Sarah McLachlan and all that jazz
TORONTO — Sarah McLachlan wouldn’t consider herself a jazz musician by any stretch of the imagination, so she wants fans to know what to expect at her upcoming jazz festival gigs.
“I’m not going to be playing any jazz — let’s be clear on that,” the Lilith Fair founder says in a phone call from her Vancouver home.
It’s a point worth clarifying as more pop singers take slots at some of Canada’s prominent jazz festivals.
“My assumption is that jazz fest and folk fests are trying to branch out and diversify,” she suggests.
McLachlan would know the challenges of the music festival business. She launched one of the most influential fests of the 1990s only to see Lilith Fair stumble in ticket sales during an attempted resurrection a few years ago.
McLachlan talked to The Canadian Press about the perils of the festival circuit, choosing a set list, and singing backup vocals on a Tragically Hip song.
She will play the TD Toronto Jazz Festival on Friday and fests in Ottawa on Saturday and Vancouver on Monday.
CP: Your fans might be surprised you’re making the rounds at some of Canada’s big jazz festivals. If it’s not jazz you’ll be playing, what can they expect?
McLachlan: I am going to have a lean, mean four-piece (band). I think it’s a 90-minute set — or something like that — so I’m just going to be doing all the songs that I hope everybody wants to hear. I’ve got a new song (called “The Long Goodbye”), I might perform that.
CP: So you’re sticking to the McLachlan we know — but does a jazz festival influence which songs you choose to play?
McLachlan: Not really. I’m looking at the emotional arc of the show musically and that’s sort of how I put the show together. I think of the songs as stories and postcards of my life. Because I write from such an emotional point of view ... you don’t want to have too many really sad songs plunked together because it’s too damn depressing. So, like life, I try to create a balance of happy and sad.
CP: The Tragically Hip is mounting what’s widely expected to be their final tour this summer as lead singer Gord Downie faces incurable brain cancer. What was your response when you heard the news?
McLachlan: Obviously it’s heartbreaking. He’s iconic, the band’s iconic. I know his family actually and from that perspective it’s very difficult.
CP: You worked with the Hip on an alternate version of their song “Emergency.” What was it like working with them?
McLachlan: I spent a day with (Gord) and the band ... I did backup (vocals). It was an experiment. I think even while we were doing it we were like, “Ehh, I don’t know if this is going to work, but sure we’ll try it. Why not?”
CP: It’s hard to ignore that some festival lineups this summer are short on female performers — especially female-led acts.
McLachlan: That was the way it was back then too. There are a lot of possible reasons for that. When we were putting on Lilith it was incredibly challenging getting the artists we wanted — and we asked everybody — in their busy summer schedule to take a week or two out of it and come and do a festival ... Then there’s the money involved. It’s a lot of bloody work!