July 10, 2014

Publication title: The Oakland Press, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Gary Graff

Sound Check: Sarah McLachlan pushed aggressively to ‘Shine On’

Four years ago, Sarah McLachlan split from her husband, management and record company and lost her father — all in the span of a week.

Not surprisingly, the veteran Canadian singer-songwriter’s latest album, “Shine On” — her first since 2010 — is informed by those events and is even a bit more overtly personal than some of its predecessors.

“All my albums are emotional,” says McLachlan, 46. “I write about emotions first and foremost. How they affect people and why is endlessly fascinating to me. And I think perhaps this record is a little more direct than some of the ones I’ve done in the past.

“I’m telling stories like I always do, but I guess they’re more direct in the sense that, ‘This is me. This is what I have to say. This is what I’ve gone through,’ as opposed to masking it, like they’re parallel universes.”

McLachlan — who’s dating former NHL star Geoff Courtnall — tells those stories in a slightly different way on “Shine On,” too. In addition to working with longtime collaborator Pierre Marchand, McLachlan recorded some tracks with Bob Rock, the Vancouver-based producer known for his hard-rock work with AC/DC, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and others — an eyebrow-raising association suggested by McLachlan’s current manager, which she says worked out much better than anticipated.

“He produced Metallica, right? So I’m thinking, ‘What are we gonna have in common?’” McLachlan recalls. “He’s actually a lovely, lovely man. We had wonderful conversations and he encouraged me to push it a little more aggressively than I would have, left to my own devices.

“One of the guitar players he used had a Nashville tuning that I had no idea that existed but which I now love. It’s my new favorite thing, so (Rock) really brought a lot to the party without making it too uncomfortable.”