Songs in key of Ay?

K.D. Lang

She's Canadian you know. If you'd forgotten, k.d. lang's latest album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, is quite a reminder. On it she swoops through 11 songs by Canadian songwriters including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry and one of her own string-laden arrangements of pure maple syrup.

It's yet another sidestep for the singer since those country beginnings then early 90s commercial peak on Ingenue and her high profile as pop's most famous lesbian. She's taken the album on an international tour, singing with the orchestras of the cities she plays, which will include Auckland and Wellington next month.

So Hymns of the 49th Parallel huh? It's an album with latitude.

Ha ha ha. I might have to use that.

So why an all-Canadian album?

Just working with Tony Bennett and hearing him talk about the American songbook and experiencing the American songbook made me start to care about the Canadian songbook and how it's actually never been done before. It seemed like a nice time to do it. And the more I thought about it the more inspired I got.

It could be seen as a political gesture.

Yes slightly.

How intentional was that?

I was aware of the undertones.

Only an undertone?

No it's not a huge statement but it definitely is an ingredient.

A lot of these artists whose songs you do, they don't live in Canada any more.

Yeah but they have places in Canada. I know that Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry and Bruce Cockburn all live in Canada. I know that Joni has a place, I know that Neil has a place and I'm pretty sure that Leonard has a place and I have a place.

Does it sound different when you perform it there?

In Canada? It definitely was a very nice homecoming to able to sing these songs in Canada. It's so innate for me so it's hard for me to know, but I know that certainly this is the soundtrack of my youth.

Were you a Neil Young kind of teenager?

I was a Joni Mitchell teenager. Neil is more the rock'n'roll person but Joni is more introspective and the singer-songwriter.

Had you had conversations with any of these writers about doing these songs?

No I haven't other than Jane Siberry.

She's one of the lesser known songwriters on the album.

Yeah she's lesser known but one of my favourites. She came to two of my shows to see the songs performed and was very pleased with my renditions. We are kind of friends. I had sung her songs before and we have a mutual admiration.

Was the idea always to do a symphonic pop kind of set?

I went into the project wanting to do them very minimally in terms of arrangement band-wise. And I also knew that I wanted there to be string arrangements. I wanted to make the arrangements very simple so that the song could be in the forefront of what you heard and what you remember. Secondly I wanted to arrange them with strings because I liked the idea of giving them a validated sophistication by the string arrangements to show my reverence for the songwriting.

Hence the "hymns" of the title.

Yeah.

You've redone Simple off your own Invincible Summer album from a few years back. Why?

My manager and my friends they were like, "are you going to include one of your own?" and I was like "no, no, no" and they said, "oh I think you should". So I took the opportunity to do Simple with the orchestra. But I thought it gelled thematically.

Invincible Summer went past a lot of people.

A lot of my records have.

Why is that?

I think I fall into the cracks of categorisation and I don't fit the bill about what a pop star looks like. That's fine with me. My art is still out there, it doesn't matter when people turn to it.

Is it perhaps a case that in the early to mid 90s your profile was so high that people have you pegged already?

Yeah but I made a different record pretty much every time I made one. So I lose and gain different people. The only way people are going to see my direction or path of what genre I am is in the long run and having an overview of my career. I think they'll see plainly the way I see it - which is, I'm a vocalist.

You won a Grammy with Tony Bennett last year. That must have been nice.

Beautiful. A nice surprise.

The shows you are doing here, will they be very much based on this new album?

They will be half of this new record and half retrospective.

What's the difference singing live in front of an orchestra and say, the band you were last here with.

Well as you have a bit more flexibility just with the band you can take some improvisational tangents. But singing with the orchestra is very conducive to focusing on the narrative and subtleties of singing and I don't have to worry about filling up space or putting on a pyrotechnic show. All I have to do is sing, which is wonderful.

Less polka dancing in the aisles?

Occasionally I still do that.

So you turn up to a new orchestra in each town. Is it a case of going "hi, have you got my arrangements?"

Yeah it's excellent because it marries this kind of travelling culture and local culture and it becomes something new every time so it's really invigorating actually.

How do the orchestra players take to playing this stuff?

I think they realise I'm not the first person to do a pop series and it gets people in seats that may have never heard a symphony and it's good for them and it's good for me and it's good for the audience.

Given the swerves of your studio albums, do you think you've made it hard to be a dedicated k.d. lang fan over the years?

I don't know it's true in every fan's case but I look at it like if you're a fan of Picasso you don't like every Picasso painting.

I guess you lost a lot of non-smokers on Drag. Or gained some smokers.

Yeah, gained some.

How about the folks at home. How are they taking to the new one?

It's doing really well. They understand the integrity and the gesture.

An album that makes Canadians feel good about being Canadians.

Well yeah without sounding too patriotic or contrived about it. Sure.

How about in the States?

It's doing pretty good considering it's an art record and I don't have a video with a bikini on.

I'm sure that could be arranged.

I'm sure it could.

Which song though?

We'd have to remix Helpless or something. 


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)


LATEST RELEASE: Hymns of the 49th Parallel


CONCERT DATES: With Wellington Sinfonia, Michael Fowler Centre, Monday February 7; with Auckland Philharmonia, Aotea Centre, Tuesday February 8