Canadian songstress Sarah Slean is excited about experimenting with strings on her new double album set “Land and Sea.
She will be playing the Southminster United Church, Feb. 26 at the Geomatic Attic’s third annual Womanspace Fundraiser with a string quintet, which really makes her new music sing.
“ ‘Land’ is more of a rock and pop CD and we’ve already toured on that. Unfortunately there wasn’t a Lethbridge date for that,” Slean said.
“But ‘Sea’ is a nice work. It’s interesting and cooler,” she described adding she is touring with a string quintet including a drummer, vocalist and Slean playing piano and singing.
“ ‘Sea’ is a different perspective. It’s larger and strings fill out the sound,” she said.
“ But it really was a long process,” she said.
Slean wrote the radio hit “Sweet Ones,” which has been covered twice on Canadian Idol and has had her music featured on a variety of TV shows including Dawson’s Creek, Felicity and Party of Five, to name a few. She was playing ‘Sea’ around the Toronto area with a 12 piece string section, and even played it with an orchestra in Nova Scotia.
“It was excellent,” she said.
“ Audiences have really responded well to it,” she said.
Slean is a classically trained pianist who has always had an interest in strings, having experimented with them since beginning her career 15 years ago.
“I love strings. I started to play with them around 1998,” she said.
“I’m a classically trained pianist and wanted to expand my sound so I started to experiment with them. I guess I taught myself how to do it,” she said.
She hadn’t intended to write a double album. But when writing the songs for “Land,” she was also writing the songs for ‘Sea.”
“I didn’t think the songs belonged together on the same album, but at the same time didn’t want to release them separately, yet I still thought they belonged together,” she said adding she let the songs lead her.
“They have a different feel and are just different colour palettes,” she said.
“But the fans love both records and critics have responded well to them,” she said.
Her songwriting process is pretty natural.
“I find songs happen when I have a quiet mind — when I’m doing repetitive or mundane tasks like washing the dishes or walking to the store. You have to clear your mind. It’s like leaving the window open. The songs are out there, my job is to just let them in,” she said.
She has a had a quite a few career highlights.
“There have been a couple. Singing with Jim Cuddy at the Junos was one and so was my Juno nomination,” she said.
She was in the news in January for turning down a Queen’s Jubilee Medal in support for the idle No ore Movement
“I was really inspired by the First Nations,” she said, so I got informed about Bill-C-45 and was appalled by what the government was doing. It’s unconstitutional, we didn’t consult with them,” she said, adding co-operation and respect is essential.
“ It can’t be allowed to continue,” she said, adding most people have supported her decision to turn down the honour.
“There have been one or two trolls who have written hateful things. But I’m not a leftist,” she said adding the issue isn’t about the left or the NDP or even a First Nation thing. It is a Canadian thing.
In addition to supporting her double CD, Slean is also working on a full scale musical based on Canadian history.
“I’ve become so fascinated with Canadian history,” she said adding it will work on stage or just with the music.
Tickets for the Geomatic Attic show at Southminster United Church are $35 in advance, $37.50 online or $40 at the door. It will begin at 8 p.m. sharp.
