Sixpence None the Richer fires up “My Dear Machine” to start its new disc, “Lost in Transition.” It’s a familiar ride filled with sparkling pop and Leigh Nash’s pristine vocals.
“[Guitarist Matt Slocum] wrote the song not really about a specific car, but just about comparing something you love that you let get rundown, and I think he was kind of talking about the band, sort of ignoring it,” Nash said.
“When we got back together after breaking up, [we started] just sort of treating it better and kind of doing right by the band.”
Slocum and Nash formed the group in Texas in 1992 and based its name on a passage from the C.S. Lewis book, “Mere Christianity.”
In 1998, “Kiss Me” catapulted the band onto international charts. Sixpence scored hits with “Breathe Your Name” and covers of “There She Goes” and “Don’t Dream It’s Over” before breaking up in 2003.
“It had just been a really long time that we’d been making music and some of the times struggling, actually most of the time struggling, some of the time being very successful — and that was a really big surprise when we had the hits,” Nash recalled.
“All along, we kind of struggled with the business side of things. And I think in the end, around 2004, that started to get the better of us; I suppose it was 2003 when we decided to call it quits.”
It was a short hiatus.
“We reformed in 2007 because we missed the music and missed each other and what the other person brings musically to the table,” the lead singer said during a call from a tour stop in Annapolis, Md. “So it’s been very rewarding these past few months actually having the record out and touring again; it’s really been a lot of fun, very gratifying.”
Sixpence None the Richer — Nash, Slocum, drummer Rob Mitchell and bassist Justin Cary — will play a free show Oct. 18 at 9 p.m. in the Hollywood Casino Toledo H Lounge.
“I hear a handful of our songs when I’m getting gas or at the grocery store; T.J.Maxx is another good place to hear Sixpence,” Nash said and laughed. “I’m glad that we still have some visibility in that way, and hopefully people will remember us enough to give us a chance to play some more music for them, new stuff.”
