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 Vit Wagner
Sarah Slean is getting a jump on Halloween. The Toronto-based singer/songwriter will be in costume for her gig tonight at Lee's Palace. And she also aims to transform the club's characteristically utilitarian interior into something befitting a theme park for sprites and cherubs. "It will have a Tim Burton meets A Midsummer Night's Dream feeling," says Slean, whose usual drums, guitar and bass accompaniment will be augmented by violin and cello for the Lee's set.
"I've carved all these bugs out of foam, tied feathers to chicken wire and done all this Chinese lantern stage lighting. And I'm getting my hair done to look all insane." The fanciful spirit of the evening corresponds with the tenor of Slean's new album, due out early next year and tentatively titled Night Bugs. The 11-song CD of piano-driven numbers has been in the can for more than half a year. But Slean's label, Warner/Atlantic, decided to hold off on its release, electing instead to tease prospective listeners this past July with a sample EP that features three of the new songs, as well as two tunes from each of the 24-year-old's previous, independent albums.
Part of the thinking, Slean says, was to capitalize on her acting appearance, as a lounge singer, in the Fox TV series Murder In Small Town X, which also began airing in July. "I was in it for maybe two seconds," says Slean, clearly unimpressed by the scheme's career-launching potential. "It's a horrible show." That she offers this observation with audible amusement inher voice testifies to Slean's upbeat equanimity these days - a contrast, she says, from the melancholy vibe of her 1999 disc, Blue Parade.
"I just wanted to get back to jumping around and nearly dying of joy when I'm on stage. It is so much more fun to make music that way. I'm having the time of my life right now." It's an outlook she hopes doesn't dissipate before the new album comes out. "I finished mastering it in April, so I've pretty much been waiting for it to happen all this year. I'm dying for it to come out. "This happens with all musicians. You make something, you finish it and it's this huge cathartic release. You're so happy. And all you want to do is play it. Then you have to wait. And in the meantime you're writing new songs, you're changing as a person, you're meeting new people and then you have to go on tour and play the songs you wrote three years ago."
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