Gotta Have Faith

08/17/2002 8:00 AM, LAUNCH
Dave DiMartino

When it comes to country crossover queens, perhaps only Shania Twain comes close to competing with Faith Hill. Since the release of her 1993 debut, Take Me As I Am, country audiences have done just that, buying her albums by the millions--even as she started to move further away from conservative, Music Row-style country and into the mainstream with her performances on the Academy Awards and VH1's Divas Live; top 40 pop hits like "Breathe," "This Kiss," and "The Way You Love Me"; and a modeling contract with Cover Girl cosmetics. Now, a decade into her recording career, Faith is bigger than ever, with her huge-selling recent album, Cry (it sold 472,000 copies in its first week--more than double the first-week sales of her previous multiplatinum effort, Breathe). And on top of all this success, Faith is one-half of one of showbiz's most stable and blissful marriages: She tied the knot with fellow country sensation Tim McGraw in '96, and since then the happy couple have had three children together.

All this is almost enough to, well, hate Faith, but don't hate her because she's beautiful (and rich, and talented, and happily married, etc.). It's impossible not to like Faith, as LAUNCH's executive editor Dave DiMartino found out firsthand when he crossed paths with her in the very un-Nashville-like city of London, England, where she was doing international promotion for Cry. Here's how their conversation went:

LAUNCH: Do you feel that doing press in foreign countries, there's a responsibility to be the spokesperson for America--not necessarily on a political level, but as an American in general?

FAITH: I've had amazing questions, and I've had questions that I've been asked a million times, but I am proud to be over here as an American. They've been very kind and very considerate. I do get questions, because country music in Europe is almost nonexistent and their perception of country music is basically 1950s/1960s, and I try to explain it to them, not just from my standpoint, that country music as a whole is not what it used to be--in good ways and in bad ways. But they should give it a listen--there are some really good artists there, as there were during that time, but it might not have been as relatable the masses back then as it is now. So maybe it's a way of getting them to give other artists a listen.

LAUNCH: In Tower Records last night, we went to the country section and it's interesting to see what London's take on country music is, by the selections that they had available.

FAITH: I don't even know. I just know by the questions that they ask me, and it's hilarious because every journalist that's asked me about country music and why I I'm going to come over here and break Europe when country music really isn't popular over here, they all ask, "Isn't it about heartache and crying in your beer and losing your man or your women or your dog?" That is the honest-to-God's truth. And I said, "It's definitely three chords in the truth, but it's a little bit more modern now and it's not as sad."

LAUNCH: So what's the most immediate difference between this record and your last?

FAITH: The soulfulness of the songs, and the production and the performances from the musicians and from myself.

LAUNCH: Your last album was an enormous seller. Was there a lot of pressure to repeat the same success with this album?

FAITH: There's always a preconceived notion or idea of what [a follow-up album] should be, so of course there's the pressure of that. The pressures of making an album...there's just being back in to the studio and hoping to come up with something that's challenging for me as an artist but also that shows growth, because I want to do that--because I still believe that I'm still an artist, I'm still working at my craft, so it's important that I deal with those issues. But the pressures of the business and trying to compete with myself on previous successes, that idea floats in and out of my mind. But once I'm in the studio working on the music and creating the music, it's from my heart and my soul, so that honestly doesn't affect me until after the record--then all the questions start coming, and that's when the pressure comes. But I just go in and focus on the making on the music.

LAUNCH: The fact that you're a mother again, did that have any affect on the recording of Cry?

FAITH: Well, I'm a mother of three children, very young children, and of course being a mother of three children affects everything--first of all the perception of life, and then the reality of schedules and the reality of how much one can do. But my husband and I decided with our third pregnancy that I would just shut everything down, and that's what I did: I completely came off the road and came out of the public eye, and did really nothing but give birth to our third child and work on this record. And during the course of that time, I was really able to focus on the search for these songs, 'cause I rely so heavily on songwriters for my music. So that was a change from the way it has been for me in the past. Normally I've made records in the middle of the tour or in the middle of some kind of something other than studio work. So having a child was a good thing, 'cause it got me off the road.

LAUNCH: There must be a huge line of songwriters trying to get you to use their songs. What's the decision process when it comes to choosing your songs?

FAITH: Well, along with producers, I look at thousands and thousands of songs all the time--really, I never stop looking, and I don't look in one specific place. Yes, I call the songwriters I've had success with and who've I've known and who've been on records with me previously, but I call all songwriters. It would be great to have a songwriter who never had a cut previously--I mean, that would be a great story. So I really don't care where the music comes from, but the process of listening to songs is a tedious process and it's a daunting task. There has to be something about the music that interests me...it could be a lyrical content that makes me go back and listen to it again...it could be the music that never leaves my mind...but there has to be some kind of emotion. 'Cause listening to that many songs is the most difficult part of making a record for me, 'cause it's like, "When am I going to hear that song that I need to hear to get the project going?" But after I hear that one. it's like finding a needle in haystack, really--it's exciting.

LAUNCH: What was the first one you found for Cry?

FAITH: The first one for this record is a song called "If This Is The End." And it's exciting!

LAUNCH: Speaking of exciting, before taking on your upcoming role in the remake of Stepfod Wives, you were offered many film roles that you turned down. Why?

FAITH: Well, I have been offered a couple, but I couldn't do it because of scheduling. There's only so much. I would have loved to have done this one particular, but my schedule was so tight. If I had been single person, it would have been different--I could have worked 24 hours a day. But being a mother of three and a wife and trying to do a career at the same time, there's only so much I can put on my plate. And there were some roles that I read for that I didn't get that I would have loved to have gotten to do. But the good Lord knows, it always works out for the best. I can't imagine doing a movie in the middle of this [record promotion]. I probably would have been out of my mind by now! I can't do both; I've learned that I really need to be focused on one thing at a time, because I'm so involved in my music and making an album but also because of the business of my music. And so the movies will hopefully be there and I'll have the opportunity to give 150 percent to it.

LAUNCH: Having a husband who's in the same field, there has to be an upside and a downside to that--tell me about what it's like.

FAITH: We talked about that before we got married. The idea of falling in love with the person you've been waiting for your entire life is one thing, but there's the reality that there are two people that do the same thing. And at that moment that we were talking about getting married, our careers were very busy and demanding. So we obviously discussed that, and there's really no choice that we had, because we wanted to marry and start a family together. I think that it's amazing that we have each other. The other one understands the other's schedule. And fortunately, we're able to work around each other's schedules. Most of the time we try and plan--when I'm in the middle of something, he's not, and when I'm in the middle of something, I'm not--but we've crossed each other's paths at some point and probably will again in the future. But it works for us--we make it work. The schedule is insane and crazy and the people that work with us in setting up our schedule probably want to jump out of the window of the hotel when it's all said and done, but it works and it's a great support.

LAUNCH: You've crossed over more than almost any other country artist--do you think that the public's taste has changed, or do you think that you've changed your music over the course of time?

FAITH: I think both have changed, both have moved. I as an artist have grown by leaps and bounds...I don't know if "experimented" is the right word, because I've done what I've wanted to do in terms of where my heart is. And I think the people choose where the music goes--I don't set to direct my music to a certain place, 'cause to be honest with you, I wouldn't know how to do that. I wouldn't know how to make any specific kind of record, I just know that the songs that I choose inspire me, inspire the production, inspire the videos, inspire the pictures, everything. So yes, my records have changed drastically--and that's not to say that radically different for me, because as an artist the first music I was ever exposed to was music out of the church, and that music is soulful, deep-down, rhythm/soul music. That's the first music that I ever heard and the music I cut my musical teeth on, and so with each album that I've made I've brought that sound into the records. It's just that that cut of the pie has gotten larger and larger, and with my live shows I've always done that as well. Because I had so much time to find the songs for this album, I put the word out to the songwriters to send me what they thought was too far and not far enough--"I want you send me everything and let me decide what works for me"--and in that process I received a lot of that feel of music, that soulful music that is part of my makeup and that is in country music. That's where country music comes from, in my opinion, or at least the music that I grew up listening to.

LAUNCH: What kind of music would I hear playing if I walked into your house? What would surprise me?

FAITH: Everything, absolutely everything--just records I've bought over the last couple of years. U2's record, which is one of my favorites, I continue to put on. No Doubt, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige--she's an amazing singer, amazing. Um, golly... Edith Piaf, my kids love her record--believe it or not, they really do. The classics that I've listened to for years, the Rod Stewart record that I pull out and Elton John...the list can go on and on. Norah Jones is another favorite of mine.

LAUNCH: Have you received any constructive advice from your music idols during your career?

FAITH: Reba McEntire was one of biggest influences as a teenager. Not just her music, but her attitude and her fire. She's had profound advice to give--in some ways from questions I've asked her and she's given me answers to, and sometimes just her actions. But Reba has always said, "You have to have fun; you might as well have fun and do this and don't forget about the music. Don't forget about why you're here and don't forget about the music. Always remember why you're here and your love for music." The other thing she told me was...it's not a secret that I've been a little bit of a pincushion in country music in some places, and she has been very supportive in saying, "You have to do what you have to do." She said, "Look at me in the eye--you do it. If you don't do it, I'm coming after you!" Those are amazing words coming from someone, even when she was in the middle of career change and she was even a pincushion--and I mean that in the kindest of ways.

LAUNCH: Tell me about making the video for "Cry."

FAITH: The concept for the video "Cry" came from the director, Mike Lipscombe, but once he wrote the concept we started discussing how it was going to work for me. I'm involved in every process of it. I wanted to something completely unlike anything that I've done before. I thought the song called for that, for one, and I didn't want it to be about so much glossy beauty--I've done all that before, and that seems to be all that people want to talk about. I want to get people into my music and really talk about that. I thought the video is dark, much darker than anything that I've ever done--it's edgy, but I think it tells the story. Someone asked the other day, "What exactly is the concept?" And the concept, to put it in as few words as possible, is taking this life, fragments of this life, and trying to put into one place. And as I walk into the house, I run into myself and see my life as it's passed before me, whether it's happy times or sad times, and I feel it captured the emotion of the song.

LAUNCH: You were saying people all want to focus on your image and your beauty. Is being very attractive sometimes a drawback in country music, in some way?

FAITH: Well, look, it's a visual society in every aspect of the word, and I think it's important to look good, but I don't think that's what sells my music and I don't think that's what's made my career. Maybe it gets a little attention, but past that, the depth needs to be there as an artist. And if it's not, people will see through that.

LAUNCH: Is there a single inspirational thing in your life that drives you to do what you do?

FAITH: For me, it's just my love for music. I have been given a gift, and I really have no choice--this is part of my life and part of my existence. And my family and my children have given me more reason to experience the joy of what I do, because they bring joy to everything.