Loreena McKennitt eyes sabbatical from music biz - Morden Times ...

Looking for different projects, slowing things down

Updated 2 hours ago

By Lorne Stelmach

Having just come back from another European tour, Loreena McKennitt is looking forward to taking a break from the business.

For the Morden-born, globally acclaimed musician, however, it will likely be more than just a summer holiday.

Speaking before a May 16 benefit appearance in Portage for Big Brothers and Big Sisters, McKennitt said recent years have been such a whirlwind of constant activity that she felt it was time to take a step back.

When and how she chooses to come back into the public spotlight remains up in the air, and it is at least in part because of conflicting feelings she seems to have about the music industry.

?We?ve kept a fairly steady pace since about 2006 between DVDs and CDs.

?I think what is clear is that the music business, as a business, is in such a desperate state of disarray and collapse that it?s, frankly, not safe to be in it in certain ways."

I think right now I?m looking to head into a kind of sabbatical,? McKennitt said by phone from her home in Stratford, Ontario.

?To be honest, I think that it may be a sabbatical ... it may be the end of my career ... I don?t know,? she added with a chuckle. ?But I think what is clear is that the music business, as a business, is in such a desperate state of disarray and collapse that it?s, frankly, not safe to be in it in certain ways.

?So even though we?ve just come from a six week soldout tour in Europe ... there are many types of risks ... you have to be extremely cautious.

?Rather than mounting more and more CDs and tours, I?m wanting to slow things down and maybe do special projects,? she said. ?There are many different kinds of creative activities I would like to do ... but I think we?re going to really slow down the pace here now.?

When your life and career is such a global adventure like what McKennitt enjoys, an ideal holiday for her is the simple life - staying at home, reading, hanging out with friends and even doing a bit of hunting.

She is taking a bit of time for a couple shows in Stratford as well as the Portage appearance, which came about through a friend and former co-worker of her mother. She anticipated performing about four or five songs then telling some of the stories behind her music and taking questions from the audience.

?It?s an interesting format, and I quite enjoy it. And as an audience person, I quite enjoy getting an opportunity to be intimate with artists ... you don?t have a lot of distance between you,? she commented.

And any opportunity to come back home to Manitoba is always a welcome diversion for her as well.

?I continue to have a very fond spot in my heart for Manitoba,? she said. ?I think of it often, and I think of the formative years I spent there and the people I?ve continued to be in touch with. It?s nice to keep that connection. It?s nice to feel that.

?It?s kind of a legacy ... once it imprinted itself, in many ways, it stays with you for the rest of your life. You can?t extract formative years out of your life,? she added.

?And Morden was very formative, not only musically speaking but the sense of community. I feel extraordinarily lucky that I lived in a generation and at a time where the community of Morden was very close knit. And I believe it still is today. And it comes with the convergence of many ingredients, and I do feel that I was very, very lucky to grow up there.?

Living on a farm just outside Stratford, McKennitt noted there are similarities to Morden although Stratford is about 35,000 people.

?It?s got the best of both worlds ... it is still a small enough community? she said. ?And the reason I?ve stayed here was that I really cherished living in a community that was in some ways similar to that of Morden, where you know people, you know the people where you pick up your newspaper, your groceries.?

McKennitt said there are always many ideas for her to explore, but she sees her next pursuits being perhaps in a smaller different kind of repertoire.

For example, she recently performed at a donor event for a festival in Toronto, and she met a performing artist there who expressed interest in doing a collaboration of some sort. She has also worked with the CBC on a program called Inside the Music which is to be broadcast sometime in June, and she would consider doing more projects like that as well as musical theatre.

The journeys of discovery, however, that have so influenced her music will likely continue as well. One particular path she still wanted to follow was a connection with the Celts in India.

?Right now, I want to slow the big, complex high stakes projects down to a tempo where they?re smaller and less demanding ... and they?re different from what I?ve been doing.?

Considering where her career has taken her from her first CD released in 1985, McKennitt said it has been a long interesting journey - one that has never ceased to surprise her.

?I?m startled. I?m startled at the level of success,? she commented.

?And I?m also startled in the sense that I chose this as a career path because I really wanted to be a veterinarian. And I have maintained that music chose me rather I chose it,? she added.

She also may have been a little ahead of the curve in building her career through her own independent label. There are many of them now but that wasn?t the case back at that time.

?And it wasn?t because I knew what I was doing. It was more a default. I knew what I didn?t want,? she said.

?I kept believing I would end up in a more conventional arrangement with a traditional manager and so on. But every time I explored this option, it just didn?t feel like it was the right fit, and by default I created my own infrastructure.

?I feel very lucky and blessed to have been able to land into this career path and carve out my own unique space in the industry, not just creatively but how I?ve run my career and run my business.

?It?s highly unusual because most artists of my stature have management, and I?ve chosen to be my own management ... with staff, of course. In that way, I felt I could protect my creations better, rather than have them subjected to the whims of the music industry,? she concluded.

?So it?s a mixture of many things including pride that I?ve been able to achieve this success. But as we know with any success, it?s not just done alone. There are many, many people who were in forefront and many who were behind the scenes ... and not the least of which, for example, was my mother, who pushed me into piano lessons and paid for them ... and really believed in that.

?There are many many other people I really owe my success to ... many people.?

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