San Francisco, CA—Singer/songwriter Megan Slankard has made her fans wait long enough. Her new album, A Token of the Wreckage, is three years in the making, and if it’s any consolation to her rather large indie fan base, the wait was well worth it in many ways. The official release date is March 5, 2011 (street date March 8, 2011), following up 2005’s A Little Extra Sun, which followed 2003’s Freaky Little Story, which combined have sold more than 25,000 units to date. Megan continues to embrace her indie status and the grass roots movement that she has remained a part of. She also has grown a lot as an artist.
“The record almost wrote itself,” said Megan. “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a ton of work, as it was probably one of the most challenging projects I’ve had to date, but it did feel like the record itself was dictating the direction. All I had to do was to listen and put my back into it. There is a theme of growing up and an awkward transition from being a child into facing adult situations that runs through the characters and songs on this album. Perhaps it’s about trying to find out who you are after you’ve left your childhood behind you.”
In addition to the twelve tracks that make up A Token of the Wreckage (co-produced by Megan and Jerry Becker and mixed by Counting Crows’ David Bryson), the video for the title track has already been released. Interpreted and directed by Matthew Ward, Megan says the video subtly reflects the song. “It could be about making light out of dark situations,” said Megan. “The song in a very general sense is about finding a piece of something meaningful in the din of the figurative collapse of things around you.”
While Megan has been pounding the pavement for several years, and has influences that range from The Beatles to Counting Crows to Prince to Metallica to Simon & Garfunkel; she is rarely pigeonholed with comparisons musically or vocally. However, more than one critic has compared her to Rikki Lee Jones. Fans will get to draw their own conclusions about that when Megan hits the road in support of A Token of the Wreckage, which she hopes to do a lot of in 2011. She also has been supported for a while by powerhouse AAA station KFOG in San Francisco, and hopes to nurture that relationship and build it into more national radio play. She has already opened for the likes of Colin Hay (Men at Work), Dan Vickrey of Counting Crows, David Knopfler of Dire Straits, Dishwalla, Hootie and the Blowfish and others. In fact, Megan has toured Europe multiple times with Knopfler.
Megan has placed in several songwriting competitions, including the 2009 IMA Vox Populi for her cover of Paul Simon’s “America.” She was also selected as a finalist in the 2008 and 2009 Musician’s Atlas/Borders Books Independent Music Awards, and as a semi-finalist in Discmaker’s 2007 Independent Music World Series, as well as the 2007 International Songwriting Competition. Also, TLC’s “What NOT to Wear” featured Megan and as a result, sales of Freaky Little Story reached #5 on Amazon.com. But now it’s time to turn the page and start a new chapter, and Megan hopes to do just that with A Token of the Wreckage.
“I am definitely excited to be releasing this record for many different reasons,” she said. “A big part of that is I haven’t released a CD in years, but the biggest part is that I am absolutely thrilled with how this new record has turned out. Everything from the amazing local artist, here in San Francisco, who created the artwork, to the tracking done by my band, to the mixing by David Bryson of Counting Crows. This project also gave me a chance to finally record something with longtime fellow musician and engineer, Jerry Becker, who helped produce the record. Every one of these things brought it to life.”
For more information, please visit www.meganslankard.com
