Warren Barfield

If you’d have met Warren Barfield a few years ago, he would have seemed mild-mannered enough. His early works, like his 2003 self-titled, featured simpler compositions of faith, hope and love. So I was a bit taken back by the Warren I met for our interview at GMA 2008.

He’s a bit older now, his demeanor much more confident and straightforward than expected. It’s the mark of a musician growing increasingly comfortable in his own skin. While I anticipated a nervous singer/songwriter making wry remarks to cover his tracks, instead Barfield spoke intelligently on his music and mission.

It’s no surprise, then, that Warren Barfield’s third label effort is titled Worth Fighting For. And in this interview, he tells us all about what those things are as well as (finally!) working with Charlie Peacock.

SA: What’s the anticipation level for this album after having put out a few? Is it the same?

Warren Barfield: Oh, no, it always changes, you know? I did three records as an independent artists and this is my third as a signed artist. Every time, to me the mission is to try to do a snapshot of who you are in this season of your life. I guess the record changes each time. This one is pretty different than the last. It’s been two years since my last one, and I’ve grown some and changed some.

This record is different because it’s about the things I would fight for, so I titled it Worth Fighting For. As I listened to the songs on the record… I’m terrible at titles. I actually named it after it was done, but I listened back to the record and asked ‘What’s the common theme here? What is this saying?’ And it seemed to be, to me, a list of things that you’d say ‘These are my priorities in life. These are the things I would fight for.’ So that’s what it’s about to me.

I’m just excited about getting out and getting people to hear it. It’s so easy to be distracted by our culture and in our life to go out and invest in the wrong things and we need to be invested in eternal things and our relationships. Do we spend as much time investing in our spouses as we do in our retirement plans? Do we spend as much time investing in our relationship with Christ as we do in trying to get a bigger house or a cooler car? Are we investing in the right things? Are we living for things worth fighting for?

SA: Do you feel an artistic responsibility to use your platform to be that voice calling out to be counter-cultural?

Warren: I definitely feel a responsibility – more toward the people coming to my shows. I just think about how busy life is and how hard it is to take a couple hours out of your life to do something, especially to get your family together and do something. So for the families who take that time out of their lives to come and see my show, I feel this responsibility to not waste their time but to give them something to apply to their life.

SA: So the first single, “Love Is Not A Fight,” is pretty vulnerable. I would think there would be a great tension of being so personal and yet getting that out…

Warren: Well, I was writing for my record. I was waking up every day and just writing for it and somedays that meant just getting up and looking at a blank piece of paper and trying to write songs. But at the same time, there are also times where I write songs not because I’m trying to but because I’m a songwriter and it just comes out of my life. That’s what happened with this one. It just came out.

I didn’t intentionally intend to play it. I was playing songs for my A&R guy and he asked if I had anything else and so I played it for him. He just loved it. He said it was great and said I had to play it for Charlie Peacock, who was producing my record. So I went to Charlie’s house and played it for him. He takes his glasses off and he’s crying and he said, ‘This is something that has to be heard.’ So I went home and my wife hadn’t heard it yet…

SA: So you had just written this personal thing on your own?

Warren: I’d just written it in my living room, just to deal with these I was going through and these feelings I was feeling. So I’d played it for Charlie and my A&R guy and I’d even tried it at a show or two just to see how people would respond and so many people came up to me having responded to the song. So my wife hadn’t even heard it yet…

SA: How did she respond?

Warren: I first played it for her on our six year anniversary at her parents’ house. We went out on the back deck and I played it there. She loved it, of course. To me it was a way for me to tell her I was committed to this relationship. There are a lot of things that can try to come between us and a lot of things to try to tear us apart but I am going to try to fight for you. I’m not going to lose you without putting up a fight for it. At the end of the song, the lyric says, ‘I will fight for you. Will you fight for me?’ And when I got to the end of the song, I asked her, ‘Will you fight for me?’ and she said, ‘yes.’

SA: I did want to ask you about the Peacock sessions.

Warren: Man, I love Charlie Peacock. On my last album, Reach, I had started that process with Charlie. We got three songs in and scheduling things happened and some things were happening with my label and I wasn’t able to finish with him. So I wasn’t able to finish with him. We had to start over with somebody else.

So this time I really wanted to work with him. He’s an artist, so he understands what it’s like to lay your emotions out there and have people speak into it. He’s so delicate with that. And he’s so inspiring. The studio at his house is so inspiring. When they were editing tracks at times, I would just go out to another room and write songs. It’s such a great environment and he’s such a great guy to work with.

SA: What did Charlie bring to this particular recording that displays a progression from Reach?

Warren: Charlie’s greatest contribution is his pop sensibility. He understands the music in a way i can’t even begin too. I’m all feeling. Charlie understands why i’m feeling it.

SA: Does Worth Fighting For feel like the most mature project in your career thus far?

Warren: Yes, every record i’ve made before this one i was younger and less mature. [Laughs] Sorry, sarcasm is my addiction. I feel like this record is the most important record I’ve ever done. I worked hard at writing songs that could be applied to the lives of my listeners. My hope is that it helps them decide what’s important in their lives. I hope it helps them decide what is worth fighting for.

• www.warrenbarfield.com
• www.myspace.com/warrenbarfield

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