Jordan (15), Caroline (13) and Carolyne (12) are PureNRG and their making quite a name for themselves...
Last year they burst into the music industry with their self-titled debut album. And they’ve been keeping pretty busy in the last year or so.They take their jobs as role-models seriously and the girls even wear adapted leotards in their shows so that their stomachs don’t show if their shirts fly up during their high NRG dancing... promoting purity and modesty which is seriously lacking in the music industry today. We caught up with them and found out more:

Firstly, I just wanted to say thank you so much for doing this interview, we appreciate it and feel very privileged.
PureNRG: Thanks for having us!

Q: So, could we start with some biographical info on you guys- about growing up and that kind of thing, just something brief from each of you.
A: Jordan: Alright, well I grew up with one brother and one sister and I’m the youngest of my family. They’ve moved out because my sister is 26 and she’s got two kids now, so I’m an uncle now. My brother is 22 and he travels a lot so I’m kind of a loner at the home now because it’s kind of like I’m an only child. I’ve grown up in a Christian home my whole life and you know, it wasn’t really a big deal until when I started in this group. I think I realised how big God was and started seeing His beauty in everything and I think this group has really made me get a lot closer to God and I think that I, as a person, have grown stronger with God because of this group and I just think it’s really awesome
Carolyne: I live in a house with 10 other people and 2 dogs and I’m growing up in a Christian home right now, yeah because I am still growing up. I went to a Christian school and then I got into PureNRG and now I’m home-schooled because we practice a lot and we’re always recording and stuff like that.
Caroline: I grew up in a Christian home, well I still am. I have 2 brothers, one’s older, one’s younger and I’m the only girl, sadly. When this group started, I really started growing closer to God and I really saw the connection with Him and the whole time we’ve been in this group I’ve just felt like everyday I’ve been growing closer to Him and starting to really become a Christian. When I was younger, I went to church and I learnt my Bible stories and stuff, but now that I’m older I can really start to become a Christian on my own and it’s something that I’m really starting to do.

Q: And how did you guys all meet each other?
A: Carolyne: We all meet at a dance studio in Nashville, our home town. Me and Caroline met when we were 3, we were in the same dance class and the minute we met each other we were attached because we had the same name and we met Jordan a few years later. We already knew him, but we became friends with him a few years later because he was in our older sibling’s dance classes and that’s how we all met.

Q: And how did you guys get your “big break” as a band into the music industry?
A: Jordan: OK, well we all went to auditions and that was held by our management company and there was about 200 or 300 kids there and we auditioned and at the last audition it came down to us three. Then we did a couple of showcases to try and find a record label and Fervent picked us up and it’s been so great, they’re really cool so we were really excited about that.

Q: Why did you decide on the name “PureNRG” ?
A: Caroline: Well, it was really hard to decide on the name PureNRG because we had to go through so many names. Some of the names were: Kickstart, Tumbledowns G-Kids, G-force and then Jordan’s mom had the idea of Energy times 3 because they were three of us. So we gave it to the record company and it just kinda came back to us as PureNRG.

Q: According to your biography, each of you brings a diverse skill set to the group. What do each of you feel yours is?
A: Jordan: I think we all have different aspects of what we do. Obviously I’m the boy so I guess I’ve gotta influence the boys
Stacey (Their Manager): Well, I dunno if that would be an accurate representation because they all sing and they all dance. Jordan actually plays the Djembe (drum) in their show and they just all have a heart for God and for reaching their peers. So, I think it’s more kind of collective qualities than diverse qualities.

Q: You’ve just done a second album and you’ve been busy with a Christmas album, is that correct?
A: Caroline: Yeah, we just finished recording our Christmas album about 2 weeks ago and that has 10 classic Christmas songs and they’re all our favourite songs, that we grew up listening too and that’s gonna come out in September.

Q: What message do you guys aim to convey through your music?
A: Jordan: Well, we have a mission statement and we share this in our shows a lot and it’s pretty much the heart of the group and what we wanna do with this group and it’s why we get up and perform and stuff and Caroline’s gonna share it with you.
Caroline: Our mission is to really entertain and promote Christian values to young people just like us. Using wholesome and uplifting lyrics in our music and with songs and dance in order to provide positive role-models and we just really hope that we can showcase that being a child of God is just really so awesome and nobody can ever take that away from you no matter what happens and that’s just the whole reason that we get up on stage and perform for everybody and we really hope that we can get that message across through our music

Q: And I hear that you guys put on quite the live show with your choreography?
A: Carolyne: Yes, high energy and lot’s of fun
Caroline: Well, we hope so because we work really hard on it

Q: So speaking of live shows, any chance of a tour to South Africa?
A: Carolyne: That would be so much fun!
Caroline: We don’t have one planned yet, but we hope so- that would be really awesome, so much fun.

Q: Still on the subject of touring and shows- you guys have been touring with some quite big names. Could you tell us more about some of your tours?
A: Caroline: Well, we just got of Winter Jam- we were with MercyMe, Skillet, Newsong, Barlow Girl, Group One Crew, Mandisa and a few other groups that came on sometimes. That was just really, really a great experience because we got to meet a bunch of people and they were all really nice and really welcoming and it just kind of helped us. We also went on tour with Jump5 and it was their farewell tour and they kind of do the same thing that we do right now and that was just really great because they were kind of like older siblings just taking us down the path of where we need to go with this group.
Carolyne: And also with the tour with Jump5 it was really fun- because they were ending the group and we were just starting. It was a lot of fun because they gave us a lot of really good advice.
Jordan: Yeah and with the Christmas album, we’re gonna do a tour with Casting Crowns and so we’re really excited about that. That’s gonna be like a really, really awesome tour and it’s called the “Casting Crowns Christmas Celebration.” It’s gonna be with Natalie Grant, Avalon, Michael English and so it’s a lot of big names.

Q: And what’s been the highlight of your career for each of you so far?
A: Caroline: Well, Carolyne and me love to do the video and photo shoots mainly because we get really cute clothes and we get to have our hair and make-up done. We feel like princesses because we’re being primped all day. All of us also love to get up on stage and perform for everybody and that’s really great for me.
Jordan: I think the highlight of our career for me so far has been Winter Jam, it was really cool. We played in front of big stadiums and big crowds. It was a really fun tour.
Carolyne: For me, it’s definitely the video and photo shoots but also just being on stage and performing and being able to do what we do and spread God’s name, for me, has just been such an honour.

Q: Ok and how does it feel knowing that guys are role-models to a lot of young fans?
A: Carolyne: It’s kind of nerve-wracking, but at the same time really exhilarating because we feel that we can really make an impact on a lot of people’s lives just through our songs. So, it’s really great. We really have to trust God with it- to give us the right words to speak and say in our songs. So, yeah kinda nerve-wracking but really exciting

Q: What message would you like to give to young people from your own experiences?
A: Jordan: I think it’s just- be obedient to God and use your calling for good. Really just give yourself to God and trust that He’ll take you wherever He needs to take you. Once you do that, He’s gonna take you to amazing places.
Carolyne: And just to be yourself because that’s who God made you to be. Stay true to you and to God

Q: And finally, where to from here- what would you like to do in the future?
A: Jordan: Well, the Christmas tour is the next tour we’ve got planned and we’re really excited about that, can hardly wait. Right now, in the summer, we’re doing festivals and we have a live DVD coming out on July 22. That’s really, really awesome- it’s got a 8 song- set on it and it just kinda shows you what we do and it’s got behind the scenes footage on it and stuff.
Caroline: And also coming out on July 22 is a devotional book where we each wrote things about some of our songs and in the future we can just hopefully still be spreading God’s name as a group and performing
Carolyne: And we would really like to go out of the country because we’ve hit everywhere in the States, but wherever we get to go we’ll be happy about, but we would really like to go out of the country

Thanks-well I think that’s about time up. So thanks again, it’s been so great talking to you guys
PureNRG: Thank You.

And hopefully we’ll see you in South Africa one day, we’ll have to organise something...
Caroline: Yeah, that’d be awesome! God Bless

Bonnie: Talk to me a little bit about your first year, your first album, your first time on the road and all the transitions that go a long with it.
Jordan: Our first tour was the Jump5 Tour, and that was a blast for us because they went through the same things that we are going through now. They really taught us a bunch of lessons, and that was just a blast—a good first tour. Then we went out on a tour called Winter Jam, and that was really great too. We played a bunch of arenas and hung out with all the people from Skillet, Mercy Me, Barlow Girl. Everyone on that tour was so cool. Now we are just doing a bunch of one-offs—going out on the weekends to play for churches and venues like that. This Christmas we are actually going on a tour with Casting Crowns, and we are excited about that.

Bonnie: What kinds of transitions did you go through with your friends and your family as you went from being just normal kids who went to school and did what normal kids do to working in the studio and going on the road for long periods of time?
Carolyne: It really wasn’t that different because our friends were mostly from dance, so we were all like a big family. When we would leave, we would keep in touch with our friends. They don’t treat us any differently, and they are really supportive. It is the same with our families. They are just really supportive and happy that we are getting to travel and do what we love to do along with spreading God’s name. The transitions weren’t that big, just the transition of having to sleep in a bed on a bus. That was about it.

Bonnie: Caroline, what was a high point for you this last year?
Caroline: Probably our photo shoots and video shoots because it was just so fun to get to have that experience of what we did. Also just traveling to all the different places and getting to perform and do what we love to do.
Bonnie: Was there a low point that you can identify?
Caroline: When we were gone for two weeks it was hard because we really missed our families, and we were used to just going out every weekend or just three or four days at a time and then coming home. So when we went for two weeks straight it was kind of hard. Otherwise, I think that rehearsal was probably the lowest point.

Bonnie: How often do you rehearse?
Carolyne: We rehearse Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays most of the time for four hours on those days. We feel that rehearsal is a low point sometimes, but then when you turn around, you make so many memories there. Like when you first learn the dances or when you first learn how to do a back-tuck all together. When we were at rehearsal one time, our coach started crying because she said that it was the first time that she felt like we were actually together as one group rather than three individuals that are just singing the same songs and doing the same dances. So we make a bunch of memories there, and that is probably where most of the memories from pureNRG, other than the traveling, come from.

Bonnie: Do you feel that all of your experiences over the past year have made you different from other kids your age?
Caroline: Sometimes I feel like that, but sometimes if we are home for a while, I feel like I am still that kind of kid who plays in her backyard and rides her bike everywhere and just has fun. Other times I am still focused on performing, so it kind of depends. I can be the serious “work woman,” or I can be the “fun kid.”
Jordan: I guess we are different from other kids because we do work, but we also have a lot more fun than those other kids because we travel and have great experiences. When I’m on the road, I don’t feel like I have to be “worker man” or whatever. I can still be a kid, just doing a job at an early age.
Carolyne: For some kids who home-school, it is more demanding than going to regular school, but in our situation home-schooling is a way of freedom. We still get our school work done just like other kids, but we get to spread it out. We get to go to other places and have fun during the day, not that school isn’t fun, but we get to do our school work and also travel and stuff like that.

Bonnie: You have all said that you feel that you are different than you were before, so how can your audience relate to you?
Carolyne: I think they can relate to us because most people in our audience are kids, and we are still kids. We still love to do what kids do, and they see us up there having fun and dancing around and singing—that is what most kids love to do! When I share my testimony, I talk about when I got embarrassed about sharing that I was a Christian and I got embarrassed to lift my hands in worship and close my eyes during prayer. [Kids] relate to that. A lot of kids in our target audience start trying to find out who they are, and when they start trying to make friends, they get embarrassed over silly things like that, so they can relate to us through that.
Caroline: I think it is really important for fans to see that we are normal kids, so if they look up to us then they don’t feel like they have to sing and dance and do that kind of stuff just to be cool. You can be normal just because God is watching over you and protecting you, and as long as you believe in Him, you are cool and you are popular.

Bonnie: Carolyne, how does it feel to now have a sister who is involved in music as an artist in the group Cadia?
Carolyne: It is a lot better for me because now that she is on the road, she fully understands. When I come home and tell my family these stories about what happened on stage or about some technical difficulties, they don’t always fully understand. When [my sister] is on the road, we can call each other since we are usually on the road at the same time. It’s great because we understand each other, and we can talk about the things that have happened. We get to spend a lot of time together in the music stuff like for festivals, so that is cool. I think it is actually an up side rather than down because we get to spend more time together talking about how we feel about being on the road. I like it a lot.

Bonnie: Caroline, since you have been out meeting lots of new people who you would never have met otherwise, have there been any female artists or people in the industry who have stood out to you as positive role models?
Caroline: On our Winter Jam Tour, we met Group One Crew. We had met them before, but we really got to know them on the Winter Jam Tour. Carolyne and I really looked up to Bianca because she was also an artist who was living the same life as ours, and she was on our record label. We looked up to her because she is such an amazing singer, a really good Christian, and just a great person. She has really been an influence on us.

Bonnie: Jordan, tell me about some of the relationships you have formed over the past year.
Jordan: Everyone one the Jump5 and Winter Jam Tours were really cool. Sammy Ward was kind of like my mentor on the [Jump5] tour, and if I had a problem I would go to him and ask him to help me. When we were going on the Winter Jam Tour, it was people like John and Ben from Skillet, people from Mercy Me—they were really cool guys. I looked up to a bunch of the male artists as well just so I can see how they do things.

Bonnie: Now that you are starting on your second year of being on the road and your second album, how has your approach been different than the first time around?
Caroline: It has been different because last year it was a whole new experience, and it was a learning process. This year we will kind of know what is going on, like what we are going to do when we get to the venue and what to do when we are getting ready for a show. So now that we have all that experience in our heads, it can just be fun now that we are on the road again.

Bonnie: Tell me about how recording in the studio was different this time.
Carolyne: It was different because the first time we went in, we had only recorded two songs, and we just had four days to record the last two demos. That was all we had for experience in the studio. So when we would go in for the last CD, we would go in not knowing what to think, and then we would just play it by ear. Whatever our producer told us to do we would do it. This time we knew how [our producer] worked, and we knew how we worked together, so it went by a little bit quicker. We knew what do to, so we could just get in and get it done. It was a learning process, and it had a good ending.

Bonnie: On your new album “Here We Go Again,” you recorded “Ain’t No Mountain High.” What fresh approach do you bring to the classic song?
Jordan: We definitely made it more modern and high energy—sped it up a little bit. It is kind of the same thing we did with “Footloose” [recorded on debut album]. I think people are really going to like it.
Carolyne: I loved “Ain’t No Mountain High,” and when we needed one more cover song we wondered what we should do. They were asking for all kinds of suggestions, so while were on the Jump5 Tour we were trying to write down as many ideas as we could. I thought about “Ain’t No Mountain High” because my dad used to play the Michael McDonald CD all the time. So I knew “Grapevine” and “Ain’t No Mountain High,” his version. I loved that song, and when I found out that we actually go to do it, I was so excited. We added in a little bit of the old version and a little bit of our own style, so it is just a good mix.

Bonnie: When you are on the road, how do you keep in touch with your “BFF”?
Carolyne: We all have cell phones to keep in touch with our families, so we also [keep in touch with our BFF]. Caroline and I are each other’s BFF, and so it’s not that hard to keep in touch with each other since we are always together. Even when we’re not on the road she is always at my house or I’m always at her house.
Caroline: We text with a lot of our friends. We communicate through text message chains like “If you are my best friends, then you will send this back to me.”

Bonnie: How have your friendships within pureNRG changed?
Jordan: I went from kind of liking them to not liking them at all! Haha!
Caroline: Carolyne and I were always best friends from day one when we met because we had the same name, so we didn’t really change. We just got closer. We knew Jordan, kind of, but weren’t really friends. He was friends with my brother, and he was in a group called Next Generation, so I knew him through that. When we got in this group, we became closer.
Carolyne: Jordan and I were in a duet together, so we bonded through that.
Jordan: I think we came from being friends to being more like siblings. I think of them like my sisters that I care for.
Carolyne: We argue like siblings, and we reason like siblings to. We are siblings without the blood.
Caroline: We pretty much are siblings. We just don’t have the same last name.

Bonnie: A huge part of your live performance is the dancing. How is that going to be different in the second year? Any changes?
Carolyne: We are making changes, and now that there is a new CD out, our rehearsal coach is really trying to push us toward getting new tricks, and we are trying to get fresh choreography from people. We are trying to make it a little bit different for people so that they are not seeing all the same things that we did with the last album.
Caroline: When people come to our shows, they can see the old songs, and think “Oh, I remember that,” and they can sing along because they already know them. They can also see new choreography, so they won’t be bored with stuff they have already seen.
Bonnie: Do you contribute to the choreography?
Carolyne: When it starts, it is just from the choreographers, and then when we start doing it for a while, we kind of get bored with some of the moves. We think about what we can do with it, and we talk about it with the other people in the group and with our rehearsal coach and see if it works. We do make up some of the dances, but we also have the choreographers’ dance in it.
Caroline: Sometimes we have to change some of the choreography because we are singing or we are on the wrong side of the stage. Sometimes Jordan will have random ideas, and we try to save those until we have one of those days when we have to change something and try to make it work.
Jordan: The girls have a lot of great ideas too, so we try to incorporate all of our ideas along with the choreography. Then we get to make our dance breaks, and I think there is actually going to be a new one for the new album.
Caroline: Even though our dance break is really fun, we have to practice it over and over again. The whole thing is dancing, tricks, and tumbling, so we have to practice that more than we usually do for the dances that are in the songs. We are really ready for some new choreography, and we probably put a new step in every time we go to rehearsal. We don’t even know the original.
Jordan: There is only one move left—one 8 count—left in the whole dance that is original.
Bonnie: Well, I want to congratulate you on your new album and wish you well!
pureNRG: Hi Tommy2! Hey Erma! Hey Elias! Bye!

Can you tell us a little bit about the group and how you came together for your newer fans?
Caroline: We are a group called pureNRG – Caroline, 13, Carolyne, 12, and Jordan, 15. We are a high energy group and we love to sing and dance and perform on stage. About 2 years ago, we were signed to Fervent Records and it has been crazy ever since. We got into the group by audition 4 and ½ years ago, but we have known each other since we were 3 and 4 years old. We all danced at the same dance studio but it was a coincidence that we were all asked to the same audition and picked for the group. It wasn’t until the last call back that we even knew we might be in a group together. It is really fun because we were already friends and we all enjoy being together.

Your second album is due to hit stores soon, are you doing anything special for the release?
Caroline: Our new CD comes out April 29 and we are really excited about it. We have already learned the choreography for 3 songs off the CD and are ready to add them to our performance set. And, we are going on a promo tour the last week of April. We will be doing many performances and interviews to help spread the name of the new CD, Here We Go Again. We are also making 2 new music videos and will continue adding new songs from our CD to our performance set.

What is your personal favorite track on the record?
Caroline: At first, it was “Girls Can Change the World”. But now, my favorite is “Like” because it is fun and high energy and we can really interact with each other while we are singing it.

The group has been traveling a lot recently, what were some of your favorite tour stops?
Carolyne: My favorite trip was the one that we went to Tulsa because my mom told me that the auditorium we performed in was the same location of her first concert.....Elvis!! And my other favorite trip was in Houston, TX because it was so beautiful and I really love the people who are at the church!!!

The Winter Jam Tour just ended for you guys, what was that tour like compared to Jump5?
Carolyne: There really was not a big difference between both tours. They both had great people on them and we had so much fun on both.

Favorite memory from the Winter Jam tour? Jump5?
Carolyne: My favorite memory from Winter Jam would have to be that we got to get our makeup done by Blanca from Group 1 Crew!!! My favorite memory from the J5 tour was getting to be on a bus for the first time and I got to be with Jump5, one of my favorite bands!!

What is your personal favorite track on the record?
Carolyne: I really like "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough" and "Call On Jesus"

Tell us something about one of your group mates that fans might be surprised to know.
Jordan: Carolyne gets very bad migraines quite often and sometimes during Shows.

What is your favorite part about being in PureNRG?
Jordan: I love to travel and see the cities.

What's up next for PureNRG?
Jordan: We have a new album coming out on April 29, and we are working on a Christmas album right now that we’re really pumped for.

What is your personal favorite track on the record?
Jordan: “One Word”

(Jessica: Caroline's favorite song from "Here We Go Again" is now "Inside Out", And Jordan I think he ment from "Here We Go Again", Not "pureNRG")