Jade and Jaren are sisters and Christian artists who form The Band Jaren. They talk about playing music together, their musical influences, and advice for aspiring musicians.

PEER: How did you come to know Jesus?

Jaren LaGore: Both Jade and I grew up in the church, and so we knew about Jesus from a very young age. Growing up and looking back now, that is such a blessing to know Him. But I wouldn’t say I started really taking my faith more seriously until I moved out of my parents’ house. I thought, “I get to choose if I want to go to church and follow Jesus or not, because I’m not in my parents’ household anymore.” And so, I decided to just go all in with the Lord. And that was four years ago. I definitely got to take my faith to a deeper level then, and it has just been growing ever since.

Jade LaGore: Same for me—again, I grew up in the same house as Jaren, because we’re sisters. We both grew up in the church. It’s such a blessing just getting to know Jesus from a young age and to grow up in Bible school and learn all the stories. It’s just been a growing process for sure. As time has gone on, you realize how much more you need Jesus in your life and that it’s more than just the stories that you learned when you’re a kid. It’s more of that relationship and connection with Him and reading your Bible and praying and just taking that time to grow in that relationship with Jesus.

PEER: Who and or what are your musical influences?

Jaren LaGore: I would say for the band that we love Barlow Girl. They were three sisters and they performed Christian music—Christian rock music mostly but they went number one. I think they set a record for being number one on Christian radio with their song Never Alone in 2004. I definitely listen to them now because they have a very similar sound and a similar sister vibe and so we love them. We love For King and Country—again, sibling duo. Super Chick is another old one, just a more rock sound. Another older one is Misty Edwards.

PEER: Jade, any artists who inspire you?

Jade LaGore: For me, I listen to classical violin a lot. Growing up, the people who inspired me were like Hilary Hahn and Ray Chen, and they were like the classical violinists of today and super good. In regard to our band music, Lindsay Sterling because she performs that pop-sound on the violin.

PEER: What influenced you both to start pursuing music?

Jade LaGore: We were both put into just about everything when we were children because our parents wanted to see where we were naturally gifted. We did everything from ballet, karate, soccer, and then my mom started us on the piano when I was five and Jaren was also three or four. We started piano and both loved that. My sister (Jaren) got to pick her second instrument when she turned six, which was the guitar. When I turned six, I got to pick my second instrument as well. And so that’s when I started the violin. And music was really what stuck with our family throughout all the years.

PEER: When did you start playing music together and what inspired you to start?

Jaren LaGore: We grew up playing instruments from a very young age, like piano and guitar. I started writing music when I was seven and just haven’t stopped because I really believe the Lord just instilled it into us. I’ve been learning that usually your purpose on earth is where you’re naturally gifted and what you’re passionate about. Where those combine is why you’re here on earth. When I was 13 years old, I was at a winter camp, and I had been doing music, but I’d been like, “I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.” I was at a winter retreat with my church, and I heard the song “Reckless Love” for the first time, and the Lord spoke to me so clearly for one of the first times in my life. He told me that you will use your gifts and talents that I have given you before the beginning of time to bring wandering hearts to me. Ever since that day, I just knew that I was supposed to do music and I was supposed to do it for the Lord. I’ve been able to pursue it for a little while now, and we’re still pursuing it to this day.

Jade LaGore: We started playing together when we were very young. We would play on the streets, and we would busk for tips at different street activities in Holland, Michigan. We never really enjoyed it growing up, and so we had this idea that we weren’t going to play together in the future, but the Lord has brought us back in our sisterly ways and now we love playing together.

Jaren LaGore: We probably started when we were six and eight. I would just be like, “Jade, you’re not playing that right.” And then she would get upset. But then we would make a lot of money because we were cute and people would give us tips and they’re like, “Okay, actually, let’s keep doing this.” We ended up parting ways and I was going to do my own solo career and Jade was going to pursue her classical violin career, but that wasn’t the Lord’s plan, and He really did bring us together after a few years of trying that. There’s definitely been so much fruit and blessing being together.

PEER: Was it Christian music that you started playing or did you shift from secular to Christian?

Jaren LaGore: That is a big part of my story. Growing up, I performed a lot of Christian music and a lot of secular pop music. When the Lord gave me that declaration when I was 13 about bringing wandering hearts, I didn’t pray about it, but I immediately was like, “That means I’m going to do secular music, because that’s where all the wandering hearts are.” And people who listen to Christian music are already Christians, so why would I do Christian music? But I never prayed about it.

For a while, I pursued that secular pop route, and I was going to be this pop star for Jesus. Then I moved to Nashville at 17 years old and started pursuing that. It went terribly, just so bad. I was with a different team at the time, and everything was falling through. The songs were shallow and terrible. The relationships were not great relationships.

That season wasn’t terrible but it was a growing season for me to realize what God actually has. We stopped working with those people. I was like, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” And He 100 percent pointed me to Christian contemporary music and now I perform worship music. I’m a worship leader here in town at a few different churches, but specifically for the band playing Christian contemporary music.

PEER: Do you write your own songs?

Jaren LaGore: Yes. I am, as of right now. I am the main songwriter for the band. I write a lot by myself, but mostly I’ll get put in rooms with other professional songwriters.

PEER: What inspires your songwriting? How does your personal relationship with God influence your songwriting?

Jaren LaGore: Everything that we write about is whatever we’re experiencing with the Lord at the time.

Most times I go into a writing room and they’re like, “Jaren, what’s on your heart? Or what have you been really passionate about? What has the Lord been teaching you? What have you been walking through that you can put into a song um that other people will benefit and relate to?” It’s all about our relationship with God, especially writing and performing Christian music. I hope it is. A lot of it is just about Jesus too, because a lot of it is about our struggles and what we’re learning and sometimes not even our struggles. Sometimes it’s just praising God and finding a new way to make a joyful noise and rejoice in Him. All the inspiration comes directly from God. That is always the goal when I’m writing.

PEER: How do you balance your relationship with God with your career and other creative pursuits?

Jade LaGore: It’s just consistency and going to God every single day even when you don’t necessarily feel like it. Every time you go to God, your flesh will never feel like it because it knows that it’s what’s going to bring you closer to Jesus. Just since January of this year, I’ve started a new thing where I read a chapter a day starting in the New Testament. I read a chapter a day and then do a deeper study of that chapter. I make time to do that every single day. I’ve been working on praying continually and walking throughout my day as if Jesus is walking right next to me and just talking to Him in my mind.

PEER: What excites you about being in the music industry in 2024? Do you have anything exciting in the works?

Jaren LaGore: Overall, I’m really excited to be in the music industry because I believe that there is such a spiritual war over music. Specifically with music that’s filled with light, hope and especially Jesus, versus music that’s literally portraying the devil. It’s taken over especially our generation, and they don’t even know it. It breaks my heart how much the enemy has such control over the secular music industry. We truly feel called to battle against that with the light of Christ. There’s been so much that we’ve seen especially going on tour and meeting with people, praying with people, seeing people get saved, seeing people get healed. It’s been so beautiful and it gets me pumped up because I know that worship and Christian music is so powerful.

It’s much more powerful than darker music and we need more of it out there, especially for girls and teenagers and younger people. We’re very passionate about that. We just released a song called “War Cry,” which talks about spiritual warfare and equipping yourself with the full armor of God and fighting against the dark. I believe that every single one of us—not just me and Jade, and people in the Christian music industry—as believers are supposed to fight this spiritual war with the love and the light of Jesus Christ.

We have another song coming out called, “It Wasn’t For Nothing,” and that one comes from a place where I was going through a lot of heartache and a lot of heartbreak. The Lord spoke to me through a TikTok, saying it wasn’t for nothing about everything that you’ve been through. It’s really like that verse, Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). That song really captures that verse and how the Lord pulled me through that heartbreak and heartache. I hope it is an encouragement to everybody when it comes out.

PEER: What advice do you have for young aspiring musicians? Whether they want to pursue Christian music or secular music?

Jade LaGore: One thing is definitely practice. Practice is important and it’s not the easy thing to do, but it’s being faithful in the little. Jaren and I can testify that we have practiced hours on end in our rooms by ourselves. Instead of going to watch a movie or to hang out with friends, we were practicing. The Lord saw those hours and He is blessing us now for the hard work that we put in behind closed doors.

Definitely practice so that when the Lord opens a door for you and gives you that opportunity, you’re prepared to walk through it and you can walk through it confidently. And then another thing is holding on to Jesus through whatever you do because the music industry, while the performance aspect of it all looks all glam and awesome and fun, there’s a lot of hard work that goes behind the scenes. Hold fast to Jesus and realize what you’re doing it for and who you’re doing it for. Have a firm foundation in your reason why behind your music aspirations—especially if you’re trying to go into the secular music realm and be the light.

Jaren LaGore: Practice like crazy. Living in Nashville, there are thousands and thousands of musicians here that are all trying to do the same thing. What will set you apart is your time in practice and getting those 10,000 hours in to become a master at something. It will equip you and prepare you for whatever you’re going to go into.

I want to encourage you if you feel called to be a musician, to do it with excellence. It’s hard to find and you 100 percent have to be set apart. Make sure you have a pure and clean heart. It’s so easy when onstage to let pride go to your head. It really is one of the hardest places that you can be, in the limelight, in the spotlight, and keep your intentions pure and point everything back to the Lord—whether you’re in secular music or you’re in pop music. Have that firm foundation and have a continual process of checking your heart before the Lord.

PEER: What are you currently listening to?

Jaren LaGore: I love worship music. I listen to a ton of worship music. Mostly UPPERROOM, Jesus Image, Jeremy Riddle, Steffany Gretzinger. There are some of my top worship artists who I love. On the more Christian contemporary side, I love some of these new artists that are very creative and original like Forrest Frank, Josiah Queen and Stephen Stanley.

PEER: What’s a go-to self-care habit when you’re feeling overwhelmed?

Jade LaGore: When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I go to Jesus. That’s the book answer. Go to Jesus, pray, read your Bible, get yourself filled with truth in your brain. But sometimes it can be hard if you feel like you’re all alone doing that. I really like to go to friends, family, and community that can help you through that season because you can just tell them all the things that are going through your head. They can really help you sort through things.

PEER: What is a Bible verse that’s been on your heart recently?

Jade LaGore: It’s been speaking to me lately in the season of life that I’m in, but Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, submit to him and he will make your path straight” (NIV). I’m 18. I just graduated high school and I live in Michigan. I graduated high school in Michigan, graduated with all my friends, but now I’m moving to Tennessee and I’m starting college in Tennessee. My whole family’s going there. In this season of drastic change, the most change I’ve ever experienced at least, it’s about learning to trust in the Lord and not in myself. 

Jaren LaGore: I’ve really been trying to memorize and study Proverbs 31, the woman who fears the Lord. And because she’s just awesome. I think everybody should be like her, especially the women, especially the girls. Her main beauty comes from fearing the Lord. She’s one of the most hardworking people ever. Proverbs 31:31 (NIV) says, “Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

To stay up-to-date with The Band Jaren, follow them on Instagram @thebandjaren.