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Partners in Life and Music: Sarah Slaton and Sarah Joelle

Partners in Life and Music: Sarah Slaton and Sarah Joelle

Fort Collins-based singer-songwriter Sarah Slaton is both poignant and relatable. Calling Arkansas home, Slaton taught herself to play guitar in the shadow of the Ozarks before making her way out west, where she founded and fronted the Colorado trio, Edison. The band toured with Iron & Wine and opened for the likes of Nathaniel Rateliff, the Revivalists, and Shakey Graves. 

Going solo in 2019, Slaton has released several singles including “Dance In the Sun,” a cover of Showtime’s The L Word theme, and has been featured in King Dub’s “Limited Time.” 105.5 The Colorado Sound has voted Slaton as one of the “Top 20 Colorado Artists of All Time.”

Although the life of a musician has drastically changed over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Slaton has remained busy. Not only did she release her latest single, “Get Up,” a sullen-yet-lighthearted tune, but she has been creating music with her romantic partner, Sarah Joelle. Additionally, they have both been reaching out to help fellow, independent artists who have been struggling during these unprecedented times. 

OFM had the opportunity to chat more with Slaton and Joelle about their relationship, working together, and how music has brought them closer together as a couple.

You are both musical artists who like to collaborate on projects. Can you begin by telling us when and how you met?
Sarah Joelle: I think it was at a fancy New Year’s Eve party in either 2016 or 2017 that was being thrown by a mutual friend of ours. 

Sarah Slaton: Yup. We met, and we ended up singing karaoke together that night. We did “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. Then, we started playing actual music together and dating, like, a year later.

Is it odd to be with someone who has the same name as you?
SS: I don’t think about it [laughs]. I call her Joelle since that is her middle name, or I call her Jo. 

SJ: Yeah, a lot of people call me Jo. It is different, but it is one of those things that really doesn’t bother me. I think it bothers other people more than it bothers us. 

SS: And it’s funny because a lot of my friends call me Slaton. So, you have some people who don’t call either of us Sarah. 

Have you both always had a passion for music?
SS: Always. Sarah Jo went to school for music, and I went to school for music business, but I was raised on a bunch of great music from my parents like Fleetwood Mac and The Grateful Dead. I have been playing music ever since I was 17.

SJ: I have been singing since I was teeny-tiny. My mom is a dancer, and my dad was a blues musician. He played blues in college, and he kind of introduced me to music. He loved Dave Matthews Band and old-school bands like Devo and Talking Heads. He introduced me to Joni Mitchell, who I fell in love with, and she is still to this day my favorite artist. I have been singing in choirs since kindergarten, and I never stopped. 

sarah-slaton-sarah-joelle-music

What do you enjoy the most about working together on music?
SS: I love playing music with her. I used to have a band called Edison, and it was myself and two guys in the band. Well, three guys at one point, and sometimes, five guys and myself on stage, and that was really fun, but it is cool to have a feminine energy to write music and perform with. I just love spending time with her. 

She is my favorite person, but musically, we work well because I was never formally trained. So, a lot of what I do, in the infancy of a song, I will have all these ideas, and she is great about helping translate them. She will take my ideas and put them into theory or translate them to the other band members who we hired to play. I love it. 

Has collaborating on music brought you closer together as a couple?
SS: Definitely.

SJ: Absolutely. Not only do we get to spend more time together when we play in the same musical group because we practice a lot and rehearse, but I feel like we learn a lot more about each other based on how we write and create music. It has brought us a lot closer.

SS: Touring together has been so much fun. Because of the pandemic, we have been trapped in Colorado for a while, but in the first year-and-a-half of being together, we went to 17 states. It was awesome because you really get to know someone when you are in that environment, and it is also cool to share that kind of experience. I have never shared that with someone in that way. I am excited to do it again.

What do you hope audiences take away from your music?
SS: Honestly, I hope that the people who connect with it and enjoy it, I hope they feel like it belongs to them. For me, the songs that I have always fallen in love with, they were, like, written for me. Like, oh! That song is my life right now. I hope people can connect with my songs and feel ownership of them. Walk away feeling a little bit better.

SJ: Especially now during these days.

What are some themes you like to focus on?
SS: I feel like love is a big part of it, and also heartbreak. Some of my old records, a lot of them deal with heartbreak. I talk about loss and grief. Edison’s first album talks a lot about grief and kind of facing mortality. A lot of the stuff right now has been reflective of life. A lot of, like, we need to get back out there. My new song “Get Up” is really about acknowledging a number of things, but we need to get up each day no matter how hard that might be. That is the kind of music I am finding myself writing right now. 

How has “Get Up” been received?
SS: Really well! Thank you for asking. People seem to really enjoy it, and radio stations have gotten behind it. It has been a blessing. I feel like the people that have listened to my music before, whether it’s my solo stuff, things that Sarah Jo and I are doing together, or my previous band’s music, they have told me this is their favorite song. That is always nice to hear from people that have struck through it with you for a long time. 

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic turning the world upside down, millions of shows and tours have been canceled. How has the pandemic impacted both of you, and what were you doing to not only stay in touch with fans, but to keep your creative energy going?
SS: Oh, that is a good question. Musically, “Get Up” came out of it, and we have been writing a bit, but a lot of our focus has been on other artists. I started and booked a bunch of bands on a livestream series on Facebook. We had almost 100 bands on it. I did that for about five months, so this year has been a lot of giving back and trying to give a platform to other people. I am helping to produce a documentary on the pandemic’s impact on the Colorado music economy and the music scene. So, that is what I am focused on right now with The Armory in Denver. Sarah Jo is in a reggae band, and they put out an album in the middle of all this!

SJ: Yes! We released an album in April, and it was right when COVID first hit. It was pretty unfortunate timing, but I think with my reggae music, it has been very uplifting. The album is called Moving Forward, and it was strange because we did not know COVID was going to happen. It was like, we wrote it right before, but it helped people through the lockdowns. That is what I noticed about “Get Up” as well. 

People are saying that it has been able to help them get through the day. It is giving some positive energy with a little bit of understanding of how hard it has been. We know how hard it has been for ourselves, and we know how hard it has been for everybody else. So, we wanted to give that energy. Like, let’s get up and get moving. Let’s do this together. So, the timing was unfortunate, but it was well-received.

 

The documentary that you mentioned, is that how you are trying to help save independent music venues that are on the brink of closing?
SS: Yes. My last single, “Time to Go,” the music video that I put out, it was a bunch of home videos and old videos from tour. I was trying to highlight that because a lot of the independent venues that are out there are at risk of closing. Congress recently passed the Save Our Stages Act, so there is a round of funding that is coming, which is great, but there is a long way to go. So, this documentary is helping to highlight the Save Our Stages movement, but it is also highlighting the people that are behind all the biggest concerts out there. 

From lighting designers to tour managers, we have publicists, artists speaking and performing. It is us really trying to give a voice to people that are usually in the shadows and behind the scenes making the show happen. I think it is going to be very powerful, and I am very glad that Congress passed the funding that they did, but I feel like that is just the first round. More may be needed in the future. 

What is the documentary titled, and when is it expected to come out?
SS: When the Music Stops. We will finish filming in the next couple weeks, and the tentative date is March 2021. The editing turnaround, which we have a great team of folks working on, we want to make sure we get it right. So, the plan is March. 

What more do you hope to accomplish with your music?
SS: I for sure want to put out more music in the next couple years together with Sarah Jo and the great group of people that we put together with us. I am very excited for when it is safe to play more shows and go back on tour and play at festivals. The goal is to put out an EP in the next year. I am really focused on getting as much done as possible, and as soon as we can safely get back out, we will seize the day like a Newsie! 

SJ: Our biggest goal is to continue putting out music. We really want to tour, and we really want to improve ourselves and continue to grow. Besides our own music, we want to help get the music industry, venues, and artists get back on their feet. All artists, not just musicians. Our industry is struggling. 

SS: Also, Jen Korte and I, the torch has been passed to the two of us to co-own Hip Chicks Out, which was ran by a woman named Silky for the last 16 years. They do the second Friday happy hour, so I am excited to plan events with Jen and get the happy hour back up. 

Before we wrap up, is there anything else either of you would like to mention or plug?
SS: It is worth mentioning that the new music video that we did for “Get Up” is out, and the guys that directed the video are Kind Dub, a hip-hop group here in Fort Collins that we also collaborate with on occasion. We go to their shows and play a few songs with them. 

SJ: Just keep your eyes out for new music. We don’t know what it looks like yet, but just keep your eyes out! 

Follow Slaton and Joelle on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date on the latest news and projects, or visit sarahslaton.com. Their music is available on all digital streaming platforms.

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