k.d. lang on InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse.mpg

from country crooner to symphony soloist she's done it all with grace style and truth hi i'm ernie manouse coming up on interviews our conversation with KD Lang how important is truth to you as an artist truth is pretty much everything it makes it makes your job easier actually when the truth is kind of like catching a good wave it's you know when you when you're open and you get your mind out of the way and you let the natural flow of being this happen it's so much easier so truth is everything and as an artist I think as a human being in general it's it's it's absolute is there a difference in the way you present honesty when you're recording too when you're doing something live yeah it's a different vent it's a different animal you know in the studio I was actually just thinking about this today in the studio you know I sit generally so I'm much stiller and I and I'm much more still and I'm I'm really you know visualizing the story of the lyrics and the metaphors and the subtext and all that what I'm performing live all that work hopefully is done and that I have integrated the story and the integrity of the song so deeply at that point that I just open up and again and get out of the way and but then there's this extra you know like a huge room and full of people that you have to project to so yeah it's a different it's a different thing so the song takes on a different life live than in the studio how do you keep them from it just becoming wrote that you just go through the song if you've already done that work because when I see you perform I get the feeling you are thinking about it you're working at you're living the song at the moment well I was last night because it was the first show but no I try to live the song I try to actually like put myself in the story rather than think about this would be you know like thinking about the ornamentation or the you know I'm trying to listen to the music musicians I'm trying to the communication going on between the musicians and I'm trying to think of the story but in terms of like controlling my voice or like you know thinking of the voices as something I can manipulate and control I try to eliminate that yeah do you treat your voice as an instrument is it something that you work at or is it a gift that you have it's a natural ability it's both but it's even more than that the voice is the voices of living breathing specimen you know it is it is completely and utterly at the mercy of its environment like today it's very moist so that's good but I didn't sleep last night so that's bad and it depends on what you eat it depends on how much you stretch it depends on whether you got a good phone call or a bad phone call I mean it's so vulnerable and so alive and so much its own thing that all you can do is just kind of protect it and nurse it and watch it and understand it and give it space but baby it at the same time it's it's an incredible thing have you had to give up a lot in your life though to take care of that voice has that has there been a trade-off there I would say that I'm pretty disciplined and I have been for about 23 years when I first started to really focus on it but in a way I think it's it's it's it's been my saving grace because you know I don't smoke and I drink occasionally but you know I'm a bit of vegetarian I came out as a lesbian and all these things really were to protect the voice and so in a way I'm I'm totally thankful to it what you mean by came out as a lesbian to protect the voice well to be open and to be honest rather than harboring a secret or protecting a lifestyle or like you know shutting myself off okay when you look back at the start of all of this what was the thrill the joy the reason you wanted to go into this business I it's not really even been a matter of choosing it's it's just been my mind it's been what what I said what I am I'm just a singer so it wasn't to me it's not this elusive thing to become famous or it's just you know people kind of hone in on what what it is that they're they're good at whether you're a Mason or a nurse or a singer or a sports car racer it's you know you do what you're good at and I was lucky enough to discover that at a very early age so I've been pretty focused on it for many many years my whole life really are you doing today what you always thought you would be doing pardon are you doing today what you thought you would be doing right now doing this in turn well I'm sure this is what you were planning on doing your whole life I mean in general career-wise um pretty close yeah pretty close I am I'm really happy with where I'm at right now I'm happy with my level of Fame but that sounds so trite but my level of notoriety I'm so honored to be playing somewhere like Jones Hall and to be seen with Simpson symphonies and to be playing with the caliber of musicians that I'm playing with and to work with Tony Bennett and and yet you know I don't sell a lot of Records so it's actually really it's actually a really nice balance it's a really nice balance is there a way you gauge success for yourself what is it you look at is it personal happiness and contentment or is there anything else I at there's a lot of a lot of different things but but one of the major kept the you know major I can't think of the word but anyway when I when I play on stage with my musicians and we take chances and we're living on the edge and we like push each other that to me is a success that to me is you know when you don't get tired you don't get bored you don't cheat yourself you know because your when when you spend you know how many days on the you know like three months on the road and you travel every day and usually be in a different hotel and you have to get up and rehearse and then do the show that's a really really taxing physically and if you're if when you walk on that stage you're cheating yourself that it's just not worth it yeah you know it when you walk on stage that's the gravity that's that's that's the cohesiveness of your life that's what makes it all work so I would never cheat myself there but is that looking at those moments and when that works is that the success for you is that when in the moment when it all comes together and you say this is why I do it yeah but I think a part of it is it also understanding failure and all are also understanding mistakes and also understanding you know the disappointments but being able to see that they're a part of your path and that they and you incorporate them and learn from them that's success to me because failures are just as important as successes and so to incorporate them both and have a symbiotic relationship with failure and success that's that's success yeah how do you decide where you're going next what you're doing musically is it something that just is where it is or is it something thought out mmm well it it it's it is what it is until I start thinking about it I I really I really follow my instincts I will get attracted to something I'm kind of like a bee that's magnetized by a flower or something I I hear something someday somewhere walking down the street or in a car or something and I'll go WOW and then I'll start either I'll let it go or I'll get fixated on it and then I'll start following it and and that in that sense I start to conceptualize and construct or visualize an idea that I have and then have it come to fresh and otherwise I don't really what's happening as an artist are you free to follow those instincts or do you have especially you've gotten to the level success you have do you have record companies and management and all of that questioning what you're doing in siding or do they stand back and say hey Katie wants to do this let her do it I've been very very lucky because I've been completely under girl Isaac categorization of all undefinable since the beginning so I've I really sort of just put up a warning flag right at the beginning you know don't pigeonhole me and people have really thank goodness I've had a great record company all my life and people have really I mean I've made lots of mistakes I've done crazy things where it's just unmarketable but it's something I have to do it's like if Picasso paints a painting that he you know he has to paint it in order to get to the next thing it's you know those those are really really important stepping stones so I've been very lucky when you first start off in this country and you were a country artist the reaction of Nashville wasn't incredibly embracing as I understand it was that something that you hungered for though did you want that acceptance or didn't that matter to you well it didn't matter I I knew that I wasn't going to be accepted and in fact acceptance wasn't what I was interested in I was interested in the music I was interested in rattling the cages I was interested in making them see that kind of because at that time country music was taking itself a bit serious its listened up a lot since then but it was a in a really kind of a serious period and the people that I was inspired by were Minnie Pearl and cousin Jody and June Carter and like crazy funny people make self defacing people and that's how I approached country and I never expected to be accepted by them in fact if I was I would I would run for the hills are you a troublemaker do you like to stir things up no I I'm not I don't think I'm a rebel but I think I because I'm I'm a bit too passive to be a rebel I'm not I don't find my I don't think I'm an angry person I think I just like to push the envelope or I love not even push the envelope so much but I love framing things in contradiction because I think then you see something in its true essence you know like when you listen to when you listen to NPR for example and they it's eclectic programming and they play Frank Zappa next to Shostakovich then you hear something beautiful in both of those things because you're not listening to an hour-long program of classical music and I think that's really really important do you use that philosophy throughout everything you do in life I think so but maybe I'm a more mundane than I when you decided to come out and I can understand that you understand who you are and you know who you are and you're surrounding the people around you now and you know you're making this statement is there a moment though after you do it after you do the interview after you acknowledge that you're going to go ahead and do that that you get the cold feet that you think what if how is it going to be perceived or how do you move through that without the anxiety I guess or was there no anxiety for you oh no I was I was I was uncertain that its outcome but I think that you know when you make a decision to do something fearless you've already surrendered to the outcome you it doesn't matter so I thought that it was more important to to benefit society by coming out and doing the unexpected and coming out and just going now then it was to protect my career that's kind of a selfish thing so I knew it really is one of the best things I ever did really what do you think you learned about people in general by the way you were received afterwards people are people are really really open they don't even know how open people people don't even know how open they're I just thought that Carson is it Carson Daly on clarify the straight guy yeah Carson Daly is Carson Daly Carson somebody but anyway like a funny one that does the clothes he was on Country Music Television Awards today I saw uh-huh and that's amazing giving you know some really straight country guy his award yeah that's that's that's a long way in 12 years yeah does it ever bother you though that it overshadows the music there are people think of you as the lesbian artist does that kind of stuff get in your way and bother you well I think that really is more more enlightening on the person asking the question or making the statement because I think it's in your view that's what I am so I guess that's okay yeah you know there sure I've got I got a little tired of it after I was you knew and after the Vanity Fair cover although it was fantastic at the same time the attention was good but yeah after a while the next I guess five years was was quite tough when you take the gaps between albums you're taking the time what are you doing in your own world nothing nothing swimming actually I work a lot for Tibetan Buddhism so I do a lot of fundraising and I do a lot of practice and and stuff like that and then I really kind of stay completely out of of the music world and then I get sort of tossed back in like yesterday now if we keep saying yes we got tossed back and you've started this tour with symphonies yeah new unique for you something different but working with the Tony Bennett stuff is it similar in some way did that set you up to go on this path yeah Tony the Tony Bennett record and the tour really opened my eyes to what I could do and what I kind of secretly wanted to do which was sing in front of an audience that wants to hear singing and make beautiful music and Tony's just been such an amazing teacher for me just like I really can't believe how precious an opportunity it is to be given a teacher like that in your life it's incredible so yeah my my direction now is is a direct direct directly inspired by Tony tell me a little bit about how the two of you came together in 1993 he did that MTV Unplugged deal and he asked me to sing on that I would we remain friends kind of we just recognize a kindred spirit in each other back then and stayed it stayed in touch and then I guess like three years ago he asked me to open for him and that was a big turning point because I went from usually I carried about nine people on stage nine musicians down to three down to a jazz trio and that just opened up my world I mean just to have that much space as a singer and have that much flexibility within the band itself is just really liberating and it just completely shifted my perspective it Pleasant then the making of wonderful world was you know we were sitting on stage with the band set up just like soundcheck and just record the record in three days and I just I just realized that I it's so crazy to spend six eight months on a record because for me because music is so much about being in the moment and communicating and you know emoting that when you put so much emphasis on the thought process of it it just really is a disservice yeah what did you learn about the craft from working with Tony Bennett um Tony is is the consummate professional on and off the stage and he has it and the most important thing about Tony is that he loves being an artist he lives and breathes being an artist he paints all day sings all night and does it all the next day just rendered shows out of the year he's 78 years old this year they say he is just such an incredible example of how when you are celebrating life that it just gives you tremendous momentum and that I think I mean other than the fact that he's an amazing singer and an amazing entertainer that is the most important thing that I learned from Tony yeah how do you approach the symphonies now having worked with him is there something that you know about how to control that because I would think you're one person in front of this huge world of musicians is there well I just really am trying to just you know they're extremely professional there's they're way more accomplished than I am so I think I'm just trying to just gently walk in there and sing my songs and and respect them as much as possible you know rather than try to you know be the big diva good well you hear some artists will perform with a symphony and they get lost in it because they're tied into following us path because the symphony is all orchestrated around them is it hard to be able to keep your own unique voice and to feel the freedom to emote as you want to sing as you want when you've got this many performers relying on you or going a very certain direction is that an issue I don't think so I think it's just a matter of sticking to the arrangement and then because I've been honing what singing is anyway to me singing is emoting singing as we started at this interview being truthful it's it's it's condensing and defining its it's not like going out and trying to you know it's not I just contradicted myself because I said earlier that it was about flexibility right but when I'm singing like I said it's just like about kind of narrowing in down to the lyric and the melody and just feeling the truth of it and just letting it so no the symphony adds to that because of the harmonic incredible harmonic support that you have around you it's just you can shade your voice either which way or this way or that way and it's just it it's incredibly it just enriches everything are you worried that when this tour is over how you'll get that same thrill the next time you go out the next project no because I get that thrill singing with somebody who's a great guitar player it's about communicating it doesn't matter if it's one or a hundred and twenty thousand yeah it's really about just being in the moment and croute and communicating talked a little bit about your relationship with the audience I've heard you say things before about the audience and they given the take between them but how is that a real relationship when you are so isolated for I mean you're this one person I saw you last night and somebody else something out and you pick it up and reply back but is there a relationship growing there what do you get from them at those moments well it's not my relationship the whole my whole deal is I am again I'm just one person in a room of well I don't know how what the capacity is here but there's like 40 musicians on stage and then my five guys and a roomful of people I'm just one person I'm it's not my relationship to the audience it's the relationship the synergy in the house with everyone I just happened to be standing in the center but I that it's it's really about respecting each individual's experience and not overpowering that and not expecting them to love you and not and not expecting them not to love you but just to let them moment be and have equanimity with each and every person not as it's my show you must like it or I'm the singer here the audience it's not it's it's we're in a show we're doing we're in the show together and yeah it's just it's you know if you couldn't say any more if be it physical or there was no audience for you anymore what would you want to do how would you express all of your your feelings and thoughts honestly I would probably go into a cave and start meditating I would probably give it all up and just put my sights on my practice but I you know my creative drive I'm not like one of these people that like has to create all the time I don't write I don't I mean I paint but that's more like kind of a like a hobby but I I think just live my life and do my practice I don't think I would I don't think I would like you know go crazy and become a producer or some are all producers crazy what do you want to do next I know that you don't like to talk about where you're going next project project wise and you're just starting something new now but in your head without saying maybe what it is are you already thinking about the next step I'm really not I'm really not right now all I'm thinking about is pacing and improving on this show and getting through the summer and then as soon as I'm done this tour my record comes out so then I'm gonna be off promoting the record and doing more shows I'm already booked till the end of March and in Sydney at the Opera House so right now I'm myopic I'm like yeah completely focused I'm gonna take off that focus a little bit ask a little bit about the new record okay so Canadian songbook bass but Canadian songbook yeah anything you want to say about it well it's my blood yes it's you know it's again it was an it was coming off the influence of the Tony thing you know and he did the Louis Armstrong thing with me and he grew up in the story acquaintance with Louie and that was his heritage and it started me thinking about my own heritage and my heritage is Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen and Bill Young and Jane Sabri and it's it's so engrained and innate in me these songs that I can't believe that no one's actually done a Canadian songbook before because it's such a deep treasure of great songs and I find that there's the reason I called the album hymns of the 49th parallel is there's a spiritual link to all of these songs I find Canadian songwriters and especially write songs that use nature very strongly metaphorically an image and for their imagery in the songwriting and you know I grew up in the Canadian Prairies which you know was extremely vast and empty and your spirituality does I mean the way I sing the songs I choose I know are directly integrated in in my upbringing so these songs are its answer that's a really long your question these songs are are my blood well at that point all I have left to say is thank you for taking the time to sit down with us thank you a pleasure Katie Lane to order a transcript call eight six six six five two three three seven eight or sudden $6.95 to the address on your screen please include the name of the guests

Channel: HoustonPBS

Views: 33,734

Rating: 4.8797812 out of 5

Keywords: k.d., lang, innerviews, houston, pbs, ernie, manouse, constant, craving, miss, chatelaine, crying, absolute, torch, and, twang, ingenue, moonglow, what, wonderful, world

Id: BTCaodf9WZ0

Length: 26min 57sec (1617 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2010