March 17, 2005

Publication title: Daily Telegraph, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Kathy McCabe

Mom’s the word

IT took Sarah McLachlan 15 years to finally tour Australia but now she’s really making up for lost time.

The Canadian chanteuse so enraptured her fans and converts during the Afterglow tour in June last year she immediately set about planning another one.
While her love of Australian audiences and their overwhelming response was her prime motivator in heading back here so soon, McLachlan hints she is running out of time to tour.

“I feel like I am probably not going to come back for a couple of years and frankly, the idea of coming back to Australia is pretty appealing,” she says.

“My Dad and his girlfriend are wildly jealous that I’m playing the Opera House this time. They only walked around it when I toured there last year and they so wanted to see inside.”

The reason McLachlan believes she may not be back here for some years is her daughter India, who is almost three. Husband Ashwin Sood plays drums in her band.

“The older India gets, the more challenging it becomes because she’s really aware of what she’s missing.

Before she was easy to distract,” McLachlan laughs.

“We can’t take the dogs with us and I have to say I am little concerned with how she’s going to be when we come down there.

“We got her a T-shirt made up with her dogs and pussy cats on it and I’m pretty sure that should work.”

While she did enjoy a stay at home in Vancouver briefly before heading to Australia, the ethereally-voiced songwriter has been on the road since before Afterglow was released more than a year ago.

An international promotional tour (more talking than playing) morphed into the concert tour (more playing than talking) and then switched gear to promote the Afterglow Live album and DVD release (more talking about playing).

She headlined a tsunami benefit concert in January with countrywoman Avril Lavigne and then it was off to Los Angeles to shoot a video for the debut solo single from Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.

Yep, you read right. McLachlan and the rapper duet on a reworked version of Harry Chapin’s classic Cat’s In The Cradle, the one Ugly Kid Joe made a hit again in 1992.

“She’s like my favourite artist of all time,” he says.

“Her music changes people. I called her up and she said yeah. A lot of people in the business be frontin’; they don’t call you back. She called me back and we made the record. She’s real,” DMC of Run DMC fame told MTV. McLachlan’s husband produced the track.

“I love it when these opportunities arise,” says McLachlan.

“I am game for almost anything. I mean, the song has to be right and the time has to be right, especially when it comes to doing something in a genre that I’m not usually associated with.”

This songwriter has carved a strong niche with her distinctive voice and the folk pop soundscapes which underpin it and while remixes can add another colour to her musical palette, there hasn’t been too much of a sonic departure from her breakthrough album, Solace, in 1991 through to Afterglow.

While she is thinking about new songs, McLachlan is also relishing being a full-time mum.

“I always allow a song to reveal itself in its own time – I wait for that to happen,” she says.

“But being a full-time mum at the moment takes up every waking hour. We got through five books tonight before she finally went to sleep.

“She’s in the stalling mode.”

Sarah McLachlan performs at the Sydney Opera House on March 19 to 21.