The Standard

Issue date: 3/2/10 Section: Features

Media Credit: Image courtesy Sarah Slaton

Do you like to rock-n-roll all night? Do you like to party every day?

If so, singer-songwriter Sarah Slaton (quite the alliteration), a 2009 graduate of Missouri State, is making her way back to Springfield for a show at the Highlife March 5.

The show will also feature other bands fronted by female vocalists and former Missouri State students.

Focus!Focus!, a solo project by Elly Swope, and Hidden Fever, fronted by Meredith LaMarche, will be performing with Slaton at the Highlife.

"I'm excited to be playing with other female-fronted bands," Slaton said. "It's pretty rare for that to happen, so it's cool."

"I've never played with Sarah before," Elly Swope said. "I've seen her play once before, but I'm excited to actually get to play a show with her."

Swope said she plays all the instruments on her recordings, but brings friends to play alongside her on stage.

"It makes things exciting," Swope said. "Having different people play with me all the time makes everything feel new."

Swope's inspiration for lyrics primarily comes from personal experience.

"I usually just write about myself," Swope said. "I think my songs sound kinda poppy, but if you listen carefully to the lyrics, they're often pretty dark. I write about struggles I face in my life and in my relationships. I write about depression and isolation. I try to write about what I know and what I feel. I think that helps people relate to what I'm saying."

Swope credits the quirky indie-folk twin sisters Tegan and Sara as her biggest musical influence, while Slaton said she first discovered her love for music through Dashboard Confessional around age 15.

"It's kind of cliché now, but I originally got really into Dashboard Confessional," Slaton said. "My sister always played their stuff and I couldn't stop listening to it."

Musical influences for Slaton also include Adam Duritz, originally of the Counting Crows, Greg Laswell and Richard Walters among others.

"I really don't listen to too many female vocalists," Slaton said. "I'm not trying to sound like Ani DiFranco or anything. I don't feel like I have many female influences in my music."

While playing shows along the West coast, Slaton was notified that doctors discovered her mother had a brain tumor.

"I canceled all my shows," Slaton said. "I was going to be doing a tour across the country, and was even going to be opening for Pat Benatar, but when all that happened with my mom, I moved back to Fayetteville, Ark., to be with her."

Slaton is now ready to get back out on the road.

"My sister is helping out with my mom now," Slaton said. "I'm happy to be playing shows again."

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