First off, many of you may
be asking, "What's the deal with the name Sixpence None The
Richer?" The band's name comes from this passage in C.S. Lewis'
book Mere Christianity:
Every faculty you have,
your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment,
is given to you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life
exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was
not in a sense His own already. So that when we talk of a man doing
anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is
really like. It is like a small child going to his father and saying,
'Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.' Of course,
the father does, and he is pleased with the child's present. It is all
very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is
sixpence to the good on the transaction. When a man has made these two
discoveries, God can really get to work. It is after this that real
life begins. The man is awake now...
The first seeds of
Sixpence were planted when a 16-year old Matt Slocum heard a 13-year
old Leigh Bingham sing at a church retreat in 1989. Slocum went on to
play guitar for a Texas-based band named Love Coma, but he eventually
joined forces with Bingham to form Sixpence None The Richer and split
his time between the two bands. Along with bassist T.J. Behling,
Sixpence recorded a four-song demo which contained Slocum's "The
Fatherless & The Widow" and "Trust" along with a
track by Behling named "Spotlight" and an instrumental by
Slocum called "Thoughts Of You."
In 1993 the demo paid off
and Sixpence was signed by R.E.X. Music, but Slocum continued to play
with the independent Love Coma as well. In fact, Love Coma's drummer
Chris Dodds laid the drum tracks when R.E.X. sent Slocum and Bingham
into the studio to record their debut album, The Fatherless and The
Widow, which featured three of the four tracks from the demo. Slocum
soon left his post with Love Coma to give Sixpence his undivided
attention.
It was only after the
release of "The Fatherless & The Widow" that Sixpence
began touring. Fellow Texan Dale Baker, who had lived in the house
where Sixpence's demo was recorded, offered his drumming services to
Slocum, and was invited to join the band. The summer of 1994 saw
Sixpence spend a month-and-a-half in the U.S. The band scored an
opening slot for 10,000 Maniacs for four dates before jetting across
the pond to play Europe's Greenbelt and Flevo festivals. In
preparation for the European leg, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Tess
Wiley, whose band Nothing In Return had recently broken up, was
recruited by Slocum. Later that fall the foursome returned to the U.S.
for another month of touring.
The band gained another
member before once again entering the studio in early 1995. Coming
from a background of jazz and a position in the band Arrival, bassist
J.J Plasencio joined the ranks of Sixpence, completing the
growth from a Slocum-Bingham duet to a full-blown quintuplet.
While in the studio
working on the sophomore album This Beautiful Mess, Sixpence actually
recorded 15 songs. Only 12 of those tracks made it onto the album,
with the remaining cuts destined for Sixpence's first EP, scheduled
for release in October of 1995. Surrounding the studio work, the band
played a few select shows, including some acoustic sets
featuring only Bingham, Slocum, and Wiley (Baker and Plasencio had
returned to Texas following recording). But in late April of 1995
Sixpence once again took its show on the road in full force. The
spring tour offered the band another opportunity to open for a
well-known mainstream act, The Smithereens, for 7 East Coast dates.
The next two-and-a-half months saw the band perform across the East,
Southeast, and Midwest (including stops at the Atlantafest and
Cornerstone festivals) before taking a break from the road in mid-July
and August to put the finishing touches on the EP.
Just two shows
before that break, Wiley left Sixpence to pursue her own musical
interests. The band continued touring without a replacement, adapting
the live show to the quartet status. After consistent touring through
the winter and spring of 1996, the band reduced their tour schedule to
weekends and festivals for the remainder of the year. Financial
troubles with Sixpence's label R.E.X.Music put plans for a new album
on hold. In May of 1997, bassist Placensio left the band to join Plumb
with plans to eventually pursue a solo project. In June Sixpence
managed to secure its release from R.E.X. Music and subsequently
signed on with Squint Entertainment. The band recorded its third
full-length album under the production helm of Steve Taylor (founder
of Squint Entertainment) and released the self-titled project to the
mainstream market in February of 1998.
By the time the band took
to the road in support of the album, they had added two more full-time
members: bassist Justin Cary and guitarist Sean Kelly. After a
whirlwind tour with friend Sarah Masen and The Waiting, Sixpence began
traveling to radio stations throughout the country in support of their
first single, "Kiss Me." Momentum slowly began to build, and
1998 turned into a breakthrough year for the band. A performance at
the Nashville stop on the Lilith Fair tour; opening slots for such
acts as The Wallflowers, Abra Moore, and Brian Setzer; appearances on
MTV & VH1; and a growing number of stations adding the single each
week were just a few of the highlights. In early 1999, "Kiss
Me" was the featured single for the film She's All That, and the
band drew up plans to hit the road again after taking a short break
from their busy schedule in January.
