For Sarah Stefanson, it was just a matter of combining her two loves.
“I’d been writing lots of poetry, and I’ve been singing ever since I can remember, and so the two just sort of came together,” says the Saskatoon singer/songwriter. But one of the things she wanted to be was a complete artist, so that meant a little horizon-expanding was in order.
“I wrote my first song when I was 15 — I started writing songs before I could play the guitar,” says Stefanson, who’s now almost 19. “I thought that if I was going to write songs and sing them, I should be able to play them, too."
“So I took one guitar lesson and quit. I’m pretty much self-taught, although my father’s a musician and he helped me out a lot.”
So what about that first song she wrote?
“I don’t really remember it,” she says. “I remember that I liked it at the time; it was sort of a typical Grade 9 love song. I think I’ve improved a lot since then.”
Although her songwriting and guitar playing may have improved a lot, she hasn’t strayed far from the theme that characterized that first, forgotten song.
“My songs are love songs, mostly,” she says. “All of my songs —except one that I can think of — come from real-life situations, things that happened to me or people close to me.
“They’re mostly love-gone-wrong songs, although the newest ones seem a bit happier since I finished the CD. Before that they were pretty bitter and angry.”
The album she’s referring to is Broken Like a Starfish, which was released Dec. 11. She’ll be playing songs from that CD during three concerts in Regina later this week: along with guitarist/vocalist Aaron Sinclair (who also appears on the album), she’ll be playing at Roca Jack’s Friday night (Jan. 22), The Railroad Gourmet Coffee House the next afternoon, and Cafe Ultimate Saturday evening (Jan. 23).
The CD contains 13 songs — plus a hidden track — and the title refers to the ability of the starfish to regenerate after an injury, to come back stronger than it was before it got hurt.
“There’s a little poem inside the CD cover, and it has that line in it — ‘broken like a starfish,’” she explains. “I thought it was the perfect title for the album: the songs are about painful things, hurtful events, but they’re things you learn from and grow from.”
It’s not easy to describe Stefanson’s sound, mainly because she has a wide range of influences. “Only one famous band really inspires me, and that’s Smashing Pumpkins — although I don’t sound anything like them,” she says. “I’m also influenced by a lot of (Saskatoon) acts, Five Minute Miracle and bands like that.
“When people ask me what my sound is, I say it’s alternafolk. It’s folky, but there are scenes in the lyrics that I don’t think you’d find in traditional folk songs.”
What all of this is leading to, she hopes, is a career in music, and as she gains more and more experience, that becomes more and more of a possibility.
“If I didn’t think I could do it, I wouldn’t be pursuing it,” she says. “It’s scary in a way, but I’m pretty confident in my ability to make a go of it.”
Randy King
Regina Free Press
January 17, 1999
