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  The Trilogy continues,,,  Five years and two albums later, the dynamic duo is back with their third release, this one a self-titled effort.As you can imagine, attempting to follow up two hit albums is difficult for any group. However, this team discovered a foolproof plan for success. "I think that the process initially is us getting before God," says Erica. "That was pretty much our only requirement, that it be anointed. I know that there are a lot of other things that you can consider, seeing that we've had a little mainstream success. 'What's the radio going to say? What's the label going to say?' It has to be competitive and all of that other kind of stuff. But with this project, we felt like if we gave it all to God, He would handle the rest. We took our time. If God wasn't in the studio and we didn't feel Him leading us to write or sing anything, we just left, came back the next day, and tried it all over again." The duo has always been known for providing progressive, but trendy music to the masses. However, there is a noticeable depth to this recent effort that is undeniable. "I think that we definitely had a greater appreciation for life since the last record," states Tina. "We have a greater appreciation for God's greatness and His ability to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or think despite whatever might not be working in your favor. Our love for life, for God, for our children, and our husbands has made us love deeper and appreciate life and God's gift that He's given us much more. It has to do with growing in God and growing in life." "We really understand the responsibility of ministry now. I'm not sure if we fully understood it when we first came into it," acknowledges Tina. "We were just doing what we were doing. We didn't really know that there was a responsibility to the people that we're talking to, but we get it now and we accept it."
"Well, we're sleepy," says Erica comically. "We definitely love a lot deeper. It's an unselfish love. [Children] are so innocent and so happy. They represent the best of what life can be at that age without being tainted with the drama of 'real life'. We want to cover that and let them hold on to as much of that as possible, which makes me appreciate life more. It makes me realize that every day is precious and make me not procrastinate." "It also makes me want to be better with my relationship with God," adds Tina. "It makes me want to pray and fast more. It makes me want to read my Bible and really know God in a deeper way. The God that my baby is going to know first and foremost is through me. I want her to know the real, true, and living God. Not on mama's halfway saved day because I'm  mad with the whole world for waking up on the wrong side of bed. I don't want her to know the issues of life and the faults, even though that's a natural part of me. But it's more important for me to be on point with God. I try to line my life up with the Word now more so than I ever did before, because I know that she's watching and learning everything from me. I don't want to let God down on behalf of myself and her now.""I really believe that however you are when you're by yourself spills over into your everyday life. If you're truly an insecure person, you're going to act that way with people at your job, with your family, and with your relationships because it's going to translate everywhere," states Erica. "You're going to always think that someone's trying to do something to you because you don't think that highly of yourself. Or a person who is really cocky or arrogant is going to think that the whole world is jealous of them. Because we've learned to appreciate God, that is spilling over into everything. I want to make sure that my marriage is pleasing in His sight. I want to make sure that me, as a mother, is pleasing in His sight. As a sister, a friend, and a minister in the gospel, I want to make sure that it's all pleasing in His sight." This increased devotion to the things of God indeed spills over into the lyrics of each of the songs found on this self-titled project. Songs like "Love You That Much" chronicle the depth of loyalty that these sisters have towards God.  "We didn't really put that much deep thought into the message of the song. We just started writing and it came out," admits Erica. "A lot of time people ask us about the writing process and a lot of times we try to come up with these deep theological answers. But really, we just start writing it and it's like, 'You know what God? I'd really like for you to say something in this song. But if you don't say anything today, we'll just come back tomorrow.' Then God starts to speak to you and you just start writing and that's how this song came together. That was pretty much the process for all of the songs. I think there was just one song with one line where we had writer's block and one of my sisters came and wrote the line to that."A lot of times you can get caught up in wanting a hit," continues Erica. "You want gospel to love it. You want Christian radio and traditional radio to love it. You want the record company to love it. You're trying to consider all of these different elements to please everybody. A lot of times you're not allowing God to move and flow through you in the natural manner that He would. If it's going to be a hit, God will give you a hit. You don't have to look for it and search for it and try to do it. If God wants you to have it, He'll give it to you. That's how we were trying to move with this record." As Mary Mary continues pursuing their progressive formats, they rarely find themselves looking to a formula for success. Yet, there was one constant that they felt needed to remain in their recipe.  "The only thing that we thought about as it relates to 'it's not broke so why fix it', was the combination of us and Warryn [Campbell]," states Tina. "After that, Warryn spearheads everything because he really produces this project. He doesn't just bring things and throw a few ideas out there. He takes the whole project into consideration. Sometimes he comes in with direction for a song. He'll tell us, 'I think you guys should write about this,' or 'I think this is maybe a dance song or this is a worship song.' That's the only thing we went with. As far as us really stepping out and stretching, in most cases, that was Warryn saying 'this is what we've gotta do'.Initially, we were like 'Warryn, what are you talking about? We don't even sing that kind of music. We don't even know if we can.' He'd push us and tell us that we must just want to do an easy project. At that point, we decided to just step up to the challenge." In most business ventures, it's rare to see relatives work as closely as Team Mary Mary does. For those keeping score, Erica and Tina, of course are sisters. Erica is married to super producer Warryn Campbell, who is lead vocalist and founder the nouveau quartet sensation The Soul Seekers. Tina's husband is Teddy Campbell, who also happens to be bass player and vocalist for The Soul Seekers, but is no relation to Warryn, despite the same surname. Needless to say, it is definitely a family affair. Somehow, the team manages to work well together.  "Oh, it ain't easy! Warryn comes into the studio and he beats us," Tina says jokingly. "We went through our phase of coming together and realizing that we have a decent team. When everybody was trying to do everyone else's job on the team, there was mainly more fighting. But if God has given you a team and a chemistry that works, you can't be all members of the team. You play the part that you're supposed to play. We respect everybody's role in this writing team. We know that sometimes Erica might start the vision and we gotta roll with it. Sometimes Warryn tells us something that we never would have come up with on our own but we've just need to move with it. I think that this time, we all were just willing to come in with a mindset of teamwork. When you know that God has given you something good, you don't really question it. You just let everybody play their role and if it's time for you to lead today, then lead out and make the best of it. If it's not time, then follow and make sure you've got something good at the end of the day.""I will say that if we were the same three individuals and we weren't family, this group would have been broken up," admits Erica. "Family is the reason that it sticks together. You can have the biggest, baddest argument that you can ever imagine having but they are still your family and we're not going to stop being a family. On top of that, knowing that it's something that God gave you, you know you just have to stick it out. We get real upset sometimes. Me and Tina quit this group a bunch of times." "Erica just quit today, about two hours ago," interjects Tina. "I think I'm changing my mind. I don't know though," Erica responds comically.  "Your family can get on your nerves more than anybody outside of your family," states Tina. "At one point, I may be thinking 'Warryn don't know what he's doing. He thinks he's got all of the answers and I've got all of the answers.' Or sometimes I'm thinking 'Erica, just shut up.' Or they're probably thinking that I should shut up. You go through that phase. But if you keep going through that during the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth record, something is wrong. Somebody's not learning and somebody's not growing. So we decided that maybe we should all grow. We should all respect what God has given us and let it be what it's going to be. Let it do what it's going to do and stop trying to force it and tamper with it."Certainly strong family ties and outstanding music have led to Mary Mary becoming one of gospel's top artists, attracting mainstream attention in both the secular and gospel marketplaces. As their music continues to be innovative and creative, their perspective on the burgeoning genre continues to be progressive and thought-provoking. "I would like for us all to realize that our ministry is for the world… not so much to fit in the world, but to change the world," states Erica. "There is music to edify the body of Christ and God has different people designated for different things. There are people who just do worship. There are people who do specifically choir music. But at the same time, all of these songs should have the ability to reach out into the world, be heard, and touch their hearts." "When we first started writing, we wrote a song that talked about the anointing and it used a lot of church lingo. Our publishing company said, 'Yo... that's hot. So, what's the anointing? Is it like goose bumps?' Then we were listening to another song and they were like 'I don't know what she's talking about but she's sweet.' And I thought to myself right then that I don't ever want somebody who's never been to church to listen and not understand who I'm talking about. There's a way to talk about God's glory and His greatness where a regular person off of the street will understand it. That's something that gospel artists as a whole should start paying attention to."  "Start doing things in excellence," declares Erica. "Don't just get whoever to do whatever. We've got to stop giving God junk. This is not a slight to anybody's music but if you know it's not the best, stop trying to put it out there. That goes for me. If I know I'm in horrible voice and I'm not up to par, I need to sit down somewhere until I really pull it together because we need to stop representing God looking shabby. We need to represent God in an excellent way.""I think that we need to start being more innovative," says Tina. "In the gospel community, people a lot of times just opt to do what has been done just the way it has been done because it worked before. Or we like to rip the world off and act like our intention was to make good gospel music. But we think that the world has something good and our stuff will be good once we mix a little bit of what they're doing with what we're doing. That's no slight to non-Christian music. I love all kinds of music and we use samples and stuff like that too. But I think that we just need to try to be innovative." "We don't have to wait until an Outkast or a Missy Elliott create a trend and then have the contemporary gospel market pick up their trend. We should be the ones creating trends and doing things a little differently and have secular music be inspired by Christian music as opposed to vice versa. We have to do what it takes to be innovative. Ask God for something original. Ask God for a more clever way to say something that has already been said. Then, as Erica said, make music for the world and not just the church. The church should already know about God. The world is who doesn't. They are the people that do not know." "The Bible says that one must be wise to win souls," says Erica. "The scripture says to be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. We have to keep all of those things in mind. A lot of times we don't want to be gentle at all. We want to go around as a roaring lion, beating people over the head. Nobody wants that type of religion. Nobody wants it. Jesus wasn't that way. He was loving. He was kind. He was among people who were not saved. He didn't hang with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He didn't even like those folks. He wasn't doing what they did. He was changing their lives."  "A lot of times, people are trying to go out into the world and they're not strong enough to handle it and the world is pulling them in. I think that's where a lot of our more mature Christians have a problem with being involved with the world because people don't know how to handle it. They get out there and start doing everything and wilting out. I want to make sure that me and Tina never do that. I don't want to ever represent where the secular people say, 'See, look at the church girls. They're doing just what ya'll are doing.' It should never be that way."As the duo launches this latest project, they are gearing up for tours and upcoming events. Yet they are taking another different approach to this endeavor. "We had started working on a tour prior to the record coming out and we decided that is was best that people are very familiar with this new music, loving it, and enjoying it," says Tina. "So we decided to wait and do some things towards the end of the year when everybody who thinks they might love Mary Mary is listening to the music and knowing it. It makes it so much more fun when you're before an audience and they're singing with you, enjoying every song, and it's ministering to them in a deeper way. We have things coming up at the end of the year. We probably will do some non-gospel tours first and then jump into some things with our own people. As Erica said, we want to spread the message to people who don't necessarily know Jesus or they're not that interested in gospel music. Gospel is the best music because it is the good news of Jesus. Everybody should be listening to it because it draws you closer to Him, which makes your life better. It makes you a little more likely to be thinking about getting ready for His return when you're listening to music that is talking about that and helping you to stay connected. We'll probably jump on some things that's not necessarily the traditional gospel tour. Then we'll jump into it with our people and do it like we do it." They're unconventional and they are effective. They're innovative and they're accessible. They are both Thankful and Incredible. They are simply Mary Mary. Email This To A Friend
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The lead single, "Heaven", is all over radio, and it's a classic, with its jamadelic sounds. Remixed twice ("Maurice's Nu Soul Mix" and "Joe Smooth Club Mix") and put on 12 inch vinyl, this cut...