreams, books, movies and the other artists that I really like also influence me.�
Having received classical music training at the University of Toronto, Sarah also admits to being heavily influenced by the masters on which she was raised. �My first love in the musical world was classical music and that will never leave me. I still don�t think there�s any digital music around that can mimic the force of the emotional power of a live symphony orchestra. They just can�t do it,� she professes. Slean�s own music straddles the line between overtly classical and electronic styles creating a sound that strives to be, as she says, �a marriage of the two.�
Her take on music has helped Slean to garner larger audiences as well as a small forest�s worth of media attention. She has toured Canada, the US, and Europe, but still remains protective of her own brand of creativity, believing that �celebrity crap is a bit of a disease that can warp art as opposed to nurturing it.�
The constant moves around Toronto, and into the woods of Ontario have helped keep her from falling prey to such a disease, as she looks forward to the release of her new album, sometime in spring next year.
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