SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER HIT MANILA
By Lianne Soncuya (yet another pseudonym of mine)

published in PHILMUSIC.com : 2000

With their smash hit single "Kiss Me" from the movie She's All That making it big in radio stations from the here to the US, it might seem like the folk-rock quintet Sixpence None The Richer have only now exploded into the music scene. New band, big hit, bang! Worldwide success. The truth is more down-to-earth.
___ Sixpence actually started out in 1989 when lead singer Leigh Nash and guitarist Matt Slocum met. Since then, they've added members, recorded three albums, toured relentlessly across the United States in support of their records, and gone through several major personnel line-ups. The smash success of "Kiss Me" only serves to underscore the commitment they've put into their music.

Last July 30, Sixpence None The Richer put on a show at Zu in the Shangri-La Hotel, Makati to a large audience of newly recruited fans. Opening acts that night were local acts from Warner Music, Excerpts and Barbie's Cradle.
___ Their visit was the first leg of their Asian Promo Tour and already, at the press lunch on July 30, some members were looking frazzled by the travel and grueling promotions schedules.

But in the 30-minute long press conference, we were at least able to ask founding members Matt Slocum and Leigh Nash some pertinent questions:

PhilMusic: Did you find it compromising to be in a situation where you changed from being a Christian band to a rock band?
Leigh: We didn't feel like we belonged there…we weren't happy being confined to being a Christian band…kind of reaching out and making music for the world.

PM: What about your background. Could you tell us where you come from, what you have been doing, what are your future songs…?
Leigh: We grew up in the same town in Texas, it's a pretty small town. Matt has been in some bands before, we were both very young, and we went to the same church and the same high school but he was four years older than I was.
___ I had been singing in church and around town and he heard me during one of those times, so he asked me to sing a song. And we recorded that and that led to other recordings together and we really enjoyed making music together. So we decided to do it more seriously as time went on. It kind of snowballed.
___ The first thing that happened was once we became Sixpence None The Richer we actually decided to be a band, we got a record deal pretty early on…so we recorded the first record, then the second, and we toured quite a bit.

PM: This year you were one of the star attractions in the Lilith Fair festival. How did you catch the attention of Sarah McLachhlan?
Matt: There's a man in our label, that the year before this (last summer) he was very persistent in getting our CDs to the office where the booking takes place for the Lilith Fair. And he sent several packages of (our) CDs to their office and that kind of got their attention. They listened to the album and they liked it so they let us play one day last year. We had a really good time.

PM: What do you think is the greatest hazard of your becoming the next big thing in music right now?
Leigh: Oh, I don't know. I think definitely the worst part of all this is traveling so much. Missing our families. So that's the worst part. Keeping a personal life is very important so I hope we'll be able to maintain that…

PM: For Matt … Can you explain why in the album you use a lot of Biblical passages as song lyrics?
Matt: My mom was an English teacher, my dad with a bookstore, my grandmother was a librarian, and my grandfather was an English professor, so I grew up reading books. That's what was a big thing in my family, so a lot of the inspiration for songs comes from literature and reading. And Biblical passages, well…that's one of the books that I read.

PM: How does it feel to be the newest band that's been around for ten years?
Matt: The very first time we recorded together when we first met was about ten years ago … It feels really good after so long. To have something happen like this, especially after the bad times that we went through. We really feel very encouraged, very thankful.

PM: Who are your influences, musically?
Leigh: Mine, personally, I started out when I met Matt, listening to a lot of old country music like Patsy Kline and Tammy Wynette, Crystal Gale, Dolly Parton… a lot of old country singers. Then when I met Matt we started to branch out and listened to more pop bands, rock bands, Radiohead…
Matt: … like XTC and the Beatles. We've really grown to listen to all types of music. You know, a little of country, classical jazz, world music. We really like to explore all types of music.

PM: What's next for Sixpence…?
Leigh: Uh, well on Sunday we'll fly to Seoul, Korea and stay there for a few days, then we'll head back to America and we'll take a much-needed vacation. In September we'll hit the road with a band called Better Than Ezra, do a small European tour at the end of the year and in the Spring we'll begin on a new record so we're very excited about that.

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