If you had asked Halle and Chloe Bailey’s mom, Courtney, to elaborate on her daughters’ beautiful voices five years ago, she probably would have changed the subject. The mother of the rising stars tells New York Magazine that her focus was more on the girls’ poise than their talent during the beginning stages of their career.

“For me, it was about building a foundation of confidence, public speaking, knowing how to meet people, to read scripts and rehearse, and if they got the gig, even better,” Courtney says.

All of the hard work and training paid off as Chloe and Halle had the opportunity to meet Beyonce after their YouTube video went viral three years ago. Since then, the girls have been signed to the ‘Lemonade’ singer’s label and have learned a few things from Bey on how to create a hit record.

“Something Bey brought up to us [is] how if she hears something in this song or that song, she will combine them into one song,” says Halle. “It also helps with just, you know, condensing the amount of songs we have, and then you have a really cool song.”

In creating cool songs, Halle and Chloe want listeners to be inspired by their new album. “This is potentially some stuff we want people to say about our album: ‘Soaring,’ ‘Masterpiece,’ ‘Heartrending,’ stuff like that,” shares Halle. “The message that we want to put out in our music is, of course, we want you to feel great, but just be yourself, don’t feel like you have to put yourself in a box because of what anyone else is doing,” Chloe explains. “I just recently learned that, to be confident in your ideas and who you are.”

Chloe and Halle’s album, Sugar Symphony, is now avaliable for purchase on iTunes.  Read the girls’ full interview with New York Magazine here.

Photo: NyMag