Sarah Slean

Sarah Slean
Sarah Slean performing in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Background information
Birth name	Sarah Hope Slean
Born	June 21, 1977 (1977-06-21) (age 32)
Origin	Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop, Pop rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, painter, photographer
Instruments	Vocals, keyboard instruments
Labels	WEA, Atlantic
Website	SarahSlean.com

Sarah Hope Slean (born on 21 June 1977) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, painter, and photographer from Pickering, Ontario. She has released seven albums to date (including EPs and live albums). She recorded her first EP Universe (1997) at the age of nineteen and has since completed four studio albums, Blue Parade (1998), Night Bugs (2002), Day One (2004), and The Baroness (2008).^[1] Her second EP The Baroness Redecorates was released on December 9, 2008.

Biography

Slean attended Dunbarton High School in Pickering. She initially studied music at York University. Currently a student at the University of Toronto studying music and philosophy, Slean is also an accomplished painter and photographer. Night Bugs was her first major label album, co-produced by Slean and Hawksley Workman, and released by WEA in Canada and Atlantic Records in the United States.^[2] It was heavily inspired by cabaret music.

On September 28, 2004, Slean released her fourth album, Day One. Here Slean's piano takes a less important spot for the first time in her career. The focus is more on beats, rhythms and guitar, which is evident in the album's first single, "Lucky Me".^[3] The up-tempo title track "Day One", and "Mary", a song about Slean's grandmother, were released as the second and third singles.

In October 2006, Slean released a mostly-live album, Orphan Music, which consists of songs recorded live at Toronto's Harbourfront Theatre and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Other new tracks featuring Slean and the piano were recorded at DNA Recording Facility in Toronto and Kensaltown Studios in the UK.^[4]

In 2006, she contributed two covers ("Us and Them" and "Comfortably Numb") to Pink Floyd Redux, a modern 12-track tribute to Pink Floyd.^[5] Another notable cover in Slean's repertoire is her down-tempo rendition of Our Lady Peace's guitar-driven song "Julia". Our Lady Peace has performed Slean's "piano" version of their song in their own concerts. Vocalist Raine Maida explained the origins of the piano version: "We’re gonna do a song from our first record now, that was given to us on a cassette tape, a very different version, from a girl named Sarah Slean from Toronto..."^[6]

Slean was also featured on the Fox TV network as the pianist in Sunrise, the fictional town where bodies started piling up in Murder in Small Town X, a short-lived reality TV series.^{[citation needed]}

On December 13, 2007, Slean's website underwent a massive overhaul in preparation for her newest studio album, entitled The Baroness. Visitors to the new site were invited to sign up for Slean's new mailing list, and in doing so would be able to download a demo version of her newest single, "Get Home". People who pre-ordered the new album from the new website's store also received a download to the non-album track "Parasol". The Baroness was released on March 11, 2008. The iTunes version of the album included two additional non-album tracks, "The Rose" and "The Lonely Side of the Moon." In September 2008, Slean announced her intention to release the non-album tracks from The Baroness as an EP. Both Parasol and Modern Man have been confirmed by Slean in Question and Answer sessions in her official website. On November 13, 2008, the official Sarahslean.com newsletter announced the title for the EP to be The Baroness Redecorates. A full tracklist was also provided.^[7]

In October 2008, Slean performed at the first annual Canwest Cabaret Festival in Toronto. Slean performed sets of her own music accompanied by bassist Joe Phillips and drummer Mark Mariash, and also contributed to multi-artist "songbook" performances of the songs of Leonard Cohen and Kurt Weill.

In March 2009, Sarah Slean took part in the Juno Songwriter's Circle in Vancouver, alongside fellow songwriters Jim Cuddy, Jacob Hoggard (of Hedley), Doc Walker, Buffy Saint-Marie, Vancouver upstart Ndidi Onukwulu, and Hawksley Workman, who hosted. She played two songs from The Baroness, "Notes from the Underground" and "Looking for Someone".

In 2009 Sarah Slean took part in an interactive documentary series called City Sonic. The series, which featured 20 Toronto artists, had her talk about performing at the Rivoli while attending the University of Toronto.

Filmography

Sarah Slean as Evelyn Dick for Black Widow

• Black Widow (2005)

In late 2004, she filmed Black Widow with Canadian director David Mortin, a film noir musical based on the Evelyn Dick murder case. It premiered in September 2005 on the film festival circuit and on CBC Television in January 2006.

• Tales of the Baroness (2007)

In 2006, Sarah teamed up with video director Nelson Chan ("Mary" , "Day One") to create a three part short film Tales of the Baroness; the first segment aired on May 11, 2007 on Bravo! presents.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs and live albums

Singles

Radio releases

• "Sweet Ones" (2002)
• "Weight" (2002)
• "Duncan" (2003)
• "Lucky Me" (2004)
• "Day One"(2005)
• "Mary" (2005)
• "Somebody's Arms" (2005)
• "Get Home" (2008)

Music videos

• "Weight" (1998)
• "High" (2000)
• "Sweet Ones" (2002)
• "Lucky Me" (2004)
• "Day One"(2005)
• "Mary" (2005)
• "Get Home" (2008)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sarah Slean

• Official website