Time flies—it's been nearly ten years since you first made a splash with Chasing Furies. What are some of your fondest moments from that time?

Sarah MacIntosh: I have many great memories from that period. Some of the best were the fun times with the band traveling at the craziest hours of the night to get from one show to the other. It was also great meeting with people all over the country that identified with the music. And one of our favorite shows was at Cornerstone in Bushnell, Illinois.

Chasing Furies amassed a lot of buzz and acclaim, so why did the band break up?

MacIntosh: It is interesting because even though we heard a lot of people telling us they loved the record, we were just not selling CDs. Unfortunately that has a big impact on the band financially, because it means the label is not making their investment back. We also were not getting any radio airplay, either. I think the Christian market really just didn't know what to do with us. We didn't fit into any of the molds and ultimately it just became too hard to continue. We had families at home that we couldn't financially support and that is just not a place where you want to be.

What are your siblings up to now?

MacIntosh: My sister is a personal touch manager at Nordstrom in Texas where we grew up—and yes, she has the most fantastic clothes. My brother on the other hand works in online marketing.

How about you? How have you kept yourself occupied in the interim?

MacIntosh: The second year after Chasing Furies ended, I went on tour with Michael W. Smith singing background vocals and playing acoustic guitar with him for his Worship Again CD. That was a lot of fun for me. Right after that, my husband Jonathan and I moved to San Diego, where his family is and where he grew up. He is the music director of the church and we lead worship there frequently while also traveling and [performing music elsewhere].

Your music has taken a 180-degree turn from introspective, almost cryptic lyrics of Chasing Furies to more open declarations of worship. Why the change?

MacIntosh: It's interesting because I had thought that since the Christian music industry didn't know what to do with my Chasing Furies record, that I'd never make a Christian record again. But after I sat down one day to take a look at the songs that I had been writing, I saw that they were even more obviously Christian and there was no way a mainstream or non-Christian market would have that record. So here I was again making a record for the church knowing that it was what I was supposed to be doing all along. The songs showed that.

Does the introspective stuff still appeal to you artistically? How do you feel about those early songs with Chasing Furies?

MacIntosh: Oh, definitely. I still write those kinds of songs. There's something I love about lyrics that I have to study and ponder to understand what the writer is talking about. Sometimes they seem more intimate and honest, and by digging, and you gain something even deeper in their meaning than from a more straightforward and obvious lyric. However, a good writer can make those straightforward, obvious lyrics have deep meaning too.

Is there a song on your new album—The Waiters, The Watchers, The Listeners, The Keepers & Me—that's that's particularly meaningful to you? If so, which one and why?

MacIntosh: It's hard to decide which one because it depends on what I am going through at the moment. What things do I need to remember about the Lord and remind myself about? Is it to be watchful for his return, like I sing in "Sunshine"? To remember that he only does wondrous things, as "My Jesus" states? Or do I just need to remember that even though life is crashing down around me and things don't make sense that he does make sense of it, and that I know who He is—holy, worthy, Abba—as I sing in "More Than Hands." Perhaps that's the one that I need to sing the most right now: I know who He is.

You can reacquaint yourself with Chasing Furies through our site's artist page. Read our review of The Waiters, The Watchers, The Listeners, The Keepers & Me by clicking here. Listen to song clips and buy her music through her MySpace page.

© Andree Farias, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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