When Sarah Slean arrives in Canmore on Wednesday (Feb. 27), she won’t be coming alone.
Though the small stage at Communitea Cafe can seem cramped with a band of four musicians, when the quirky singer-songwriter plays, she’ll bring with her a string section – two violins, viola, cello and double bass – as well as a backing vocalist, drummer and herself on keyboards, for a total of eight.
This will be to accommodate Sea, the orchestral half of her double album project Land & Sea, released in the fall of 2011.
“People ask me – including my label – ‘Why? Why a double album? It’s twice the expense, twice the effort, twice everything, why?’ and my answer to that is a quote from Beethoven,” explained Slean. “When one of the violinists he was working with in a string quartet was complaining to him about how difficult the part was and that it wasn’t playable, and he said ‘Do you think I give a damn about your miserable violin when the music hits me?’
“I love this quote so much, because it’s that ridiculous, when the music comes and hits the creator or composer, it is what it is, and it has its own momentum, it’s own volition, and it wants to be a certain thing. Once it gets close enough to you that it can sense that, there’s no going back. You have to make that, and I become crazed, I become tunnel visioned, and I have to find a way to create it.”
Slean burst onto the Canadian music scene in the late 1990s. Her second album, Night Bugs, was produced by Communitea alumni Hawksley Workman.
Land & Sea is her fifth studio album, with producers Joel Plaskett for Land and Jonathan Goldsmith for Sea.
“When I heard this music, a lot of it scored for a full string orchestra, I realized it was going to have to be that, and I’d have to bite the bullet and find a way,” said Slean. “As I was writing in general for the next project, I found the songs I was writing would gravitate to one of two camps.
“Not just sonically or musically, but also very much so lyrically. I wanted to honour that, instead of trying to mash them up and put them on one record. The contrast between the two worlds meant it had to be a double record.”
When the album was released, Slean toured the pop rock half extensively, setting aside Sea, as she feared it wouldn’t sound right if both albums were played together.
“I toured Land after it came out, and we did that with a five-piece pop rock band, which is so fun and something I don’t think I’ll ever tire of,” she said. “That’s why I hired Joel Plaskett for Land. While he has this vintage sensibility, he really can stretch you in terms of how a pop band should arrange a particular song.
“But with Sea, I didn’t want to tour the two records together, it didn’t make any sense, so touring Sea took a lot more preparation to figure out how to best render this 21-piece string orchestra on the road.”
For the tour, Slean found she could distill the sound of the 21-piece orchestra down to five voices – two violins, viola, cello and double bass – with a drummer and backing vocalist, and herself on keyboards, to achieve most of the sound.
“That’s what we’re doing in Canmore, simply because of the size and technical capacity, but in larger venues we are hiring between four and seven extra string players, in addition to the other musicians,” she said. “For me, where I’m going musically, I’m a slave to the muse.
“I’m following with devotion and faith what comes through me, and I really can’t find any other way of describing it, the way I experience writing music. It wants to be what it is and I try to assemble the details here in the physical world. That’s my job as an artist.”
Though the album was released a year and a half ago, Slean is still in love with the sound and not looking to the next project yet. Instead, she’s excited to finally have the chance to tour Sea.
“I still love this album, I’m so excited about this tour, I feel this music is particularly unique in the Canadian landscape – our music scene is so incredible,” she said. “Everywhere I go in the world, and I see other acts or have acts open for me, I think ‘We don’t know what we are sitting on in this country,’
“I could easily dip my hand into the CBC playlist right now and come up with a fistful of generation-making, unbelievable world class songwriters, and we just don’t understand our whole community is that good. I’m so proud of the music scene in this country.”
That said, Slean feels Sea brings a particularly unique expression to the Canadian musical landscape, and hopes audiences will appreciate it.
“With my fellow artists, when we talk about the audience and the idea of a performer and what it is to make art today, I’ve really settled on the idea that you’re trying to speak to the audience – and if you fail, if you don’t reach that audience member who’s come to see you, if you don’t touch them, move them and make them feel more human – you’ve failed and you need to go back to the drawing board,” she explained.
“I feel with this tour we’re doing it, we’re connecting with audiences – I hear gasps and sighs – I feel like this is a powerful, sonic palette, and I’m excited about that and having people hear this collection of sounds.”
While Slean has played Canmore before, it was quite some time ago.
“It was probably between seven and 10 years ago,” she said. “I remember it being a little place and was on a bill with a couple of other songwriters, and it was really small. We do remember the breathtaking scenery.”
The decision to make the return to the mountain town was influenced by her husband, Royal Wood, who’s played Communitea Cafe several times before, including a performance three months ago.
“I’d have to be honest, yes, he said he had an incredible time there,” said Slean. “We were concerned, I haven’t played Canmore that much and it’s a tiny place, and he said ‘Oh my God, do it, it’s so fun, the food is amazing, the setting is amazing, you can’t go wrong.’”
For more information on Slean and her music, visit sarahslean.com
