Sarah McLachlan will forever be associated with “Lilith Fair,” the all-female festival she created in the mid-‘90s and that originally ran from 1997 – 1999. But people forget that prior to the groundbreaking “Lilith Fair” McLachlan had established herself as one of the premier singer/songwriters of that era with 1994’s brilliant Fumbling Towards Ecstasy album.
Now, three decades later, with the recent Lilith Fair documentary, Building A Mystery, McLachlan is back in the spotlight. Having just released Better Broken, her first new album in 11 years, McLachlan is getting her due as not only a revolutionary who changed the course of mainstream music, but as a great artist. She is deservedly nominated for the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2026 and just wrapped a brief U.S, tour in L.A.
I spoke to McLachlan about the new album, the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and the one time her kids finally gave her props for being cool.
Steve Baltin: Eleven years between albums and you have been hitting the promotional circuit hard. I’ve talked with a lot of artists who say that getting back on that bike is a lot harder than getting back on the album bike.
Sarah McLachlan: I would agree with that, yeah. That’s part of the trepidation of getting on the album bike is knowing that you’re going to have to do all the work to promote it.
Baltin: But you’ve had so much to promote with the documentary and this.
McLachlan: Oh, it’s a perfect storm, for sure. I could not have timed it better. And it was just sheer luck that the album was done. The album was done in December of the year before. And they thought, let’s wait till September. The record label needed that much time to set it up. I don’t know why. But, above my pay grade. So. it’s like, “Okay, sure.” And then it turns out the documentary is coming out like the same week, so that was crazy. So, yeah, I think that really boosted everything, because as you know, one needs to make all sorts of noise these days to rise above the fray.
Baltin: What was your response to the documentary?
McLachlan: I’m not particularly nostalgic and I don’t spend much time looking back. I did just do a Fumbling Towards Ecstasy thirtieth anniversary tour, so I was kind of forced back to that time as well, although that was actually a little bit before Lilith. But it was amazing. Obviously, I’ve seen all the iterations of the edits and stuff, but it was amazing to sit in the audience and watch that on the big screen and see three of the most important years of my life so succinctly and joyously portrayed, this keepsake that I get to have in my life and go back to. And I’ve forgotten so much. It just reminded me of both the fantastic times, all the amazing musicians. And those are the parts that I hold on to when I think about Lilith.
Baltin: Was there anything you noticed during that time that you applied to making Better Broken?
McLachlan: I would say if there’s stuff I carried with me it’s that I’ve been pretty consistent in my life about following my gut and it’s generally steered me in the right direction. There have been some missteps obviously, but I learn a lot from that too and I think just that resilience of getting constant pushback about certain things in your life where you hear, “You can’t do that or you shouldn’t be doing that or you can’t say that.” It’s like, “But this is how I feel and this is what I want to do and I’m going to do it.” I’ve been pretty consistently bullheaded in that way throughout my life. And certainly the success of Lilith may well have really solidified that ideology in me. I think I was always like that. I’ve always been very stubborn and always wanted to go my own way. My second record, I remember all sorts of challenges with the record label. And I phoned up my manager and said, “I’m not interested in being on a major label. This is what it is because I’m not compromising.”
Baltin: I was just watching the video for “Reminds Me,” and I adore Katie Gavin. I’ve known Katie since she was in Grammy Camp and there’s a moment where she starts singing in the video and you are beaming watching her. Do you always maintain that mentor mentality where you just can’t help but be excited for young musicians?
McLachlan: Yeah. It’s like a mothering thing too. Katie’s not that much younger than me, but it’s very cool to meet younger musicians and find out that they’re not only a fan of my music, but they’re a fan of Lilith and the stories that they tell me about what that did for them. That part is very cool. And it’s cool to be in this place in my life where I actually might have something to offer to younger musicians in terms of just the experiences I’ve had. It’s like anything, it’s an intimate path. Everybody’s journey is different. But there are certainly some common truisms about being in the industry, not only as an artist, but as a woman in particular. And it is nice to be able to, if asked for advice, at least offer some of the things that I’ve known to be true for myself.
Baltin: I was reading where “Gravity” on this record was the song you wrote for your daughter. And you wondered if you pushed too far. I love that no matter who you are, you’re never cool to your kids.
McLachlan: I’m so uncool. I’m so uncool. I have someone else doing my social media, and she said, “Oh, you need to do this ASMR thing.” I’m like, “Are you f**king kidding me? Okay, I’ll go do this.” And I said, “I’m going to tell you right now, my 18-year-old is going to eviscerate me for this.” Sure enough, we posted it, and then like five minutes later, my daughter’s like, “Take this down right now. This is horrible.” Well, I showed my bandmates, who are all in their 50s, and they’re like, “Oh, this is so funny.” So, I told her, “Honey, you are not my audience.” We’re never cool for our kids. The only time my kids thought I was a little bit cool was the first time they actually came to a show because my kids never came to my shows. They weren’t interested. But they came to a show in Toronto, and it was like 14,000 people. Everybody was screaming, “I love you, Sarah.” And they’re like, “Oh, you’re actually legit. People actually like your music and it felt kind of like a Taylor Swift concert in terms of the adoration of the fans.” For a brief moment, I was elevated in their eyes. It didn’t last long.
Baltin: When you’ve been touring the record, has there been a favorite song of the record?
McLachlan: “One in a Long Line,” but it doesn’t really surprise me, considering my largely female audience. That one’s fun to sing. It’s actually a challenging song to sing, and it’s challenging for me to keep my energy calm when I’m singing it, too. Although one would argue, to be more honest, I get into it. But then I’m like, I have to calm my nervous system down after I’m done singing it because I’m just pissed off. And then I have to bring it down. I think the way people have instantly recognized the energy of “Gravity,” I’ve played that a bunch and people, mothers in particular, have come up to me afterwards and they’re like, “Oh my God.” And they’ve heard it for the first time and they’re sobbing. Every parent, or most parents, I think can strongly relate to a song like that where at some point your kid is facing challenges or struggling and you don’t know how to reach them.
Baltin: Do you write a song like “Gravity” while the situation is ongoing?
McLachlan: I definitely was going through it with my daughter about a year before. And quite often, I can’t write when I’m in the situation. I need perspective and distance from it, I think, for it to be good. I’ve written plenty of heartbreak songs that no one will ever hear because I listened to it six months later. I’m like, “Oh, my God, what a f**king victim. No one’s ever going to hear that s**t.” But you have to write, it’s like a diary or like journaling. That s**t’s not meant for public consumption.
Baltin: Just to be nominated for the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame is such a massive honor. What does that mean?
McLachlan: Yeah, that’s like you’ve reached this echelon that only a few other people in the world will ever get to. It’s incredibly flattering and validating. It sets the bar even higher. When you receive something like that, that kind of validation it’s like, “Okay, that bar just got set a little bit higher. I have to maintain that now.”