This in-depth interview with Stacie Orrico, provided by ForeFront Records, covers everything from Stacie's mainstream success to her dream gig of performing with Lauryn Hill – or Ella Fitzgerald. Read on …

On her mainstream success …

Well, we're here chatting with Stacie Orrico whose latest self-titled album is just running wild all over the airwaves these days. Stacie, you're on MTV, in Rolling Stone magazine, and you've been on the "American Dreams" TV show and everything. What are you trying to accomplish with all of that?

Stacie: My goal ever since I started making music over 5 years ago has just been to make music in a way where I'm writing honestly about the things that I'm dealing with as a teenager, and in a way that's relatable to other teenagers who are going to pick up the record and go, "Wow, I'm dealing with that." And from a positive perspective. From a perspective of, either this is what I've struggled with, this is what I've gone through, and this is what I've learned from it, or maybe it's even just this is what I'm going through right now, I haven't figured it out yet, but there has to be an answer so lets try and figure it out together. So that's definitely the goal, and working in all the different markets, trying to reach kids from all walks of life.

There have been concerns from listeners who find out that mainstream stations are playing your song "Stuck" – they ask if you are still a Christian artist. I've offered my explanations; let's hear it from you. So, I guess, do you still consider yourself a Christian artist?

Stacie: You know it's difficult for me because I grew up listening to all types of music. I grew up listening to Christian music and mainstream music, and I remember always thinking, "Why do we put artists in all these different categories? She's a Christian artist, and she's a Christian woman, but her music could be really cool on this station. And maybe by putting a title on herself, maybe it's keeping her from going here." I remember even when I was 6 and 7 thinking about this trying to figure out why there were all these little titles.

I am a Christian, I have been raised in a Christian home, when I was 4 years old I prayed in my own little innocent heart and prayed to ask Christ to come into my life, and I cannot do anything without Him. He is the base of everything that I do every single day. I would love it if we could take off all the titles. I wish I could be just an artist. I am an artist who is a Christian, who sings R&B music, who sings honestly about the things I'm dealing with in my life – whether its my faith or the mistakes that I've made or the things that I'm questioning or the things that I'm discovering for the first time.

So, yes, I am a Christian – I have not deserted that. Yes, I would love to take all the titles off of every type of genre of music. I would love to hear all types of Christian artists played all over the world. I'd love to hear good, positive mainstream music played all over the place. I'd love to be able to bring music together. But I have not deserted Christ. I have not deserted my faith.

Well, talk to us about the whole salt and light approach and how it relates to the mainstream opportunities that you've been getting.

Stacie: I've had so many cool opportunities in the last year especially of just getting to spend time with people who have experienced things in their lives that I would have never imagined. People who have grown up in such different family situations from mine, and different cultural backgrounds. People who have literally never been around or had somebody in their life who told them anything about God.

I just think that since we're living in America that everybody's been to church a few times, everybody knows somebody who is Christian. And there are some people who just don't. They weren't raised with any of that around them. So everything from doing the shows and getting to hang out with the kids afterwards, after the shows or before, to all the volunteers who work at the big festivals during the summer, to the people who do your hair and makeup – that's always an interesting group of people to work with that I've just really enjoyed.

I've had some really cool opportunities. Like with a video producer, the first time I met her she just seemed really cold and really like she had been through the ringer in her life and had seen and done everything, and was just not ready to mess around with anybody and was just like "let's get my stuff done". And we ended up sitting and talking, and she got to sit and talk with my mom and our whole team, and we just make it a priority to treat people well. If we can do anything during the situation, we want them to leave going "wow, we were treated well by them". So even just taking the time to be nice, this whole wall came down. And we ended up being good friends and talking all the time. She'll call and tell me about stuff she's dealing with. It's just really cool. Things like that just make it really worth it.

On the success of "Stuck" …

A lot of people are saying, "What's the deal with 'Stuck'? What's the song mean?" And we're wondering if you could explain it for us. Why is it relevant to address those issues in that song?

Stacie: "Stuck" I wrote with a guy named Kevin Kadish and we were just talking about what seventeen year old girls or fifteen year old girls or whatever, are dealing with in their relationships. And Kevin said to me, "Stacie, when girls are dealing in a hard relationship, where do you think it comes from? Why do you think it's hard? Why do you think they feel hurt? Why do you think they make bad decisions?" And I just said I think that a lot of young girls end up in relationships where they are not being treated very well. And they haven't had a healthy relationship in their life to look to know how they are supposed to do it. They don't know exactly how they are supposed to be treated, or how they are supposed to do it to make it all work out right and to feel good in a relationship.

So they end up on this emotional roller coaster. On one side it's like "I know this relationship isn't good for me, I know it's not healthy, I know I need something more". But on the other hand, "I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't have him in my life. And I'm afraid of being lonely and losing security. And I'm afraid of, [as sad as it], just not having a boyfriend. Because that does something to my self-esteem, and sometimes I end up feeling really extreme emotions in that situation." You can be really angry, you can be really sad; you can go up and down in one day. You can go "oh my gosh, he makes me feel so good" and then "ah, I hate this." It's the reality of what young women go through.

Cool. Yeah, I agree. I think it's very important to address those issues. Very cool. Hey, what excites you about having a video all over MTV and a song all over pop radio?

Stacie: It is exciting. I think that I've had this goal deep inside of me ever since I've started to get to bring the music to kids who might not otherwise ever here it. The kids who would never come to a church to see a concert, or never turn on Christian radio to just see what's going on in the Christian world. I have definitely had that goal and passion.

But just because you decide you're going to try and do that doesn't mean it's always going to work. I honestly just have to say that I think that God's hands have been all over it and as much as everybody kind of runs around and gives each other high fives and says "Stacie, all your hard work is paying off" and everybody at the labels are going "wow, I'm glad we did it this way because it's all working just how we wanted and just how we planned." Yes, everybody has worked so hard and this never would have happened without the whole machine cranking, but at the same time you just have to sit back and laugh sometimes and just go, God is so much bigger than all of this. His plan is so much huger than we could ever try and make it.

I had somebody say to me one time, this pastor that I was talking to, and I was asking them, "I don't know if I should be involved with this or not. What do you think about associating yourself with things that you don't completely agree with" whether it's a magazine, or television show, or whatever. He said, "You know what Stacie? If God wants this to work for you, if God has planned for this to work and go and be the hugest thing ever, then you can never not do enough to make it work. And if God is planning for this not to work and for you to go on and do something else, you can never do enough to make it work." And I just though that's so true. It's totally in God's hands.

On onions, Ella, Lauryn, and embarrassing moments …

Ok, I want to ask you some light-hearted questions, too. I hear that you don't really like onions – is that true?

Stacie: I do not like onions. It's so funny because I am probably one of the least picky eaters ever. Pretty much any type of new food, I'll try it, I'll eat it. But onions, and pork. Pork and onions. Even from the time I was just starting to eat regular food, from baby food, my mom would put a hot dog or onion in my mouth and I would spit it out. She said anything else I would eat. I would eat my peas and I would eat my broccoli. But pork and onions – I just can't do it.

Ok, other than the people you are with now, if you could perform with any musician, living or dead, who would be in your "dream band"?

Stacie: I'll give one living and one dead. I would say Ella Fitzgerald would be one. I think that she has shaped R&B music for female artists and I just love her. And if it were more modern day, I would definitely say Lauryn Hill. She's my favorite artist of all time.

Well, do you have any funny stories you could tell us? Like a most embarrassing moment, or anything like that you wouldn't mind everybody knowing about, Stacie Orrico?

Stacie: It's hard because I don't get embarrassed very easily. But, there was one show I was doing one time and everything ended up just being a mess.

I was traveling with dancers and we had tracks. And, first of all, I come out and say the wrong city. It was one of those where either I was in Chicago and I said "Hey Atlanta" or something like that. And everybody just…I was at this festival and there were probably between 10 and 12 thousand people there and, seriously, it just got silent. I just looked around and thought, I just said the wrong city. I'm not even going to attempt it again because I don't know where I am.

So then, my brother, who was my road manager at the time, starts playing the tracks. Well, my dancers have to be in certain places and they start in different positions for different songs, and some songs I don't have dancers. Well, he puts on the ballad first, which of course the dancers don't dance on, so they're standing there in these really dramatic positions getting ready to dance. And the songs comes on, so I start singing it, and they kind of float of the stage pretending like it was meant to be.

That happened about five times, and they're running on and off the stage at the wrong times, and then finally I sit down to play the piano. I had checked the piano, we'd done a sound check and everything was great. Well, from the time I had sound checked until the show started, they had decided to turn off the piano, for whatever reason. So I get there and the piano is turned off. I play on several different keyboards, and usually the power button is in one of two places. So, I'm looking all over, and literally I was on the stage, I kid you not, for five minutes – and nobody came to help me. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like "the piano won't turn on … maybe somebody could help me" and like nobody would come. It was just a big disaster. It was not good.

On traveling and promo tours …

So, Stacie, tell us what has been taking up the bulk of your time lately.

Stacie: It's been a lot of promotional travel, lots of radio shows, and now that we're getting into the summer months, all the radio stations are having their big summer shows, so that's been taking up a lot of time. We've been doing lots of photo shoots for different magazines. I just got done doing to video shoot for the song "More to Life". So it feels like we've been doing a lot of film and photography stuff lately. Then I'm leaving here in a few days to go travel overseas. I'm going to be in Europe, and Japan, and I'm going to Australia pretty soon – so I'm really kind of hitting the world.

What's it exactly like on a promo tour? What's a day in the life of Stacie Orrico on the road?

Stacie: Promo tours are, if you ask any artist, the craziest thing you have to do. Because you start with the radio station in the early morning, and you usually do the morning drive, so you're there by 6:30 or 7:00. Between get ready time, and meet in the lobby fifteen minutes early, and drive to the station – you're usually up at 4:30 that morning. Then you do the radio station, and then you hang out and have breakfast, you drive to 2 or 3 random little meetings that you have with publications or something media-related.

Then you drop by a couple bookstores to say hey to everybody and check in. We meet them, we've done in-stores with them, and we just make a lot of friends all over the place. So we go check in with everybody and go say hi, and usually we'll have lunch with some of those people. Then we go and we do the in-store, so you sound check for the in-store or you get ready, sign a bunch of stuff, sing for a little bit, do an official session of signing, and then you're done. Then you have a dinner.

Right now for me, I'll visit 3 or 4 different stations in each city we'll go to, because we'll go to the AC Christian station, the CHR Christian station, and then usually two Top 40 pop stations. Then we go to dinner with a couple of the stations, and then after that we'll go have desert or coffee with the other pop station, and we'll sign all their stuff. So usually the night ends between 11:30 and 12:00. And you get back to the hotel and get 3 or 4 hours of sleep, and then you keep going. It involves a lot of coffee and candy, but it's fun.

It's funny because you kind of get in a mode. The first couple of days you're like "oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to make it through these couple weeks." And then you just get over it. It's like, "I'm going to be tired, I'm going to be eating the whole time, and we're just going to go with it."

What about overseas travel? Do you get anxious about traveling overseas, or do you get excited? What's it like just know you have a lot of overseas stuff going on and coming up in the future?

Stacie: Overseas travel is fine for me. I grew up traveling a lot. My family, we were missionaries in the Ukraine when I was little, and we did lots of mission work to Mexico, and then my dad was the international director for his company, so we would spend our summers in Europe, and so I've traveled overseas a lot.

There was a point for a few weeks right when the war started and right when the whole SARS thing came up, I was supposed to be in Hong Kong. And that freaked me out a little bit, just because I was like, "I don't think this is smart. I don't think it is natural to be wanting to do this." And so we ended up canceling and it was fine.

But I think that now that the war has subsided a little bit and everything seems to be more under control, I'm feeling good about it. And I have friends who are going to be traveling with me, and I get a break in when I'm in Europe for about a week for my brother's wedding, so I'll get to be with lots of friends and family. My mom will be traveling with me, so I feel good.

On being 17 …

Well, you're 17 years old. Talk to us about what it's like to be 17 years old – about what kinds of stuff you do for fun, what's it like in 2003 to be 17?

Stacie: Yeah, when I have time. It's so hard because I think being 17 and doing all this right now – it doesn't feel like work. You know, I'm not 35 and having to travel because I have to support my family. I do it because I love it. My hobbies are music and writing and travel and things like that. But in my spare time I'm very in to fashion and things like that, so I love to go to really cheap places and dig through all their stuff and try to put things together. And I'll come home and my mom is like "Stacie, you just bought those jeans, why did you cut them up?" I'm going to make it into a skirt, sewing stuff together, and putting it all together.

In all these years, and being with Forefront for 5 years, I have never done a scrapbook, and I'm finally starting one. So I've pulled out boxes of pictures and I'm starting to do that. That's been fun, a new little hobby.

Alright Stacie, if you could do anything, anything you've never done before, what would it be?

Stacie: Skydiving … and I think I'm actually going to go in the next couple of months. I'm real excited.

On her family …

Ok, here's something fun to talk about. Talk a little bit about your family – just like their support role from the beginning and their support role now. Just talk in general a little bit about your family.

Stacie: My family is so amazing. I just did MTV TRL again, and my dad and my sister flew up and came. I have a hair and makeup artist that I use a bunch, and there were a couple of people there from Virgin, and the hair and makeup team hadn't met my family, except for my mom. And my dad and sister came and they were just like, "Oh my gosh, we met your mom, we knew she was sweet, but your dad and your sister – you're really lucky. I don't know if you know how lucky you are to come from such a really sweet, kind, fun, happy family." I felt so fortunate, and I think I am fortunate. I am so thankful for my family, but sometimes I forget how incredible it is to be in a healthy, functioning family. And beyond that, they are just so supportive.

Well, you and your family are about to move into a new house. And did I hear you right earlier, that your Mom bought the house before your Dad even saw it? What's the story there?

Stacie: My parents went together they didn't find anything they liked, and my dad came home and my mom went back up and she found this house. And she actually signed on it without my dad ever even seeing because she just loved it so much. He was like, "well, if she likes it" … so she signed for it and we got the house.

So, how much time do you actually get to spend with your family these days?

Stacie: Lately, it's been very minimal. I've been traveling a lot. I was just gone for about two weeks, and I got home last night, I'm home today, I leave tomorrow, I'm gone…what's tomorrow? Tomorrow's like Friday? Something? Tomorrow's Friday, so I'm gone Friday, Saturday, and then I leave for Europe on Sunday and I'm gone for about 3 and half weeks, or something like that. In the last couple of months, I'm home maybe like 5 or 6 days a month, which is more than I usually do. We're coming up to a point where I'm going to try to limit it to 15 or 20 days a month that I'm gone and then can be home. Especially now that my family is going to be in Seattle, it's not like every time I have a day or two off I'm going to be coming back to Nashville, so I'll have to actually have big amounts of time to fly back to Seattle. We've added more drama to the mix.

On the new album and "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life" …

Well Stacie, what is one of the messages that your new album conveys?

Stacie: I think one thing I've really tried to focus on in this is talked about in a couple different songs, like maybe I won't look back and instead it's just prioritizing and evaluating your life where you are, even as a teenager, and looking at the big picture. I think sometimes we are so focused on what it is that we're doing right now ("what is my situation right now, what are my relationships right now, the issues I'm dealing with right now") and we don't put it into perspective so that we reflect "you know, when I'm 40 years old, how are these things going to affect me later?" What are the things that I'm spending way too much time worrying about that aren't going to matter? What are the things that I'm putting no focus on, that are going to direct the course of my life for as long as I live.

For example, in this time right now, with my family moving and just realizing this is going to take more work to really stay close with my family — that's something I really need to make a priority. I don't want to look back when I'm 50 and go "I wasted so much time doing my own stuff and being selfish and that has hurt my relationship with my sisters and my brothers or my parents." I want to make wise decisions about where I go and who I spend my time with and what I put into my body and how I treat other people. All those things and remembering that those are going to affect us for the rest of our lives and we really can make our lives better down the road by being smart now. That's something I've really put focus on."

Your new single, "(There's Gotta Be) More To Life." What makes you like this song so much?

Stacie: "More to Life" is a song that I fell in love with from the first time I heard it. Kevin Kadish, who I wrote the song "Stuck" with, brought me this song and said, "I wrote this with another artist, Lucy Woodward. It might be going on her record, it might not, I don't know. But it kind of reminded me of you or something you would sing, so I just wanted to play it for you." I heard it and I said "why did you play that for me if I can't have it? Can you find out if I can have it, if Lucy's really using it," because I just loved it. Melodically, musically, and everything — the lyrics were just so strong.

It talks about searching for satisfaction and fulfillment in the wrong places and how we try to fill our lives with money, relationships, love, or whatever to satisfy us, and how those things aren't lasting. I thought it would be so amazing if we could get this song played on pop radio, because everyone can relate to this. If I could be at concerts having thousands of people singing these lyrics, that would be the most incredible thing ever. So I played it for the label, and at first nobody was really that excited about it. I was so enthusiastic about it, but their reaction was like, "we don't think it's a single" or "we don't hear it, we think it needs a new chorus." I was like "Help! It's so good!" We kept pushing it and kept pushing it, and in the end, we still needed one more song, and "More to Life" had kinda been pushed to the side. So I said, "please listen to 'More to Life' one more time" and everyone finally agreed that this was the one.

We actually just shot the video for it, and it's really cool. It's based on the lyrics of the song and I'm playing 12 different characters — very extreme and different characters. It's like I'm a wealthy businesswoman, a bum on the street, a supermodel, a young mom, a really poor woman. They're all meant to be examples of how we're all searching in the wrong places. No matter how rich or poor, if we seem to have this perfect job, those things still aren't lasting fulfillment. It's really cool; I'm excited about it.

Have you been able to play "More to Life" live yet?

Stacie: Yes, we played "More to Life" live. We just started actually a couple of weeks ago, and it's funny because it's a hard one to sing. The verses are low and the chorus is kinda high, and then we modulate so it's been kind of a challenge. But the more I sing itm the better it's gotten, and people seem to like it.

How would you respond to someone who told you "there's got to be more to life." What would you say to them?

Stacie: I think that's why I'm so excited about this song – for people to come and ask me, "Okay, you're talking about more to life, so what is it? What do you think it is?" The joy of getting to express the only thing I've found in life that is lasting. Sure, some people might respond "of course you can say that, since you've got everything going for you." But at the same time, it's that much more applicable, so I can say, "yeah I have had incredible opportunities, gotten to travel to wonderful places, and I am very fortunate. But at the end of the day, those things aren't all fulfilling and the only thing that I've found in my life that offers ultimate peace and comfort, true love and fulfillment, is in my relationship with Jesus Christ." With "Stuck," I got to share something that people can relate to and be able to encourage girls to make good decisions in their relationships. Now I'll have the chance to really present the Gospel and I'm really excited about that.

Well Stacie, obviously there is a ton going on in your life right now. Is there anything that we can pray about for you?

Stacie: I think that prayer is always needed with travel lately and being surrounded by people who aren't Christians. Traveling in the mainstream market, you realize how much you miss just going into bookstores everyday where the whole staff comes and sits and prays with you. It can suck you dry and be hard at the end of the day when you've just run yourself ragged and you wanna spend 30 minutes in your 2 hours of time set aside for sleep to sit and pray and talk to God. I guess I'd ask for continued excitement, continued motivation to really pursue my relationship with Him, just because I know that without it, it's pointless, you know? Just continued encouragement from the people around me, so that I would stay plugged in and have the right spiritual support.

Talk about the Christian radio family out there Stacie, just about the support that they've been to you and everything.

Stacie: Christian radio, from the very beginning of my career, before anything happened with Virgin, has always been willing to support what I was doing. Even when it was a little out of the box and a little bit different starting with "Don't Look At Me." It was a little bit of a stretch [at the time], and it was like "are we gonna follow this whole new teen-pop-R&B movement and bring it in to the Christian industry?" But they went ahead, and the people at the stations and all the moms who were listening seemed to respond by thinking, "Okay whether or not I like this song, I know my kids like it, and I really have them in mind." I thought that was really cool, and I've been so impressed in comparing [the Christian and mainstream markets] how well Christian radio and the Christian stations really do. At the Christian in-stores I've done, I've always had double or triple the response of what I have at the pop stations, and that says a lot for Christian radio. They really are good at what they do, and I just appreciate them a lot.

Tell us what kind of stuff in general really encourages you and makes you feel better.

Stacie: I'm a little note person. Every once in a while getting a phone message is really cool. Sometimes I'll open my suitcase and my mom will have left a little letter. Or my little sister (she's so cute), she has those dry erase markers and she'll leave me messages on the mirror. Things like that mean a lot to me, because I know I'm such a bad letter writer. Even though you can do it in 3 minutes, it seems so hard to get the letter done, and send it in the mail. The fact that somebody took their time to do that means a lot to me.

Stacie there are a lot of Christian folks out there that love your music and have bought it on a regular basis and continue to support you in each and every thing you undertake. And there are also many of those who are wondering if you've deserted them somehow. Do you have anything to say to those groups of fans?

Stacie: Yes, I would definitely like to say thank you very much to the Christian market. It saddens my heart when the Christian market feels like I would be deserting them or moving away from them. If anything, they are the foundation of what I'm doing. Their encouragement, their prayers, their phone calls, and the letters from 6-year-old girls who color me pictures, all mean so much to me. When kids or moms tell me, "you're challenging me in my faith" or "I became a Christian when I listened to your record," that's what keeps me going — that's the fuel for what I do.

I get the question all the time, "If you knew you wanted to do stuff in the pop market, why did you even sign with a Christian label?" I cannot imagine doing this if I did not have the foundation and support of Christians and believers around me. I could not do it, not knowing and having the peace that there are thousands of people out there who are following what I'm doing and praying for me and thinking of me. So thank you, and please continue to do that. It does mean the world to me and it does not go unnoticed. I just look forward to getting out there and spending more time with you after we finish up all this promo craziness. I look forward to catching up with everybody and spending time with fans after the shows.

Perhaps an overwhelming question, but, how has God blessed your ministry lately?

Stacie: I think it's hard to miss all the incredible things that God has blessed me with, in this last year especially. He's brought a mainstream label into the picture to team up with Forefront, who has been able to bring us to new places that we might have not been able to go to on our own. He's given us really amazing favor with radio, television, and all those things.

But I think most of all, I've just felt so blessed through the way that the Lord has stuck by me. As much as when people ask me questions like, "Well don't you think that by going into the mainstream you're going to lose your faith?" And I'm always like, "No, that's silly!" But at the same time, it is hard and it is difficult. There have been so many days where I've not put in my time with the Lord – reading the Word or praying. And then somebody comes up to me and tells me this incredible story of what God has done in their lives through the music. There have been so many days when I realize that God is doing so much in spite of me, and I think that's been the biggest blessing of all.

For even more on Stacie, be sure to visit her artist page, where you will also find a review of her best-selling self-titled album. You can listen to song clips and purchase her music at Musicforce.com.

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