FamilyChristian.com Exclusive Interview
Genuinely Stacie ...continued

FamilyChristian.com: Tell me about the changes your family has made to accommodate your career.

Stacie Orrico: We moved to Nashville and my Dad switched jobs. He was the European director for Promise Keepers, and then he switched into a para-church division of Promise Keepers. Now he's working with the Rocketown clubs that Michael W. Smith started several years back. My dad will be directing that. There have been big sacrifices, but everybody's been so amazing. For my older sister, who was about to go into her senior year—she was a cheerleader and social chairman and just kind of the center of everything—to be like, "Yeah, let's go to Nashville," and to be so supportive without hardly thinking twice, just blows me away. My little brother and sister were excited and my older brother already lives down here. He's training to become my tour manager.

We've never been your typical family. We've moved a lot. I was born in Seattle. We lived in Hawaii for a short time, and [then] went and did outreach in the Ukraine, so we were there for a couple months. Then we came back to Seattle and then moved to Denver and now we moved to Nashville. Every time we've gone somewhere, it's just been better and better and God's always blessed us for following. Usually a family is led through the mom or the dad and their career and for the family to be led by my career, even though God has led it, could be a lot of pressure. It's a strange thing, but when God's call is on your life, it shouldn't be a strange thing, especially when we're working as a family. We should be recklessly abandoned to Jesus, and just turn it over to Him. Through the support I think the sacrifices will be made and we'll all be cool with it.

FamilyChristian.com: What do your friends think about all this?

Stacie Orrico: It's been in some ways really good and in some ways it's been really hard. I've lost some friends. A lot of the girls. I've always gotten along with guys better. You know how guys are less fickle? Not that I didn't have girlfriends, but I was closest to my older sister. We have really close family friends who have been my mentors. As far as the girls in my grade, it was always kind of an on-and-off thing. When all this came up, it was kind of hard. My guy friends and my family friends have been so amazing and supportive.

FamilyChristian.com: With all of your time on the road, how do you handle schoolwork?

Stacie Orrico: I dropped out…just kidding! I went through seventh grade in private school. I went to private school from kindergarten to seventh grade. Then all this started to pick up because I signed with ForeFront when I was in seventh grade. It got a lot busier and I was traveling a lot and it wasn't making sense. Especially at a private school, you miss two days, and you get so behind. So I started home schooling. I was a little freaked out about that, because I' m such a social person, involved in everything. It was awesome. I loved it and I loved being home. It was cool for [the relationship with my mom] to build. That worked out really well last year. Now the schedule is picking up more and I'm on the road a lot, so then the problem was books—having to carry around [so many]. When you're home schooling, it can be up to six, seven or eight books, because you've got your textbook and your workbook and all the teacher's guides. So this year, I'm doing it over the Internet, and I have a tutor over the Internet. Each day, she'll send me my homework and I'll do it and send it back in to her. I'm the epitome of the 21st century child.

FamilyChristian.com: How do you want to encourage teens through your music?

Stacie Orrico: To sum it all up, [I want] to show teens that we can have a real relationship with God. [One of the songs on the album] is "Confidant." He can be our confidant, we can confide in Him. The title of the record is Genuine. [The song] talks about how real He is and the relationship we have with Him is real and the communication we can have with Him is real and it's not a big fantasy world. [I want] to show Christian teens the deeper things of Christian life and to show non-Christians something new that they've never heard before in a way that they can understand, and in a way that's not pushy.

FamilyChristian.com: Tell me about the song "Don't Look at Me."

Stacie Orrico: We all want heroes and we all want somebody to look up to. I was watching ER and there was this little boy who always dressed up as Superman. He thought he could fly and do all that. And it got me thinking about heroes and how we should be like that little kid wanting to be like our superhero and looking up to them so much and wanting to be just like them and dressing up like them and wanting to do what they do. God is that. God is a hero.

FamilyChristian.com: What would you share with parents of teenagers?

Stacie Orrico: I went away to camp this summer and had kids from all over the country telling me about the situations with their families and their parents. I just realized how much time [my parents] spend and invest in my life. They have invested so much time in my life and I feel that that has helped me. I wouldn't be able to do this if I hadn't had that time invested because it gives you that security and that confidence and dignity. I think that's really important.

Genuine by Stacie Orrico

FamilyChristian.com: There's a lot of pressure associated with a music career, especially for a young artist. Have you and your parents talked about how to remain accountable?

Stacie Orrico: We have talked about that a lot. Something I hear my Mom say a lot is that we don't want to give up our souls and gain the world. It isn't worth it. You see so many artists who are so talented end up living sad, empty lives. This industry takes so much out of you that without the accountability and leaving God in the center, you can be left so empty and void. It can strip you and take everything from you if you abuse it and don't keep a level head. [My mom and I] were just praying in the taxi on the way over here just to be able to prepare and to wake up every morning recommitting all of this to the Lord. You can forget so easily. I have a million things to do today, a million people to talk to, but it's cool that I can start out every morning saying, "God, this is Your thing."

Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog.

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