Barlow Girl wants you to catch a glimpse of their heart - as well as have a FREE download of their song "Let Go" - and we have a cool little clip from the interview for you to hear - look all the way at the bottom!
Here's the transcription from my phone interview with Alyssa Barlow
What have you guys been up to this summer?
We have been doing a lot of traveling to festivals and stuff. A lot of traveling.
What kind of music are you listening to right now?
We were listening to the new Todd Agnew CD the other day. It’s kind of sad-I don’t really listen to that much music. I know it sounds so pitiful but when you have so much of it around you that when you are not around it I just love the silence. But we definitely have Todd’s new album in our CD player right now and I think that is pretty much it.
How do you stay strong young women in a very guy heavy music industry?
Well, our dad travels with us so that would be the first thing. Also us girls work very, very hard on our music because the thing is it is a guy driven industry its very male driven and I didn’t want to hear after we go on stage with all these guys that you girls are good for a girl band that was something that I did not want to hear. So, before we were signed we practiced up to 8 hours a day just because we knew we were going to be on stage with some very talented guys for a long time and so we worked really hard. And so I think the coolest thing is when guys will come up to you after a show or other guy bands and say gosh I never knew you guys could rock out like that you know we had no clue that girls could play like that. You know they don’t mean it and it sounds so funny and it’s cute because they don’t mean it insulting. You know but I just love hearing that. I love hearing that we aren’t just girls who are good for girls. And so we have gotten some respect from guys for this but it takes a lot of work.
I remember seeing you guys for the first time and being so impressed that it was just the three of you. You didn’t bring anyone in to play and be fillers in the band.
That is something that we try to do. We try and keep it stripped down as just the three of us; we don’t play with tracks we don’t play with anything. It’s just true to who we are. It takes a lot of work but it is definitely worth it.
What kind of a role model do you guys try to be for young girls?
We try to be examples in speech, in walk, in our attitudes, in our dress. Us girls always say we never want to be the cause of an argument between a daughter and her mom or a son and his mom when they go home from our concerts we don’t want them to be like well the Barlow Girls do that why can’t I do that. We always try to be really careful with how we come across with what we do or say or wear; that we would be more of an encouragement than anything to parents that are trying to raise girls or women not of this world. So, that is something that is definitely in the front of our mind a lot.
What do you think are the big issues that girls are facing today?
Girls are facing a lot of issues out there. I think dress is a huge thing, self esteem. I think the hard thing right now is that we come from a generation that is living in a world that is trying to convince girls that you are what size you are, you are how many heads you turn. If you are thin enough and dress good enough and look like movie stars then you will get the attention and that will ultimately fill you up. And so, what are our girls left with...eating disorders and barely any clothing and issue after issue that is coming up and girls I think are noticing you know what that is not satisfying me; I am not getting more filled up from this it is actually leaving me more empty. I think that is a huge issue that our generation is facing the lies that we are beginning to believe about where we going to get filled up and where we are going to get our self worth from.
Since you girls are on the road so much and are constantly traveling to churches; I wanted to see if you had any insight into the church today. From your perspective how do you see the church today struggling to reach young people and what advice do you have for youth leaders?
I think I feel like a lot of times the church feels like they are in competition with MTV or they think they are in competition with what is coolest, what is hippest, how can we top what is the coolest thing out there right now. It’s this on-going, we gotta be better then them, we gotta compete, you know this and that. And I think it has drawn our focus away from what we are really there for. Ultimately we are trying to make an impact. And I think my biggest challenge is to pastors and a youth pastor is that we are not called to pattern ourselves after this world. We are not called to look like them. We are not called to look at what they are doing and then somehow top that. We are called to look at God and He is going to give you the best inspiration that you need to reach your youth groups, the best inspiration that you need to reach your church and it is going to look totally different because the thing in my opinion is the world should be looking at us saying oh my gosh how can we be doing what that youth group is doing. That is cool. If we are stuck in the rut of chasing the tail of the world we are never going to get anywhere we are always going to stay at the tail and never be the head. I always try and encourage people, break the mold, let’s stop trying to look at what the world is doing and be like them let’s go to God and say how can I impact the people around me? Give me new ideas that have never been heard before. I think that would be my biggest encouragement.
What has been your experience in youth ministry? Did you grow up going to youth group?
Oh yeah, we are pastors kids. My dad was the children’s music pastor and the youth music pastor at Willow Creek church in Chicago for 9 years. He wrote all the songs and all the music and kind of set up all the bands for all of Willow Creek, kindergarten through fifth grade. So we were in all those bands and we grew up doing all his music. And for two and a half years after that after we did that for 9 years we traveled around the country. Different churches would hire him to come and perform his different music that he had written at Willow Creek and teach their churches that. So we would travel around the country doing that and we were his back up band. So all we have ever known is youth ministry and that has been great.
Talk a little about the new record and the direction that you girls were trying to go in with this one?
I think one of the biggest questions we get is how we write all of our music and all that and for us we always tell people it is just another journal entry for us. It’s our life, it’s our life experience, and the biggest thing we want to do is just be honest. I know that on my own I don’t have any great ideas about how to impact somebody’s life. I don’t have some great speech that I can just come up with. But what I have to offer and what us girls feel like we have to offer is the honesty and reality of our life right now. The reality of growing up and messing up and struggling and then going but who is God through all of this, what is He teaching me, how is He growing me up through this time. Who is He in my life and the honesty of all of that is really what we are going for. Us girls our goal is to really be as transparent as possible and hopefully through our brokenness and mistakes we can give people hope; that everybody messes up and God is just very gracious and very patient and He has got amazing things for all of us. If our journey and our struggles and our journal entries can bring people hope than that is what we want to do. So that is what we were going for on the second album as well as the first.
I think hope is a very real message that people need to hear with everything going on in the world right now. Do you see that with everything that has been happening with the hurricanes and everything in Iraq?
Definitely, we have gotten to do a lot of different fundraisers for the relief effort and even through the war piece we have gotten to play at a lot of different army bases. Really to see the men and women that are fighting for our country and get to thank them and sing for them and hear their stories too and with hurricane victims and their families it has impacted us more immensely to see one the devastation but two what God is doing in their lives at the same time how faithful He is and how much hope He is bringing to everyone. I think we have been more impacted than we have impacted others during this time. Their stories have really changed our perspective in life.
How can we let Youth Leaders know ways that they can be praying for you girls?
Traveling mercies you know, life on the road is harder than it appears, leaving a lot of family, a lot of the comforts of home, a lot of sleep. That we would not become stagnant in this time. You can get in the rut of the road, everyday is the same, it’s mundane, and you don’t grow and learn. And that is one of our biggest concerns that we want God to continue to challenge us and grow us and that we would come out of this better and stronger and we would learn more from this time.
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