Sara Groves Interview

Who Is Sara Groves?
Why is a soft-spoken, introspective, Minnesota mother of three talking about fighting? On her new album, Tell Me What You Know, acoustic pop artist Sara Groves explores what she has learned over the past two years, lessons on the value of long defeats, and the defiance of hope in the face of insurmountable odds. Since the 2005 release of her last project, Add to the Beauty, Groves has been questioning just how, exactly, she is called to do that.

KEY:
C> Chris
SG> Sara Groves

C> First, let me just say that I have always wanted to interview you - so when I was offered the chance, I jumped at it!

SG> Oh, well thank you very much!

C> Well, I love the new record!  Of course I love all your records - that’s nothing new.  But anyways, explain your thought process behind making that record as well as some key songs and that kind of thing.

SG> OK.  Well, I won’t go back too far, but I always, as a songwriter, try to write about things that are going on in my life, and the last three years have been pretty great - but there’s been a lot of paradigm shift for me.  We were introduced to the work of International Justice Mission three years ago - and they do rescue work around the world.  These are people of faith who do this, and Gary Haugen is the president of the organization.  They were on Dateline, Oprah, Bill O’Reilly and all that with the really big raid they did in Cambodia where they rescued 37 girls ages 5 to 15.  They are really on the forefront of this conversation about human trafficking, modern slavery, and justice issues.  The fantastic thing to me is that they are - from top to bottom - totally inspired by God’s heart for justice.  Gary’s written several books about it.  You know you can’t read in the book of Isaiah and say “hey this is figurative bondage”.  It wasn’t figurative oppression.  So, as an American Christian I have to really step outside of my world to intersect with people with obvious needs.  I live my life and never really have to go into places where courage is required of me.  You know?  But there are things I can’t know about God until I enter into the suffering of other people.  While that sounds really daunting - and to a lot of Christians - they think they can’t do that and say things like “why would I want to go into places where courage is required?” To me, the joy of it - it’s hard to put into words - is what is reciprocated.  So, I knew that I was going to write a few songs about social injustice on Tell Me What You Know.  So I wrote and co-wrote some songs about this and that - but I was beginning to lose sleep over the fact that this whole record really needed to be about that topic.  It’s really to me about the integrated life of the believer - and if you’re really integrated then you’re gonna take up some of these conversations.  So, the album ended up being almost fully inspired by Elizabeth (almost half the album about her specifically). 

C> Tell us about Elizabeth.

SG> Well, Elizabeth is a girl who I met in Washington D.C. (she was from South East Asia) who was kidnapped at the age of 15.  She was shipped to another country and sold into prostitution.  In short, her testimony was extremely powerful.  I heard her story in D.C.  As a girl she knew she wanted to go to Bible College - and in order to do that she took a job the summer between her sophomore and junior year of high school with a woman she trusted, but that woman betrayed her and sold her to a brothel owner.  When IJM came and found her, they found Psalm 27 written on her wall at the brothel.  At 15 years - this kind of faith is amazing.  In her own language she had written “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” That changed my life - to hear of this young woman - now 23 - who went into after-care and then onto college she wanted to attend.  She became a translator and now tells her story to others so other girls and women like her don’t have to go through these things.  Her faith asked me a question - “what am I afraid of?”

C> Wow, that is powerful.  So good.  I can definitely see how your life and outlook has changed from that experience.  To change gears a bit - I did want to talk a lot about your new record - but I also wanted to talk about something else.  This year, obviously, there is a lot of discourse going on about the changing dynamic of the current music industry.  With all that is changing and going on - where do you see yourself fitting into that equation?

SG> Well, I’m not really in on a lot of those conversations.  My husband really sets me free to be a mom, and a wife, and a musician, so I try to do those things to the best of my ability.  So, he kind of takes on the burden of those things and has those kinds of conversations so I don’t have to be in on them.  So, I can’t say that we’re not having those conversations - but the end result of any kind of talk that Troy [her husband] and I have always comes back to one thing.  We’re not a “walmart” kind of artist - and there’s nothing wrong with being a “walmart” kind of artist - one who appeals to a large segment of people.  I feel like God’s made a space for us that we can handle - and we’ve thrived there.  We’ve really enjoyed it and embraced it.  So, I guess I feel like we’ve always tried to do what we do - and if people listen then great!  We try to follow our hearts as best as we can.  All of these conversations cause us to worry for a little bit - but at the end of the day - we’ll do what we’ve always done and be fine.  We’re going on this fall tour that is kind of stretching us - but it is with Charlie Peacock, Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, and Sandra McCracken.  It’s the Art Music Justice Tour where we come together and talk about the integrated life of the believer from a hope-filled perspective.  We know that this is not a tour that people are just clamoring for.  However, Charlie Peacock has always been a good voice of reason for us - and he said “You know - if you’re a mom and pop store kind of artist, then people are gonna shop with you because they trust you.” So, we try to operate like that and keep it “local” - remaining very hands on. 

C> So, the music industry is gonna keep going down this path - and you’re gonna keep doing what you’ve always done.

SG> Yeah, if it comes to the point that I can’t make music anymore, then God will lead me down another path and I have to just trust that I’m on the right path.  But you know, Troy always gets excited when stuff like this happens - a real shake down in the industry.  It makes people creative.  He likes the challenge of it all - like “what are we gonna do next?” Do we do full albums anymore?  You know, do we just make digital EPs?  Where do we go from here?

C> Right - and then you have record labels now who are shifting the way they do business - signing artists under the stipulation that they don’t write full albums anymore and only release EPs.  To me, that’s a bit disheartening and disappointing, because I love the full album approach and making a full experience of 12 or 13 songs and artwork and all of that.

SG> Yeah, and you know I love what Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken did with the Ampersand EP.  It was the first time they ever wrote together and collaborated.  But what they did was - if you downloaded the digital EP - you got that instant gratification of listening to the music.  But, since you bought it - they also ship it to you in a physical form as well.  So, it works out well for both kinds of people.  The people who like that instant gratification have it right there when they want it - and then people like us who like the physical copy will get that as well.  It seems to be working out great for them. 

C> That is great.  So, another thing I want to talk about and is always a popular theme among my readers is the process of songwriting.  How do you approach it and is there a process that you go through?

SG> Well, almost always music and lyrics come together at some point.  Usually the heart of the song is always present at the beginning.  If I write a melody and there are no words that come right along with it - it almost never gets finished.  I’ve only had one or two times where I’ve come back to a melody that I had written and finally put words with it.  But, I buy a new instrument for every album that I make and write primarily on it.  This last album I bought a Les Paul Starburst faced electric guitar and a really cool amp to write with - even though I’m not very good on it.  So, I always like to get new toys to help get my creativity flowing.  Yeah, I try to get new instruments - I just love to write.  I’ll be writing when there’s no audience left to listen.  I’ll still be writing.  I’ll probably be writing the best songs of my life when I’m 90 years old.  It’s real therapy for me.  I write a lot at night.  I write at the piano a lot. 

C> Awesome.  It’s always so much fun to hear the different ways that each artist writes.  Well, I did want to leave you with one more question - what is your current musical guilty pleasure?

SG> Guilty pleasure?  Oh man - there’s so much!  Well, I mean I’m a huge American Idol junkie - I’m even in an American Idol Fantasy league!

C> WOW!

SG> That is definitely a guilty pleasure right there.  I’ve downloaded some David Archuleta!  My boys like C&C Music Factory - dance songs from MC Hammer.  We totally jam to all of that!

C> That’s totally awesome!  Well thanks so much for taking the time to sit and talk with me!

SG> No problem, I enjoyed it!

You can find out more about Sara Groves by visiting her webpage.  You can also hear her music at her MySpace.

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