November 16th 2009
Riding the success of their platinum selling self-titled debut album, Boys Like Girls are currently touring through Canada to support their latest record Love Drunk. The band has aged quite a bit since their first record came out. They were teenagers when it was released and they toured extensively for over three years before releasing the new one. BLG’s lead singer, Martin Johnson and drummer John Keefe sat down with Fazer before their acoustic set at the Sony Soundstage in Toronto. The guys talked about growing up on the road, how writing Love Drunk made the band mature and what it was like to work with Taylor Swift on their song “Two is Better than One”.
Alex: How do you feel the dynamics of the new album, Love Drunk changed from writing the original self-titled one? I noticed there’s a lot more diversity and colourful use of imagery in the lyrics so what was your mindset on this record compared to the first one?Martin: I think I grew up a lot you know? The first record was written between when I was seventeen and twenty and you learn a lot when you’re on the road for three years. You go through relationships and life-changing experiences and you feel like, “Have I reached my dreams yet? I don’t know. Who am I behind the dude in Boys Like Girls? Who is the real Martin that’s not the Martin in Boys Like Girls?” There’s a lot of stuff I really wanted to talk about and a lot of stuff I really wanted to share on this record and get out there. I wanted to make relatable to people so they can apply it to their own lives and I had a lot of fun doing it.Alex: It’s a lot more introspective almost, it’s a lot more you looking at yourself and looking at the dynamics of being in a relationship. Did you feel this album was a lot more personal for you guys? Like it was more about looking in the mirror rather than looking to the crowd?Martin: I definitely think so. I think so because the fans are so totally important to us but we didn’t care about the media, we didn’t care about reviews or record sales or anything. We just wanted to take as many chances as possible musically and lyrically just do exactly what I wanted to do. I think we really found ourselves after three and a half years of touring basically, playing the same songs every night those songs morphed and changed and became new songs. On a musical level that really changes it, it was really tough writing this record; I was really scared of it. There were days when I thought I just didn’t have it figured out and just hid in bed for 48 hours at a time. I was terrified and would freak out; I was just a total mental case. But I think that’s part of what made it special. Once everybody and all the other band members put their loving touch on it and made it relatable to themselves as well it became something we were all really, really proud of. We were really ready to show ourselves, not necessarily the “new” Boys Like Girls but this is who we’ve become after a long time. We were kids when we put that first record out.Alex: Yeah, so rather than try and reinvent yourselves it was more of a logical step forward.John: Exactly.Alex: How do you feel this record helped you push forward individually as musicians and collectively as a group too?John: I think we grew up as a band obviously. It’s a cliché thing to say but that’s what happens, you get older and you get smarter, you get more experience playing live together and rehearsing and writing. You make better choices musically with your decisions.Alex: Kind of refine the chemistry within the group?John: Yeah, it gets easier to make decisions, not necessarily to come up with something, but, “Oh, should we go here or go here?”Martin: It’s also living with your three best friends for that long period of time, it becomes like you’re more comfortable with shooting down an idea and that person being ok with taking that shot. You communicate.John: The chemistry is way better and it’s easier to deal with different personalities in the band because you know each other better. That makes making music even easier.Martin: As we become like total brothers.Alex: It comes across on stage a lot. I saw your show at the Phoenix in the summer before the album came out and the show last night. There was a huge difference in the amount of energy and you guys just looked like you were having way more fun together.John: Every show is different, so obviously it could have been one of those shows where it’s like, “Yeah, it was a really good show but there wasn’t a ton of communication going on stage”. Then there’s those shows that are just sweaty and hot and crazy and nutty, they’re always different.Alex: Yeah, totally. Did you alter your approach to song writing to allow the songs to work in different environments and contexts? Because playing an acoustic show like this, did you write the songs on acoustic first and then bring the rest of the band in?Martin: All of the songs are written normally on acoustic first. Pretty much every song written for Boys Like Girls is written on acoustic and then arranged full band. I feel like if a song can stand alone on acoustic guitar or in any context, like if you’re a piano player, it can stand out with just a single piano and a vocal. That creates a great song through the melodies and if the lyrics catch you that way and then it’s all just puzzle pieces from there.Alex: It’s just like colouring it layer by layer until it’s a full song.Martin: I definitely think we shape the songs for our live performance, there’s a lot of high energy songs on this record. I think there’s a lot of really anthemic songs on this record that are totally fun to play live and gets the crowd going so we’re stoked about it.Alex: Yeah for sure. I noticed you use a lot imagery in your lyrics it has a really visceral impact and element to it. Especially songs like “Heels Over Head” and the title track off the new album (the song “Love Drunk”). Would you ever consider writing a song for a movie soundtrack or something like that?Martin: Absolutely.John: Yeah, that would be really cool.Martin: I’m actually writing one right now but I can’t say what it is for…Alex: Yeah, I don’t want to get you fired.(We all laugh together for a moment)Martin: No. I’ve written songs for movie soundtracks before that haven’t been performed by the band but yeah, it’s fun and cool. That would definitely be something we would be interested in doing, to put yourself in a different persons’ shoes. Because I always write from my perspective so it might be fun to do it from somebody else’s.Alex: Yeah, because it would be an interesting thing to take into account and bring a different element to the music.Martin: Just because our music is so totally personal.Alex: Yeah. After collaborating with Taylor Swift (on the song “Two is Better than One) is there any other artists you would ever imagine collaborating with or would be your wish come true? Not just singer/songwriters, but anyone from any genre.Martin: Totally. I think that collaborating with Taylor was so amazing because she’s the biggest artist in the world right now so that was incredible for us to have her come in and sing on that song. It (the song) was really missing that piece and she came in and I can’t really think of anybody, we’ve always been pretty stand-alone. I’d love to work with bands that influenced us like Third Eye Blind or the Foo Fighters or the Wallflowers or hell, jam with (Bob) Dylan, of course that would be incredible.John: We’ll see where it goes if the timing is right.Martin: Because we didn’t know we wanted a collaboration on this record until we had completely recorded “Two is Better Than One”. It was completely done and we were like, “We need a female vocal on this”. We called up Taylor and were like, “Please!”Alex: One thing I think a lot of people don’t understand too is that jamming with someone and writing a song with them are two totally different things.John: Absolutely.Alex: After doing your own headlining tour, are there any bigger bands that you’d love to open for or tour with?John: Yeah, it’d be awesome to go on tour with like Green Day or Foo Fighters or something like that. That would be really awesome for us.Martin: Bon Jovi or Aerosmith. We’re coming through Canada and doing the Hedley tour and meet those guys.John: We’ve heard they have a ton of success up here (in Canada) and they sound like a really cool bunch of dudes. That sounds like a thing for us.Alex: It would probably help you gain a lot of other fans too because their Canadian and then bringing them to the states it would be an easy crossover. That’s pretty much it for me, thanks for taking some time to chill out.Martin: Thank you so much man.Alex: No problem.John: Thanks a lot.Alex: Have a good one.(Courtesy of Fazer Magazine)
Archives again:
November 20 2008
PW: Let’s jump right in. You guys just released a DVD with some live music and behind the scene stuff of you guys on tour. Why did you decide to do that and why should people check that out?
(Courtesy of PopWreckoning)
Labels: Boys Like Girls
Labels: FRIENDS FRENCH