Edison’s Sarah Slaton chats about music & getting out of the Mile High City
For the last year, the Denver trio Edison has been on the road, hitting nearly every corner of the United States. After trading in their comfortable lives — and apartments — in Denver for the band’s traveling van and trailer, Van Morrison and Trailer Swift, the band has been on the road logging in roughly 58,000 miles.
We chatted with Edison’s front woman, Sarah Slaton, about the band, what it’s like being queer in the singer/songwriter genre, and the new album Familiar Spirit.
OUT FRONT: How was the first leg of the tour?
Sarah Slaton: It was awesome! It was so great. It was the best tour we’ve ever had.
We started at House of Blue in New Orleans, which was really special, because our parents went to Louisiana State University and we have a lot of my dad’s side of the family in New Orleans, so like my grandma who’s 90 years old was at the show. It was unreal to see her out in the audience.
From there we went up the East Coast. We did New York — that was really fun — Boston, Chicago, and then we came back and did our big album release show in Denver before heading to Arizona. We just got back to Denver last week.
We’re taking a break until the second leg of the tour.
Does that get tiring?
We made a commitment a little over a year ago to do this full time, and we all left the jobs that we had in Colorado, got rid of our apartments, and put everything in storage. We bought Van Morrison and Trailer Swift, our van and trailer.
It’s kind of crazy. We’ve done like 185 shows, and at this point we’ve done about 58,000 miles. So we’ve been moving … a lot. We got to do some tour dates with Iron and Wine, we did SXSW, and we just got back from our gigs with Jared & the Mill. Jared & the Mill have a great crowd, and our crowd rides well with theirs.
Tell me a little bit about Familiar Spirit.
It’s a follow up to our first EP that was called Ghosts. It’s our first full-length after signing with our record label.
So we got to work with a producer, which was a different experience. Frenchie, he’s like a Grammy-nominated producer, has worked with like Vance Joy and a bunch of other bands like Santana. He’s a mad scientist in the studio, so this record is really fun because we got to be weird.
I’m really proud of it because we just got to go in and try to push the songs a little bit. Like “Civil War” has a sampling from Miss Pacman. There was like an arcade area for when you get stressed out to take a break from recording, and we took sounds from Miss Pacman that we reversed. It’s really cool.
I’m happy people get to finally hear it because we’ve been sitting on it for like six months.
What’ve been some of the reactions from people that have listened to the album?
Oh man … it’s been great. We’ve had people at shows that know the words already. In Arizona the other night, it seemed like the whole room was singing the hook of one of our songs. It’s those moments that remind us why we do this.
We all have played music for a long time before this —I played for like 10 years by myself — and these are the things you hope for. So it’s been incredible.
What roles did everyone play in making the album?
It’s 100 percent a partnership.
A lot of the times I’ll have a simple melody in my head but it isn’t much of anything, and we will all sit down and collaborate with it. They’re really great musicians, I mean really talented musically. Dustin will sit down at the piano, grab mandolin, or run over to the drum kit and just kill it. Max plays guitar so well that I’ll go to him with a melody in my head and he’ll suddenly start playing a really great guitar part that’s exactly what I’m thinking. It sort of all comes together in different ways. I do a lot of the songwriting, but the guys also do some of that as well, and we all do some together. That’s when it truly evolves.
When you sat down to write some songs for the album what was your inspiration?
Because we really became a band by touring full time, we spent our first real year with not a lot of time to write. But, we took these little retreats to really bust out some new songs. We drew inspiration for the album from the likes of Chesapeake Bay to a cabin in the Rockies, to an artists’ community in the Arizona desert. So the album is kind of a collection from all the different places we got to see while touring.
Is it hard for a queer person to make it in a folk music scene?
I don’t think so. I mean, right now it’s a really special time. A few years back I would have had a different answer for you.
Now I don’t think it’s hard, people are really accepting. I think people just see a person, instead of identifying them by sexual orientation.
I haven’t run into a single problem while touring with Edison, which is really cool. I can’t say the same for my early years of touring solo in the 2000s. I have some stories of feeling like I’d never have a chance to be doing music like this.
What do you think caused that change?
I think more and more LGBTQ people being visible in rooms with daughters, brothers, sisters, friends. I think it humanizes us. There’s also huge representation in the media, and Hollywood did a great job at inserting these characters in mainstream television.
I think there’s a very rapid change, and I feel like it took the fear away from it for a lot of people.
Were you out in the mid 2000s as you toured?
Yes I was. I came out at 21, right before I moved to Colorado.
I definitely heard “dyke” or “fag” before from people. There are instances that I felt like an outcast in the music scene because of it, and then I moved to Denver and everything changed. It was what I needed. I found my place here.
How much does being a lesbian play into your writing?
I think it’s a universal theme with love, but definitely the content that I’m writing about when I’m writing about relationships I’m speaking about a woman. But I don’t there’s anything overtly lesbian on the record. I don’t really come out in my lyrics. But you know there’s definitely content about that part of my life.
Nice! When does the second leg of the tour kick off?
October 14th in Albuquerque and ends in the House of Blues in San Diego on November 6th. So another month on the road.
And we keep going even after that … We’re on the road right now with a band from Arizona called Jared & the Mill. After that we’re going on our own dates in the Southwest. So, we really don’t get done until November 17th for a small Thanksgiving break, and then we hit the road again in December.
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You can purchase Familiar Spirit now, or stream it on Spotify. Check out the band’s website for any updates and their touring schedule.
