http://www.viewmag.com/coverstory.php

�This job is weird because what you do and what you sell is so much you.� says songstress Sarah Slean. �It�s the deepest, oldest, most ancient, raw part of yourself that is out there on the chopping block for everyone to nudge around or ignore.

�It feels very exposed�like a bit of a blood sport. I don�t feel prone to jump into the fray and say �look at me, look at me,� because that�s contrary to my nature.� Only hours before her mid�afternoon interview with View, the multi�talented Sarah Slean spent the early part of February 7th sitting among media and industry types in Toronto as the nominees for the 34th annual Juno Awards were to be announced.

At such an event, supposedly celebrating the �exposed� side of Canada�s most talented artists, Slean was not at all nudged around or ignored, but was definitely up against some severely stiff competition.

To no one�s surprise, national music treasures like Shania Twain, Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne dominated most of the female categories, leaving Slean on the outside looking in.

While not being placed directly in the same ring as those stage�stealing heavyweights, Slean did manage to find herself in quite a unique, yet intriguing position�along with her musical cohorts Sarah Harmer, Matt Mays, Rufus Wainwright and Ron Sexsmith, Slean found herself nominated for the inaugural Adult Alternative Album of the Year award.

Unfortunately, all of these five nominees will need to wait until April 3rd in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to find out if their endless tours, parade�like publicity jaunts and never�ending fan meet and greets pay off.

Nevertheless, Slean�s accomplishment sits within the completion of her 2004 release Day One, as it ultimately took a bumpy road of isolation and self�discovery to receive such recognition from her peers.

In the summer of 2003 Sarah Slean decided that she�d had enough of the modern world. She packed up her necessary belongings and abandoned Toronto in search of herself. What she soon found was a fortress of
solitude disguised as a log cabin in a remote area just outside of Ottawa.

�My heart was just shrivelling up and I was running out of love for the world and the ability to take pleasure in small things,� reflects Slean on the more than four months she spent removed from society.

�I don�t know if I was over thinking or feeling the weight of meaninglessness and the feeling that everything was hilariously empty�and I felt empty. I just wanted to simplify and subtract. �I didn�t go there to write a record or anything, I just went there to save myself and try to get back on the path.�

As the time wore on, Slean would spend hours and days painting, writing, dancing and learning how to live independently from civilization. She had to fetch her own water everyday from outside the cabin, shower outdoors and, most importantly, learn how to live with herself minus a sea of humanity.

�I needed to learn something so bad,� explains Slean. �I felt like a metaphysical idiot and I had no teachers or masters, and I decided that solitude and the struggle of loneliness was going to be those teachers and masters.

�It had nothing to do with the mundane earthly details about labels and making money � it had nothing to do with career. It had everything to do with the soul and a human on earth, and where are they going? Are they full of love or are they starving for love? It was about my
mind; I wanted to hone my mind.�

As a result, Slean slowly learned how to recapture the passion that allowed her to become the strong singer/songwriter she is today. But despite the modest success of 2002�s Night Bugs, and the outside anticipation of what Slean�s next album may be, coming to terms with how her music reflected her as a human being became a much more important mission.

�I woke up everyday thinking to myself that I need to make my life meaningful somehow by helping in some way,� she says. �And I felt, �Jesus Christ, I�m not a doctor on the front lines, I�m making songs.� I had real moral struggle with that.

�I came to the conclusion that if you live with your spirit on your sleeve, and if your genuine goal is to comfort others or to give joy to others, you can do that in the form of making music� that�s just as noble.

�It�s an ongoing struggle to give your life meaning and to feel like you�re on this earth for a purpose. I really feel music is like a compass. It really focused me, and I really feel like I�m most alive when I�m making music. I guess that�s the path I�m supposed to walk.�

After months outside the city, Slean soon felt revitalized and surer than ever about her choices in life. What came from that time alone would become the ground work for her latest album Day One; an album that successfully meshes heartbreak and inspiration, without lienating
the listener.

�(Listeners) need to hear the blood, the tears and the struggling,� she notes. �I consider it to be a spiritual exercise, to identify with music when you hear the struggle in it, and recognize it as your own.
�It doesn�t make anything better per say, it doesn�t change your circumstance, but it�s comforting. It kind of wraps its arms around you and goes �other people felt this way too� it is shitty.��

Slean admits today that understanding her world and the one around her is still a challenge, and that she may not single�handedly change their world, but she can make hers a better place to be.

�I�m a lot more peaceful in my life,� she concedes. �My mind was a very frantic place to be for a lot of years, and I�m a little slower now in my watching, my appreciating, and my accepting of things in my life, which I think is a good thing.

�I want to be a student of the world.� V

SARAH SLEAN
With Jeremy Fisher
Friday, February 18
HAMILTON PLACE
STUDIO THEATRE
1 Summers Lane[/quote]

a great article with some really great quotes.

[quote:3bda2cda36]�(Listeners) need to hear the blood, the tears and the struggling,� she notes. �I consider it to be a spiritual exercise, to identify with music when you hear the struggle in it, and recognize it as your own.
�It doesn�t make anything better per say, it doesn�t change your circumstance, but it�s comforting. It kind of wraps its arms around you and goes �other people felt this way too� it is shitty.�� [/quote:3bda2cda36]

that's exactly what i feel like when i'm listening to her music. it's funny i was just thinking about that today. =)

thanks for the article!

Ah! You beat me to it. Just picked up a copy outside my building. I think the same article (and definitely the same picture) ran in Pulse Niagara

http://nealj_3.tripod.com/sleanview.jpg

Cover scan. My scanner's not big enough to get the whole thing, and I had to tilt it slightly to fit it on, but you get the gist

[quote:4cd1400fb8="nikolita"][url]�I came to the conclusion that if you live with your spirit on your sleeve, and if your genuine goal is to comfort others or to give joy to others, you can do that in the form of making music� that�s just as noble."
[/quote:4cd1400fb8]

It definitely is a noble undertaking and I'd sarah is clearly achieving her goal

thanks for the post Nik,

...jim

Here's the scans, got as much in as I could... stupid flatbed scanner! lol

cover again:

http://nealj_3.tripod.com/sleanview.jpg

The article. The text is what Nik posted:

http://nealj_3.tripod.com/sleanviewarticle.jpg

Ad on page 10. Too bad the contest is over (at least I assume it is since it included tickets to Friday's show), I woulda loved to've entered!!:

http://nealj_3.tripod.com/sleanviewpg10.jpg