October 26, 2014
Publication title: Edmonton Journal, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Lynn Saxberg
Concert preview: For Sarah McLachlan, life and love began at 40
Pop superstar performs twice in Edmonton this week.
Sarah McLachlan is brimming with good vibes these days, back on track musically with this year’s album, Shine On, and a live show that’s earning rave reviews as it makes its way across the country.
You can’t blame her for glowing. The Canadian pop superstar has been through a difficult time in recent years, facing a series of challenges that started with the unexpected departure of her husband of 11 years, who was her drummer and is the father of her two daughters. Not long afterward, her own father died. To top it off, she parted ways with her longtime management company.
“I was really happy to turn 40 and then everything fell apart at that point,” recalls the singer-songwriter, who’s now 46. “I wallowed in self-pity for five minutes — well, more like a few months — and then it was like, ‘Okay, this sucks but I have to find a way through it.’”
The uncertainty is reflected in the poignant music of this year’s album, including songs of loss, such as the beautiful Song For My Father and yearning, Surrender & Certainty. But there’s also a thread of optimism expressed in Flesh and Blood and The Sound That Love Makes as McLachlan navigates a new romance (with former NHL star Geoff Courtnall.) For the singer, writing made for great therapy.
“We all suffer. We all go through conflict,” she says. “For me, writing is extremely cathartic. It’s a means to quell the noise a little bit and figure out a way through it, and find a place to put it so it’s not at the forefront of my brain all the time.
“By the end of the writing and making of it, I had really come full circle, and I feel like I’m in a really great place now. I think the record’s indicative of that: It speaks of the struggle and the hardship but it also speaks of the joy and the possibility and the hope.”
Going on tour is another way to end the wallowing, partly because of the travel and adventure but also because of the emotional release on stage.
“I love playing live, I always have,” she says. “It’s one of my greatest passions. It just feels really good after the lonely isolating process of making a record. To be able to release these songs, give them to a bunch of great musicians who breathe their life into them, and then we get to do it in front of an audience who hopefully likes it, and they seem to. It’s a great culmination of all that hard work, and a great emotional release because it’s joy and fun, and just good energy.”
Not so enjoyable was the rebuilding process, especially the challenge of finding a new label in an era of declining album sales. Despite MacLachlan’s track record as one of Canada’s most consistent, best-selling acts, she was reluctant to strike out on her own as an independent artist.
“It’s a strange time in the music industry,” she observes. “Records just don’t sell the way they used to. I felt like I wasn’t willing to take that huge leap and go out completely on my own at this point. I didn’t have the infrastructure or the energy. We live in such a fleeting, fickle society. You really have to barrage people with anything and everything in your arsenal to put it out there and make sure people know about it.”
Of course, none of those concerns came to mind when McLachlan was making the album. “I write songs because there’s an internal need to do it,” she says, “and I also want to continue to play live, which I adore doing. In order to do that, I feel like I need to continue to have new material, which spurs me on and also gives the audience something new to attach to. I don’t want to be that artist who keeps going out on tour and playing only the songs from 20 years ago.”
After all, with music sales continuing to plunge, the live concert is an increasingly important aspect of an artist’s career, one of the few sources of revenue. McLachlan feels lucky that she not only loves performing, but is also able to get into the zone on stage, and take the audience with her.
“For me, it’s like church,” she says. “I’m not religious, per se, but I’m moderately spiritual, and for me, playing live is like a spiritual experience because I’m connecting with a whole lot of people. You can’t download that feeling.”
Being in love is good for the soul, too. McLachlan met her hockey-player boyfriend at a charity event held at her home.
“I saw those big blue eyes, and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re yummy,’” she gushes. “He was so kind and so sweet. We had a great conversation, then he started talking about fishing and I asked him to take me fishing and that was that, apparently.”
