{"id":828,"date":"2011-11-14T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=828"},"modified":"2011-11-14T11:09:10","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T16:09:10","slug":"a-conversation-with-no-other-name-vocalist-laura-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/11\/a-conversation-with-no-other-name-vocalist-laura-allen.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with No Other Name vocalist Laura Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Siblings Laura and Sam Allen grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Tampa, Fla. Even though music was in their blood, they had no idea they would end up in Nashville (with friend Chad Smith) signed to Curb Records and traveling across the globe to places like Thailand and United Arab Emirates. In this Whole Notes interview, Laura Allen talks about how No Other Name was formed, what the group’s music is all about, what it’s like writing and performing with her brother, and how she hopes their debut album The Other Side <\/em>impacts listeners:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: Tell me about how No Other Name came together.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Laura Allen: My brother and I grew up in a musical family. We have an older sister who sings and plays the piano. Our dad is a musician. Music was always a part of our lives. In the late 90s, we attended a camp that was held in Nashville for aspiring Christian musicians on the campus of Belmont University. Sam and I just loved it. There was all sorts of performance training. There were songwriting classes and music theory classes and private lessons you could take from instructors. We actually met Chad (Smith) there. He was also attending for the first year and we ended up hitting it off with him and we performed with him at the camp and had a great time. So the next summer we decided to come back and do it again and Chad was there again. He was from Louisiana. And after that, we just felt like there was something special there and that maybe it was what God wanted us to do. So we went back to our respective homes and prayed about it and thought about it for about six months and decided to move to Nashville. And here we are.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How has your family\u2019s musical background shaped your career and influenced the group musically?<\/p>\n

Allen: We grew up kind of a conservative church growing up. The music that we were exposed to and that we sang was very church centered and had a Gospel music background. Even though we don\u2019t do that style of music, I would say that influence is still there. We really gear our music for the church. We try not to do a song that we would be uncomfortable doing any Sunday morning from a church stage. That\u2019s just where our ministry is directed and what God has called us to. There\u2019s a place for all types of music, but that\u2019s just what we are striving for, music that\u2019s very accessible for the church, whether that\u2019s praise and worship or inspirational. To me, Gospel music is really any music that\u2019s a testimony and tells a story of what God has done in your life. We are drawn to those kinds of songs\u2014songs about hope and Heaven and things like that. Even though the style of music that we do isn\u2019t really what we grew up, the themes are certainly in that same vein.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What has the journey been like since you took that leap of faith and moved to Nashville?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Allen: You\u2019re never where you want to be. There\u2019s always waiting. There\u2019s always some new project that\u2019s coming down the road\u2014some new thing you\u2019re working on, some creative direction you\u2019re wanting to explore. You never arrive in this business. I\u2019d say that\u2019s even true for the most successful artists out there, the ones that are household names. Nobody ever feels like they\u2019ve arrived. That\u2019s just the nature of being a creative type of person. You always feel like you can get better or reach more people. There\u2019s definitely been a lot of patience. Early on, there were a handful of times when we thought, \u201cOkay, are we sure we really want to do this?\u201d This was before we all got married and rooted ourselves here in Nashville. But we always felt like this is what we were supposed to do even though sometimes it was really hard. We always felt like we needed to stick it out. God has always opened one door after another. Sometimes you think all the doors are closed and just when you think that, a door opens.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How would you describe your music for someone who has never heard it before?<\/p>\n

Allen: It\u2019s contemporary, inspirational, full of hope, encouraging. When I say inspirational, I mean that in two ways. In one way, we just want to be an encouragement to people and be a comfort in the way that only music can bring. But also I mean inspirational in the sense that we hope that something we sing or something we sing in a lyric is going to inspire someone to get moving, to get involved somewhere.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Do you write your own music, use other people\u2019s songs or co-write with other writers?<\/p>\n

Allen: It\u2019s half and half. We write about half of our songs and the other half is either stuff we\u2019ve arranged\u2014like classic songs we\u2019ve loved for a long time or hymns that we\u2019ve modernized. The other half is stuff that\u2019s brought to us by friends of ours or brought to us by our label. We do some co-writing. Sam and I write together a lot. I\u2019m more the lyricist and he\u2019s the music person although it does overlap. There\u2019s not a set formula that we have.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Do you and your brother Sam still fight like typical siblings or are you past that phase of your relationship?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Allen: Oh, no way. We fight like crazy. We really do. (Laughs) I don\u2019t know if this was good parenting or bad parenting, but my mom never settles our battles for us. If one of us went to her and said, \u201cWell he did this,\u201d or \u201cShe did that,\u201d rather than even investigate it, she would say, \u201cOh, sorry. Work it out.\u201d So we kind of had to learn to work it out. I think that\u2019s really served us well. We learned to do that as little kids. We don\u2019t fight all the time, but we do have our moments. But we\u2019ve always worked it out and we\u2019ve never been mad at each other for longer than two or three hours and then we\u2019re back again. For our songwriting, I can decide if it\u2019s a blessing or a curse to write with each other because we\u2019re so comfortable with one another that it\u2019s very easy to criticize. I might come up with a lyric and he\u2019ll just say, \u201cOh no, that\u2019s stupid.\u201d If I\u2019d been writing with somebody else, they might have been hesitant to say that. Sometimes it can take us forever to write a song together because we\u2019re so comfortable with each other and we\u2019re very free to say what\u2019s on our minds. But we make it work.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What are your hopes for the future and how God uses the group?<\/p>\n

Allen: It\u2019s always been interesting to me that things have happened that we really haven\u2019t expected all along. Sometimes the things you plan for and hope for don\u2019t end up coming through and the thing you weren\u2019t really thinking about is the opportunity that kind of just blows your mind. I hate to even put our selves in a box like that. It seems like God is always surprising us. We just want to continue to do what we\u2019re doing. We want to minister to the church and try to reach as many people as we can and encourage people to find their roles within the Great Commission. That\u2019s really where our heart is in this stage of our ministry. That\u2019s all I\u2019m hoping for\u2014just more opportunities to do that.<\/p>\n

Stay up on the latest news from No Other Name by visiting the group’s official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends! Siblings Laura and Sam Allen grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Tampa, Fla. Even though music was in their blood, they had no idea they would end up in Nashville (with friend Chad Smith) signed to Curb Records and traveling across the globe to places…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,70,72,131,120],"tags":[501,496,498,497,500,499,495,502,503],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-music-feature","category-new-artist","category-new-music-release","category-qa","tag-belmont-university","tag-chad-smith","tag-curb-records","tag-laura-allen","tag-nashville-tennessee","tag-no-other-name","tag-sam-allen","tag-thailand","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with No Other Name vocalist Laura Allen - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/11\/a-conversation-with-no-other-name-vocalist-laura-allen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with No Other Name vocalist Laura Allen - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}