Sarah McLachlan reflects on 30 years of 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,' connecting with fans

Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan is about to be hit with nostalgia overload: She's going back to the '90s with her "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" 30th Anniversary Tour.

The Grammy Award winner released her third studio album, "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy," at a fruitful time in her career. After the success of her first two records, McLachlan was given a lot of creative freedom to create the album, she said in a recent interview with The Desert Sun. Twenty-five, single for the first time in her adult life and with no children, she was able to "just immerse myself fully in the music."

Since that album's release, plenty has happened in McLachlan's life, including raising two daughters, releasing plenty more records and forever being synonymous with an ASPCA animal commercial. But the connections she created with fans over "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" remain, and they're one of the many reasons why she's looking forward to revisiting that era in her musical life.

McLachlan is taking her 30th anniversary tour to Acrisure Arena on June 1, with special guest Feist. Tickets are available for purchase at Ticketmaster.com.

Fumbling through life

"Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" is likely what many 20-something-year-olds would call that decade of self-discovery and trying to find happiness in life. For McLachlan, the name is "truly indictive of the life I think I'm trying to lead."

"Life is very messy, and it's never a straight path," the singer said. "We make mistakes constantly and I think that's where we grow the most from, and that growth and working toward something that is meaningful, that's the goal, that is ecstasy, or a brief moment of it anyway."

Making her third studio album was a bit like emancipation for McLachlan. After she was signed to a record deal at a young age and had a successful launch with "Touch," making the sophomore album was "a little terrifying," although it also succeeded on the charts. By the time she started making "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy," she felt settled in her craft and life.

"I didn't have kids, no boyfriend, it was just a deep dive (into) who I am and how do I want to show up in the world and what kind of music do I want to make," McLachlan said. "I had a ton of freedom to pursue that."

That freedom was "pretty unusual" back then, and she said it's unusual now as well. If she was making "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" today, the circumstances could be totally different.

"That being said, in some ways artists have more freedom these days. It's very easy to make a record on your computer in your bedroom," she said. "The challenge then is to get it out there and rise above all the noise that's out there because so many people are making music. Perhaps so many more people are making music now and being able to release music than they were back then. So it just becomes more challenging to figure out how to market yourself and get yourself out there."

Social media has become people's best friends when it comes to increasing their visibility around the world. At 25, she "would have been really savvy" with it, but now "it's really uninteresting," she laughed. Instead of scrolling through endless Instagram Reels and TikToks, she much rather spends time with her children or reads a good book.

At the time of this interview, McLachlan was days away from beginning rehearsals for the tour, spending most of her time up until then working on new music in the studio.

"I just started practicing by myself going, 'OK I don't want to be the weakest link when we start rehearsals and not remember any songs.' It's been probably 26 years since I've played some of these songs," she said.

Connecting with fans

Aside from getting to dive back into hit songs such as "Possession," "Hold On" and "Good Enough," McLachlan is most looking forward to connecting with her fans.

"You're not only experiencing your own thing, but symbiotically experiencing some of what the audience is going through as well," she said.

When "Fumbling" first came out, many of her fans were around the same age as her and entering adult life, and the record proved to be "powerful for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons," she said. Even to this day, they tell her that the album got them through college, McLachlan added.

Since she announced her 30th anniversary tour, McLachlan said she's being stopped on the street again with fans telling her they're "so excited about it."

"Honestly, that's a huge part of the joy of making music and playing live, that connection. We can do it in our living room and bedrooms until the cows come home by ourselves, but ultimately the big payoff, the big emotional payoff and release, is in playing live and getting to share all that music, not only with the musicians on stage but the audience," McLachlan said. "There's a palpable feeling and energy that's going back and forth. It's a pretty great drug."

The commercial that changed it all

Upon hearing the first few notes of McLachlan's song "Angel," most people likely have one image in mind: The singer holding shelter animals for an ASPCA commercial. It was effective, as the commercial raised more than $30 million for the nonprofit organization since it first aired in 2007, according to the New York Times.

Leading up to that, McLachlan spearheaded the all-women traveling music festival Lilith Fair from 1997-1999, released three more albums, "Surfacing" (1997), "Afterglow" (2003) and "Wintersong" (2006), and overall was enjoying a busy, "exciting and fun" time in her life. But that ad has stood the test of time, leading to "Angel" having long legs and plenty of spoofs of the commercial.

"I remember being on tour and stopping in a 24-hour Target and getting recognized. 'You're on that commercial!" she recalled a person say to her.

The song has also caused a bit of unnecessary drama. She recalled that she was set to play at a food bank in New York and organizers asked her not to perform "Angel" because they felt it was "too synonymous" with another charity.

"At that point I'm like, 'OK, we gotta pull back from this, this is not OK,'" McLachlan said. "I can't not (play it), that was the ridiculous thing about that. That's the song everybody wants to hear."

Lucky for fans, she hasn't let anything stop her from playing "Angel" in recent years, which she said is one of her favorite songs to play live.

As she approaches her Acrisure Arena show, McLachlan has nothing but gratitude for the last 30 years.

"I can't believe it's been 30 years. That's just crazy. It's crazy that I get to do this after 30 years," she said. "I'm so grateful that I have this crazy gig that feeds me in so many amazing ways."

If you go

What: Sarah McLachlan Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 1

Where: Acrisure Arena, 75-702 Varner Road, Palm Desert

How much: Prices vary at ticketmaster.com

More info: https://acrisurearena.com/event/sarah-mclachlan/

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.