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PHONE INTERVIEW WITH
SARAH MC LACHLAN
An exclusive chat
with Sarah McLachlan
Conducted by Valerie V. Mayuga
12 May
2004,
11:00-11:30 am
Assigned by PRESS
Magazine
Unpublished
Val: Hello?
Sarah:
Hi, could I speak to Valerie please?
Val: Yeah, speaking!
Sarah:
Hey! It’s Sarah Mclachlan calling.
Val: Hi!
Sarah: Hello!
Val:
Yeah, I’m Val, from PRESS Magazine…and, um, I’ll just start the
interview.
Sarah: Okay!
Val: Cool. Can you give me a
brief description on how you got started in the music business?
Sarah:
Um, it was sort of a matter of being in the right place at the right time when I
was seventeen, the very first gig I ever played with a band, a guy from a record
company saw me and wanted me to join his band. And, that didn't happen because I
was still in high school, I was still listening to my parents, and they told me
I couldn't go, um, but two years later they came back and offered me a five
record deal, this Network Records and I'm still signed to them. It's an
independent label in um, Vancouver British Columbia. And ah, I moved out to
Vancouver when I was 19, and I've been making records ever since.
Val: Cool! We're all glad that
you did!
Sarah:
Thank you (laughs)!
Val: So you started playing at
17 and continued doing it through growing and becoming and now it's become your
living. How do you feel has your personal relationship with music changed over
he years?
Sarah:
Um, I think ultimately it stayed very much the same. I've always found
incredible solace and happiness in making music. Um, and singing, especially.
And I -- I think it's just a, it's like a really dear friend to me, it's how
music is always there for me. And, I—I felt that really for a long as I can
remember.
Val: Wow. As an artist, a wife
and a mother -- btw, congratulations on your daughter, India!
Sarah:
Thank you!
Val: It's long overdue, but...
Sarah:
Oh, it's ok (laughs)!
Val: So, as an artist, a wife
and a mother, how do you manage all your different roles?
Sarah:
Ohhhhhh my. Well, it's a challenge (laughs). I've had some good struggles with
it but, um, you know, I’m -- I'm just trying to find a balance like everybody
else, and, I'm -- I'm lucky in my career that I sort of, I feel like I've
already achieved so much, which was kind of unexpected, but I'm certainly glad I
have, but I don’t -- I don't have the same kind of...wild, boundless ambitions
that I used to have, and I'm in a place where I, you know, I don't need to sell
ten million records to be happy. Um, I, I y'know I just, I -- I wanna make
really great music, I wanna be able to play shows, I wanna take my child
everywhere with me, and uh, I want her to be happy. And, so far it's worked out
really well (laughs)! She loves traveling, and, um, the record's doing really
quite well everywhere, and um, I'm getting to play a lot of great shows, and –
and travel around, and as she comes everywhere with me, so, um, you, know and,
I, I do interviews from 8 to 9 for instance, like tonight, I’m doing -- I do
this every night after she goes to bed, so I just worked out the schedule so I
do it when she's napping and when she's uh, when she’s asleep.
Val: O wow! So you're like,
totally organized!
Sarah:
You kind of have to be. I mean, I had to put my foot down, see after I had her,
my priorities changed, like I don't wanna be working all day, everyday and never
see my kid. What's the point of having a kid?
Val: Yeah. That's amazing.
Sarah:
So now, I do interviews, uh, when I'm on the road, I do interviews from 1-3, and
that's when she's asleep in her nap, and then we do the shows in the evening,
and she goes down at seven thirty so it's perfect!
Val: Wow. Okay, about your new
album Afterglow, can you tell us a little something about that?
Sarah:
Um, well, I, I...gosh I mean, I...(laughs) it was a really hard record to make,
probably because I made it around the same time I was pregnant and I had my
child and my mom was also very sick. So there was a lot of big distractions that
kept taking me away from finishing it, but um, I love it and I'm really proud of
it, and worked really hard to make it as good as it can be, and I...hope
everybody likes it.!
(laughs)
Val: I’m sure everybody would.
How would you describe the sons on Afterglow? Like, what's the general vibe of
the album?
Sarah:
Oh, God, I'm the worst person to ask. I have no objectivity! I don't tend to
analyze in that way either, but, um, I don’t think there’s any one theme,
certainly, but, ah, well, I guess it is—I’m really fascinated by human flaws.
And…why we screw up, and how we screw up and why we keep doing it over and over
sometimes, and, I think there’s just so much good stuff to learn in all of
those, so it’s -- that’s interesting materials for me to, to sort through.
Val: Cool. Has your sound
evolved compared to your previous album, Mirrorball?
Sarah: Um, I
hope so, definitely. I mean, I, I – with every record I sort of am, conscious
of, conscious of, of not repeating myself at the same time, you know, I didn’t
set out to recreate the wheel or anything. Y’know, I, I don’t, I don’t set out
with a pre-conceived notion of ‘Okay, we have to make this record sound this way
or that way.’ I just let the songs come and the music come and whatever feels
right, we just go for it and go with it, and um… At the same time I wanna do
something different everytime obviously, and I think it’s definitely a
progression for, for me. I think with every record I, I get better at song
writing, at the craft of lyric writing, and, y’know, that for me is probably the
most difficult thing.
Val: How did you approach the
songwriting process in coming up with the songs for Afterglow? Like, what
fueled the songwriting?
Sarah: Ah,
people. People and ah their experiences. Um, especially emotionally. I think a
lot of the songs actually started out initially being about somebody else. I had
a girlfriend who was going through a really hard break-up and I was talking to
her almost daily, trying to sort of, counsel her through it, and ah, it really
sort-of, it brought up a lot of stuff for me, as well. And I started writing
about it just to sort of, to – it was bothering me, so, I was writing about it
just to sort of deal with it, and ah, a number of songs sort of started out
being about her, and of course, ended up, ended up being about me. I mean it’s –
it ah…sort of went back into the past and realized, ‘Oh! I thought I dealt with
all that! But there it is again, so…’
Val: What are your favorite
songs on the album?
Sarah: I
don’t think I really have any favorites, because it’s sort of like, for me,
saying that one of my kid’s my favorite (laughs). I’m close to different songs
for different reasons. Um, maybe “Answer” is one of my favorites. “Perfect
Girl,” “World on Fire,” “Fallen,” and then slowly I’ll just name the whole
record (laughs)
Val:
Six years between albums is a long time. Would you say that the music
world has changed dramatically since you’ve gone on hiatus?
Sarah:
Absolutely. I think probably the, the single biggest thing that has changed is
the whole downloading, which really wasn’t much of an issue when I left. And
that’s completely changed the face of the music industry.
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