Q&A: Barlow Girl

There's something different about Love & War compared to your previous releases. Is this album a departure for you guys?
Rebecca: This album is us, but it's a more mature us.

The album title Love & War can be taken many ways. What does it mean to you?
Alyssa: We've always believed we needed to keep fighting for what God wants us to be. It's a beautiful tension to keep moving forward. It's love and war. Often we just want one of them, but you need both. This is actually the first album where we got the title even before we had written all the songs, and every song that came after that fell under either category.

There were some rough times during the songwriting process. What was going on?
Alyssa: The song "Stay With Me" came during a really hard season as we were writing this album. We had been writing for five months -- sometimes for five hours a day -- and we had, I think, one song. I just got really frustrated. Our deadline was in two or three weeks. I sat in my car and told God, "I love you, but I don't know if I can keep doing this if it's going to be this hard." Then I felt him telling me, "You Christians are always asking me to take you out of difficult situations."

We're guilty of sacrificing our callings for comfort so often. We have in our minds that if we're going to serve God, it should be this easy ride, but the most beautiful diamonds are made under the most intense pressure.

We have to learn to embrace the hard times as well as the good. "Stay With Me" is a song about how we just made up our minds to keep pressing on. And in the next three weeks we wrote 10 more songs.

What's the story behind the new single, "Beautiful Ending"?
Alyssa: It's a deep look into what us girls have felt and dealt with for years. When God called us to ministry, I was like, "No, anything but full-time ministry!" One of our biggest concerns was that in working for God all the time, we'd forget about him. It's a common tale. When you're serving God and your ministry is going well, your pride comes in and you think you don't need him as much. We were wondering, will we have a beautiful ending? It's about our desire to not forget him in this process.

What was your approach as you headed into the recording studio this time around?
Rebecca: We never want to become stagnant. We always want to be challenging ourselves. For this album we definitely combed over every song, changing keys, changing time signature.

As an all-girl group, you've been labeled an act aimed at girls. Do you see that as your target audience?
Rebecca: It's our desire that people don't say, "You're just great for girls." We're a band, and we're working hard at what we're doing. We want to encourage women and men to embrace their calling.

Many of your fans seem to look to you for advice. What types of issues do you hear about most?
Rebecca: The issues that constantly come up for us in our signing line are a lot of people struggling with depression and eating disorders and a lot of people dealing with death. It's interesting to hear these people's stories and for them to hear a song on the radio and find encouragement. It's awesome to hear that they have been encouraged through a song.

Is there one song from the album that's become a favorite?
Lauren: "Come Alive" is so fun to play, and we're gonna start incorporating it in our fall set. We're all called to change this world. I think it's the cry of this generation to be all you're meant to be.

Where do the songs come from? Are they from your own lives or issues you think listeners are facing?
Lauren: Where we're at personally always comes through in the record and our lyrics. We can only really write where were at. This season, I feel like we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and that definitely came through on this album.

You're kicking off the release of this album with a concert at Universal Studios' Rock the Universe event. How did that come about?
Rebecca: We bumped up the album release two weeks so it could tie in with Rock the Universe, and it's our first time playing there, so we're so excited!