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 Warren Footz SEE Magazine, July 25, 2002 Okay, so singer-songwriter Sarah Slean weighs like about 20 pounds, is about two or three feet tall, and has an incredible sweet smile, with huge anime-like eyes. She�s a combination plate of influences, with an occasional connection to a muse named Emily. "I had this vision when I was reading this book about this woman who lives in France. She doesn�t have very much money; works in a dress store. Her bosses are mean to her, she�s kind of meek, and doesn�t have any friends in the city. She�s all tattered and stuff and walks around in the rain, goes into bars and sits there for hours. I had this sense of familiarity when I was reading it, it was kind of eerie. Then when I went to Paris I felt the same thing as soon as I got off the plane." Apparently her love of scotch and all things past encourages this release of the inner Miss Mysterio. "It�s a divine inspiration. It sort of lets the demons and the dragons go in your head. Emily allows me to sing songs that it wouldn�t make sense for me to sing, perhaps like an exaggeration. A part of me, like reflected, turned up a notch. She�s the musical-theatre me." Not all her songs are captured by the Emily inflection. In fact Slean�s own voice can whisper, fill a room and then metamorphose into something beautiful with inflections that sound like something else again. All this, she says, comes from a solid understanding of what she wants to project and an infinite interest in a wide range of influences. "I was raised on classical music, did classical music for years. I went to university for it for one year, but then said, �Wait a second, I�m not going to be a pianist, what am I doing?� So I quit that. I was really into musicals, musical theatre. I heard some songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Roberta Flack, and then I started getting into Judy Garland and things a little more dramatic, like Marlene Dietrich and Shirley Bassey. I also like Radiohead. Okay Computer is my favourite record of all time, but it�s tied with a couple of my really favourite classical records." Night Bugs, Slean�s major-label debut, finally hit the shelves in Canada this past spring after an extended wait. That was partly her wish to get things right, and partly the usual record company deal of waiting for just the right time. "It�s a little frustrating when you have to wait on the machine. I�d finished the record, and when you finish it, it�s all fresh and you want to run with it, but you can�t, you have to wait. That is irritating, but I understand the principle behind it. I could have made another record a couple of months ago � I was chomping at the bit � but I really want to put the effort into this one."
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