Denver’s Double Sarah Makes ‘The L Word’ Remake

Artists, collaborators, and partners Sarah Slaton and Sarah Joelle have combined musical forces to cover the ultimate queer lady love show theme song. The double Sarah duo have taken an entirely new spin in their first original collaboration to honor The L Word reboot, and just in time as the show is launching this Sunday on Showtime.

The theme song, originally written and performed by Betty in 2005, became the beckoning call to all who loved the “girls in tight dresses” and those “who dragged with mustaches.” For six seasons, The L Word peeled back the mysterious and sexy curtain of these iconic characters and gave depth and complexity to the stories of queer women, women of color, and trans characters unlike ever before.

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Now with the launch of The L Word: Generation Q releasing to eager fans of the first iteration and new queer youth who have yet to discover the allure of Shane, the long hiatus is over and the Sarah’s have debuted a new version of the beloved theme song to celebrate and we’re here for it.

Sarah Slaton told OUT FRONT a bit about how impactful the original The L Word was for her personally, what sparked the creative collaboration, and what makes their new take on the tune most exciting.

What sparked the remake of the theme song?
I heard that they were coming out with a new season, so my partner and I wanted to cover the theme song and put a new twist on it. So, we did it!

What about the remake makes it stand out from the original?
I knew in my mind from the offset that I wanted to kind of make it more dark and moody. I feel like it’s a song that can be put on the ending credits of the finale that we had like 10 years ago or maybe, it definitely felt like where it left off on a dark note.

You and your partner, Sarah Joelle, have been playing in separate projects for a while, right?
I was in lead singer of the band Edison from 2014-2018, and when we broke up I couldn’t go by that name anymore. Now I go by my name, Sarah Slaton, and if I play with others then it’s Sarah Slaton and Friends. Sarah Joelle has played piano on songs that I’ve written and she is the keyboard player in the band Lola Rising.

Was creating this version of the song with Sarah the first time you have have collaborated and can we expect more of this in the future?
Yeah, this is the first song that we have actually recorded and are putting out together. Sarah came up with awesome, moody piano parts that is on it and I just rolled with the vocals on this one so she’s actually doing all the music on our cover which is really fun, because I usually play guitar, but I didn’t think we needed it.

Going forward we’re working on a few songs together right now where I start and have lyrics and the melody and my guitar and then she comes in. I don’t speak music theory and she helps me understand what I’m doing and make sense of it and then brings in the piano and helps tie it all together so we’re really excited to put up new music in the spring and we’ll have a couple of singles coming out that are not covers that are our own. But right now, it’s not this cover and then I’m also working on another cover that I want to put out soon.

What did The L Word mean to you and was it something that was significant to you back when it was on?
Oh god yeah, it was huge. I grew up in the bible belt in Arkansas and I was really religious growing up, but I also knew I was really gay. I stayed in the closet for a long time and when I was 17, like a senior in high school, and there was a free weekend for Showtime. I remember I stayed up late, it was a Sunday night, and The L Word came on and my jaw hit the floor. It was the first time I’d ever seen lesbians on TV or anyone remotely like me and they were having conversations and friends with each other, and it just blew my mind. Not long after actually I came out to a friend who I found out was also gay so it was like I wasn’t alone anymore. The L Word was the first thing that gave me a peek into a world that I would one day know.

Having that representation in TV, film, and music is so important in knowing that we’re ok!
Exactly. It’s really isolating to grow up in a straight world, relating to straight characters because that’s all you really have. Then to see that, it just really flipped everything for me and it was so relatable. In college, Sundays was like the community potluck where all my friends would go and watch the show. I missed that feeling of a group getting together and we had The L Word as our thing.

For this season, I have friends hitting me up like, ‘Where we going to watch it,” and like God this is bringing back all the feels!

What are you most looking forward to with The L Word: Generation Q?
Oh my god, I don’t even know, like everything. What’s gonna happen with Shane, I really hope Carmen comes back, I always wanted them to get back together. I think Bette is running for mayor which is interesting, but what’s going on with Angelica and Tina? And Alice, I’m really looking forward to watching because I think she’s like the funniest character and just makes me laugh so hard. So, I’m really excited for everything but mostly just to see all of them be friends again. I love that.