Jesus freak Hideout:
We all know about your history of getting tied up
in record label problems. But we haven?t seen the
whole story about why your album was held up for so
long. What happened? And have you just not been
talking about the situation, or has no one really
asked?
Leigh Nash:
I feel that we have talked about it until we're blue in the face. It is such a headache to even recall it,
that it is not a positive subject to talk about for me. The situation was so complicated that after all
this time I have a hard time getting it all straight, so let's just leave it with label problems that
had nothing to do with the band.
JFH: It's understood that Divine Discontent underwent
a series of changes while it was held up before finally
going public. If it had been released when intended, how
different would that album have been musically and lyrically?
Leigh:
The album was just more true to the time it was made before because we had just finished it and
it was so fresh to us. I don't think it changed drastically, it just would have had a few different
songs and no Crowded House cover obviously :)
JFH: Rob and JD are new additions to Sixpence since your
last album. What is Dale Baker doing these days? What
happened there?
Leigh:
Dale is living in North Carolina with his wife and their new born son. They are doing very well there.
Sixpence has been together for many years now and it was time for Dale to make a change in his life.
JFH: As expected, rumors abound on the topic of your
status as a "Christian band." Comments by Leigh in an
interview with Pulse magazine have made some longtime
fans wonder how far the band has come from its
Christian roots. How has your view of the Christian
music industry changed since The Fatherless and the
Widow was released? Have your label woes influenced
your personal faith?
Leigh: We have often been frustrated by being labeled a Christian band
and have explained why countless times. I am a big fat Christian and do not care who knows that.
When it comes to our music we'd just like it to be taken for it's musical value and not lobbed onto a
big bandwagon. I'm not concerned with answering to anyone or pleasing anyone but God, so I'm much
less affected these days by the negativity that is sometimes directed towards us for being either too
Christian or not Chritian enough.
JFH: This album is markedly less technical - many think
more accessible - than your last album. Was this
change intentional? Any comments on the difference
between the two albums as you see them?
Leigh: This record was not changed from the last on purpose. We worked with a different
producer and of course recorded different songs, but I think the main goal was just to do the best
we could to bring the life in the songs out the most.
JFH: How has your intense pop success ("Kiss Me," "There She Goes") colored your
songwriting, if at all?
Leigh: Matt does so much of the writing, fome my point of view it does'nt seem that
Matt's writing is different. I think he gets better all the time, but I don't see anything as
markedly different than before he wrote "Kiss Me". And I write some too and am not clever
enough to change something to make it sound more like a hit :)
JFH: What CDs have been in your stereos lately? What
artists do you feel are currently making an influence
on you and on the rest of the contemporary music
scene?
Leigh: Right now for me it's The Cardigans new record and Fountains of Wayne
have a new one that's awesome. I love what Norah Jones has been able to do. I'm so thrilled that
people have responded to beautiful music on such a mass level. For a while there I was beginning
to think you had to be a stripper to get people to buy your records.
JFH: What keeps Sixpence None the Richer moving forward?
Where do you see yourselves in another five or ten
years, and how will you get there?
Leigh: What's kept us together so far is a love for and a belief in what we are doing.
I would like to have children in five years and still be singing something for someone.
JFH: Leigh and Matt have been making music for more than
ten years now. What do you see when you look back? How
do you react to your old music?
Leigh: Mostly what I see is how young we were. My voice sounds so frail to
me when I listen to it on those first records we did. I was so unsure of myself and what I was doing,
but it makes me smile. I'm so thankful God has placed me where He has.
JFH: What is the story behind the song "Down And Out of Time" on your
latest record Divine Discontent?
Leigh: That song is about an argument I had with my mom about how I lay all my garbage out
for everyone (my family) to help me deal with. I learned a lot about myself, as I always seem to with my
mama. We are very close, I guess that's why we're able to argue like that and still be alright.
JFH: What are your favorite songs on this latest album
and why?
Leigh: "Tension Is A Passing Note" and "Tonight". "Tension" because of it's brutal honesty
and "Tonight" because it is so simple and the music has such a nice drive to it.
JFH: What is your all-time favorite Sixpence song and why?
Leigh: All time favorite Sixpence song is "Tension is a Passing Note".
JFH: What has been one of your most memorable live performance moments?
Leigh: Favorite live moment was playing at Cornerstone for the first time in a small tent.
It was raining outside, I was wearing my mom's wedding shoes. I was so happy to sing for that small
crowd of people (maybe 50), and they seemed happy to listen.