A Conversation with Sarah McLachlan – HuffPost 6.4.14
Mike Ragogna: Sarah, how did you approach coming into Shine On versus your other albums?
Sarah McLachlan: I approach all my records the same way, which is to try not to “eat the whole whale at once.” The approach to songwriting for me is slow and laborious and I just have to let things take their natural course. I attempt to work every day, I try to write, but certainly when absolutely nothing is happening and I’m banging my head up against a wall, I kind of have to let it go. But when I am feeling fruitful and things are happening, I just let the song dictate how it wants to go, and I try not to edit myself too much.
MR: Were there any particular scenarios or adventures you had that led into some of the topics that popped on this album?
SM: It was just sort of natural, things I wanted to talk about. I do write from a personal emotional place. I’m typically telling my own story, but within that, there’s always other people’s stories that come into play as well. That’s creative license; you have to tell a story in a unique and special way that’s different from all the other stories, when you only have the words that we have, and only, for example, seven words to stick into a particular frame, and they have to rhyme at the end. Musically I could make the effort to try to do something a little different. With the last record I did some [inaudible at 3:16] and I wanted to do more of that and try to have a bit more of a rawer sound, so that was one of the reasons for wanting to work with Bob Rock, and I think turned out very well. He pushed me in that direction a little more than I would have naturally gone on my own. I think there’s a directness, lyrically. Again, I’ve always written from an emotional point of view, and my stories are always in there, as are others’, but I think that with this time, I felt the story was strong enough on its own not to cloak it with other people’s stories. I’m thinking of “Song For My Father” and “Surrender and Certainty,” which are both sort of about my dad. Those were powerful stories for me that I really wanted to tell, and I just wanted them to be simple.
MR: There’s a piece, “In Your Shoes,” that was inspired by young Pakistani activist Malala [Yousafzai]. What was that process for you, internally, to get to that point?
SM: I had started writing that song months before that happened, and the first line came out in its entirety, “Turn the radio on / play your favorite song and cry,” and I then wondered where that came from, and what I wanted to say about it; it reminded me of when I was a teenager and I disappeared into music because I didn’t have very many friends and I was picked on a lot. So I thought I’d write a song about bullying, which is a hot topic these days – I’ve got two young daughters who luckily haven’t experienced that yet. But I couldn’t finish the song; I tried to think about bullying and I wrote my own story, and it wasn’t strong enough. And then the story of Malala came on the news and she’s so incredible, such a powerhouse. She was at the time 15 years old, and to have that strength of character to stand up for herself and what she believed in, and then to have that horrific thing happen to her and to survive it and become an international heroine… I thought she’s an amazing role model, and the perfect heroine for the story, so the song became easier to finish after that.
MR: What do you feel is at the root of bullying? Is there a basic thing here that we’re just not getting?
SM: I’m really baffled by the whole thing. There are things you can certainly point to that are very different from when I was growing up. When we were growing up and we got bullied, we got thrown into the locker, beaten up, etc. and you just sucked it up and kept on going. No one I know ever killed themselves. But now it seems to me that’s happening all the time, and I don’t understand what has changed. In some ways I would think we have way more support for that kind of thing, but at the same time, with the internet, you’ve got an amazing campaign that can be launched against a kid that’s incredibly destructive. Not just within their own school, but they can change schools and this stuff follows them; it becomes unbearable. That vindictiveness has always been there; kids are cruel. I think the magnitude of it has really gotten a lot bigger, but I don’t know what the answer is. Honestly, I think all of us exist just barely on the right side of chaos at all times. And it kind of amazes me that everything runs as smoothly as it does. You turn on the news every night and there are kids bringing guns to school and killing themselves and their friends. These horrible things are happening, and I think that as a culture and a society we’re heading away from spirituality and away from communication and connectedness. Most of people’s friends live in the virtual world, they’re not real friends; people don’t have real conversations anymore, they’re living on their devices. It scares the crap out of me.
MR: It seems like what’s happening is that kids are possibly re-expressing what they’re learning in their homes. Maybe there’s something embedded in the psyche of our culture. And you wee bullied, right?
SM: I was bullied every day. I was beaten up, teased, ridiculed. I went to my mom and she told me I was lying because she couldn’t handle it, so I was completely on my own. I didn’t have any friends. But I never even considered hurting myself. Here’s where I go to “Music saved my life,” because it did. It was the one thing I had that I knew I was good at. It was a friend to me. I could always go to music. I’m so lucky because of that.
MR: Beautifully said. Also, I think a lot of people have been lucky because they’ve been able to identify with the topics of your music, and also your recordings; it’s solace. They’ve found a friend in Sarah McLachlan, I think.
SM: That’s what music is for me, it’s comfort. At the best of times it’s comfort, it’s solace, but even more importantly it’s that connection of, “Oh my God, somebody else understands me, someone else hears me and feels what I’m going through because they’re talking about it in this medium and they totally get me.” That’s what we want. We want to be connected, heard, seen. Again, I think that’s part of what’s wrong with our society; you’ve got two parents working nonstop trying to pay all the bills to survive, and kids are struggling. Adults are struggling. Everybody’s struggling. The world is moving so fast, and we’re all trying to so hard to keep up with it. Like I said, one step away from chaos at all times.
MR: I feel like “Sarah Mclachlan” represents something a little bit more than just your typical recording artist who’s had a successful career, evidenced but in everything we just talked about. I think people do find comfort in your music, and that you have contributed much so that you’ve become iconic in a lot of ways.
SM: I think whenever you’re in the spotlight and are recognizable and a large group of people “follow” you, you have even more of a responsibility. We all have a responsibility to be a positive influence in the world. That’s certainly always been my goal, which is why I’m so incredibly happy and grateful that I’ve been given this gift, and that I can do something good with it. It’s a really amazing validation for me to know that something I created goes out there in the world and helps someone I don’t even know. It’s a beautiful thing.
MR: Sarah, what are some areas where you think artists should be careful or stay aware of?
SM: [laughs] That’s a long list! Surround yourself with people you can trust; though that in itself is a loaded statement, because how do you know who you can trust? I think it’s about managing and understanding people’s agendas, and having good-quality relationships. What is a good-quality relationship? It’s reciprocal. There’s giving and receiving. When and if you can find people in your life who can help you and are in it for the right reasons… it’s such an intimate dance; it’s like reading a parenting book and saying, “Okay, that’s how I’m going to raise my kid.” It’s far too complex for that. Human relationships are so complex, and everyone is unique and different. So to give advice on a particular relationship without having all the facts, you’re never going to have enough information to really accurately give good advice. Even if you do have all the information, the advice is based on your experience, not theirs. It’s a matter of taking people’s advice, not with a grain of salt necessarily, but just getting a lot of different opinions. Don’t just take one person’s answer at face and say that’s the way it is. The bottom line is we have to educate ourselves and be our own advocate. And in order to do so, we need to ask a whole lot of questions and not take everybody’s answer at face value. When you’re your own advocate and you can have a well-rounded understanding for the reasons you’re doing things, you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and be proud and say, “I did these things, and I did them for the right reasons, and with a certain degree of responsibility.”
MR: Beautiful. Sarah, before we end, did we miss anything?
SM: I’m excited to come on the road for the Shine On tour! Bringing these songs to North America and play them live and we have a great band, and we’re starting rehearsals next week so I’m very excited!
Transcribed by Emily Fotis