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Features

Rebecca Sullivan’s Silver Slippers

Rebecca Sullivan has a unique approach to expressing heartache and triumph and the tribulations of life and love. She’s hopefully sardonic, optimistically wise and immediately endearing. Her quirky chord structures and strong vocals provide a truly original sound on her debut album, Silver Slippers, a contemporary collection of songs fusing a unit of Folk Rock and Pop sensibilities.

Sullivan is a New Zealand-born songstress now residing in Southern California. Her family relocated there from Connecticut when her father received a job offer in The Golden State during her Junior year of High School. Now a young mother of two, she still dreams of going back to New Zealand where she was born. Sullivan is a born songwriter and all of the tracks on Silver Slippers are quality offerings and expressions.

“I decided to pursue music because I am passionate about it, she says. “I am
a musician and a music lover, I enjoy discovering new bands, and listening to a great song until I feel it is part of me. I absolutely love the process of writing a song, and I’m constantly trying to improve my songwriting.”

A child of 90s music, Sullivan has a wide range of influences from Alanis Morisette, Ani DiFranco and Counting Crows to the Rock and Roll bands of the 60s and 70s. Silver Slippers reveals these in select spots, the title track especially reminiscent of Alanis in her delivery…

“Today I felt like crying, I left a man who was lying

doo da doo da doo doo

Today I left a man who wasn’t worth my time

doo da doo da doo doo

but I don’t care, I’ve got my little silver slippers

It’s not fair but I’ve got my silver slippers

And I feel like a pathetic jerk, but I’ve got my little silver slippers

and later..

My slippers remind me I have strength to endure the unendurable..”

Baring her soul bodes well for connecting with listeners who have been through relationship betrayals and demise, and in that connection there is comfort.

“I recorded Silver Slippers when I was in the midst of a divorce, so it was nice to forget my problems and focus on the music,” says Sullivan. “I spent about a year and a half making it. I would go to the studio once a week to record my songs, usually at night, because I had my kids during the day. I think the beauty of music is that it means something different to everyone who hears it. When I sing a song, I am thinking about a particular person or experience, but the listener can take my emotions and think about her own life. Sometimes you just want to listen to your favorite song and cry. Well, I do…maybe I’m weird.”

It’s not weird. It’s exactly why she’s so relatable. And she incorporates love in the moderate life by incorporating the iPhone®, texting, Facebook and chocolate in her writing, and pulling it off. Take the lyrics “who needs love when I’ve got chocolate?” from “Chocolate” or the humorous but oh-so-true new-relationship communications issues in “Call Me” (“don’t try to text me when you’re all alone, don’t send me sexy one-liners from your iPhone®”) as prime examples. “Moonlight Confessions,” a deep, introspective piece, and the lovely “Summer Sunset” really highlight the beautiful tones in her voice and vast capability of her emotional range. No matter the challenges she faces, there is no doubt that Sullivan is a strong woman who can take care of herself. That fact shines through in each and every song, starting with the lead track, “This Will Not Break Me.”

“I do have some lighter songs,” Sullivan explains, “but I like writing strong female lyrics, and lyrics that are optimistic, yet have a deeper meaning. There are exceptions, but I feel like many mainstream pop songs have lyrics which make the women who sing them sound passive. And that annoys me. Especially when those incredibly catchy songs get stuck in my head.”

This is exactly why we like Rebecca Sullivan. With her unique style, direct lyrics, catchy hooks, killer vocals and badass attitude, she’s knocked out a very impressive debut with Silver Slippers.

Check out the video for “No Regrets”: