Sarah Slean

0:00Hello, I'm Sarah Sleen and you're watching MSN exclusives These are different shows. Yes, aren't they?

0:48You could say that what's it been like? I mean you've done how many of these now these these seat performances easily over 20 Okay, so enough to know how the shows are working like how what songs have really have you changed arrangements for your like how are The I don't know where I'm going with this question How are the other songs incorporated themselves with the set are there other sweet ones and set it free and all these other tunes coming right? Well, I've chosen the back catalog that I think lends itself well to a large string orchestra and to those sounds So I mean there's not necessarily sweet ones set it free per se, but there's sound of water There's Duncan way back from Night bugs the album. I made in 2002 I'm dating myself there. Oh, but yeah I just kind of tried to pull together the ones that seem to flow naturally with the sea music every city's different performers

1:39So that must it's frightening as performer and also super exciting as performers. What's that? I'm like this is the thing that I love to do you always have to sort of Ride the surfboard right, you know, it's a risk but if you take that risk if you go out on that limb sometimes it's transcendent and absolutely Shocks you and the audience and the experience is unfolding before the audience's eyes So that's really exciting as a performer but sometimes you In rehearsal before the show when you have all of these brand new musicians Sometimes it's just not working and there's really Nothing you can do to make sure that it's going to work So you just have to make the best of what you've got try to to communicate well with them see if you can make a few adjustments

2:25But other than that you've got to work with what you've got thankfully that was not the norm I mean when you hire people from the Calgary Symphony Orchestra or the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Chances are they're pretty good. So we haven't had any problems really on this tour But I mean there were definitely some standout ensembles for sure Have you found a certain number of string players that works best or is it just the more the better because I feel like it The more the merrier. Oh, yeah I mean if I could hire 85 people I would you know I would so so writing these songs with orchestral arrangements in mind Did you have that going in or was it more you started writing at the piano and just started hearing things in your head and Things are starting to lean this way. Um, I've always loved orchestral music and I

3:13Can't really put my finger on why but I remember being Very little and being drawn to this specific LP that my parents had in their collection and it was Symphony es de los rios. So it was all the great Symphony es de los rios Yes, and it was the Spanish conductor who had taken all the great symphonies from talking to vorjac Brahms Beethoven Mozart Haydn and Sort of reinvented them with a Spanish rock band in the middle of the orchestra So it was still the symphony, but with a little bit of a sort of really bad 70s rock twist and I think what I took from that as a kid is the grandeur of the orchestral sound and how thrilling it can be and the breadth of

4:01colors that it can convey and How exciting that can be how big it is but also those fantastic melodies right that you could put in any Configuration and they'd still be great shoe birt. I mean he was a melodies He was a genius at that and I really Gravitated to hearing those lines when I was little and I think it's sort of cemented that connection in my mind between like beautiful great melodies and this sweeping at Times ridiculous sound with all of these instruments and drums and you know you're writing on I assume both records at the same time Kind of backing for it. So are there songs that you realize maybe this needs to be more orchestral or this? You know it's not the arrangements aren't working with strings Let's move it more into a pop thing because that happening or lyrics being shifted around to fit themes

4:49I would love to To make out like it's as deliberate as you say but When I was writing for this project I had no idea what I was doing I was just writing songs letting things come out. They did gravitate to two sort of camps and The land camp they all sort of resembled each other. There was definitely a family resemblance there They had a sort of spirit or a kind of energy that was all it belonged there And the same was with C and I noticed the marked difference with the lyrical focus The land lyrical focus was about here and now our times What it's like to be an individual person in 2013 or 2011. That's the case. It may have been And the tangles we get into as this very visceral experience of being a separate ego

5:40I am Sarah Slean with a whole bunch of ID in my pocket that can confirm that fact. I have a private consciousness This is the way I experience myself in the world But the sea lyrics Tunded to focus on something Very different than that This intuition that we sometimes have in a beautiful moment like a concert or a race where so many people are involved and We almost have a sort of spiritual realization that all of humanity is one phenomenon and that this this perceived reality of Separate consciousnesses you don't know what I'm thinking. I am a I'm an island unto myself That that isn't quite the whole story and the sea lyrics were about that intuition that

6:31That all of this mind stuff happening is in some way connected and it is in some way one and So to me, I mean that can't be anything but a string orchestra That is a string orchestra to me the strings are the voice of those kind of immaterial very spiritual intuitions that you know Can't really be put into language. I'm trying but I was gonna ask you can you unlock the mysteries the universe for me? Sounds like you're trying like you've got something going on. I'm not sure I can but maybe a violinist could you know? I think there's something about the strings that is so Direct in accessing our emotions and our intuitions. There's something about them These are very different kinds of lyrics then to go that introspect. So what did you learn about yourself writing these? Sure. I mean I I've kind of

7:24Resolved myself to the fact that I'm interested in things that maybe The mass consciousness right now isn't that's fine. No honey boo boo boo. No honey boo boo child But here's what I think I think that there are two kinds of art There's one that takes you away from where you are It sort of distracts you and look at the shiny things and it's fun and you you go beyond yourself You lose yourself you dance all night to Lady Gaga or whatever you go to a beaver concert and you have the time of your life There's that it's kind of an escape and then you return to reality and reality seems kind of boring in comparison and then there's the art that Doesn't take you out of it. It's not a vacation from your everyday existence. It's actually

8:13Plunging you deeper into that daily existence so that you see behind All of the veils that we are walking through every day, right? Like I feel like from what I've read about Cognitive science and the human experience and our senses and our brains What we see and perceive is like a tiny little slit of what is actually going on and there is so Brain is really almost a filtering mechanism to sort of narrow it down So you can you know make the eggs in the morning and put your shirt on the right way But there is so much going on and in the fabric of reality itself. It's just Huge so I Think that some art can sort of plunge us into that. I mean James Joyce used to call it aesthetic arrest

9:05Where a piece of art or novel or whatever it is can suddenly? hold you outside of time and space almost and That's what I'm interested in I'm not saying I'm succeeding at that But that is what I'm deeply interested in and I can't stop thinking about and that inspires me to create things And when I compare these two different kinds of art I'm not saying one's better than the other either because I enjoy that kind of art that pulls me out of Reality and is a fun trip. I love that art. I love those movies. I love I love that I don't think it's it lacks merit But this is the project that I'm interested in so which way which way is the the musical you're writing? Interesting you should ask that question. I'm trying to

9:54Do this with them. Okay. I want both currents to run in the same stream and I mean I think some people have been successful at that I mean certain filmmakers come to mind certain Who could I say does that right now? I would say radio head does that? Certain novelist that I know really do that, but it's I think it takes a real sort of Coalescence or aligning of forces that you almost have to be kind of really lucky or something But that's really what I would like to do. I want the musical to be to have joyful music I Don't want it to be all about philosophy and I mean who wants to go see that musical are you writing dialogue to like? That's a different way to write sure. I mean there's so many

10:42Skills involved in making a musical that I have never even attempted so I will for sure be Working with collaborators. Oh, so it's really beginning stages. Oh, yes. Okay. Yes. It was hearing things It was already in the works and I have collaborators on deck I've written about half of the music and I have a great idea for I believe it's a great idea For the story I can tell you loosely what it's about sure It's about the story of Canada But and most people go that's interesting Canadian history is so But the fact is it's not it's I feel like our country is so fascinating for one reason on one reason only and that is We have English and French people that have historically hated each other and

11:31competed for land resources, etc. Glory Historically when they got here Both cultures had to accept that the climate was too harsh for them And so instead of coming here and just slaughtering all the aboriginals that were here Which is you know usually the story they had to work with them. They had they interbred They learned from them. They had to form partnerships and this I Read a book by John Ralston Saul a fair country where which he talks about this issue and says like this is a Extraordinary this is really Incredible and we should be proud. I'm not saying it's it's a stainless history sure There were a lot of terrible things that went on but simply the fact that that happened is Really quite special and I think it's why

12:20Most people in Canada would say that this is kind of a core value What it is to be Canadian is that we are able to hold complexity? We are able to say no it doesn't have to be one cultures in charge and the rest will are Subjects we can handle the fact that these things don't resolve easily. We are not a melting pot we We are accustomed to this and it's because of that that history that first contact moment where the English and French both decided This is not going to swing if we don't Work with these people. Does it take place in the past or is it present? No, it takes place in 1920s Montreal That's romantic. That's a romantic period. It's amazing

13:09And it will be a love story which is in miniature The love story of Canada the way that cultures that have always hated each other hated each other the way they've learned to be neighbors and common citizens This is not gonna go on that thread. We're gonna do it anyway So I wrote some French sayings that are a little strange See if you can guess what they mean. Oh, no So I'll take literal translation if you or what it actually means. Okay, ah la vash God to the cow meaning or kind of yes to the cow to the cow or The literal translation. What do you think it is the saying? I'm thinking that's derogatory. It is not it's not with a derogatory one. Sarah Celine. Come on

13:58I don't know means. Oh my god does it Yeah, that's what they that's they're here for Cassie Lées are they oh Break your ears. Yeah kind of leans on that thing To cast me's all right you're driving me crazy get on someone's nerves. There you go one point I'll give you 20 of you trying to get some slang into your music This is kind of the same in English. I'm gonna shut down. I go oh Kind of cat in your throat. Yeah Like a lump in your throat maybe right it says frog in your throat Yes lump in your throat is the same thing sort of kind of yeah This might be the I'm dirty by any means, but it's the most fun. Okay Wow come in cool

14:45Drink like a whole drink like a whole literal translation. Okay So kind of like drink like you're a bottomless pit so to speak getting extremely drunk people that says Amazing can I take that to go you may just got all the other questions on it, but that's fine five quick questions One more answers how we close every interview sure road or studio? That's not fair. That's not fair. Mm-hmm. I can't pick between those two royals done it I can't do it. I like them equally London or McCartney oh That's easy McCartney. That's easy. I guess he was more stringy like you. Okay stringy When you hear a song usually hits you first lyrics melody or rhythm melody song you've written your most proud of the cosmic ballet

15:35Hoping track to see in stores now in one word Sarah Selene Wonderment I Like it. Thank you. Thank you. I should have stopped you there. Yeah, they're going