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.
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SARAH SLEAN TICKETS
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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.
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".
Filmography
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
Release Date
| Title
| Details
| Label
|
August 17, 1998
| Blue Parade
|
| independent release
|
March 19, 2002
| Night Bugs
|
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
September 28, 2004
| Day One
|
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
March 11, 2008
| The Baroness
|
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
EPs and live albums
Release Date
| Title
| Details
| Label
|
1997 (Cassette)
1998 (CD)
| Universe
|
| independent release
|
July 17, 2001
| Sarah Slean EP
|
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
October 31, 2006
| Orphan Music
| Live album with newly recorded studio versions, B-sides, and remixes
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
December 9, 2008
| The Baroness Redecorates
| B-sides EP consisting of tracks cut from The Baroness.
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
Singles
Release Date
| Title
| Details
| Label
|
July 6, 2004
| "Lucky Me"
|
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
November 16, 2004
| "When Another Midnight"
| features hip-hop artist K-OS
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
August 9, 2005
| "Mary"
| Improbable Pop Radio Mix, not the Day One
version
| WEA / Atlantic Records
|
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
- Solo Work
- Night Bugs
- Day One
- Orphan Music
- CD Details
- Sarah Slean Biography
- Sarah Releases a New EP just in Time for the Holidays!