Three Troy University alumni are finding success as Christian musicians on a major record label.

Taylor, Madison and Logan Cain, together known as the band Cain, recently released their first EP for Sony Music’s Provident Label Group, a record label featuring major Christian artists like Casting Crowns and Zach Williams.

The trio, originally from Hartselle, began singing as young children, but their musical journey didn’t truly begin until they arrived at TROY.

“We grew up as pastor’s kids, doing music in church,” said Madison, a 2012 TROY graduate. “There are videos of us as 8, 9 and 10-year-olds leading worship on stage. That acclimated us to stage life from an early age, but we never had any musical aspirations growing up.”

At TROY, Madison and Taylor joined Chi Omega sorority, while brother Logan joined Alpha Tao Omega and became a cheerleader.

The Cains got involved in campus ministries, leading worship three times a week, and eventually decided to perform at an acoustic night at a local restaurant.

The show, according to Madison, was a disaster.

“It was awful,” she said. “People watched us limp through three hours of music.”

Shortly thereafter, the trio entered a contest for a chance to open for musician Dave Barnes. The finals of the tournament saw the Cain siblings matched against a group from Auburn University.

“30,000 votes later, we opened for Dave Barnes at WorkPlay Theatre in Birmingham,” Madison said. “We didn’t have a name. We didn’t have a shirt. They were asking for one cover song and two originals, and we wrote two originals that week. That was really the beginning of our band.”

Madison and Logan (who graduated in 2014) studied broadcast journalism, and Taylor (2012) was immersed in the music industry program, which landed her an internship in Nashville.

Madison and Taylor soon moved to Nashville, and the siblings began working to build a music career.

“We had some mild country music success. We had a song on Sirius XM the Highway, and we did three tours in England,” Madison said. “We played all over the U.S. and Canada, but it would be a festival and then a weird bar gig. It started to be where we felt like a cover band, and things weren’t going well. Around that time, we got involved in church again. We were leading worship here in Nashville, and we noticed everything in our personal lives was falling more into place. We had been feeling kind of empty like it wasn’t really clicking. We made a scary choice to abandon country music and do Christian music.”

Eventually, their manager played one of the group’s country singles for the head of Provident, who was interested in the band’s sound.

“We said, ‘Let’s try to write a Christian song,’ and as we were trying writing about Jesus, we realized whether it’s success or failure, we need to write Christian music,” Madison said. “Within two months, we had signed a deal with Sony Provident. None of it has been a waste. Playing really hard three-hour sets, writing hundreds of songs, we had tried to make ourselves fit into country music, and it’s wild how quickly and easily we fit into Christian music, because that’s our background.”

In early 2020, Cain released its first EP for Provident, and it’s already notched more than 2.5 million streams and landed a single on the Christian radio charts.

The band attributes much of its success to the three alumni’s time at TROY.

“I think Taylor was served well coming to TROY learning about the music industry and the business side of it, and part of broadcast journalism is learning how to find the most important piece of information, so I learned how to write super [promotional material],” Madison said. “Logan is really the spokesperson for the group. Even though I’m not technically using my degree, I really am — we all are.”

Cain is scheduled to tour in the fall, but plans are currently on hold due to COVID-19.

To learn more about the Music Industry Program at Troy University,  visit the program page on our website.