Interview with The McClain Sisters about their Song Rise from Disneynature Chimpanzee

Three very talented and inspirational young women known as the McClain Sisters honored 21 mommy bloggers along with a handful of press who attended the DisneyNature Chimpanzee Premier with an exclusive interview after the movie. The McClain sisters, Sierra, Lauryn, and China Anne, with the help of their father, Micheal McClain and their mother through inspiration of the DisneyNature Chimpanzee wrote, produced and sang the song “Rise” especially for the Chimanzee movie.

Before I heard the Disneynature Chimpanzee song “Rise”,  I honestly had not heard of the McClain sisters. Now my daughter is 11 and when I mentioned to her that I was going to interview the young ladies after the Disneynature Chimpanzee Movie she started to scream with excitement. She started telling about how China Anne is on Disney Channels Ant Farm and how she and her sisters sing together and she just went on and on. She was very, very excited. Then she said she couldn’t wait to tell her friends that I, her Mom, was going to meet and chat with them. Obviously this made me the “COOL Mom” in my daughters eyes and for that I’ll always be grateful.

Let’s start with some specifics on the girls and I’ll continue on with some answers to the questions that were asked.

Names and Ages:

Lauryn 15, China Anne 13, Sierra 18

What and Who keeps them grounded:

Their parents keep them grounded and have always taught them to be humble and taught them to have faith in what you believe in. They are Christians.

Lauryn and China Anna:

Share a room and they share clothes but they do not share shoes. One of them has bigger feet. (that actually made us all laugh)

Best Part of Working together:

The girls say that because they are sisters and their studio is at home that work really doesn’t feel like work.

How they reacted when they found out that Disney wanted them to put together a song for the Movie:

One of the girls said, “We kinda freeked out just a  bit because Friends for Change has been so huge for Disney and for us. Since Friends for Change they started turning off lights, recycling, turning off water, stuff like that. It was an honor.”

Key Message They want to Portray to Children:

Sierra says her mother always taught them to, “stick close, to love eachother and always be there for eachother”.

How they came up with the lyrics for “Rise”:

The watched the film in it’s early stages and for them it was very emotional. They grasped the main points of the movie which was Oscar and the unity of it all. “Surviving and a team effort”. Together. They wanted the song to “uplifting and inspiring”. Their dad started with some cords on the piano and the song just took off from there. Mom wrote the lyrics, “Together we can do anything”. Credits on the song at the end of the movie is actually “The McClains” because they did it as a whole, as a family.

The girls were a great interview. They feed off of each others answers, talk in unison sometimes and you can just tell that they love each other and what they do. Energetic and with a great fashion sense. Their clothes were adorable.

Beautiful Inspirational Song with a Powerful Message, “RISE”

Did you know that the McClain sisters visited the White House last week? They absolutely loved it and were both honored and very nervous to meet the President.

I want to thank the McClain sister’s from taking time out of their busy schedules and sitting and talking with us. It was truly a pleasure.  Here’s our group photo after the interview.

 

DisneyNature Chimpanzee Opens in Theaters Today! Earth Day, April 20! A Portion of first week ticket proceeds will be donated to save the Chimpanzee now and forever.

Disclosure: I was provided with a mostly all expense paid trip to DisneyNature Chimpanzee Premier for #DisneyGlobalResorts. Housing provided by Global Home Resorts. Transcripts from interview provided by Disney for quoting and inspiration.