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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Sheri Block Calgary Herald
Sarah Slean felt like the life had been sucked out of her.
The typically sweet and sanguine Slean was fed up with how ridiculous the world had become and longed to find something meaningful.
The singer/songwriter calls it her �20s explosion,� where nothing in life was going right or seemed to make sense.
Armed with only a big stack of books and her piano, she ventured out to a remote log cabing last summer, four and a half hours away from her Toronto home, to figure it out.
She returned more than four months later � with renewed hope and optimism � and ready to make an album unlike anything she had ever done before.
�It was definitely a collapse and I couldn�t really describe what it was,� says Slean, who is quick to point out it was not depression, like a Winnipeg newspaper recently stated. �It was just sort of like the bottom fell out and the way that I usually look at the world, with lots of magic everywhere and I�m usually delighted and excited by it, it was gradually sucked out of me.
�I started to look at everything like such a ridiculous farce, where everything was so meaningless, and my music was suffering because of it.�
Day One, her fourth record but second release on Warner Music, is what came from the experience � a rhythmically charged album with haunting melodies and apocalyptic tones.
�It�s a darker, uglier record and I wanted it that way because that�s what was happening to me and I can only be truthful,� says Slean.
It is reflective of not only what was happening inside of her, but with the rest of the world.
�It�s a struggle to be alive and figure out why you�re here and what matters. We�re not afforded a lot of opportunities to ask those questions in this day and age, with friggin� Paris Hilton running around, it just seems like the world is a circus joke or something.�
Even so, glimmers of light and hope peek through the dark, most notably on the inspiring and upbeat title track, actually written before her time in the cabin.
With the exception of the last two songs, there is little evidence of the old Slean, whose earlier work beautifully showcased her classical piano training.
Slean, who doesn�t view the sound on the new record as being much different, is frustrated she has been defined by the instrument she plays.
�I think I�ve proven myself as a pianist and I have no real desire to ram that down anyone�s throat. I want to be considered an artist, not a female piano player.�
She enlisted the help of producers Pete Prilesnik (Sarah Harmer) and Dan Kurtz (The New Deal) to capture what she loves about bands like Radiohead and Bjork � rhythm.
Her previous album, 2002�s whimsical Night Bugs, was produced by Canada�s much-acclaimed glam rocker Hawksley Workman.
�Hawksley and I will definitely work together again but I was looking for something different than his aesthetic on this record,� she says.
Workman, along with other notable Canadian musicians, will join Slean in an upcoming movie/musical in December featuring Mary Margaret O�Hara. The project is called Black Widow and Slean will play a murderer and seductress.
�I can�t wait,� says Slean. �It�s going to be amazing.�
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