http://www.vancourier.com/issues05/113205/entertainment/113205en1.html
Vitamin popping Slean goes for baroque By Shawn Conner

Visit Sarah Slean's website and you'll find a section where the Toronto chanteuse waxes enthusiastically about books, movies, songs and poems.

"I like to put up the stuff there that really, really flattens me, like when you walk out of the movie theatre stunned, or you can't stop thinking about the images a certain song made you see," she says of the section of www.sarahslean.com she calls "Vitamins." "Just things that really, really affect me. I don't know whether it's because of timing or their own genius. Anything that ends up on Vitamins I feel compelled to write about."

Sometimes her passions inspire her, although her most recent record, Day One, had a different genesis. After growing tired of city living, Slean moved to rural Ontario. Rather than producing a rustic, acoustic record with bird sounds and tree tributes, however, Slean made an album about rebirth and renewal. Musically, it represents a further honing of the baroque pop instincts that, like Slean's previous record Nightbugs, draws on David Bowie-glam and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera.

Day One also shows Slean to have a rare ability to entertain deep questions about modern life, metaphysics and the way we understand the world in a pop format without sounding flaky, crazy or academic.

"Those are lifelong fascinations," she says. "I read a lot of science books and linguist writers fascinate me, and philosophy, because the whole predicament of us ending up here on the planet and what we know about it and the vast sea of what we don't know, it's so unbelievable. Most people conduct their lives in a jaded fashion, if you think about it, because everything around us is so spectacularly implausible, including the human race. I like to walk around in a state of, to borrow from Glenn Gould, wonder and serenity."

Does she have cynical moments? "Oh good God yes. I don't think you can make art without having cynical moments. But I find turning those around into a creation is a form of alchemy in itself."

Slean also paints, and the watercolours decorating her website show her to have a delicate touch. She's putting her visual sense to use for an animated film called Baroness. "We just got an NFB grant for it, a startup filmmaking grant. I will always have my fingers in many pies, just because I'm in love with everything and I'm such an idealist and I'm constantly fascinated. I want to learn as much as I can and absorb as many ideas as I possibly can. That's why I'm so in love with other art."

Music is still her greatest passion, though. "The first language I learned in that realm, and the first one I fell in love with, is music, and I think it's the one I know the best."

Sarah Slean plays the Vancouver East Cultural Centre Nov. 20.

published on 11/16/2005

great article, thanks for posting

I've got an article from the North Shore News (in Van) about her from the 18th. It isn't available online but one of these days I will try typing it up for you guys.

Maybe this isn't in the right place, but...

I have a recording of a telephone interview she had with a local radio show (Vancouver Chills, on clearfm), back in March. Audiowise, the quality's pretty bad (I took my mp3 player/voice recorder and stuck it beside my clock-radio to record it), but I haven't seen any mention of it anywhere. I don't think there is any real new information in it, but I love the way the host asks the questions. In the interview Sarah talks about:


the trip to the woods

the production process

Your Wish is My Wish

being in love with the world

day one's liner art

preforming live


Would there be any interest in me uploading the mp3? (Or, alternatively, would this be acceptable? I know the position that was posted about live recordings, but I don't recall any discussion regarding radio-interview bootlegs) Running time is about seven minutess, and I have edited out the two tracks played mid-interview (YWIMW and Wake Up).

This part's really off-topic and can probably be ignored, but... does anyone know what happened to the host of this program (Trevor)? I used to listen to Vancouver Chills quite a bit, then I didn't for a while, then when I came back, they had a new host.

Cam, great find! Thanks for posting

Normal, I don't think an interview that was already played on the radio counts as a bootleg or anything taboo that can't be shared... I'd love to hear it if it was posted here.

(anyone else know if that's legal/not legal? I'm just guessing lol)

I'll wait a while to see if anyone knows anything else before I upload it somewhere.

You wouldn't happen to know of a good place to upload/host the file, would you?

i can't see sarah or anyone else having a problem with it considering anybody could have turned in to hear it but as far as the law goes I have no clue

www.yousendit.com
www.rapid-share.de
www.megaupload.com

are all good for uploading.

whats the channel on this station?

Thanks for the links.

Clearfm is 104.9 and Vancouver Chills runs from 9pm-1am
(In greater vancouver only, I suppose)

LOL it's probably 'illegal' technically... like recording a Major League Baseball game without the express written consent of the League... but I'm sure Sarah wouldn't mind. People post radio interviews and such here all the time, I would say it's ok.

Perhaps the station has it posted on their website too?

Great interview! I'm so glad it was done by a fan who was really informed

[quote:4fbe0bec06="Normal"]without the express written consent of Major Leauge Baseball[/quote:4fbe0bec06]


hahah.....f MLB!

and thanks muchly!

...jim

ooooh, and i like the personal ads that pop-up... :P


...jim

oh, and one last thing - is it just me, or does it seem Sarah is getting a lot more press this tour WITHOUT active management on board??


...jim