April, 1995

Publication title: Mademoiselle, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Michael Small

Qué serà, Sarah

Fame has its price. The unabated success of Sarah McLachlan’s 1994 album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, which includes the ethereal hits “Possession” and “Good Enough,” has kept her on tour for more than a year. Now on the final barnstorm across the country, McLachlan, 27, won’t have time to record a new album until the end of 1995. During a quick stop at her Vancouver home – where she likes to cook Mexican omelets for her four roommates, all members of her band and crew – she got down and dirty about life on and off the road:

What’s it like on the tour bus? It’s the vamping trip that never ends. The only privacy you get is when you close the bathroom door – and you can stay in there only so long. We were in a double-decker bus in England, and the toilet was the foulest thing. You had to put your shoes on to go in there.

Why do you write so many songs about breakups? When I was young, I went through a lot of lousy relationships where there was a whole lot of deception on both our parts. Each of us thought, “This is who I want to be, So I’m gonna show this party of me.” When you strip that away a couple of weeks later, you get some surprises.

How is your boyfriend-a band member I know you don’t want to name-different? After almost two years, he still gets up before me and makes me a cappuccino every morning. He runs baths for me, and he’s spent every waking hour for days making a wood cabinet for me. I am so spoiled. How can you not love a man like that?

Were you happy as a teenager? No. I had braces and greasy hair. I was called Medusa. Boys would fall down on the ground and writhe and scream and say they were going to turn to stone.

And now you cultivate that Medusa look… [She laughs hysterically.] You’ll think I’m a pig, but the dirtier my hair gets, the better it looks. I wash it once a week, twice if I have to, it it really itches. I haven’t cut it in two years, save for a trim I did myself, when I made a ponytail and hacked the end off. Occasionally, I have a bad hair day and I freak out and dye it, but only with those dyes that last for a week.

Do you get weird letters from fans? A small number of men write these extreme, over-the-top letters, making demands on me or telling me in lengthy verse how they could make my life complete. I just want to tell them, “I’m not who you think I am. You know only a minuscule party of me from my music.”

Is there something about you that might turn them off? I burp a lot.

Are your clothes as romantic as your music? [More hysterical laughter] One thing about being on the road: I have lost all my fashion vanity. I wear whatever’s not in a crumpled ball at the bottom of the bed. Onstage, I get to dress up, but day to day I’ll wear the same pair of overalls for two weeks.

What’s your reward when the tour is over? I bought a warehouse in Vancouver that I’m gonna fix up and live in. Sixteen-foot ceilings, tons of open space. But for now, I still share a place with my four roommates. Rents are expensive here, so it’s convenient for us.