Tara MacLean is a singer-songwriter and a member of the pop trio Shaye, which also includes Kim Stockwood and Damhnait Doyle. This summer, Shaye is opening for Willie Nelson on a Canada-wide tour.

How did you first get involved in music?

Music has always been an important part of my life — my mother says that I sang before I spoke. My father was a country - gospel singer and taught me to play the guitar at the age of 12. By the age of 13, I’d written my first song.

What led you to a career in music?

Initially I didn’t want to pursue music professionally. I wanted to do something more stable. I was actually heading toward a career in environmental law. In 1993, during my late teens, I participated in the protest for Clayoquot Sound. I met the Raging Grannies, who inspired me to communicate my passion for the environment through my music. I wrote a song about Clayoquot Sound and, while playing the song on a ferry from Victoria to Vancouver, I was discovered and then signed to my first record deal, with Nettwerk Records.

How did your band choose the name Shaye?

Shaye is Gaelic for courage and freedom. It was the name of my sister, who died suddenly in a car accident in May 2002 at the age of 27. Shaye was an artist and an activist as well. By naming the band after her, we take her with us wherever we go. There’s also a song, “Star”, on our latest album, that we wrote for her.

When did you first become concerned about the environment?

I grew up in the backwoods of Prince Edward Island with no running water and no electricity. My parents grew their own food and raised me with a love and respect for the earth. It was a wonderful way to grow up. As a child, I was always fascinated with frogs — I still consider them my totem animal. I used to watch their whole life cycle from egg to tadpole to full-grown frog. Today, those frog eggs are drying up and certain species are threatened with extinction. It scares me that my children may not experience what was so precious to me as a child.

The song “This is the Moment” on Shaye’s Lake of Fire album contains a real environmental call to action. What inspired the song?

We wanted to write a song that speaks for our time. Damhnait had just returned from a visit to Afghanistan and had seen the impact of war on the children of that country. At the same time, as each day goes by, the reality of global warming becomes increasingly clear. So the song deals with the general state of the world. We need to make serious changes for the sake of our children and as David Suzuki and most of the world’s leading scientists are telling us, time is running out.

What is your perspective on climate change and the threat it now poses?

When I saw An Inconvenient Truth it confirmed a lot of things that I already knew. I clearly recall the world scientists’ warning to humanity in 1993. At the time, I was so appalled that society was just carrying on as usual that it made me weep. It’s now 14 years later and we’ve made such little progress and I can’t help but think “if we had only done something then.” There is much to be done and we need to get on with it.

Why did you decide to bullfrogpower your home with green electricity?

My brother-in-law, Rob Grand, is the owner of Grassroots Environmental Products. He was an early supporter of Bullfrog for his home and his business. Rob told my husband Ted all about Bullfrog and then Ted sat us down for a family meeting about the need for clean power. Even my five-year-old daughter understood and we’ve been Bullfrog customers ever since.

What other things have you done in your personal life to reduce your environmental footprint?

My husband, Ted Grand, is one of my great inspirations. Ted is trained as an organic farmer and is also a beautiful yoga teacher. His own studio, Moksha Yoga, is environmentally designed and managed from top to bottom. Our plan is to move from the city and build our little eco home and raise our children closer to nature. We’re a vegan family and we try to always eat organic and avoid factory-farmed foods. We also try to imagine where the things we consume come from. We buy secondhand clothes for our children and we also try to buy clothing made from organic and alternative fibres.

We use non-toxic cleaning products and paints and we use a push mower for our lawn (well, Ted does). We also consider the packaging of products before we buy them and for birthdays we often make donations to charity rather than buy gifts. But beyond all of these actions, we believe that our top priority and the most effective thing we can do is to teach our children to respect the earth.

What about on the road?

We’ve bullfrogpowered the Alberta and Ontario shows on our current tour so that the electricity used for those shows is displaced with green electricity from Bullfrog’s sources. On tour, as much as we can, we carry our own food or we source it from local health food stores. We also use reusable water bottles and coffee cups. And we offset the impact of our air travel. There’s room for broad change within the music industry. There are a lot of bands right now, like The Tragically Hip and the Barenaked Ladies, that are trying to reduce the impact of their tours. Like theirs, our current album is packaged in a “digipack” with recycled paper and no jewel case.

Your music career has taken you all across Canada. Is there a uniquely Canadian perspective on the environment?

Yes. Canada is an absolute treasure. The Canadian connection to the environment is clear in the classic Canadian literature of Margaret Atwood, Farley Mowat and so many others. And, of course, we have David Suzuki, who is an inspiration to us all. We have a stunning resource of wisdom from our First Nations people. Their relationship to nature and their openness to share their stories, ceremonies and art give us a treasure of ancient tradition that connects us to nature. We also learn, through them, that the healing of ourselves, our communities and our society as a whole is directly connected to cherishing and protecting the earth. All across Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia, I’ve met people who are looking for a change. So many people are clued in and are ready to take personal responsibility to make a difference, and that makes it an exciting time to be alive.