Cara recently was interviewed for an upcoming article in a magazine. We will keep you posted about WHEN and WHERE that article will appear (don’t worry!) but in the meantime, I thought it might be fun to share the questions and some parts of some of the answers that Cara gave (I don’t want to give the whole article away, afterall). The focus of the article is Cara’s focus on missions with her music. The questions are bold, answers are not.
How many countries have you visited on mission trips?
5 so far, Kenya, Ecuador, Burundi, Thailand and Cameroon
What moved you to decide this kind of mission was right for you?
What moment (or moments) on a trip has shown you that this was the right decision?
What has been the scariest, or most uncomfortable, time on a trip?
Well, in Kenya, one village tried to stone us during a Jesus Film showing. Eventually, some old lady got up with a stick and started smacking the culprits into submission and everyone eventually settled down again.
How long have you been playing music?
What musicians have influenced you?
How do you write songs?
I always start with the theme. Usually it is something that I have really been struggling with or working through or praying about. I am definitely lyrics focused, and the music comes second. Once I get the idea and jot down some phrases and words, I pick up the guitar and see what happens.
Is music your full-time job, or what else do you do (or have done) to make a living?
Why Christian music? Couldn’t you reach more people with secular lyrics?
I love the Olympics. I think most people at least like the Olympics. I mean, you might have a complaint with some aspect of the Games, but overall, the once-every-four-years sporting events are pretty fun to watch, aren’t they?
Cara doesn’t like the Olympics. I should really clarify that statement by explaining that Cara doesn’t like to watch any sporting events on TV (with the noteable exceptions of Slamball and MotoX) so her Olympic dislike really stems from the fact that the Olympics are a sporting event. It seems that she has a special dislike for men’s water polo, which features “silly hats that look like baby bonnets.” She does have a point.
But even though Cara doesn’t like to watch the Olympics, she is a good friend so watched with me when I had the clicker and she had no choice. In typical Cara fashion, when we were watching gymnastics, she said:
“This sport is based on Minoan Bull Jumping.”
Chris was there when she made this claim, and we both know better than to believe every word that Cara says, so we pretty much disregarded it. Until she sent this email:
This “Great Commission” video was imagined, created and produced by our very own Cara Austin.
As a side note, Cara went into one of her “manic” phases to create this video. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this phase, it’s Cara’s highly creative and highly productive phase of life. It’s the times when she seems to be almost obsessed with something, she spends so much time on it. I’ve seen her go into these phases when writing songs, painting and doing other generally creative things. This manic phase involved learning how to do video editing and producing this video.
The manic phase also usually involves a “dearth” of sleep – in this instance, she stayed up until something like 6:30am (from the night before) tweaking and perfecting the video. Enjoy!
We just signed up this blog to be a part of Blog Action Day 2008. There’s more about the program here, if you’re interested, but basically it’s a day when thousands of blog writers all post about the same topic. Last year the topic was the environment, and more than 20,000 blogs participated. This year, we’ll be talking about poverty. If you have a blog, join in! Otherwise, stay tuned for Blog Action Day 2008 on October 15.
Cara Austin and Margaret Becker meet! This was a cool moment, it was fun to see Cara meet one of her greatest musical influences, and Margaret Becker was gracious and friendly. Cara did not really want me to take a photo, but I followed her and forced her into the picture. (I guess I didn’t really have to force too hard, honestly.) My favorite part of the moment was that MB complimented Cara’s outfit and told her that she looked “too cool to stand next to her.” Funny.
The night before Cara played at The New England Arts Festival, we went up early to catch the Margaret Becker concert. She did an acoustic set to raise money for a school up in Maine. The concert was amazing. We were in about the second or third row and it practically felt like we were on stage. This was my favorite song that she did – Just Come In. Cara told me that this song was one of her favorites, as well, and held a lot of meaning for her from years ago when she first heard it. (Please forgive the poor videography!)
This is a short 30-second video interview that I did with Cara before the New England Arts Festival started. We talk about her upcoming performance, and her views on Margaret Becker’s performance the night before.
This is Cara’s performance of “Come to Me” at the New England Arts Festival in Maine in June 2008. They specifically requested that she play this song, you won’t usually hear Cara include this one in her regular set.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this blog has recently been on a bit of a hiatus. I apologize to all of you who have been wondering what’s going on, where Cara Austin is, etc. I’ve been enjoying some vacations and trying to get ready to launch my first big Web site with Pure Incubation, so I took a short summer break from this blog. I’m hoping that this post will be the start of me blogging regularly here again. Starting with the info from the New England Music Festival that I promised a month ago….!
This blog is about Cara Austin, singer, songwriter and emerging rock star. It is written by Cara's friend Melissa, who also happens to be the president of her record label Fat J Records.
Send Me is Cara's most recent album.
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