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Nash: When we first started Sixpence, I was so young. I was determined not to ever see the ugly side of the music business that people referred to all time. I was absolutely determined. I would say in interviews, "Well, I just let everybody else deal with that stuff, and I concentrate on the music."

Down the road, you realize that it's impossible to do that if you have a brain, any desires in life, or you want to make a living. It is unfortunate that the business and the creative sides should ever cross paths. But they're forced to. The business side of things dumbs down the creative process. It puts strain on it and makes it into something unnatural and forced. That has become something that's been unavoidable and very disappointing.

How have the legal and business struggles held the band back?

Nash: Hopefully we're stronger. It's created quite a bit of conflict within us; it makes us question, "Why in the world did this have to happen and what did we do wrong?"

Looking back, I don't believe we did do anything wrong. I don't think we made any decisions that at the time were wrong decisions. We just did the best we could with the knowledge that we had. So that's frustrating to look back and say, "What were we supposed to do?"

I don't necessarily think this was something that God meant or willed to happen. But I know that good can come out of it. I believe in free will. People make mistakes, and I think that's what has happened.

I like to think that God's hand has been on us this whole time, and that's been the reason for the success. Matt and I both do, and that's why we're still together. There's more to be said and more to be done. I hope that we're blessed enough to be able to affect the culture for the better and for God. That's what we're sticking around for, anyway.

With that said, what's next for Sixpence?

Nash: Well, I think maybe—I don't know why I said maybe. We probably—Oh, I said it again. For some reason I can't make a sure statement anymore. I've learned to stop making sure statements because it seems like when you do that it never actually comes to fruition, and I'll have to eat my words.

Are the band's behind-the-scenes frustrations present on Divine Discontent?

Nash: Every record is a reflection of its time, and of what Matt and I have been through together and separately. The first record dealt with the death of Matt's father. Several of the songs were directly inspired from that experience, and they helped him to deal with it. A lot of the songs on the next record were about broken relationships.

After that, we went through this whole legal thing. Several years passed and a lot more musical growth happened and a lot more life happened. For Divine Discontent, we had songs about the frustration of what we went through business-wise.

Slocum: "Divine discontent" is the problem of pain idea that C. S. Lewis talks about. Suffering and pain can be actually a gift from God to put you through the fire and bring you to a better place. It may not feel that way at the time. The album is about learning to accept pain as a doorway to a closer relationship with God.

As songwriters, you obviously share a lot of personal things. How do you deal with that much disclosure?

Slocum: To be honest, in the future I will probably tend to be a bit more guarded with it only because, especially early on, a lot of the stuff I was writing about ended up having a resolve to it.

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August (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47