July 03, 2014
Publication title: perthnow.com.au, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Perth, Australia
Writer: Noel Mengel
Sarah McLachlan gets personal on new album, but takes time out to avoid the ‘self-indulgent drivel’
THE Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan takes a break from rehearsing her new band to talk. At 46, the fuel that fired her creative life for 25 years and 40 million album sales is still burning.
“You don’t get to this part of life unscathed, there is always going to be loss and things to deal with, but I feel hopeful about everything,’’ she says.
“I see the positive side of things, that’s my personality. And I tried to reflect that when I made a record.’’
It took her three years before she could write about the loss of her father in 2010, but he plays an important role on her new album, her eighth, Shine On.
This is her first album with the Verve label after more than two decades with Arista. And, at the urging of her long-time producer Pierre Marchand, this time she is also working with others, including producer Bob Rock.
McLachlan says she’s “reached a point in my life where you stop caring a little about wha
McLachlan says she’s “reached a point in my life where you stop caring a little about what others will think”.
Some other things you always carry with you, though. That’s the loss of her father.
On the new album there’s Song For My Father, where McLachlan sings: “You were the well to cool my fury … Your quiet words a salve to soothe my wayward soul, It was there I learned to heal.’’
Surrender and Certainty describes releasing her father’s ashes into the ocean on the coast of Vancouver Island.
“I usually don’t write about something when I’m in the midst of it. I can, but it is usually self-indulgent drivel,’’ she says.
“My mother passed away 12 years ago and she took up all the space in the room. You know what I mean? My dad was always quietly there, but in those years since (my mother’s death) was when I really started to know my dad.’’
McLachlan’s lyrics on Shine On are as direct and honest as they have ever been.
“Maybe it’s that I’ve reached a point in my life where you stop caring a little about what others will think,’’ the mother of two daughters says. “With this album, a lot of the experiences are simply mine and they were strong enough to sing about.’’
There are other stories, too.
While In Your Shoes takes inspiration from Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old schoolgirl shot by the Taliban in Pakistan.
“That started out to be a song about bullying, and I started telling my own story. But Malala’s story, that she survived and what she continues to stand for, is such a moving one.’’
It was McLachlan who launched the all-female Lilith Fair tours in North America in 1997, and she toured Australia in 2010 with the event billed as A Taste of Lilith.
She says it’s still tough for women in music, but better than it was in 1997, when she released her fourth album, Surfacing, a global hit, and notable for massive single Angel.
She is also optimistic that quality music will prevail, even as record sales decline.
“Good art will endure,” says Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan.
“There used to be such a sense of urgency around a record, a buzz and excitement, and now you can just go and stream it and decide later if you want to buy it” she says.
“People will get to it when they feel like it because there are so many ways to hear it.
“I had huge success over a long period of time. I never expected that. It was always a surprise to me.
“People say these days your album is an expensive poster for your tour, which is an awful sentiment.
“Good art will endure and music is still such a powerful tool for connection.
“One of the most amazing validations I have as an artist is when someone walks up to me and says that something I have created has had a positive impact on their life.’’
