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
|
Soundbites
After a tour stop in Almonte last year, road-weary and spiritually flat, ethereal pop-queen Sarah Slean found solace at a tense, driven time in her life.
"It was the most beautiful, enchanting place I've ever seen," says Slean. "There's this gorgeous old post office, this beautiful river and a mill. I just felt that the place was spooked with ideas and there was a lot of good energy."
Within days, Slean had packed up her piano, her books and her paints and was taking in the enchantment in a rustic cottage near Almonte. She stayed there four months.
"To me it was not about escaping or running away or trying to sit down and make art," she explains. "It wasn't about anything. It was to subtract. I had to take the noise out of my life.
"I had come to a point where I think I was just not inspired by the world. In fact, I was disgusted by it. I didn't want to participate anymore. My previous 'triumph against all odds' kind of attitude had deflated. I went there because I was worried about how my outlook had so drastically changed. So I went there to find silence and to be with silence."
By subtracting the excess from it, Slean rediscovered her enchantment for life. The renewal prompted the title of her latest album, Day One, and is expressed in the uplifting and sentimental energy in the songs.
"It was a reversal of the 'one day' psychology," she explains. "A sort of Buddhist thing happens when you're quiet for so long. You realize what a flimsy
concept time is, and how 'now' is really something that is constantly here, and how time and space constructs are just films and illusions. People are so scared to say 'one day,' and that's not me anymore."
Sarah Slean plays Saturday November 27 at Capital Music Hall, with Ron Sexsmith. $19.50
|