File this one under lost and found interviews: here's a snippet of a brief exchange among writer Gate Davis and the Innocence Mission's Karen and Don Peris, captured a few years back but never published on a large scale before now.

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In your songs you often use ordinary language and create ordinary
scenes. How do you find wonder and mystery and meaning in the ordinary?
How do you notice it? How do you write it?

Karen: Well I do believe that every life is sacred and every moment of life
is meaningful. Life is so beautiful and mysterious and sometimes painful.
When I sit with my guitar and sing and write, the music contains a feeling
that can be hard to get at with words. I will see certain images and feel a
feeling but the words are just out of reach for awhile. I think it is
because a person's feelings at any one moment are so multi-faceted and hard
to define. And for me, sometimes small domestic details and descriptions can
get at what I'm feeling more than emotional statements.

Anne Lamott, in her book bird by bird, states that "writing takes a
combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief
that something is beautiful because it's right. To be great, art has to
point somewhere..." So, where does your art point? How do you accomplish
this? Furthermore, I have read an interview with Karen where she explains
that she has a hard time leaving a song/poem without hope. How do you take
an honest look at the world and respond with art that is hopeful?

Karen: I hope the songs point towards the brotherhood of man, because I
think that is something that God intends with music and writing, and any art
form - the discoveries that we make about how we are all connected with each
other, our common sorrows and joys and the sacredness of each life and the
beauty of it. Hope is a gift that refuses to be declined. I often have
disappointment in myself but I always believe that I can change, or be
changed, for the better. That's something I've written about a lot, and it
is a great release to me, and a truth, to sing "I feel that I can change".

How do try to use the form of the music of your song to add meaning to
the content?

Don: It's true that the music can bring something additional to the song.
The sound of a song, the atmosphere for the lyrics and melody to sit in, the
support the chords bring are all important. Most of this happens
organically, without too much forethought. I mean, it is something that we
are aware of needing to have but it is usually an emotional response to the
song and lyric.

Do you have any sense of an identity struggle as believers and artists?

Don: I don't think that being artists has made being believers any more
difficult. There is always some struggle when being a believer, in all
walks of life, I would guess. It may or may not be true that there are many
artists who do not believe, I don't know. We have found the opposite,
often. And, being involved with music has always been, for me, closely
associated with things spiritual. Or maybe I should say that music has
often helped my heart and mind to be open and spiritually receptive.

What do you think about stewardship? You are now parents...How do you
deal with demands on your time, money, opportunities, and balance these with
the various demands on your artitstic calling? I hope this makes sense...In
other words, there is a struggle in all of life...we can only do so many
things with the time we have....you are musicians, you are parents, you are
neighbors, etc... How do think/make decisions about your various identities
and how you can most wisely use each gift?

Don: Those are good questions...and complex questions. Yeah, the demands
on time are many, for all of us. I really want to try to take care of the
most important things first, striving to be good a parent and person, which
involves growing in in faith. And, also, music is important to who we are
as people, and some attention needs to be given to that. So, priorities are
a necassary thing for me to be reminded of. But, sometimes things do get
out of whack and then money and carreer, or whatever, takes on a falsely
greater importance. So, again, priorites are a necassary thing for me to be
reminded of.

Do you think being a part of a smaller community/town has shaped your
music? How? Also, we live in a more urban setting--Austin--What do you see
as the challenges/opportunities of living in that type of environment?

Don: I think being part of a smaller town has influenced and shaped us as
people, so it has had an effect on our music I am sure. I'm just not
exactly sure how.

What works (Lit., music, etc...) have most influenced your own work?
What are you reading/ listening to now?

Don: Listening to Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Larry Norman.

Karen: Listening to the Langley Schools Music Project, Beach Boys "Pet
Sounds", Velvet Underground "The Quine Live Tapes". Reading Letters of
William Maxwell.

If nobody purchased your music, would you still play? Why? How is art
simply a part of your life?

Don: Hmmm.... I do get a little buggy if I don't play my guitar some
everyday. So...it seems I need to play regardless of whether people listen.
But, to be honest, there is also a part of me that wants people to listen
too.