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ALEXANDRA SLATE.
UNDERCONSTRUCTION.
The world doesnt know it yet.
But Alexandra Slate is a bona fide
ROCK STAR.
Laying it out there as if her life depended on itand perhaps it does.
Slates debut album.
Edge of the Girl.
Is a tempestuous affair, at once confrontational and self-flagellating, wounded and defiant, troubled and triumphant.
So its something of a shock to encounter Slate in repose:
Poised .Brainy.beautiful.and.unguarded, self-aware but not self-absorbed.
Her parents are happily married
Her upbringing has been largely idyllic and her life continues to be characterized by focus and achievement.
With her talent Looks and intellect Its apparent that she is one of the anointed ones.
Indeed, in a medium dominated by self-admitted neurotics who hammer their anguish into art
Slate seems remarkablywellnormal.
So which one is the real Alexandra Slate?
The girl next door or the receptacle of inner turmoil?
Actually, both.
Alex;as her friends and family call her turns out to be just the sort of girl youd want to bring home to meet Mom.
Although you certainly wouldnt play Mom Alexs record, and youd be wise to ask her beforehand to watch her language.
At first glance most people see me as this shy little girlie girl with blond hair.
Slate acknowledges, but thats only one side of me. Im one of the guys, and my friends call me the sweet girl with the trucker mouth. But unless someone sees me on stage, where I feel totally comfortable about revealing myself, they may never think of me as this kick-ass rock & roll chick.
According to Slate, its the act of writing and performing that keeps her demons at bay.
Do I seem well-adjusted and grounded?
she asks, teasingly. You dont know the half of it.
But her laugh suggests otherwise.
No, seriously, I really have had things happen in my life that have made me want to sing about it and get it all out. Thats what music is for megetting rid of stuff that I dont want to be thinking about anymore. I use the music.
Slate started writing songs at thirteen And began performing three years later.
Before becoming a teen troubadour
she went through a PUNK-ROCK phase. With green spikes on her head and Screeching Weasel on her boom box
hating her parents and not fitting in.
The music was my one sanctuary, she says.
But her own songs, written on an acoustic, betrayed none of that influence. At sixteen, she discovered Joni Mitchell and the Pretenders, along with the Beatles, the Who, Motown, Memphis soul, deepening her understanding of songcraft and the expressive potential of singing.
Not long afterward, she took the leap and started playing live, discovering, to her surprise and delight, that people liked what she was doing, Slate realized then that this hobby of hers could become her career.
The young artist was getting some nibbles when, at McCartys (EMI Music Publishing Canada) suggestion, Hollywood Records A&R man Jason Jordan stopped by her managers office to check her out during a visit to Toronto. Two weeks later, Slate found herself in Los Angeles performing for practically the entire staff of Hollywood. It was apparently love at first sight for label and artist alike. Everyone at Hollywood seemed to feel the same way about my music as I did, Slate marvels. Like they wanted to keep it safe and take care of my songs. I go with my gut instinct, and thats worked for me so far. It was an easy decision. From that point, the label patiently and non-intrusively allowed her an extended gestation period to expand and develop her songs. No one had to tell her what sort of record to make.
Slate had the blueprints for the shapes she wanted her songs to take when she went into an L.A. studio with producer Rob Cavallo (Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day); back in Toronto, shed cut some elaborate demos with multi-instrumentalist Gavin Brown, whom she brought with her to L.A. to play drums.
The L.A. sessions yielded seven tracks, five of which made it onto the album. The original plan for the project had been to cut half of it, take a break, then record the second half in some unspecified location, with a cast to be determined. The location turned out to be the Bath House Studios, a converted country estate located outside of Kingston, Ontario; the principals turned out to be player/producer Colin Cripps and three members of Canadas biggest band, the Tragically Hip. Cripps, a onetime member of Canadian cult band Crash Vegas who currently works with Kathleen Edwards, is also managed by Breen, but it didnt immediately occur to either the manager or Slate that he might be their mandespite the fact that hed co-written several of the songs slated for the record and played on the L.A. sessions. It turned out to be the greatest idea of all time, she says of the decision to have Cripps produce. The Tragically Hips involvement on the sessions came just as naturally once Slate and Cripps decided to record at the Bath House, which is the bands studio.
Along with Cripps, who took most of the leads, keyboardist/guitarist Danny Michel (who co-wrote Clumsy on the Wall and Can't Hold the World) and Big Wreck guitarist Ian Thornley (Slate believes you cant have too many guitars), the three Hip members who played on the sessionsguitarist Paul Langlois, drummer Johnny Fay and bassist Gordon Sinclair brought an urgency to the tracks that amplifies the cathartic nature of Slates songs and singing.
It always starts with a guitar riff or some chords, she says of her process. Then lyrics fill in the spaces. I have absolutely no idea what Im doing on guitar most of the time, and I think that works to my advantage when Im writing. If you dont know what youre doing, you have no boundaries. Theres no such thing as right or wrong.
I write about my life, Slate says simply and without apology. Nothing is fake, and nothing is a lie. Everything is exactly how it went. My album is completely truthfulits like opening my diary.
Alexandra Slate is just getting started, and time is on her side. Think of Edge of the Girl as Chapter One in what promises to be an endlessly intriguing autobiography.