Occasionally an artist crosses your path and captures your heart in a way that you had not anticipated. Last summer, in the build up to attending a music festival, I had a listen to Tara MacLean, a Canadian singer/songwriter, who immediately captured my imagination. With a sound that swims between Sarah MacLachlan and Fiona Apple, her heartfelt compositions were magic on record but truly transcendent in a live setting. As she returns to the UK for a series of shows, Music News caught up with her to find out more.
Song of the Sparrow is both deeply personal and widely resonant — was there a moment while writing it when you realized this story was no longer just for you, but for other people too?Yes definitely. One of the main reasons why I wrote the book was because I hoped sharing some of the things I'd gone through would help others. Mostly because because I not only lived through it, but I was able to find a way to thrive through creating music. I wanted people to know they don't have to be defined by what has happened to them.
Your memoir explores how music became both refuge and survival. Looking back, do you remember the first song you wrote that truly felt like a turning point in your healing?When I was 13 years old, I had my first heartbreak. I curled up in my bedroom and cried. That first one feels like the end of the world. My guitar was there and I knew a few chords and I wrote a song that was so pretty...and the song seemed like it was from my wiser self to my little hurt self. One of the lines was..."It's just gonna take some time". I had no idea then just how time would heal me, but it soon became clear that the songwriting voice came from somewhere deeper than I knew existed. Like I was drawing from a well that would always be a source of nourishment and reassurance. And then I had this beautiful song that I sang for my family and friends! To this day, when it feels like the end of the world, a song will present itself and remind me to feel it all, and that it will pass.
How has performing songs connected to such personal chapters of your life changed since publishing the book?Everything has changed since publishing the book. The truth is, I'm addicted to connection. I need close connection to feel like I am doing this life thing right, and by writing a book, it's made my songs connect more closely to fans because they know me in a new way. My relationship with them has changed and now the songs take on deeper meaning. I guess I feel like I am living in a new dimension of connection that makes me feel like I am growing as an artist and a person. And I'm more free. That translates to the stage. I feel more in love than ever with playing live and connecting with people. No armour.
After building such an established international career, what has this recent chapter of connection with UK audiences meant to you personally?It's like falling in love with someone new. New towns and audiences, and it reminds me of when I started. Going back to these places and growing an audience organically and earning every single CD and book sale. Going from a The Moth Club in Hackney where I showcased for 20 minutes with the Americana Fest, to playing Glastonbury in three years feels like an amazing arc. My UK team is brilliant and I have them to thank for this as well, (my agent Phil Simpson at Nearfield Artists, PR and strategy Ben Allen at BAM! Music Media, Stef Pascual for Social Media Marketing and Umong Shaw for extra UK strategy.) I've also fallen in love with some incredible writers and producers here and have made much of my new album in London.
Your live shows combine storytelling with performance in such an intimate way. How do you prepare yourself emotionally before stepping into those spaces?I think I am just a wide open person and I am so excited to play live that it's like any other show where I let myself be next level vulnerable, and I remind myself that if I just connect to and moved one person in the audience that night, then I have been successful. The current state of the world is trying to desensitize us and make us numb. Music is one of the antidotes and playing live is one of the best ways to administer that medicine.
There’s remarkable vulnerability in both your songwriting and your memoir. How do you decide what to share publicly and what remains just for yourself?Thank you. I don't know! I share things when it feels right, when it feels like it might help someone and when it helps me. I share it when I feel compelled to. I don't think about it too much. I am trying to be more vulnerable about sharing how dark things can get for me at times. I wrote "Lay Here in the Dark" and I talk onstage about not knowing if I would make it through the night, and writing this song saved me. That feels super vulnverable, because Ive always tried to be so strong. But now I'm realizing that strength is also in being vulnerable. I was always okay saying I was sad or broken-hearted. There are a million songs about that. But to say I was hitting total rock bottom, that was scary. But that's a song people say they really relate to, so that means everything.
Your work often balances heartbreak with hope. Do you consciously write toward healing, or does that emerge naturally from the creative process?Both. I have to write music that touches both the darkness and the light. I use the songs to pull me through and the songs use me to reach other people.
Prince Edward Island seems deeply woven into your artistry. In what ways does home still shape the stories and sounds you create today?PEI (Epekwitk) is full of music! And the best part is that I have been singing there since I was a kid, and people know me and my family, and I am part of a thriving ecosystem of brilliant musicians and music supporters. Also, we have great government support (Innovation PEI) as well as a very special organization called Music PEI that makes sure we have what we need to show up on the world stage. So I feel like home is full of love and support and it allows me to go out in the world and share the heart of PEI with the world.
Has revisiting your past through the memoir changed your relationship with your younger self?Yes it has. I have so much more compassion for myself. I also understand better why I am the way I am now. Writing the book was the best thing I ever did for my mental health and my heart.
For people who connect with your story because they’ve faced their own adversity, what do you most hope they take away from your work?I truly hope it will inspire others to write their own stories. The catharsis is very real, even if no one else reads it. You can't help but see your value in a new way. And in terms of my personal story, I hope they take away some learning about the power of love and music and of speaking out against injustice.
Across nine albums and now a memoir, do you feel more like a songwriter who writes stories, or a storyteller who happens to write songs?I don't know! I think equally both. I think I am still an unfolding story, in a new chapter, and a song beginning a new verse.
What has surprised you most about audience responses to Song of the Sparrow?I think that people have said the book gave them courage. It made me think of all the times I've had to be courageous, and how I drew that from the well when I needed it, and how courage is contagious.
As you head back to Canada to finish your new album, how does this next body of work feel different from what has come before?This 10th album and my new book feel like I am finally getting to the really good stuff! Finally being truly fearless and taking everything I've learned so far and applying it. It's exhilirating!
After such a transformative few years, what feels like the next evolution of Tara MacLean as an artist and person?As a musician, I hope this new work can make a meaningful global impact and allow me to keep travelling and performing forever! Ireland is also very important to me creatively, and I can see myself living there part of the year.
As a novel writer, I hope the book will be adapted into a film!
As for myself, I hope the evolution will look like me really taking care of my nervous system so I can stay grounded in this ever increasingly unstable world, so I can be of service to others in a healthy way. I want to look at more stars, more sunsets, drink more cups of tea with people I love, dance, be with my children, and write thousands of poems. I want to do my best to be brave enough to speak out when I see injustice, and keep making things in a world that is falling apart. That's rebellion.
Music reminds us that we are not alone, and that, to me, is the most powerful thing we have in our arsenal for the revolution.
UK Songs & Stories Tour Tickets
here.
May 14th - Cafe 9, Sheffield
May 15th- Town Hall, Kirton in Lindsey
May 16th - The Garden House Concerts- Holbeach
May 17th - The Dolphin, Robin Hood’s Bay
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