The "Invincible" Woman
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by Katherine Bell
A few days before she heads out on her first major tour in three years,
k.d. lang chatted to PlanetOut about her lush and defiantly happy new
album, "Invincible Summer," her dog Saylor (barking
in the background), and the power and perils of the Web.
PlanetOut: It sounds like the last couple of years have been
wonderful
ones for you -- you took some time off and moved to L.A., and you're in
love ...
lang: Yeah, things are good right now.
PlanetOut: You've said in other interviews that this album
reflects that
time for you.
lang: It's very autobiographical and very celebrational. I've
never been
quite so either able or willing to make a record so unabashedly happy.
I've always focused on the melancholy and the minor modes. But I was
feeling it, and it came out of me, so I'm unapologetically satisfied
with
the tone of the record.
PlanetOut: Was it fun for you to make a record like that?
lang: It was a lot of fun for me. It was very easygoing in terms
of the
attitude. We worked very hard on it, but everyone had fun together. The
atmosphere of the recording and the writing was very breezy.
PlanetOut: How does it feel to be about to launch another tour?
lang: It's a little bit ominous at this point. We're in our
final days
of rehearsal. We have to get the wardrobe together, the set together,
the
staging. So we're on the bottom of the mountain looking up. But once we
get going I think it's going to be fantastic. The band's sounding
really,
really good, and they're all my friends. So I'm very excited about
getting
out there and getting in the groove again.
PlanetOut: Are you nervous at all about giving up your downtime?
lang: My domestic comforts? I am, although my partner's a
musician, so
it's very supportive. I guess the hardest thing for me is going to be
not
being around my dog. She really is the light of my life and a big
big, big fuel for me. But I also love the two hours I'm singing every
night. That's the ultimate, quintessential fuel for me. ... I think it
will just be a shift in balance.
PlanetOut: When you played at Equality Rocks,
sharing a stage with Melissa and Ellen, and George Michael and Garth, it was a really powerful statement about gay
rights. What was that like for you?
lang: It was very exciting, especially to see an audience that
size. It
was very overwhelming, really, to see that kind of support. It was a
landmark in terms of what we've accomplished over the last 25 years or
so
... to see it culminate like that in a stadium and feel the energy.
After
my performance I went out and hung out with the crowd a few times, and
it
was a really great feeling.
PlanetOut: It seemed to me that making such an unabashedly happy
and
poppy record as an out lesbian is a statement in itself, because it's
such a stereotype that we're tortured all the time.
lang: That's very perceptive of you. It's very, very true --
you're dead on. It's going to be interesting to see whether or not this
record is
accepted in America because of that.
PlanetOut: Have you heard a lot of feedback yet? Are you
surprised by
how people are reacting?
lang: I don't really know how people are reacting. I know the
reviews
from Europe were overwhelmingly positive, but that's all I know. The
real
response I'm concerned about is when I'm onstage and I'm singing the
songs. That, to me, is the big indication. Because there are so many
variables [that determine] whether records connect, and it's not
necessarily about the
music.
PlanetOut: You've been promoting the album in an incredibly
Web-savvy way -- the record even premiered on the Web. How has the
Internet changed
your experience of the music industry?
lang: The Web is a very good place for me to market my
record for two reasons. One, because I'm 40 years old and my music
doesn't appeal to the
MTV or the VH1 crowd anymore. It doesn't even necessarily get played on
the radio. My market really is not even going into record stores;
they're at home and probably on the computer. Also, the gay network on
the Web is very, very big, and I think it's a good way to corral and
to connect with gay listeners. So to me, the Web is ultimately a
powerful
way to connect with people who are not necessarily a "targetable"
demographic.
PlanetOut: What else do you use the Web for, nonprofessionally?
lang: Motorcycles. Looking at color schemes for my new Triumph.
I'm
trying to figure out how I'm going to paint it. [Laughs.] Once in awhile
if I want to send a thank-you gift I'll use it to buy something and send
it. Or to find a CD that I'm looking for. I like to use the dictionary
on
it when I'm writing. Just stuff like that.
PlanetOut: Do you ever go online to see what your fans are
saying about
you?
lang: No. I used to. I did for about four months, and then it
got so
neurotic and retarded that I just thought, this is really not for me to
be here.
PlanetOut: A lot of the people who come to PlanetOut are young
gay men
and lesbians who are just coming out. Do you have any advice for them?
lang: My overall advice is to be confident in who they are and not to
focus on the adversity against us, whether it's Christianity or the
right wing. If you're in a scary, negative situation, I would say get
out
of there. Surround yourself if you can with likeminded people and feel
confident with who you are.
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