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The brother and sister duo LaRue return for album number two. Jen Abbas spoke with the siblings about their new album Transparent, their family and how they have grown during the past year and a half on the road.

FamilyChristian.com: Phillip, how would you describe your sister Natalie to someone?

Phillip: She's an awesome girl. She's obviously beautiful and has an awesome heart for God. She has a lot of leadership skills, yet she wants to be a servant. She has a very strong personality and likes to speak her mind. She loves to stand up for those who care about her.

FamilyChristian.com: Natalie, how would you describe your brother?

Natalie: I would describe Phillip as definitely a leader, someone who always stood out from the crowd. He's also very compassionate, very sensitive and yet at the same time very strong.

FamilyChristian.com: You spend a lot more time together than most siblings. You've probably learned some things from each other.

Natalie: Oh, definitely. I think that we depend on each other a lot more than we realize. Simply working on our music together has brought us closer.

FamilyChristian.com: What have you learned about life from Phillip?

Natalie: It sounds really bad, but I mean it in the best sense. I've learned patience with Phillip, just because I think, naturally, if Phillip and I just met each other off the street, we probably would not work together because we are opposite personalities. Phillip takes time for everything. He soaks in life. He's so calm and cool, so being with him takes patience. I have learned not to get frustrated anymore and to enjoy taking time for myself to just goof off and stuff like that.

FamilyChristian.com: Phillip, what have you learned from Natalie?

Phillip: I've learned that there is a way to be bold and speak your mind, but have a servant's heart. She has an incredible love for people and is really committed to them. Natalie is very committed to the work that she does. I have a tendency to get off focus and she's the one to say "let's finish this first and then move on." My mind travels a million directions at once.

FamilyChristian.com: You have two other siblings. Tell me about your sisters.

Natalie: They're twins and they're fourteen years old. They're really awesome. Michelle is our cheerleader and supporter. She is always wanting to do stuff for us and work behind the scenes. Brianna is our biggest fan and she loves going on the road. She has such a huge influence on our faith, being handicapped with cerebral palsy. We wrote a song about her on the new album. It's called "Brianna's Song." We kept on going back during the writing of this song because it was hard to describe everything we wanted to say in just a couple of minutes.

FamilyChristian.com: Do you have any regrets for choosing music instead of a typical teenage life?

Phillip: There are times when I find myself saying, "Oh, that would have been cool."

Natalie: Phillip and I are really blessed because we have gone to prom and homecoming with our friends. All the things inhigh school that you would want to do, we did. People ask if we missed being a kid, but I think this has helped us grow up fast. We would still be the same people and have gone through the same experiences if this had never evolved into what it is today.

FamilyChristian.com: What opportunities have you had in the last year?

Phillip: We have played before thousands and thousands of people.

Natalie: We have traveled around the world.

Phillip: We went to Europe, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, France for music. We got to go to Brazil for a missions trip with Focus on the Family.

Natalie: We did Pentecost 2000. It was a Christian evangelistic conference. We partnered with Big World Adventures so basically, we put on a skit and acted out the life, death and resurrection of Christ. I got to dance too.

FamilyChrisitan.com: You two were on the forefront of the trend of young artists coming out now. What advice would you give to artists like Stacie Orrico or Rachael Lampa?

Natalie: We've learned so much this last year.

Phillip: A lot of new artists, especially in the Christian market, feel like maybe they can't be honest, if they're going through hard time. We would just encourage people to be real in themselves because in the end, that's what's going to matter.

FamilyChristian.com: You two write all your music, which is a very rare thing. Talk a little about the song "Someday."

Natalie: We wrote "Someday" about three years ago. It came from a poem that I had originally written for my future husband. Phillip insisted that we write a song around the idea of the poem. It turned out really well. It's really just praying to the Lord and asking Him to prepare our hearts and prepare our spouses' hearts for the future.

During our start in Arizona, we would sing the song and talk about abstinence and how it is important to us and that we have decided to take a stand. We saw people being affected by it and coming up and thanking us for being so bold. That stand eventually grew into the LaRue Petition. The LaRue Petition is trying to bring a quarter of a million signatures to the U.S. Secretary of Education, asking that abstinence be taught in public schools, as the preferred method of birth control. We realize that a lot of things are determined state to state, but it's more to create public awareness and to make a bold stand for something that generally is not stood for in today's society.

FamilyChristian.com: What would you say to that teenager who might be feeling pressure from their boyfriend or girlfriend to have sex?

Phillip: The temptation is strong. I can't deny that. I'm a teenager and the temptation is there all the time. It is a battle that is hard to fight, but if you ask God for strength and if you are honest with others about the temptation, you will win. It is really good to surround yourself with peers and people who support you. It's hard to stand alone.

FamilyChristian.com: Your new album is called Transparent. Is there a theme to this record? How is it different from the first?

Natalie: We're older.

Phillip: The record is definitely different. It's a little more edgy, more modern. It's a little more aggressive, yet it has flavors of the old album. Acoustic guitar is still very strong, and we love the arrangements.

Transparent by LaRue

Natalie: The theme of the album is relationships. We have seen that in everything we do, relationships affect who you are with other people, your friends and with God. Sometimes those people are in your life for a short period of time; sometimes they are there for a lifetime. We have definitely learned that lesson this year. Our openness about our lives on this record is something that was not there the first time around. We sang a lot about what happened this last year and how better off we are.

FamilyChristian.com: What is God teaching you now?

Phillip: I think God is teaching me to be honest with Him. I look at David who was a man of God. He was honest with the Lord all the time. A lot of times in the Christian world, people are afraid to be vulnerable and I think that's wrong. If we can't be vulnerable with other Christians, how can we be vulnerable with the world and open up to the world? The reason Christianity is looked down at a lot of times is because of how the world perceives it. They see that Christians pretend all the time. We pretend to have these amazing lives, and they are amazing. It's an honor to love and serve God. But we go through junk just as much as anyone else. I think if we were more honest about the struggles and the different things we were going through, then they would start thinking, "Hey, these people are real.'

Natalie: God has been teaching me to really depend on Him in my life. Like I said before, people come and go and sometimes we spend our whole lives looking for someone who will really know us. We invest all this time and put our entire heart and soul into making this person know us and people let you down. God has been challenging me, saying, "Natalie, depend on me. No one else can be your crutch but me." I like that comfort.

Jen Abbas, a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., originally conducted this interview for Family Christian Stores' All Access music catalog.

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