October 4, 2008
Publication title: The Globe And Mail, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Vancouver
Writer: Marsha Lederman
Out Of Heartbreak, Inspiration
VANCOUVER — Sarah McLachlan does not want to talk publicly about her recently-announced separation, but she is writing about it. Two new songs on her forthcoming greatest hits CD Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan are raw explorations of heartbreak and the dissolution of a relationship.
“It’s cathartic,” McLachlan, 40, said earlier this week in her garden, enjoying a warm, sunny afternoon in Vancouver.
“It’s kind of always been the best form of expression I have and it’s a good practice for me to sit down and think. I journal a lot. And a lot of the lyrics sort of come from that…. I recognize there’s a certain amount of hypocrisy in saying I don’t want to talk about this, but here’s two songs that are all about it. It’s like the white elephant in the room.”
The white elephant is her separation from her husband, long-time drummer Ashwin Sood, whom she married in 1997 and with whom she has two daughters, India Ann Sushil, 6, and Taja Summer, 15 months. Her daughters are the focus of her life, she says, and the reason she has withdrawn from recording new material and touring of late.
In truth – for financial reasons, anyway – McLachlan never has to work again. In a career spanning two decades, the Halifax-raised singer-songwriter has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, won three Grammy Awards and eight Junos. She also founded the estrogen-charged touring festival Lilith Fair, which raised more than $7-million for charities between 1997 and 1999.
Closer, a 16-track anthology (there’s also a longer “deluxe” version), includes hits such as I Will Remember You, Building a Mystery and Adia. McLachlan chose the tracks, which required a rare (for her) revisiting of her catalogue. “I live in the moment and look forward,” she said. “I don’t usually look back, and I don’t tend to listen to my own music.”
The two tracks are McLachlan’s first original songs since she released Afterglow in 2003 (except for the title track on her 2006 Christmas album Wintersong). While there have been five live/remixed or (mostly) cover CDs in between Afterglow and Closer, there has been almost no new material.
The last few years have been dominated by her personal life – marriage and children. And like many artists, she finds it challenging to be creative when she is feeling content. “[That’s] probably why I haven’t written anything for so long,” she says. “I’ve been pretty happy generally. Happiness is a very elusive thing and very fickle. So I don’t tend to challenge it very much. I enjoy being in it, but it isn’t necessarily very conducive to writing.”
Heartbreak, however, appears to have provided some bittersweet inspiration, based on Closer’s new tracks: Don’t Give Up on Us (which opens: “Love has taken me for a fool”) and U Want Me 2 Don’t U (with lines like “is forever over now?”). Unhappiness virtually drips from the music.
“I don’t think it should be a surprise to anybody who knows my music that this is something that is going to be a huge part of my life and have a huge impact, that it’s going to be written about,” she says. “And I didn’t do it to sell records. I didn’t do it to promote this album, but simply I had these two songs and I needed to get them out there.”
There are no touring plans at the moment. These days, McLachlan is staying close to home, where India is in grade one and listening constantly to Miley Cyrus – which McLachlan says she doesn’t mind: “You know what? Those are good little pop songs. If I had to choose, I wouldn’t want her listening to Britney Spears.”
McLachlan makes up “silly songs” for Taja – something she didn’t do for India. “I was so wrapped up in the neurosis of being a mother with my first that I never sang to her.” She says she finds great comfort in her children, as well as in gardening, and sitting down at her piano to play just for fun.
And she hopes anyone who is going through a similar personal situation will find some solace in the songs she’s written about her own heartbreak. “It’s helped me,” she says. “You know how when you hear something or you see something that resonates either in writing or a painting or a song that just reminds you that you’re not alone? That’s one of the greatest gifts music has ever given me, is that sense of connectedness.”
It’s an interesting place to be: 40, looking back at a 20-year career with a greatest hits album, raising young children, going through the dissolution of a marriage.
“I think I’ve lived three lifetimes in this last 20 years. All the amazing experiences I’ve had, the wonderful opportunities…. I’m blessed in every way imaginable, except for a few small details.” She laughs, and then adds: “A few fairly serious details. But you know, I manage to find solace in so many things. There’s beauty everywhere. And some days are easier than others, certainly, but I’m basically a pretty happy person. I don’t like being depressed. I don’t like being sad. I’ll do my darnedest to work my way out of it.”
