Windspeaker Confidental Susan Aglukark

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Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Susan: I need a friend who is very true and very solid in themselves and their self-confidence, because you can easily get caught up in [celebrity]. Even friends can get caught up in a celebrity's career and you lose sight of why you're together or why you're friends. So that's the biggest thing for me, is somebody who's solid and grounded and not intimidated.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

S: Besides a seven-year-old when he's having a bad day? It's just people who aren't very wise with time. And it sounds like a very silly answer, but time is valuable when you have a career like mine. And I have four sisters and two brothers, my parents are both alive, and I have a handful of friends, just a handful, just enough to manage. Because quality time is very, very hard to come by, so when you come across people who, you know, I love my fan base, I will always take time for my fans, but you need to respect each other. And I just have a hard time with people who write e-mail or write letters, and they go on and on and on and on. But I have a responsibility to stay there and to respond, or to respect their on and on-ness. So I will. And in the meantime, other people are losing out. I don't treat people that way. I would not like to be treated that way. So it's just people who have no sensitivity to other people's situations or circumstances. That's what frustrates me the most about this career. That's one of the things I have a hard time with.

W: When are you at your happiest?

S: Personally or career? Two totally different things. I think personally, the obvious, obvious answer is when I'm playing with my son. Because that's when you're freest and there's no schedule. There's no expectations. There's just you and the child. Career, probably on stage. Probably on stage when I'm telling a story before a song, because people are so intent on the story. You have their complete attention and they want to know what the song is all about. And that's a really good moment for me.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?

S: Probably when I'm very indecisive. Too indecisive. There are moments, I think, where we're all, 'No, you decide. No, you decide. No you decide.' That's probably it.

W: What one person do you most admire and why?

S: One person. I am probably Bruce Cockburn's biggest fan. Probably. I admire everything about him. I don't know his personal life, and I don't need to know to know that I love him as an artist, and the causes he represents. So it probably would be Bruce Cockburn, because he knows himself. He knows what he wants to speak up about and he does, compassionately and [with conviction]. And I really admire that in him.

W: What is the most difficult thing you've ever had to do?

S: Probably leave home. Leave home and stay away. That's the hardest thing. It's an ongoing struggle for me, and always will be. But it's a necessary thing for my choice of career. I couldn't do this and be this successful if I'd stayed home in the Arctic, because I wouldn't get that full, rounded perspective. I wouldn't have been forced to read up on the history. I wouldn't have been able to see things from the outside in and have a healthy kind of opinion. In my opinion it's healthy. But I think it's a well-rounded opinion. Because I'm not there, I'm not affected at that moment by what goes on up there. And I think it's made me healthier in terms of psychology and thinking. It's made me a healthier person so I can have a better idea about what to say and what not to say about the changes up there. So that's the hardest thing for me, is not being there. But I've had to do it.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?

S: My son. My baby.

W: What one goal remains out of reach?

S: Flying. I want to fly. I want to fly planes. That's the one that's still, I know, because of this career, I won't do for a very long time. And I love it. I lve it so much that it's a painful, out-of-reach goal for me right now. But it'll happen. I just know for a fact that it's not going to happen for a long time.

W: If you couldn't do what you're doing today, what would you be doing?

S: Flying. Flying. I'd be flying a plane.

W: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

S: You know what? I don't know that I have any to draw from. I think my parents were just so shocked that I turned out the way that I did that they never gave me any direction. 'She's doing fine. Don't ruin a good thing.' Probably it would have to be something my husband did as opposed to say, which was to, in his own way, encourage me to keep it up. There are very dark moments in an artist's time, and I had some very dark times where I was ready to just let it all go. And I think it would have to be him telling me, 'No, you hang in there, because you're going to be miserable in 10 years and I don't want to be married to a miserable person.' It's not so much that, it's just some very, very kind of seeing into the future hindsight type thing for him. He knew, he knew what I loved and he knew I had to keep it up. So I guess that would have to be it.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?

S: I think what I hope they remember the most is the songwriting. Because to date, every single song I've written has a living, breathing person in it. Except for one song, all 59 of the other songs that have been recorded is from a living, breathing person. And I think what I would like people to remember about Susan Aglukark is the history that I was able to share through these songs. And the history lives on. It's what keeps a culture going, and that's what it's all about. And even though it's not so much history about Inuit culture itself, it's history about living, breathing people. And it's respecting humanity in that way, and I hope that people will see that now, and they'll see that in 20 years.