Merchant Class

`At one point in history, heretics would have been burned at the stake," Natalie Merchant muses, before suddenly jumping back in her chair, exclaiming: "Jesus! What was that?" Right on cue, believe it or not, a bolt of lightning had shot past her Dublin hotel room.

She had been ruminating on how "people in pagan cultures had a different relationship with the spirit world than we have now". Laughing lightly, she shakes her head, pours a glass of mineral water and jokes: "I knew I shouldn't have worn that nun's outfit for Ophelia!"

Indeed, Merchant is fully aware that, in her homeland of the US, right-wing Christian fundamentalists would probably like to see her "struck down" - if only because of that nun's garb on the cover of her new album. After all, her buddy Joan Osborne, who flew to Dublin to attend Merchant's gig last week, has been pilloried by these same people because of the what-if-God-was-a-slob analogy in her song One Of Us. In other words, "witches" are still burned at the stake in America. Metaphorically.

More chillingly, the "enemy" - as in doctors who perform abortions - also are shot dead by "pro-life" activists.

"Dressing like a nun was risky, I know, in the context of those attacks on Joan, but in the film I made to accompany this album the nun is treated with respect," Merchant says. "What I was focusing on was the fact that in Central America, where there has been so much political unrest, the Catholic Church has organised rebellions against repressive regimes, as a result of Liberation theology. And they have been martyred because of that. So I just can't be one of those moderns who totally discounts the convictions of thousands of people who go to their death for those beliefs.

"I was brought up as a Catholic and there still are aspects of Catholicism I admire. Don and Karen Peris, who play on my album, are devout Catholics. I don't mess with that! And, as for the murder you mention, that took place in Buffalo, New York, which is pretty close to Jamestown, where I grew up, so, of course, I don't take things like that lightly."

Nevertheless, despite describing the murder of the doctor in Buffalo, as "horrendous", Merchant also believes "it is criminal that so many out-spoken feminists, and members of the `pro-choice' movement, deny the argument that life begins at conception". Choosing her words carefully, she clarifies her position on what, after the interview, she describes as a "hugely contentious" issue.

"As much as I am annoyed by the tactics of the so-called Pro-lifers, I'm also annoyed by the tactics of the `pro-choice' people," she says. "They both have valid arguments and in the work I've done with the Pro-Choice Movement, I'm the one who stands up and says `personally, I think abortion is murder and that's why I've never had an abortion'. But most of my friends have had abortions and I don't judge them on that. So all I'm saying is, let's not stifle the argument, let's not try to silence one side of the debate. Too many in the Pro-Choice Movement do just that, shouting down the opposite point of view."

Merchant also rejects the notion "that we now are living in a post-feminist era". Such claims are "bullshit" she says, citing in part her recent on-the-ground experience co-headlining, with Sarah McLaughlin, the all-female-performers Lillith Tour, where $1 from every ticket sold was given to "needy organisations" in whatever territory the tour played.

"I had done previous tours on my own and done the same thing, invited the executive directors of, say, the nearest battered women's shelter to speak at the concert and ask for donations and volunteers," she explains.

"I found a kindred spirit in Sarah, in the sense that we agreed we should give something back to the communities we played in, especially to women in need, or women driven from their homes by violence. It is violence against women that will keep me a feminist, the fact that I can't feel safe walking down any street, of any city, after dark. That's why I can't accept it when women in America say we live in a post-feminist era. Middle-class, educated, white women have achieved equality but check out the sweat shops, where women of ethnic origin still are exploited to a brutal degree." Not surprisingly, Merchant also has no time for critics who say that as a "mere pop star" she should keep such opinions to herself.

Or those who say she is "too earnest" and that her music is too "melancholic" and "lacking in irony". "There are a lot of things about being a modern female, living in America, on the verge of the new millennium that I want to address," she says. "I want to tell people I know there is confusion, that it is a cold world out there. That's why I wrote songs like Life Is Sweet, Break Your Heart and The Living. But as for the `irony free' accusation, didn't anyone notice that on the cover of Ophelia I also am dressed like a moll from the Mafiosi, in a pink nightie? But no, there isn't any irony in the songs."

Addressing the claim that her music is melancholic, Merchant says: "I've kept the really dark stuff off the new album - except for, maybe, Effigy, which is as dark as I want to get." Effigy is also one of the most haunted and beautiful tracks on Ophelia - thanks partly to the glorious accompanying vocal from Tibetan devotional singer Yungchen Llhamo.

"Yungchen is a devout, orthodox Buddhist and thinks of music the same way her brother thinks of art," Merchant enthuses. "He does purification rituals and prayers before he even thinks of picking up a paintbrush because, for him, his painting has to be imbued with his love of the Buddha and his wish to impart good feelings and `prayer' on the person who looks on the painting. That's the way Yungchen prepares herself for singing. She prays before she sings and believes that when she does sing she is transferring this energy into other people." All of which pretty much sums up Merchant's approach to her own music - even if she does say "I don't go out on stage consciously thinking I am imparting blessings on my audience!"

Her aspirations in terms of what she earlier described as "the spirit world" are somewhat similar to those of Yungchen Llhamo. This, of course, brings us back to our original topic, and leaves us both watching the window for any further sign of lightning.

"In many ways we are modern savages," Merchant concludes. "The more we whittle down our culture, the more we lose. The driving force in America now is to achieve pleasure. I don't subscribe to a society that is based on hedonism. That applies to my music, which I see more as serving the purpose of enjoyment, yes, but also, education, enlightenment, dissemination of ideas, a continuation of culture.

I may not be a believer now, in terms of any specific religion but, definitely the church, its architecture and litany, all combined to create in me a sense of a presence on earth of something otherworldly and that, ideally, does come across in my music."