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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Lucky Her: Sarah Slean Succeeds Again!
It�s rare to find a record that transforms any old space into a private club in which you just can�t help but sit and have a drink, let alone to be provided multiple such records by the same artist. But Sarah Slean has delivered another high- and low-tide masterpiece of melodies with her latest, Day One. The new recordings manage to recall her previous work (including 2002�s Night Bugs) while rebelling in such a way that the material is fresh and unexpected. Nearly every media mention of her past recordings includes the word �cabaret� when referring to musical style, and while it�s an appropriate assignment, it fails to relate that the songs are never forced or unintentionally campy. In each of Sarah Slean�s works, musical or otherwise, it is clear that she is being true to herself, and that she is one woman out of her time.
For the conception of Day One, Slean ran off to a remote and isolated location in Canada and began to do what it is she does best: create. In addition to singing, playing the piano, writing, producing, and publishing; she is deeply engulfed in the world of visual art. Mixed-media album artwork seamlessly combines stunning photographs with Slean�s watercolor creations and other bits of collage. The complete package brought with Day One is one of ups and downs, though never of the boring kind. New elements take center stage at times, like the surprisingly appropriate guitars of first single �Lucky Me� and understated, driving beat of the pivotal �California.� Like Slean herself, the album is a warehouse of talent, and it is capable of capturing even the most choosy of listeners.
Sarah Slean discusses with JUNK her music, her opinions, and life at the continuation of a dangerous era.
Brad Walsh: Day One has a different feel to it than Night Bugs, which was more like stumbling into a cabaret lounge (there�s that word) and not being able to leave for the better part of an hour. On the new record there are pronounced guitars and many more experimentations with the rhythm section. What inspired you to move in these new directions?
Sarah Slean: Dancing alone to Radiohead's last album in a cabin in the middle of a dark forest. The piano and our evolving relationship. It is the tool I use to translate music from my head, but it is also a mini-orchestra, harmonically dense, and doesn't leave a lot of space. It's a whole different painting when there's empty space. So I wrote all songs with it, plotted and tweaked, and then took it away from the forefront.
BW: How was your Walden-esque retreat into the woods during the creation of Day One?
SS: My trip to the woods was not long enough. Strange how I had to shoe-horn myself into "being," simply being. Understanding now as opposed to constantly plotting, planning, or regretting. Being that alone and stripped down forced me to be disciplined that way, forced me to be simply a human in the world, without names or attachments or expectations, just an organism with a handful of simple needs: music, food, water, rest, love, fresh air.
BW: Did you create the booklet images at that time as well?
SS: I did make all those paintings in the cabin, in that quiet; the blank I created by leaving all of my constructs behind. I heard all the noise of my struggling self. My unconscious barfed up all this blackness, and some explosive joy too, but man, the dreams I had up there... such strange images, such strange sadness. I vowed to looked at that anguish as a compassionate scientist, outside of it, rather than staying inside it and losing perspective. Make sense?
BW: Do you plan to make prints of more of your visual pieces available to buy?
SS: Indeed. The book that I made ignited a flame. I want to make a whole series, and eventually start selling individual prints.
BW: Who directed the �Lucky Me� video? It�s beautiful, and it captures the tone of your music so well.
SS: The talented Justin Stephenson of Toronto directed �Lucky Me.� He's an animation wizard.
BW: How was this video shoot different from previous ones?
SS: The last video I did was in Cuba, and pretty much all performance. �Lucky Me� involved some green-screening, which was different. I'm embracing the acting aspect a lot more now; it used to feel so ridiculous singing to camera, but now I think of vaudeville and Tim Burton and Judy Garland, and it all feels right.
BW: What are your thoughts on the massive amounts of varying kinds of tragedy-aware American music that came after September 11, and did that day have an impact on your writing?
SS: That day was a rupture in the Eden of our "North American" lives... compared to the daily, relentless toil in other parts of the world. It is horrifying and unforgivable. So is the way we treat the planet and the world's poor. But that doesn't sell newspapers.
BW: How do you perceive the difference between being an American in America this winter and being a Canadian watching what�s going on politically?
SS: The borders of nations are peculiar, abstract things. Culture mixes and cross-contaminates and ideas travel without respecting those boundaries. There are people who have open minds and hearts, and people who don't. I just hope that the balance tips again and we come back to humanism. Fully committed, practiced humanism.
BW: IMDB lists you as appearing as a club singer in the 2001 show Murder in Small Town X. What was the show about?
SS: I'm trying to block it from my memory, though it was beautiful to hang out in Eastport, Maine in the middle of some impressive storms with a pair of explosive experts named Greg and Debbie. That was a good time.
BW: If you were able to hear Nina Simone, Ron Sexsmith, and Britney Spears each cover one of your songs, which would each one be assigned?
SS: Nina Simone, �Your Wish Is My Wish;� Ron Sexsmith, �Vertigo;� and Britney Spears, �Sweet Ones.�
BW: Do you think radio is moving in a direction beneficial to good music that deserves to be heard by as many people as possible?
SS: Some days I do, some days its laughable. Quite like life, non?
BW: Some people feel that when an artist they love happens to find mainstream success, that they must have done something akin to selling out, and that therefore the music is no longer private and special. What do you think of that?
SS: There is a mythology ingrained in the Western consciousness that artists are the martyrs of their time, that they must suffer to be relevant or worthy. Nonsense. Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen were celebrated in their day. If artists tiptoed around, trying not to offend, to succeed, to be judged, etc., then absolutely no great art would get made.
BW: What is the best kind of sandwich in the whole world?
SS: Oooweee... I like a little avocado, some gouda, really summery tomato, crunchy dark green lettuce... wait, I know, the kind someone else makes for you because you're cranky and world weary, and did they mention they rented a Jim Jarmusch flick for you? Here, wear my slippers...
Sarah Slean�s Day One and Night Bugs are both in stores now.
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