Touring singer k.d. lang talks protest, Buddhism and other zen matters with Russell Baillie
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If k.d. lang has a lower profile these days than she once did, nobody's told Australia.
The Canadian singer took the place by storm as she started her international touring for new album Watershed - her first batch of original songs in eight years - across the Tasman before hitting New Zealand this week.
First Watershed went to number one in the Aussie charts as the sell-out signs went up on her shows.
Then she started generating headlines. A practising Buddhist, she turned up in support of pro-Tibet activists as the Olympic torch made its way through Canberra.
Then, when a Melbourne cop gave her car an unauthorised VIP escort to the Rove show after a delayed flight from Perth, the ensuing kerfuffle sparking a police internal inquiry.
A phone call finds her in Sydney, sounding quite amused by it all - and pleased at the reaction to Watershed, arguably her best album since her touchstone set Ingenue - which it sometimes echoes in its blend of country, torch pop, bossa nova and heartache.
It sure sounds like you've hit town in a big way - number one album, motorcycle escorts and a protest rally ...
I didn't even premeditate the protest but when I realised the torch was going to be in Canberra I really had to go. I'm on the board of directors for the American Foundation for Tibetan Cultural Preservation. It's part of my job - it's actually a bigger part of my job than the music industry so I really had to go and be present.
Well you are a torch singer.
That's funny.
And this tour isn't going to China, is it?
No I guess probably not going to China. Not for a while.
Over your career you've been known for representing causes, other than just making music. Is this another chapter?
It just seems things pop up. I don't represent things that I don't truly live and breathe. I've been a vegetarian for 26 years or something; I've been a lesbian my whole life and I've been a Buddhist practitioner for eight years ... I am in the position I can make social commentary on a major stage and so I do.
I don't consider myself a political person, funnily enough. It just so happens that's what happens in this lifetime.
Makes you wonder what you did in your previous life.
Yeah, I have no idea. It's probably better that I don't remember.
The last time you toured in these parts it was on the Hymns album [a covers collection of Canadian artists] with an orchestral backing. This time it's a little more minimal isn't it?
It's a five-piece band and myself so it's a more traditional k.d. lang sound. But having played the orchestra it has altered the way I am on stage, just like making country records has altered the way I am, or singing with Tony Bennett. It all adds up.
Watershed is your first album of original songs in quite a while. Writer's block?
It just sort of happened that way. It's not that long when you get to our age. After Invincible Summer, which was my last original record, a lot of things happened. I became a [Buddhist] practitioner, I fell in love with my current partner and 9/11 happened and those things were all major reassessments. I actually was writing Watershed over the last six or seven years. During that time, I made the Tony Bennett record and Hymns. It was a matter of just writing at a different pace than usual.
Sound-wise it's very much a consolidation of your past albums.
I think so too. It was very instinctive. I didn't intellectualise it at all. I just put things on the table.
And you're not exactly belting those songs out.
Belting comes later when you are experiencing it on stage or you are interpreting it or trying to take it to another level. To me, these are intimate, self-reflective songs. I don't think belting it out would be appropriate for the songwriting.
How autobiographical are these songs compared with past albums?
I would say this one is as autobiographical as Ingenue, that's for sure.
And maybe that is why it's resonating?
I guess. Although to be honest they are more autobiographical but sometimes I feel more external, sometimes I feel more internal.
Ingenue and Watershed are definitely introspective records.
Is it hard taking songs that are more reflective and personal up on stage?
It actually makes it a lot easier. I find that if I have a good relationship with a song that it just makes it easier if I like them. It makes them a lot more fun.
I don't feel any vulnerability or anything because I don't feel that I don't experience anything that everybody else doesn't feel. I just happen to write it down. I don't feel exposed or anything. I just feel that I have these good songs and that I like them.
How did the previous album of Canadian songs you did affect your thinking on this one?
I think it had a huge impact on me. After singing that for a year - we toured that one for about a year - and dissecting the songs in the pre-recording period, I think it really shifted my musical DNA. Understanding a song and the feel of a song moving through you. Like electric shock therapy, it reset the internal parameters of what it felt like to sing a good song.
By the sound of it, it would seem to feel melancholic.
I guess that would depend on one's own interpretation of what melancholy means. I look at melancholy as that beautiful sadness and to me this record is not that. I think it's more of a self-analytical record, self-examining and just being an honest look at myself.
Cosmic leap of a question - how does the Buddhism feed into that?
It's inseparable. It permeates every aspect of my being. I couldn't even begin to tell you how it's done it, it's just so all-encompassing at this point.
Was there a morning-after effect with the high profile you achieved in the 90s after Ingenue?
That was a long, long time ago and my fame has shifted completely. I was just laughing with my manager this morning that we have a number one record. I am 46 years old, we don't have any singles, I can walk down the street and not even get recognised, it's absolutely perfect. I can't even believe how perfect it is.
Hey, but you can still get a police escort when you need one.
I really didn't have anything to do with that. I was put in a car and I'm tired and we're trying to get to the Rove show. My manager didn't really have any hand in that. It just happened.
The headlines it generated were hilarious.
Yeah, I know. Honestly, I think it's quite good, because I think people should be aware of where public dollars go, but it's also funny in terms of where I am at in terms of my celebrity.
It's just funny how celebrity has its own realm of existence and things are accepted and not accepted in that realm.
LOWDOWN
Who: k.d. lang.
Born: November 2, 1961, Consort, Alberta, Canada.
Key albums: Angel with a Lariat (1987), Shadowland (1988), Absolute Torch and Twang (1989), Ingenue (1992), All You Can Eat (1995), Drag (1997), Invincible Summer (2000), A Wonderful World (with Tony Bennett, 2003), Hymns of the 49th Parallel (2005).
Latest release: Watershed.
Concert dates: Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, Tuesday, May 5; ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland, Wednesday, May 6.I am in the position I can make social commentary on a major stage and so I do.K. D. LANG, SINGERTWO-FACED: k.d. lang says the political stage (below) is just as important to her as the musical one.
