Sarah Slean

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Sarah Hope Slean (born on 21 June 1977) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Pickering, Ontario.

Contents 1 Education and careers 2 Filmography 3 Discography 4 Radio Releases 5 Music Videos 6 Cover Songs 7 Trivia 8 External links

[edit] Education and careers

A former York University student, Slean is also an accomplished painter and photographer. She recorded her first album Universe at the age of 19 and has since completed three other albums, Blue Parade (1998), Night Bugs (2002), and Day One (2004). 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. 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 shines through in the album's first single, the cheeky "Lucky Me". 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 Vancouver's East Cultural Centre. Other new tracks featuring Slean and the piano were recorded at DNA Recording in Toronto and Kensaltown Studios in the UK.

Also in 2006, she contributed two tracks ("Us and Them" and "Comfortably Numb") to Pink Floyd Redux, a modern 12-track tribute to Pink Floyd.

Slean is probably best known for a track on Night Bugs, a piano-heavy pop tune called "Sweet Ones". She 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.

[edit] Filmography

In late 2004, she filmed Black Widow, 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.

• Black Widow (2005)

[edit] Discography

Cover Art	Release Date	Title	Details	Format	Label
	1997 (Cassette) 1998 (CD)	Universe		EP	independent release
	August 17, 1998	Blue Parade		LP	independent release
	July 17, 2001	Sarah Slean EP		EP	WEA / Atlantic Records
	March 19, 2002	Night Bugs		LP	WEA / Atlantic Records
	September 28, 2004	Day One		LP	WEA / Atlantic Records
	July 6, 2004	Lucky Me		Single	WEA / Atlantic Records
	November 16, 2004	When Another Midnight (featuring K-OS)	features hip-hop artist K-OS	Single	WEA / Atlantic Records
	August 9, 2005	Mary	Improbable Pop Radio Mix, not the Day One version	Single	WEA / Atlantic Records
	October 31, 2006	Orphan Music	Live album with newly recorded studio versions, B-sides, and remixes	Live Album	WEA / Atlantic Records

[edit] Radio Releases

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

[edit] Music Videos

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

[edit] Cover Songs

Quite often, Slean pays homage to her favourite artists by performing a cover song in concert or on recording. Known covers include:

• "Always" - Irving Berlin (sung with Tory Cassis)
• "Beautiful Feeling" - PJ Harvey
• "Black Boys on Mopeds" - Sinéad O'Connor
• "Bulletproof...I Wish I Was" - Radiohead
• "Butterfly" - Weezer
• "A Case of You" - Joni Mitchell
• "Climbing Up the Walls" - Radiohead
• "Comfortably Numb" - Pink Floyd
• "The Difference is Why" - Lenny Kravitz
• "The Drugs Don't Work" - The Verve
• "Edelweiss" - Rodgers and Hammerstein (from the Sound of Music)
• "El Scorcho" - Weezer
• "God's Song" - Randy Newman
• "Drive" - The Cars
• "I'll Never Smile Again" - Ruth Lowe (popularized by Frank Sinatra)
• "I'm Only Sleeping" - The Beatles
• "I'm Your Man" - Leonard Cohen
• "Julia" - Our Lady Peace
• "Lilac Wine" - J. Shelton (cover of Jeff Buckley's cover)
• "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - Judy Garland
• "Sunny Side of the Street" - Louis Armstrong
• "Us & Them" - Pink Floyd
• "Wayfaring Stranger" - Traditional (recently recorded by Neko Case)
• "What Child is This?" - William Chatterton Dix, though now simply a traditional song
• "Woodstock" - Joni Mitchell

[edit] Trivia

• When Our Lady Peace performed the live "piano" version of their song "Julia" (originally guitar-driven and fast-paced), vocalist Raine Maida explained the origins of the downtempo rendition: "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..."

• She wrote an unreleased song, "Rockstar", about Raine Maida.

• She is a big fan of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, and wrote two songs about him: the unreleased "Glenn Gould Song" and "Before Your Time", which appeared on Blue Parade.

• She attended Dunbarton High School in Pickering, along with songstress Lindi Ortega.

[edit] External links

• Sarah Slean Official site
• Little Slean (Fan site)
• Igniting Sparks (Fan site)
• Blue Parade (Fan site)
• Official site for Black Widow, a musical about the Evelyn Dick murder case.