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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Musician a refreshing change from glut of lovelorn songwriters
Here's a brief study in contrasts for you.
Building a picture from her music alone, one almost expects Sarah Slean to be a melancholy, bookish young woman with a "Catcher In The Rye"-esque desire to interrogate life, the universe and everything. She'd have world-weary, lovelorn, Sylvia Plath anthologies, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders -- you know the type.
Instead, the diminutive, beaming figure sitting across a coffee-shop table the particular afternoon is every inch the giddy 21-year-old -- albeit a giddy 21-year-old with a ferocious gift for piano and voice and nascent songwriting chops that already stand up alongside (and in a few cases, tower over) her companions on the new "Women And Song 2" [sic] compilation.
"I'm just like 'Aaah! I'm not worthy,'" says Slean, who re-recorded the sombre-yet-pretty cut "I Know" for inclusion on the album. (It was originally on her debut EP, "Universe," released earlier this year.)
True, a complicated development deal with Atlantic Records in the States and, consequently, Warner Music Canada helped the Pickering native score prime placement alongside the likes of Canada's other Sarah (McLachlan), Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Merchant and Tracy Chapman.
But Slean's classically bred melodies and insightful, probing lyrics are far more appealing than, say, Jewel's tired platitudes or the pouty pop cliches dished out by Natalie Imbruglia.
"I'm as big a fan of literature and words as I am of music," says Slean, currently on leave from her pursuit of a musical theory degree at the University of Toronto. "Well, maybe not. But it's a close second. And I don't write music without words swimming around in my head already.
"Some guy dumped you? So who f---ing cares? People aren't making an effort to make art of the words as well as the music ... So that's what I'm trying hard to do, to make both sides have merit."
That quest for merit is the main reason Slean's ascent into the music biz has thus far been a slow and steady one.
A fixture on the local club circuit for the past four years, she juggled school and her extracurricular musical pursuits until this year. Nevertheless, during that time, she amassed some high-profile fans -- fellow Torontonians Our Lady Peace were taken enough with her soft rendition of their song "Julia" to adopt it while on tour earlier this year. _And_ she caught Atlantic's ear with her demos.
Rather than rush to the majors, though, Slean scored a contract that will let her release a full-length album independently before her deal kicks in, so she can "get a fell for what it is I'm about to dive into.
"It's really scary, I have to admit, saying I'm just going to do music," she says. "You know, I got to studios and there are all these CDs on the walls that I've never heard of."
Some of her new songs get an airing when Slean performs next Wednesday night at The Reverb (651 Queen St. W.).
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