Christianity Today’s Jackie A. Chapman interviewed three of our beloved Pegs: Jill, AP, and the Toesenga. It’s worth reading, especially in knowing how the Pegs view this all:
Do you have a more restored faith in music being outside the label world?
Phillips: I don’t like feeling negative. I think people try to stir that up in us sometimes, “Oh, the evil labels.” I don’t think we feel that way. We feel like, “Wow, that was a part of our history.”
Peterson: That was a good part of my history.
Phillips: Nobody would have listened to my independent record if I hadn’t been with a label [before that]. It gave me some credibility. I don’t know if that credibility means anything, but if it means they’ll listen to my music, then great! Honestly, I’m in a place where I’m very thankful to experience the little success that I did. God knew that I needed that experience for my character, for my humility. If I had some big record out of the gate, I would probably be writing different songs and be a different person.
Even the name Square Peg implies that we’re not trying to go that route as signed artists anymore. We’re trying to do something different. If we don’t fit there, we’re not going to beat our heads against the wall. Now, we didn’t want it to sound angry because most of us are past that place. We’ve been through that phase and we don’t felt that way now. We just feel very thankful to be doing what we’re doing.
Osenga: I have a restored faith in the audience, and in the artists I tend to work with.The business is really screwy and I work really, really hard to stay afloat in it, even now. But playing shows with Matthew Jones or Andrew Peterson is so unlike a marketing meeting back at EMI. There’s just no comparison to the freedom I feel now, in playing the music I always wanted to play [as a singer/songwriter].
Peterson: Many times artists can think themselves to be more important than they are, saying, “Because God has given me the gift to write songs, my songs must change the world. God needs my songs.” Which is just ridiculous. God is ultimately not interested in our songs. He doesn’t care about my career; he cares about my heart. And if that means shattering my career in order to bring me closer to him, then he’ll do that.
In thinking about that struggle with “success,” I make a very middle class income, and I have friends that make way more than that. There are times that Satan has worked on me, trying to make me feel like I’m not as successful. Maybe I’m not successful because God knows I’d be the biggest jerk in the world. Maybe he knows that if I had a No. 1 song or was a big star that I’d be really selfish with it. What we see as a curse is actually mercy. Now I try to rest in the awe that God will make a way while I’m working away.
I’ll admit that the Pegs probably have a healthier opinion about what they’re trying to do than I do about it at times, because I can sometimes shortsightedly see the SPA as a path to world [or at least "Christian music"] domination, when it’s really just a group of friends who like each others music and want to point to what everyone is doing.
The whole interview is worth a read [and not just because Jill gives us some love ... but Jill, dear, thanks for the love.]
[Hat tip to Stephen Lamb for letting us know about this.]
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