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| Sandra
McCracken November 2002 (photos used by permission of the artist) Greg: What have you been up to lately? Sandra: I've been doing a lot of writing, new stuff for a record that will likely come out in the next year, and helping Derek a lot with his new project which is due out this spring, Greg: Will your new record be done independently? Sandra: I'm talking with an independent label at the moment. We've agreed to agree at this point and are just working out the terms and the details. So it will be a new team of folks for this one, and we hope to push it out a good bit further. |
  The Crucible Sale Price: $11.99 |
Greg: Why have you chosen to stay independent?
Sandra: For the moment, a major label wouldn't be very appealing to me because I'd lose so much creative (and financial) freedom. Mostly, though, partnering with anybody in business requires the right chemistry between everyone, and a high belief level on both sides. These independent years are sort of like grad school for me. Some of us just take longer to go through all the work than others.
 |
Greg: You also wrote some songs for the upcoming
Caedmon's Call album, correct? Sandra: I wrote four songs that made the album, which comes out 2/4/03. It was fun to be there with the band, and not have to be the one performing. To be a part of the creative process and help out in whatever ways, and then get to step back and hear someone else sing the songs is a great experience. It adds a dimension to the craft of songwriting, having to think outside yourself. |
| Greg: Do you think you'll use any of the songs on your
upcoming album? Sandra: I doubt it. There's one that they've worked on from my first record and a few that were written for Danielle's voice. Sometimes I play them live, but at this point I don't think I'll record them for an album. I'm hoping to have other new material to work with. Greg: Is there a particular theme developing for the new album? Sandra: Its probably too early to tell, but the idea of time and renewal is coming up now and again. As in, the way time develops and causes decay and renewal. I haven't decided on the songlist yet, though, so we'll have to see what happens. |
  Your King Has Come Sale Price: $13.99 |
 Gypsy Flat Road Sale Price: $11.99  |
Greg: We really enjoy Gypsy Flat Road, and consider it
one of the best albums of last year. What are some of your favorites of that
album? Sandra: Wow, thanks... That whole record was so much fun to record. It was such an organic experience. I would have to say Ticket Home, Gypsy Flat Road, and Close of the Day. There's something about when you listen back to them, they really capture the album and the emotional performances that went into them. And then there are some that are even more stripped down like By Your Side and Springtime Indiana that are just guitar and vocal performance. This was great for me because it was the first time I could just play the song and really capture it because my guitar playing just wasn't there before and I didn't have a lot of experience with doing that. It just makes it feel so much more human when you can do that. With the recording process you can really use a lot of technology to fix stuff up and the more we stay away from that the more human the record will sound. |
Sandra: This song developed over a period of time. I had written some poetry, left it alone for several months, and when I came back to it, it was kind of a new emotion. It's a song about being called out. When I first wrote it, I was sort of struggling, feeling like I needed to walk away from some things. When I came back to it, I was on the other side of it. Its like a picture of being called out, and finding that the other side of that is real freedom. Like when you step off a cliff, but you don't actually fall, someone catches you there.
Greg: Trade My Love has to be one of my favorites, how about that one?
Sandra: A couple friends of mine had gone through some real loss. When I first wrote it, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who had just lost her younger brother to suicide and she had a hard time reconciling her heart. It had been a year and she was just so emotional that it could happen. I realized that she didn't need me to tell her anything about him or what may be right in the situation, just to figure out that there's a moment to try to fix somebody and explain what's true in the situation and then there's a moment to walk them through it
 Indelible Grace Sale Price: $12.99  Indelible Grace vol. 2 Pilgrim Days Sale Price: $13.99 |
Greg: You've been really involved with the Indelible
Grace project, what can you tell us about that? Sandra: When I first moved to Nashville, I met a friend of mine Kevin Twit, who was the college pastor at Christ Community Church. He being a musician and a theologian started the idea of putting old hymns to new music and so our community at Christ Community caught the vision of that. Anytime we'd get together, at Sunday School class, wherever, we'd be playing guitars and singing, and we'd play these old songs...all ten verses of them. So at some point, we realized we had all these resources around us, and we figured we'd try to record a few of them. So on the first CD, there are 17 tracks, which is a lot, so you definitely get your moneys worth. The second CD is the same idea, its just a bit more refined in style and production. We've done a few tours, and all the artists involved try to incorporate the songs into other places when they're out on tour. A lot of times Derek and I will be asked to lead worship at churches when we're on the road, and we're kind of at a loss because we don't keep up with a lot of the new worship songs because we've been involved in our own thing doing old hymns. |
Greg: Thanks a bunch Sandra, and best of luck with the new album!
Other Tidbits
| Birthday: 6/16/77 Attended College: Belmont University in Nashville Currently in CD Player: Bob Dylan Time out of Mind, Jackson Browne The Pretender Song you wish you wrote: Tom Petty, Wildflowers |
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Material Copyright © 2002 The Jesus Underground