Sixpence None The Richer – Interview [2002]

We chat with Sixpence singer Leigh Nash!

I remember meeting you in Buffalo back when “Kiss Me” was breaking and interviewing you, you couldn’t have been sweeter thank you…

…Awwww.

And I remember back then you had issues with a previous record label and now it’s the same exact situation.

I was just thinking about how I could have never dreamed back then that for our next record we would have a completely new set of people to work with. It was bizarre.

Where you working on the new record for Squint?

Yes. We thought everything was great. Little did we know things were not great. Just as we finished having the record mixed we realized that the label was in trouble. So our contract was subject to move around. It got scary for a couple of years.

When was Divine Discontent finished?

Mid-summer of 2001, but since then, in the last four or five months, we added five new songs. So we had to take some songs off that new record. It’s fresh to us.

Divine Discontent is the type of record that grows on you.

Thank you.

It really stuck with me one day while I was driving in the car.

I really love to listen to music in the car.

Was the songwriting similar to is has been in the past?

It has been, but when we went back in and wrote the new songs Matt and I wrote a song together, which was really cool for me, “Down Out Of Time”.

Was there pressure to write hits in order to follow up “Kiss Me”?

Not at first. We felt very little pressure because our label wasn’t the type to put pressure on us, but when the record label went under and we went to a different label we did feel some pressure then because they had some demands. That was a good thing though. It was hard to get a single that would make everybody happy in order to get this record out, but everything worked itself out.

It’s unbelievable that you’ve had three records and each on a different label.

I know and I’m starting to think this isn’t normal. (We both laugh) If we just keep making music together we’ll be all right.

Fans are fickle; I was wondering if you worried fans might forget you? Even though as I listened to the record and thought to myself ‘if it’s good fans will find it’.

I totally agree. I think we will have old fans and hopefully make new fans. The hardest part was when we found out it wasn’t coming out for a long time that our fans might forget us. Hopefully this album is quality enough that our fans will come back. I think with this record we’d like people to see there is more depth to us, and our music, than most pop bands.

It seems to me that this record could break up the monotone in music today.

Thank you. I do agree that music is monotonous today; unfortunately there is more bad music than good.

Everyone complained about pop music and it all sounding the same and how they hoped rock would make a comeback, well its back and its bad.

(Laughs) I agree. We just talked about that last night. I hope that we can get more exposure and that we can break out of the pop thing because our first two singles did tag us.

Were you worried at all that people would just think you broke up?

Totally. I would read on the internet that we broke up or I’d hear it through someone here in town who’d ask ‘did you guys break up?’ It would kill me every time.

Makes you want to go burn a cd real quick.

(Laughs) I know.

When you sing a song isn’t it hard to get into it emotionally?

No, not at all. I think that is the beauty of Matt and my relationship. We’ve been doing this since, I think our first collaboration was when I was fifteen and he was seventeen. We’ve done it for a long time and there is just something really nice about us working together. His songs never feel like I’m singing someone else’s song. It never feels awkward.

From fifteen to now has your voice changed?

It has, its matured. It is aging with me. I’m twenty-six now and I’ve heard that your voice doesn’t mature until your mid-thirties. I’m excited about that.

The one thing that all reviewers point out is your voice. What is it like to be put in that position with the accolades about your voice?

It’s very flattering. I was talking to my husband about it. I was telling him how some people actually hate my voice. Everyone is their own worse critic and I’m my worst critic. Sometimes I read reviews and it seems that some people seem to point out everything bad I think about. I could read a hundred good reviews and five bad ones, but the bad ones always prevail over the positive ones because that is what I’m thinking sometimes. I love my voice and I’m so lucky, but I’m definitely not marching in this parade of Leigh Nash. (We both laugh)

I hate reviewing cds. It’s really hard for me because I do a lot of interviews and I know how hard artists work. So it’s hard to be so very critical.

I can see that. Sometimes I think some reviewers just set out to tear people down.

I believe that totally. I know they do. On the one hand it is easy to see how critics and writers can be jealous, there is a level of frustration there.

Right. I can see that.

I personally think if you can’t deal with an artist or the mood then just pass the record on. I don’t like being a critic. I love music and want to enjoy and not sit there and think ‘well they could have done this’. It sucks to be honest.

I wouldn’t even know where to start if I had to review a cd.

After “Kiss Me” there seemed to be a small influx of artists trying to follow on your success, one being Dido. Did you think the same thing?

That was interesting for me. I saw her and I thought ‘this is just great, my band is going down the toilet with our label and now there is Dido who somehow looks almost like me’. One day I was crying because of her. Mark, my husband, had to talk me down from the top of the roof. He was like ‘she doesn’t sound like you, and she doesn’t look like you either’. (We laugh)

Wow, so you were thinking the same thing as I was then?

Yeah, I was really upset. I mean we do have different voices, and she is amazing and I have come to appreciate her a lot. I got over that.

It just seems the flavor of Dido is similar to Sixpence.

I got over my issues and it is actually a compliment in some sense to think that anyone would possibly try to be anything like us. It’s funny because right now the same company manages us now. She is great. I keep her songs on every time they come on the radio.

Are there any singers that have come out in the last few years that you really enjoy?

I really like Phantom Planet. I think the songwriting is so strong. I also really love Norah Jones.

+ charlie craine