A Conversation With Loreena McKennitt – HuffPost 4.4.14

Mike Ragogna: Loreena, your new release is The Journey So Far: The Best Of Loreena McKennitt. Assembling this project must have been both a joy and a headscratcher, coming up with a good representation of your career up to this point. How did it feel looking at your career?

Loreena McKennitt: I guess it goes with that phrase, “How time flies when you’re having fun,” on one hand it has been quite sobering to see the success that has happened given, particularly, that I never dreamed about being a singer. I wanted to be a veterinarian. So it’s surprising from the standpoint that I even got into the career path much less that it became successful. It’s also been quite gratifying, not just because of the success in terms of units sold or anything like that but rather how this career path has compensated for the university education that I didn’t complete. As I pursued the history of the Celts from Ireland straight through to Turkey or China I realize in retrospect how much I’ve learned about the world, about politics, about history, about culture as well as music, of course, and people, religion, architecture, agriculture, you name it. It’s been a very fascinating school of education. I also am acutely aware that my success has not been as a result of just my efforts alone or just a creative footprint, but an actual fact. Most successful people will say there’s a bunch of other supporting people and processes that have gone on to create that success.

MR: Nice. You’ve also had a couple of people throw their facilities your way, for instance you recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios and you’ve also had people jump into the mix to help promote you and foster your growth. What do you think of the body of work itself?

LM: Well I think there are some strong points and I think there are weaker points. I think most creative people with a career and as many creative outputs as I have had would say there have been some complete successes. I don’t know if one would term the opposite as complete failures but I think there are pieces and projects that are stronger than other things, but that’s just being human and being creative.

MR: Yeah. But it’s also being a scientist. You don’t fail, you just find ways that don’t work.

LM: Yes. I wouldn’t feel that my education is anywhere near complete. I thought for better or for worse I have a pretty fair curiosity and I expect it will serve me for the rest of my life and that I’ll always be learning things. But I think in terms of the strength or weakness of certain projects or songs…I think of an interview I heard with Leonard Cohen. The question to him was, “Where do those hits come from?” He replied by saying, “Well if I knew where they came from I’d go there more often.” When I heard that I thought, “Yeah, right, exactly.” Creativity is a kind of musical experiment. It’s kind of a fishing expedition as well. For myself, I now know a lot of the circumstances that I need in order to be creative and have my strongest creative output. But it doesn’t mean that just because I create those circumstances I’m therefore going to create something that is strong, I just heighten the chances that I am going to create something. You go out fishing in the morning, when it’s still, with this kind of rod and those kinds of bait but just because you go out with all that stuff doesn’t mean you’re going to catch something.

MR: Along the way, obviously as you’ve been learning about Irish history and music your music has evolved, but how do you feel it’s most evolved between then and now?

LM: Well I think that I’ve moved from being primarily immersed and infatuated with the more traditional Irish or Celtic repertoire to aiming my creative energies into what I would call more of an act of musical travel writing. In that paradigm of musical travel writing, rather than creating a piece of art… I mentioned a few minutes ago education, I certainly feel that the history of the Celts and following that history has been an incredible educational path. As I’ve been educating myself through my preoccupation of the Celts and their history. I’ve also from a career standpoint taken the stamp of spinning a lot of what I’ve learned and what I’ve been exposed to and some of my own thoughts and ruminations back into a musically creative document. I love travel writing over the ages, where people aren’t necessarily academics, but they have a hobby interest in something and what you’re learning is not just the subject of their focus but actually a lot of the peripheral events and experiences that they encounter along the way. So I draw a lot of that into my music. So how my music has changed is that it’s gone from purely traditional music–and my own music inspired by William Blake on my first record–to now this whole musical travel writing. Therefore, because my travel has taken me across Europe and into Asia Minor, Mongolia, China, Turkey, I have given myself a license to draw upon those cultures to influence the arrangements of my music. So it’s gone from more overtly Celtic to weaving in the Eastern and Middle Eastern influences.

MR: What do you think about those genres you’re influenced by these days? Do you detect a strong pulse and lots of new creativity?

LM: Well to be honest, because I’ve taken the unusual step of managing my career I spent far less time listening to music and seeking it out than what I’d prefer, so I wouldn’t have a very good pulse on current Irish or Celtic music to have a really informed opinion. However, I was in Ireland just over a month ago and there’s really no question about it. There’s a whole new generation of musicians coming up who are incredibly good. They are playing more of the traditional repertoire, but I found them incredibly good.

MR: On this set, you include “The Mystic Stream,” which was used in The Mists Of Avalon, that wonderful miniseries that, to this day, really resonates with so many fans of the Arthurian legends. What was your reaction when you saw how it was used in that series?

LM: Oh, I was delighted. The way this works is that anybody who wants to use a piece of mine licenses it, so we knew they were interested and of course we gave them a license to do it, but it’s always interesting to see. In the eighties I scored some music for some documentaries by the National Film Board Of Canada. Then in 1985 I composed some music for a future film called Bayo, which had a small release. I was then involved in scoring music for another film for television called Heaven On Earth, and I was also involved in working at the theatre in Stratford, Ontario scoring for some of the productions here. So I really enjoyed being part of other projects, but I really found, particularly in film, that when other film makers started coming to me to use my music in their films, they were tapping to some of the visual side that I’m very connected to when I’m researching and when I’m writing and arranging. I spend a lot of effort usually in the first minute or two in a song setting up the time period, the geographical place, anything that I can relay because when I’m travelling, whether it’s to Turkey or Greece or Mongolia or whatever, there are images in my mind that I draw upon. So clearly, people are relating visually and almost in a cinematic way to those images.

MR: Yes, and to back that up Dan Brown did a shout out to you in his book Infernobecause of “Dante’s Prayer.” It’s wonderful, you’ve become a literary reference in addition to being a musician.

LM: Yes, I mean, there have been various writers over the past couple of decades that have referenced my music in their books, Dan Brown’s is the most recent that I’m aware of. But yes, I hear a lot of the time from people who write or paint or do other various creative things. For me, I’m just deeply fascinated on a physiological level. I’d love to say, “Okay, let’s put everybody’s brain through an MRI scan and see what’s going on with this neediness ethic.

MR: Yeah, and of course you’ve incorporated this education of others along the way by including quotes by Shakespeare, Yeats, Tennyson, it seems like you have a high standard of literacy when it comes to your lyrics.

LM: Yes, and when I’ve turned to what I’ve often jokingly referred to as the dead poet’s society it’s because I don’t feel that my lyric writing is the strongest thing that I do, and secondly the Celtic tradition and Celtic culture is an oral culture, they never wrote anything down, so what is known about the Celts is primarily captured from the Romans. They were all about telling long stories or capturing their history and their knowledge. When I look at poems like “The Highwayman” or “Lady Of Shalott,” that’s such a Celtic thing to do, have a long narrative. I’ve tried to find poems that are closer into the Celtic tradition.

MR: And not everybody has performed for Queen Elizabeth.

LM: [laughs] or dined with her.

MR: Oooof course. What a thrill that was, huh?

LM: Yes, performing for her and Prince Phillip was something, but I knew I was invited to attend dinner, but I didn’t realize I was going to be seated at her table, literally one person away. It was good.

MR: How you survive an experience like that I have no idea. You were also awarded the Order Of Canada, the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed on a person in Canada, you were appointed a knight of the National Order of Arts and Letters of the Republic of France, you’re an honorary colonel in the Royal Canadian Airforce, where does this stop? Aren’t you celebrated enough? My God.

LM: [laughs] I’ve obviously many interests, I feel that I benefit hugely from whole generations before me in so many, many ways and by people whose names I will never know. I honestly feel from a philosophical standpoint that I, too, want to give to the world. With something like the honorary colonel in the Canadian airforce it’s an unbelievable privilege to be travelling and getting to know these individuals who do so much for Canada as well as participate in the international community. The various things are pretty fascinating and really help me give back.

MR: And speaking of giving back, you founded the Cook-Rees Memorial Fun for Water Search and Safety. That’s no small undertaking!

LM: It really wasn’t, actually. Anyone who’s ever started a foundation or charity will know that there are a lot of hoops and parameters that you must satisfy in order to set that kind of thing up. But it was very gratifying to create at least some outlet after the personal tragedy that occurred in 1998. I know I’m not alone, it’s a very common impulse when people are touched by some incredible tragedy they say, “This is so horrible I never want anyone to experience this,” and in honor of all those people whose lives were lost you’re going to make sure something good comes out of it. I realize I’m certainly not alone in that impulse.

MR: We need you in the United States because of your privacy advocation. You won that case in the UK.

LM: Yes, yes, I think that was very significant. I think back to 2005 or 2006 when that was going on and so many things that I was writing, whether to friends or in fact to my legal team, privacy is a human right that is enshrined in the United Nations declaration, the European convention, et cetera, but I don’t recall it being carved out saying “except for the rich and famous.” I remember also saying that people don’t value or treasure their anonymity until they’ve lost it and no longer have control of it. Now you have people talking about their right to be anonymous. But I think one of the most disturbing things about the NSA is that there is so much focus that is being put towards the government, but nobody should forget for one second that Google and Facebook and Twitter have been collecting data for quite some times. That’s model, but I’ve never seen quite enough criticism aimed in their direction. Now they’ve skewed it so they’re the noble protectors of the public privacy and they’re going after the government. I think that’s a bit rich, don’t you?

MR: Very intelligently put. That would explain your four honorary degrees.

LM: [laughs] As everyone says, I’m deeply honored to be honored. When one goes about their life and what they do, it’s not to have a whole bunch of awards and feel that that’s the basis of why you do things, but on the other hand it’s always gratifying to be recognized by your community for what you do.

MR: What’s great is that the title of your project is The Journey So Far, and what a journey you’ve had!

LM: Yeah, and I hope there will musically be more. Last year, I spent about three weeks travelling to Rajasthan in India tracking down not only music but also potential connections with the ancient Celts. It was an incredibly rich research trip. At the same time the music industry is in an advanced stage of collapse, and one needs to be very careful about in what way and how long you stay in it, because you could hurt yourself.

MR: Great way of putting that. What advice do you have for new artists?

LM: My advice is that music is an incredibly rich, power, unique medium that I encourage everyone at any age to become involved in, and they don’t need to do it professionally. In fact, right now I would not encourage many people to do it professionally, and if young people are setting out to be cultivating a very strong second career choice, as someone who’s managed and continues to run a small business in the bigger music industry I see how hard it is. I’m fine, but at the same time it’s much, much harder than it was ten or fifteen years ago. I don’t see any predictable, viable business model in place at this moment that would allow people to have this as a career path beyond the point at which they’re single, either from the lack of remuneration or just the lifestyle. I don’t actively encourage anyone to get into the music business as a primary career path at this time, or if they do, have a very strong second up their sleeve and give themself a timeline during which they will explore it and then they should make a decision of whether they think it’s sustainable or not. I’ve encountered many, many musicians, some who are extremely well-known, who are as poor as church mice.

MR: That’s really wonderful advice. You have a hand-in-hand relationship with music and other things which I’m imagining has led to a fuller life. You’ve given healthy advice in this way as far as how anybody should be treating their art. it’s almost like a fifty-fifty proposition.

LM: I wouldn’t even put the odds at that right now. I don’t know about other disciplines, but certainly in music. I certainly hate to be discouraging of being involved in music because in society and in life there’s so many ways to have music as an integral part. I would love to invite people to put their technology down for a little while and exchange it for a ukulele.

MR: That’s a great line, I love that. When you look back at things like “Mummer’s Dance,” what do you think looking back at it?

LM: That was just such an incredible trip, it was sort of like an aberration. I think for most artists who have a hit single it just comes completely out the blue. I was just chugging along doing what I did and slowly growing my audience and so on and the folks at Warner Brothers records spotted this song and said, “We think this should be remixed and there might be a shot at radio.” Sure enough, it crossed over three or four radio formats. I think that it gave me a brief touch of a place where a number of other artists have been, it gave me a view of some lesser-known corners of the music industry, some good, some not so good. It was fun. It was sort of like going to Mars for a day and then coming back to Earth and saying, “Right, this is the meat and potatoes of what I do.” But at that time I was also a bit concerned that when people heard the remix they would go out on the basis of that one song and buy my albumBook Of Secrets and be very disappointed. I didn’t want people mislead into what my music was, but we had so much fun doing the video and it was so interesting doing all the research for that piece. That was something else.

MR: Beautiful. So you have all of these honorary degrees, you’re a knight, you’re a colonel, and now you have your Best Of, really, as an introduction, in a lot of ways, to not just your journey in music but in life. So? What’s left?

LM: Well, we’ve kept a fairly steady tempo of releases since about 2006 and I’m looking to stop what I call “The front of the ship” here so that we can do some housekeeping here at the office. From a business standpoint, it’s a bit like an archaeological site itself. We’ve been running so fast we haven’t filed some things and we need to upgrade things. Similarly there are personal projects that I’ve set to the side until I came this far. So I’m looking forward to that, but at the same time as I said last year I went on a three-week fascinating trip to Rajasthan in India and I’m hopeful that I can move on and create at least one more recording, but we’ll see.

MR: I seriously doubt it’s going to be just one more recording. You’re one of THOSE artists…there’s no way.

LM: [laughs]

MR: It’s wonderful to talk to somebody who’s doing good things in the world, I’m honored to have interviewed you.

LM: Thank you, I’ve appreciated speaking with you.

Transcribed By Galen Hawthorne