It's been awhile since brother-sister duo Jonathan Singh and Kristina Plush have sang together, but if the debut album from their new musical venture, Citylovemusic, is any indication, it's like riding a bike. The siblings present a pop/rock sort of worship music that is both comfortable and fresh. 

Singh took some time to answer my questions about Citylovemusic's themes, its focus and its future. 

Last we heard, you guys were in different parts of the country. Are you in the same town now? Are you still serving in local churches? Get us caught up with what's happening in your lives now. 

At this time we are in different parts of the country. Kristina recently got married and relocated to Nashville, which is where her husband, Devon, is from. Even though we live in different cities we see each other quite often. I fly or drive to Nashville and Kristina flies or drives to Houston on a regular basis. During those times we are recording/writing new songs, shooting videos, building relationships with people, et cetera. We just try to maximize our time together.  Our plan is to be in the same city at some point in the near future. Hopefully!

We are both serving in local churches, and love it. I am leading worship out at a church called Sugar Creek in Houston. I'm also spending a lot of time with the family before the summer gets here because it really ramps up for Kristina and I. Kristina leads worship from time to time at CrossPoint church's regional campuses around Nashville.  
 
How does your background come into play in your music? A number of unique factors--being siblings, having immigrant parents from Trinidad and Tobago, growing up in NYC, etc. 

Yeah, man, we are very intentional about the songs we write and about incorporating various genres into our music. Growing up in an urban and diverse city like New York with a lot of different backgrounds you definitely have to meet some needs music wise. 

Our parents migrated from Trinidad and Tobago, which is located in the Caribbean. My father is a musician and pastor so he would lead worship and also teach at church as well. He introduced us to different genres of music like calypso, reggae, Gospel, southern gospel, CCM and funk.  He was just a music junkie! We'd listen to Sandy Patti one day and then Lionel Richie or Michael Jackson the next. Music played a huge role in our house. 

He's been a vital part of our ministry and he's our number one supporter. I remember going to church and he'd change up songs like "How Great is Our God" or "Amazing Grace" and play them in a reggae or calypso version. It was fun to listen to. 

On our first EP, Nearer To You, you'd find genres like pop all the way to calypso because it's just music we love. On our newest EP you'd find songs that are a little bit more CCM and urban driven because it's also music we love. (Shout out to Young Noah, by the way. If you don't know his music get to know it. He's a humble dude who is a killer MC.)

I think we are also still trying to find our sound stylistically. That's what's cool about EPs, it cheaper to produce and quicker to release than a full LP. We also can get a good a gauge on what people like to hear from us. We are currently in the beginning stages of our Christmas EP that we will put out in the fall. It will be filled some cool arrangements and island sounds, for sure. 

You've been involved in a number of different genres and styles, musically. Talk about why that's important in Christian music, not to just stay towards one certain sound necessarily. 

Growing up the one artist that always stood out to me was TobyMac. I always look forward to a TobyMac album because it always has a little of everything: rock, hip hop, reggae... you're kind of getting the whole package. That's what we've always wanted our music to be like. I would say we are a worship band and the majority of our music is CCM driven, but being able to pull off some other genres has opened the doors to be invited to lead at various churches and countries that may not have been there had we just stayed in one lane. We also want to look at music from a Global perspective and not just locally. We're thinking about the global church and what that may sound like. 

Over the years I've had the chance to visit and lead at many churches internationally and locally. It's an incredible experience to travel and hear different sounds and absorb the culture--listening to how people worship God the best way they know how. I live in Fort Bend County. It's one of the most diverse counties in the country. My church represents 98 different countries. It's amazing to look out every weekend and see people from all nations and different backgrounds worshipping one true and living God. It's also an eye-opener because to me it really shows a glimpse what Heaven will look like. 

One of my goals as a worship leader is to be able to cross cultural barriers and lines. I never wanted to be boxed in. My sister and I would spend hours and hours learning different styles of music, different vocal licks and instrumentations. We had friends that would invite us to their church and it would just be straight up organ and tambourines and we'd be singing along or I'd just run down the street to a church that did a lot samba and salsa music and soak it all in. 

At the end of the day, we genuinely just want to be a resource to the church. 
 
It's been more than 10 years since the two of you collaborated on this level. Was it easy getting back into it? How did your time "apart" affect what you do as a duo--with Jonathan working as a worship pastor and solo artist, and Kristina being at the Dream Center?

Yeah, so we started leading worship together when we were younger. Over time we just started to do different things. I moved to Orlando and took a Worship Pastor position and my sister moved to Los Angeles to serve at the Dream Center. We always talked about coming back together at some point but the timing was never right. Something would always happen that would deter us. It was just easier for me to do the solo thing. I would feature her on a song from time to time. People would say all the time you guys should sing together more often.

A couple of years back we started talking about it more and more but we were still living in different cities and I was signed to a record deal so I was tied up doing the solo thing. Once again it just felt like a lot of obstacles were in the way but in the back of my mind I always wanted to give it a shot again. I started to write songs more intentionally for her. I was still feeling a little apprehensive, but one day I called her up and said, "Hey, why don't you come to Houston and let's just record some demos?" 

She came down to H-town and we started writing some more. The songs felt fresh and there was some energy behind them. We did have to work on harmonies and blending with each other, but It did feel like the old days. I'm pretty hard on her when we're recording, and we're both very opinionated. She'll tell me if I'm being annoying though, typical brother-sister drama!

We just said, "Let's just start something and see where it all goes," and that's what we did. 

Jonathan, your most recent solo album on Save The City Records was called City Love Music. How did the name translate from album title to the name of your group?

During that album I was trying to come up with a name for it. I asked myself, man, what best represents me? After a few days, "City Love Music" popped up, and I thought, "Well what does that mean?" I started to think about it a little bit more. 

I came up with City: to be a city on a hill that represents the light of God; Love: to Love God and his people; and Music: to make music that reflects Christ. It felt more like a mission statement more than an album title. I still used it for the album title, but I also wanted to use it for my ministry. 

I wanted the name to be like an umbrella for many different things I did to live under whether that be music, merchandise, outreach, etc.
 
My sister and I just started thinking about names and we really couldn't find anything that fit and we really just didn't want to go with Jonathan and Kristina. We also had agreed that down the road we'd really love to add some more people to CLM. We have another sister that sings and she's awesome, or maybe even other worship leaders we were close with. So Kristina suggested the name Citylovemusic. I was like, "Are you sure?" She said yes, and boom--it was done.
 
For people who haven't heard you before, describe your sound, your style, and sort of your mission as artists. What will they experience by hearing/seeing you?

We're kind of a mix of Jesus Culture, United Pursuit fused with maybe some Mat Kearney if that makes any sense. More of a Pop/CCM sound. We're definitely energetic and fun on stage. We really try to create an authentic experience. 

Talk about Nearer to You and what you were trying to say with your introduction to the greater music world. 

the Nearer To You EP was really more of some demos that we later just decided to release and see what happens. During the process we actually connected with a Nashville based producer named Andrew Bergthold--who's worked with Blanca, Ginny Owens and for KING & COUNTRY--to write the title track, "Nearer to You," and he also produced and co-wrote our song "Exalt Your Name" on our latest EP. We really had a great time working with him. We also needed some originals to use in churches and other bookings and the "Nearer To You" EP gave us a base to work off of. 

What's next for you guys? Touring? Leading worship? Conferences? Where are you putting your focus now? 

We are definitely still writing, constantly working on new music and building relationships. We're planning a mini tour on the West Coast for the summer as well as leading at camps, and we'll hit the Northeast in the fall. We are really dialed into our local churches, so we're trying to balance that as well. We're also in the process of trying to build our team--management, booking, PR, that sort of thing. 
      
How can people be praying for you? 

Great question. Pray for us as we continue this journey, finding our place in the music world, balancing life as musicians and also being there for our families.