A Show of Her Own

Sarah McLachlan’s latest album, “Surfacing,” has sold 2 million copies in the United States and just netted the Canadian star two Grammy Awards.

But because she is best known as the force behind the groundbreaking, phenomenally successful touring festival Lilith Fair, “Surfacing” often gets submerged in conversations with the press.

One day last week, McLachlan hunkered down in Spokane, Wash., for a battery of brief telephone interviews to promote her current tour, which stops Wednesday in Irvine. The fifth of these mini-sessions finally produced a question about her artistic methods: namely, how had she built “Building a Mystery,” the Grammy winner for best female pop vocal? (“Last Dance,” from the same album, won best pop instrumental.)

“Bless your heart, you’re the first today who’s asked me about my record,” she said with a laugh. “Almost nobody asks me about my records. It’s all about Lilith Fair.”

McLachlan isn’t complaining. Talking about Lilith, the first all-female touring festival, means talking about an unmitigated triumph. Last year’s festival reached 35 cities, its draw far surpassing that of the better-established, male-dominated H.O.R.D.E. and Lollapalooza rockathons.

With McLachlan as the headliner on shifting main-stage lineups that included Jewel, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin, Lilith proved a benchmark in the ‘90s rise of female pop-rockers to a state of parity, and maybe then some, with the once-dominant male. This summer, McLachlan will preside over an expanded sequel, with more than 50 North American dates.

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McLachlan has a harder time publicly dissecting the motives and meanings behind her songs, which mainly seek to capture defining moments in struggles to stay emotionally afloat amid hardship, change and doubt.

“What I choose to reveal is generally revealed in the songs, and that’s as far as I want to go,” she said. “But it makes the interview more fun [when her songs come up for discussion]. I find it very fascinating, because for me music is all about interpretation.”

“Building a Mystery” opens with an Ann Rice-like snapshot of a vampiric figure milking the dark side for its romantic, forbidden allure. As the song goes on, this attempt at “working, building a mystery / And choosing so carefully” seems less about the rites of the Living Dead than those of strivers in Hollywood and the music business, where the game of success hinges on weaving an intriguing persona and calibrating its public impact.

McLachlan confirms that part of her intent in “Building a Mystery” was to evoke entertainers’ myth weaving.

“Oh, sure. It has a lot to do with musicians especially, actors as well. With people who are in the public eye, often there is a persona or an image built around them that is much larger than life and has little to do with reality. It’s put on by the industry or the powers that be to create something more interesting.”

McLachlan, 30, has been making records for 11 years. By now, she says, she is amused by the way small public gestures, such as the mood struck in a publicity photo, can grow into sweeping presumptions.

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In conversation, McLachlan comes off as a hearty, confident sort, but she thinks legions of fans perceive her as a fragile flower.

“People say, ‘You’re soft and demure in your pictures, but you’re not [really] like that.’ I like those images ‘cause they look nice. It’s kind of naive. Everyone looks at one picture and defines your personality. In my old press pictures, I was never looking into the camera, which adds a shy mystique. I’m not like that. I’m in-your-face and friendly. I look at it as a game, ‘Let’s have fun with this.’

“No matter what I do, I’m misinterpreted, so a long time ago I stopped [caring] about what people thought. The whole idea of fame and celebrity has nothing to do with who you are. It has to do with other people’s perceptions. Once you get that through your head, you’ll be OK.”

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Making a strong first impression is a serious matter nowadays, because major record companies no longer seem committed to slowly building an artist’s career if a debut record falls flat. Most of the leading ladies of Lilith--Jewel, Chapman, Crow, Fiona Apple and, to a lesser extent, Colvin hit it big on their first try; Cole made it with her second. McLachlan, who came up in the ‘80s, had the luxury of missing the mark with her debut album. “Touch” was a gauzy effort that seemed more engaged in paying tribute to Kate Bush and mimicking the vocal overlays of Enya than in defining a fresh artistic self.

“I got plucked at the early age of 19 and got a golden opportunity to figure out who the hell I was musically and got the time and money to do it,” McLachlan said, crediting Nettwerk, the independent Canadian label that launched her, and Arista, the major label that subsequently signed her for U.S. releases. “The second album [“Solace”] was very hard. I had a producer, Pierre Marchand, who said, ‘I’m going to find “you” in this.’ He was very instrumental in pushing me: ‘Sing it like you! How would you sing this?’ He helped me find my own voice.”

McLachlan’s third album, “Fumbling Toward Ecstasy,” established her career; the 1993 release was a late-blooming success that eventually sold more than 2 million copies. But the push took a toll.

“When I came off the “Fumbling” tour, that was the lowest place I’d been in my life. I felt completely drained and empty and didn’t have a love of anything anymore. You feel you’re living a lie because you’re playing music and you’re not enjoying it anymore.”

McLachlan revisits that trough in “Angel,” a track from “Surfacing”: “There’s always some reason to feel not good enough / And it’s hard at the end of the day.”

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Since then, she has married Ash Sood, the drummer in her band, sold several million records, and been anointed for conceiving and pulling off one of the pop world’s best new concepts. Turning 30 on Jan. 28 was no trauma.

“I’ve never felt happier or more settled in my life” McLachlan said--not that it keeps her from burrowing into the hurt and exhaustion of “Angel” and other darker songs in her set list.

“My life is a roller-coaster, and I can bring back [low moments] pretty easily, because I’ve been through it all. But I don’t have to go back and wallow in it. I can have a more objective sense, and that feels good.”

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* Sarah McLachlan and Lisa Loeb play Wednesday at the Bren Events Center, West Peltason Drive and Mesa Road, UC Irvine. 8 p.m. $26-$36. Sold out. (714) 824-5000.