Lauren - Hi Kim. How are you doing?
Hi Lauren. I'm fine. How are you?
Lauren - I'm doing good.
I understand that you guys are on your way to Louisiana.
Lauren - We are and it's very lovely driving. We're in Mississippi and since we've been staying in Nashville it's not such a long drive. We drove part of the way last night so we've only got a couple more hours to go.
It's almost been a year since your first single came out. If you could pick one word to describe the past year, what would it be?
Lauren - One word ... oh my goodness! Probably unbelievable.
Has it been everything you though it would be?
Lauren - Yes! It has definitely exceeded what we thought would happen in this short of a time. It's just one thing after another keeps happening and it's just amazing to see what God is doing in this. It's definitely amazing.
I know that ya'll have been playing music pretty much all of your lives. You started out backing up your dad's band. Now that you're "on" all of the time and the whole world seems to be looking at you, do you ever wish, in those rare quiet moments, that you could have that peace of being relatively unknown again?
Lauren - Yeah ... I think that's the really nice part about going home. That realness again ... you're just who you've always been when you get home. But you know there is that "can't I just have a week off and do anything and just be who I've always been before?" But you know, we made this choice .... well - God made this choice and He wanted us to do this. We knew that we would have to give up things like the normality of life because of the calling that we have on us. So I think that we would just love to be normal, like it was before, but knowing that this is what we're supposed to do helps with that.
How do you feel, when you are in front of huge crowds, that you make a connection with them?
Lauren - I think that we just share our lives on stage. We want to come across as being just like everybody else. We're just like you. We struggle with stuff. We just want to connect with people in the audience and be like "we're just like you". Everybody has a calling on their life. This is just the calling that we have. You have just as much of a calling. We just want to show everybody that we're just like everybody else. I think that's the way we connect. We just try to be real. We just try to be who we are and never something that we're not on stage.
Some people tend to look at those in ministry as being up on a pedestal of sorts, better than them and stronger, as if you never have to suffer after you've answered the call to ministry.
Lauren - Right.
Sadly, some people seem to feel like they have to start behaving that way. Like they never have to struggle. But you guys don't seem to ever do that. You seem to really speak from the heart.
Lauren - I don't think people always want to think that we're perfect, they want to see us as normal. And that's awesome!
My daughters fell in love with your CD. I had the hardest time reviewing it because it kept disappearing off of my desk.
Lauren - (laughs) That is so awesome. To hear things like that is just awesome.
I know that ya'll are in Nashville recording. Do you have any ideas for the name of the new release?
Lauren - No. We're still writing and it's still totally in the works. We have no idea. We're still pressing into God and finding out what He wants for this next album. I don't think it will be out until the summer, so it will be a little while. We're still praying about it.
How is it going so far?
Lauren - It's going good. We've tracked some instruments for about half of the record, but we're still writing. It's hard to find time to write when you're on the road and on tour.
Have you gotten a lot of inspiration for songs from being on the road?
Lauren - It's on and off. Just with what we've gone through has given us a lot of inspiration. God testing us in these times to see if we will remember what He told us before we got signed or will we be swayed by the industry and what's popular. So there is that inspiration. And of course, the people that you meet and the stories that you hear.... these kids just opening up their lives to you is unbelievable. We often do get inspired by that, but it's just finding the time to write the song. You know?
