May, 2005

Publication title: Lucire, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Christie Eliezer

Sweet Sarah M

Sarah McLachlan is a songwriter, performer and, importantly for this magazine, a fashion icon. She’s puzzled by the iconic status, telling Chloe Poweel and Simon Moore that it’s all down to inner confidence.

Arriving at her Sydney hotel room, sound check is running late, and there’s an interview to complete, but it’s charmingly obvious where three-time Grammy winner Sarah McLachlan’s priorities lie. ‘Sweetie, your swimsuit is right on top of your suitcase. It’s the blue one. With the flowers on it…’

Forget the 22 million albums, thousands of miles of incessant touring, and five sell-out nights in the Sydney Opera House. Right now three-year India wants to go for a swin and ‘Mommy’ is the only one who can help. Easily moving from diva to doting parent, McLachlan is every bit as beautiful and engaging as her achingly poignant songs suggest – and she’s one hell of a mother.
Discovered in her late teens fronting a new-wave band in Vancouver over 16 years ago, this Canadian songstress now finds herself at the height of a career celebrated as much for her integrity and passion to remain true to herself as it is for her role in changing the face of how the music industry perceives women. Well known in the US and Canada as an ardent campaigner for female artists, the indomitable Ms McLachlan archieved worldwide renown as the founder of the bold but short-lived Lilith Fair tour, launching the careers of performers as varied as Missy Elliot, Erykah Badu, the Indigo Girls, Sheryl Crow, Bic Runga, Jewel, and the Dixie Chicks. For three whirlwind years, Lilith Fair became the hot ticket for fans wanting more than just bubblegum pop and teenage angst.

‘It was the mid-’90s and there was a wealth of amazing women making music, yet none of them were being represented, so I thought, “Hell, let’s do something ourselves,” and it just happened really naturally,’ McLachlan explains. ‘I think it helped all of us, whether we were establushed or not. We all got the opportunity to play in front of way more people than we could have on our own.’

Spurred on by the demise of Lilith Fair and the end of her ‘Mirrorball’ tour, McLachlan took a much-anticipated sabbatical to spend time away from music, have a family, and deal with the unexpected death of her mother.Confronting such massive life change saw the usual discipline of producing an album become an unexpectedly drawn-out procedure that could have left fans with a contrived and over-produced offering, but arguably birthed her most poignant and inspired work to date.
Yet even with her new album (Afterglow) and a live DVD sitting comfortably in the charts, this widely lauded style icon doesn’t find much room for positive reflection in the current crop of female artists and their all-too prodigious output.

‘I’m discouraged actually. I think a lot of it’s crap right now. And I think a lot of yound women coming out are just being sex symbols without a whole lot of substance. I know there [are] definitly exceptions, but a lot of young girls who’re achieving huge success these days are doing it on the backs of their bodies and magazine covers in bikinis and not their music, which saddens me, because I think there’s a lot of people our there who want music with substance as well’.

Having spent a large proportion of her career on the road, she’s earned a tremendous amount of that ’substance’ from bringing her fans a quality live show – even when juggling a host of roles ranging from artist, boss, and mother, through to songwriter and celebrity. And it’s this incredible reputation for flawless live performances that makes her stand out from her peers.

So how does she consistently produce amazing shows night after night with such a roulette of demands?

‘It’s a day-to-day thing. Some days I feel like I’m really on top of everything and I do a really good job of balancing it all, but other days I feel like I’m just holding on by the skin of my teeth. But that’s the challenge at the end of the day, sometimes to have anything left over to give.’ There’s also the added bonus of including your lover and muse in your support band. ‘My husband, being who he is, is incredibly important because he understands the social elements of this game and how much I have to give out to people every day.’

Ashwin Sood, Sarah’s long-time musical collaborator, friend, lover, husband of 10 years, and touring drummer is just one of many in an on-road supporting cast who all make moving between those many roles just that little bit easier. Especially when going on tour can mean up to two years away from home.
It would be easy to let the gargantuan task of taking her music to the world cloud the thing that’s always been closest to her heart – those startling songs. Coupled with an obvious ability as one of the planet’s most astounding vocalists is an immediate recognition of her towering song-writing talent; in particular, her much-envied skill at summing up the addictive bittersweet-ness of a broken heart.

‘I think I’m a real sucker for romance, and even though I’m not terribly romantiv myself, I’m kind of sensible and practical when it comes down to it,’ admits McLachlan. ‘But this music just captures such an amazing energy in emotion, and it’s so moving. To hear or to sing something that takes me to another place and makes other people feel things, well I guess I’m just really lucky that I’ve managed to tap into something that makes me feel real good, and even better, makes other people feel good. I don’t know what it is and I don’t want to analyse it because it kind of takes the charm out of it. It’s just instinct.’

McLachlan is a warm and engaging conversationalist, communicating a passion for her craft with a sense of transparency that only comes from someone confident in their art. Yet you can’t help feeling sense of desperation is always lurking just beneath the surface. She really just wants you to feel alright about having a broken heart.

‘I guess any hope that I would have with my music is that I move people, because that’s what music does for me: it makes me feel, it brings me closer to myself, and also makes me feel less alone in my feelings. If you’re going through feelings that you have and you hear them resonate in somebody else’s work, then it makes you feel less alon. It’s like, “Oh God, somebody else gets it!”‘

At this highly successful stage of her career, you’d think it might be time to sit back and enjoy life, but one thing that’s constantly been close to McLachlan’s hear is her passion to use her profile to help those in need. Less graceful critics might attribute this trait to the common celebritiy’s need to “give back” in the hopes of keeping themselves grounded, yet McLachlan’s sum of charity work dates back to a time when it was more than just a way to gain publicity and sell more albums – her sincerity in wanting to touch lives is remarkable. Out of the many project she’s initiated, one if particularly close to her heart, for many reasons.

I set up a free music school in Vancouver, where I live. It’s a completely free programme for the underprivileged kids to learn music. We teach guitar and piano, percussion; there’s a junior choir and a senior choir. It’s in its fourth year now, and that’s really amazing. I’m really happy and pleased because I’ve always wanted to do something like that, and I think it’s devasting for kids who don’t really have a lot in the first place; don’t have a lot of options or creative outlets. To not have the ability to that kind of information is tragic.

‘I feel like music really saved my ass in so many ways because it was the one thing I knew I was good at. I grew up a pretty insecure kid and got picked on a lot because I was super-sensitive. But you know, I knew I was good at something and it set me. It was this constant in my life that I knew I always had.’

As difficult to categorize as she is, one thing Sarah McLachlan isn’t is a self-confessed over indulgent diva. Which is why she’s constantly surprised by her reputation as a fashion icon; commanding attention for her innate sense of style, both onstage and off.

‘I love clothes, it’s my guilty pleasure,’ she laughs. ‘I do love shopping, although lately I haven’t had to buy anything because [New Zealand designer] Trelise Cooper, bless her heart, gave me half her damn store! She’s so increditbly generous and I love her stuff – it’s so cute and it’s so, you know, whimsical and fun – and fun’s a big part of my style.

‘But you know, I like jeans and ripped-up T-shirts, too. I live in them more than anything else. Part of the fun of being on stage is that you get play dress up.

‘To me my style hasn’t changed very much over the years. I go for what’s comfortable and what makes me feel good, and I’m not really a slace to whatever trend at the moment is happening. I think that’s where the confidence comes from – or my sense of style – it’s just whatever I feel good in.’

‘It’s all about confidence. Inner confidence. If you want to know what I think makes a woman sexy, it’s that she knows herself, and she couldn’t give a shit about what anybody else thinks.’

Watching her on stage, and listening to her strongly heartfelt lyrics, it’s clear that this is exactly how McLachlan feel in herself, a feeling made easier by the music she lives her life through.

‘I’m lucky that this job of making music has really allowed me to know myself and feel very comfortable in my skin. I don’t know if I would have been different if I had some other job,’ Mclachlan explains. ‘You know it’s hard to say anything other than that, when you’re standing up on stage getting all this adulation. But honestly, that adulation’s pretty hollow if you don’t feel good about yourself and if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and feel happy with what you see. Without that it’s useless. It doesn’t mean anything. You’ve gotta like yourself.’