Sarah McLachlan is back in the game
After a long absence from the spotlight, a Summer Song is what fans of Sarah McLachlan have been waiting for. As Anthony Mason will be telling us, the wait is now over:
It's been some time since we've heard from Sarah McLachlan. But this summer, the Canadian singer who's sold 40 million records is touring again.
Mason asked, "Is it scary to sort of leave your audience for a while?"
"No, it is a bit scary to come back," she replied, "but more because I know how much work it takes to get back into the game."
She's back in the game after a rocky period that included a divorce, a break with her longtime manager, and the loss of her adoptive father, who died of cancer in 2010 at the age of 80.
"I don't think anybody gets to this point in their life unscathed," McLachlan said. "I'm 46 years old and this is the time when parents die, when big changes happen."
"When you were dealing with all that, where were you musically?" asked Mason.
"Nowhere."
Down the hill behind her home in West Vancouver, McLachlan has built a recording studio, but for a while the songs just didn't come.
"I would play music, but I didn't have it in me to write anything," she said. "I need to play the piano every day. It's like some people have a glass of wine; I go play the piano, and it just calms me right down.
"My father passed away almost four years ago, and it kind of took that long for me to recognize what I'd lost and what that meant to me moving forward, but also what he'd given me."
To hear McLachlan's "Song For My Father," click on the video player below.
Her new album, "Shine On" -- her first in four years -- is dedicated in part to her father.
"We don't feel unconditional love very often in our lives. It's almost always conditional. And with him, it was -- he was just there. He was always there for me."
McLachlan grew up in Nova Scotia studying voice, piano and guitar. Her friend Miranda wrote in McLachlan's high school yearbook that Sarah was "destined to become a famous rock star."
"She was right -- well, I'm not a rock star," said McLachlan.
She was signed to a record deal at 19. Her fourth studio album, "Surfacing," would win her two Grammys and sell 16 million copies. Those are "rock star" numbers.
Mason asked, "Did you have any idea when you were finished what you had?"
"It's funny, I always hate my records at the very end," she said. "Just for a brief moment, 'cause I'm so sick of them. And I remember saying to a friend of mine, 'The only song that's any good on this record is "Angel."'"
Written after reading about the death of the keyboard player for the band Smashing Pumpkins from a drug overdose, the song "Angel" came to McLachlan in just a day-and-a-half.
"It's like, 'Wow, someone just gave me a gift,'" she said. "And it turns out to be the song that so many people have connected with on so many levels."
Especially when the song was used in a commercial for the ASPCA; it helped raise more than $30 million. "Boy, that ad worked like a hot damn!" McLachlan laughed. "It really did. It reached right in and just tore at your heartstrings."
The success of "Surfacing" led McLachlan to put together a tour featuring all-women artists.
Mason asked, "Were you surprised at what a big deal Lilith Fair became?"
"Absolutely," she replied. "Really, it started out because I didn't want to do shows by myself."
Promoters told her an all-female bill would never sell tickets: "I was like, 'Well, that's ridiculous. Music is music. And good music is good music. And you're telling me I can't do this? Well, I'm gonna prove you wrong!'"
In its three-year run, Lilith Fair drew some two million fans -- becoming a brand name.
"I've heard it used as a cultural reference: 'Oh, that's so Lilith of you,'" McLachlan laughed. "I love that."
It also raised millions for McLachlan's charity foundation: She launched an afterschool music program for inner city kids in Vancouver.
"For the first nine years we were sort of beg, borrowing and stealing in different locations, paying a lot of rent in spaces that we could only use part of the day," she said.
But three years ago, with help from the city, McLachlan raised the money to find a permanent home for the program and open the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. There are almost 700 children in the program this year.
Mason asked, "How does it feel to have your name on the door?"
"It's fulfilling," she replied. "People ask me what I'm the proudest of, and I always say it's this place."
But the road has drawn her back again. Usually acoustic, she's even returned to her electric guitar: "That was exciting to do that again," she said. "It brings my wild side out a little bit."
"What's that like?" Mason asked.
"It's freeing," she said.
"'The wild side of Sara McLachlan?'"
"You know, yeah, the horns come out."
With a new partner, former NHL hockey player Geoff Courtnall, and her two daughters, Sarah McLachlan says she feels whole again.
Mason asked, "Did I read somewhere, that when you were going through the divorce, that there was a point when you thought you might never write a song again?"
"Oh, I think that pretty much every time!" McLachlan laughed. "Yeah, sort of at the beginning of the process of writing a record, there's always that, 'Do I still have it? Am I gonna be able to have something to say?'"
"If you've been a creative person, it's probably hard to turn that off."
"It's impossible to turn that off," McLachlan said. "Why I always come back is because I love playing live. I love to sing and I love to feel the energy that happens between myself, between the musicians and between the audience. It's this beautiful cyclical energy thing, this ball of love and passion and really good yummy stuff. It's just like having a religious experience."
For more info:
- sarahmclachlan.org
- Follow Sarah McLachlan on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube
- "Shine On" by Sarah McLachlan (Verve); Available on Amazon and iTunes
- Sarah McLachlan School of Music, Vancouver
- Follow the Sarah McLachlan School of Music on Twitter (@SMschoolofmusic), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube