SPOTLIGHT: Madi Diaz on Holding On to ‘Weird Faith’ [VIDEO]
Stacy Chandler
Posted On February 26, 2024
Madi Diaz (photo by Muriel Margaret)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Madi Diaz is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for February 2024. Her new album, Weird Faith, is out now on ANTI-. Read more about Diaz and the new album in our interview, and read an essay by Diaz on mining the soul for songs here.
“Weird faith,” the central concept and title of Madi Diaz’s new album, comes in many forms.
It’s spirituality without organized religion, it’s holding on in hard times, it’s letting love take root even when it has wounded you before.
“It’s kind of been the mantra of this season of my life, and the mantra of the record,” Diaz explains from a sunlit living room in this video for No Depression readers before performing an acoustic version of Weird Faith’s title track. “Lori McKenna and I wrote it together as we were kind of just talking through life’s ups and downs and how to find the thing that it takes to carry forward into the next season.”
Here, “weird faith” is about being brave, resisting the urge to turn inward after heartbreak and, when you’re ready, being open to trying again. “Every love brings a lesson,” she sings, “and you’re gonna be tested / So try to have a heart of gold / and try to have weird faith.”
The song is the final track on Weird Faith, a sendoff that parts with the listener on a hopeful note. Watch Diaz perform the song in the video below:
