From: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org (navy-soup-digest) To: navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Subject: navy-soup-digest V7 #109 Reply-To: navy-soup@smoe.org Sender: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk navy-soup-digest Sunday, November 28 2004 Volume 07 : Number 109 In This Digest: ----------------- Re: Slean Q&A [Paul Schreiber ] chartattack st. john's concert review [bisontentacle ] globe and mail article [bisontentacle ] Globe & Mail Article - posted on sarahslean.com ["Jim O'Leary" Subject: Re: Slean Q&A http://www.thevarsity.ca/news/2004/11/25/ArtsCulture/Slean.And.Heard - -815211.shtml The Varsity - Arts & Culture Issue: 11/25/04 Slean and heard Local piano songstress Sarah Slean should be a star by now, having carved out a stellar oeuvre over four albums of charming, literate pop tunes. There's no predicting the music business, but hopefully her latest cabaret-inflected disc, Day One, will do the trick. She's been on tour with like-minded singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith the last few months, will take a break in December to star in a movie about Hamilton murderess Evelyn Dick, and then hits the road again in March for a cross-country Canadian headlining tour. We caught up with the busy Slean as she was driving in her tour van across the bridge to P.E.I. ("there's beautiful, shimmery ocean on either side of us!") last week. Tabassum Siddiqui: You chose to work with two producers, Pete Prilesnik (Sarah Harmer's You Were Here) and Dan Kurtz (Feist's Monarch, also bassist for local live-house trio The New Deal). How did all three of you manage to work together? Sarah Slean: It was me and Peter originally, and we butted heads, to put it lightly. Dan was a mutual friend of ours and I have a lot of respect for him, and he fit right into my whole plan to have knowledgeable rhythm section guys [on this album]. So we met with him a couple times, and tried stuff out, and it just worked-he was a real balancing force between myself and Peter. I had just come back from living in a cabin, so I was completely fucked in the head, having a bit of culture shock, and the anxiety of being back into 'this is your life,' trying to be a pop singer or whatever. Peter is really, you know, opinionated (laughs). He's passionate about what he does, so Dan sort of provided a balancing force that was really needed. TS: What did you learn about the production process from working with them? SS: It was good for me; I learned a lot from them. Basically, I learned skills-they have a lot of computer knowledge that I don't have. But it was tough! This was the hardest record I've ever made-simply because of my mindset at the time. I felt really shattered when I got back, because I did a lot of very intense self-seeking and digging. I was very, very alone for four months, and intensely observing the world and thinking... And coming back and getting into contracts with record labels and seeing a mirror of yourself every day and making these choices, and every sound you put on the record has to reflect who you are as, I don't know what-I guess a 'brand' or something-it was really difficult to digest all of that. TS: You've mentioned this dark period you fell into right before making the record when you went into the woods near Ottawa for a bit to get away from it all. What was making you so anxious? SS: I dunno... I thought too hard or something. Something in me just kind of broke down. I'm obsessed with the notion of trying to live a noble existence and doing as little harm as possible. And I couldn't really reconcile the way I chose to live my life with being noble. It seemed to me sort of vain and indulgent. The advertising, the posturing, the ambition just started to absolutely disgust me-it was like I got the nausea that existentialists talk about, and I couldn't shake it. At all. So I had to do something drastic. TS: So how do you reconcile your desire to live a simple life with the madness that is touring? SS: I'm getting accustomed to the swinging between extremes (laughs). I'm technically a gypsy right now, I don't really live anywhere or have an address, but I've decided that my next address is going to have to be somewhere rural and peaceful, and have nature around it, not a lot of advertisements or vehicles or noise. TS: In a similar vein, the entire music business is based upon the notion of selling. Doesn't that bother you, then? SS: That was part of my whole crisis, if you can call it that, because it seemed despicable to me. I thought, 'Oh, my god, I'm whoring the thing that matters most to me in the world.' But then I thought, I think that selling this [music] and giving it to people-which is what you're doing, in exchange for money-if you're giving that out and people are wanting it from you, then it's better than me selling widgets or hiring people in sweatshops to make running shoes. It's a hell of a lot better than most of the stuff out there. Maybe in the more confident part of my mind, I feel like when I put stuff like this out there, it does a bit of good. Sarah Slean opens for Ron Sexsmith tonight at the Danforth Music Hall (147 Danforth Ave.). Tickets are $25.00 at the door. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 17:52:48 -0500 From: bisontentacle Subject: chartattack st. john's concert review a little belated but i don't think this has been posted to the lists yet... LIVE: Slean and Sexsmith Seduce St. Johns Friday November 19, 2004 @ 04:00 PM By: ChartAttack.com Staff Arts And Culture Centre St. Johns, Newfoundland November 15, 2004 by Jen White There was something in the air at the Arts And Culture Centre on Monday night. Music-lovers young and old came together with the same twinkle in their eyes - a sense of the magic that was about to take place. Sarah Slean graced the stage for a set filled with sheer elegance, captivating the audience with every note and movement. Slean stuck mostly to songs from her new album Day One, including "Lucky Me," "California" and "Mary." The strength and intensity of "Pilgrim" was balanced by the complications she encountered on "When Another Midnight," when she forgot the words. An audience member yelled out the lyrics and Slean picked it up once again, although seemingly embarrassed when the song was finished. "There are too many words in that song!" she joked. Some Night Bugs tunes chanced their way onto the setlist, including "Eliot" and "Sweet Ones." Yet the most breathtaking song of the night was "My Invitation." Slean spoke of how she wrote it about an ex, explaining that sometimes you have to love someone who doesnt love you back. "It makes you tougher," she explained, before throwing her broken heart into the song. The audience was dead quiet until the very last notes faded away. Throughout the set, Slean spoke of her love for Newfoundland, recalling her fond memories at previous shows. When returning for her encore, she exclaimed to her bassist: "Lets move here!" Slean then launched into "Wake Up," encouraging the audience to participate for the final bars. "You guys never let me down!" said an ecstatic Slean as she bowed. [Ron Sexsmith part of the review omitted] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 17:58:39 -0500 From: bisontentacle Subject: globe and mail article another belated article. well, abstract anyway. the globe and mail has an irritating subscription-only thing. did anyone happen to grab the print edition of this issue? maybe they could transcribe it for us? or if someone is a globe and mail subscriber and doesn't mind flagrant copyright infringement? ;) woj The art of 'digging in the muck' By Robert Everett-Green Friday, November 19, 2004, Page R26 Decamping to some isolated spot to stew up the next record has become a ritual for musicians whose natural audience is now or will soon be alumni of a Canadian university. Few, however, have gone rustic with a more ambitious program than Sarah Slean. The waif-like musician abandoned her life in Toronto the way Lot left Sodom, determined to find a less poisonous state of being. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:20:37 -0800 (PST) From: "Jim O'Leary" Subject: Globe & Mail Article - posted on sarahslean.com Yeah, the subscriber bit can be a pain. I posted the entire article on the sarahslean.com message board; http://sarahslean.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=161 ...jim The all-new My Yahoo!  What will yours do? ------------------------------ End of navy-soup-digest V7 #109 *******************************