| When all is said and done - with MARTIN JOHNSON of BOYS LIKE GIRLS... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Monday, 14 December 2009 11:10 |
 BOYS LIKE GIRLS frontman MARTIN JOHNSON answers our call, with an immediate apology. "Hey it's Martin, you can go as long as you want. Don't worry about the fifteen minute thing, I got all night. I'm sorry about the phone problems. We were doing a stage-broadcast-live-thing and my iPhone - you know the little tab on it, got pushed over to silent, and I didn't get the phoners. I'm sorry! But I got you now!" It's impossible not to leave your preconceived notions of Johnson, lying on the floor. He's a popular man, in a popular band. The Boys Like Girls live performance broadcast and chat hosted on Facebook, was so popular that it overloaded the usually stable website. You can't hold the love of his fans against him... "It got completely overloaded and shut down; so people couldn't watch it online on Facebook. We did an interactive thing where people could chat with us, while we were playing a full-band acoustic set. A couple of songs from the new record and some old ones too. It was great, a bunch of people tuned in to check it out and be a part of it; get interactive and ask some questions. Unfortunately, the server couldn't hold it. So, it's going to be on loop all night - go to our Facebook page slash Boys Like Girls - you can check it out online." I guess there ain't no party, like an online Boys Like Girls party? "Hmmm I don't think so; no. When we get on Twitter, when we get on Ustream, it's a big party! Any party with Boys Like Girls is very, very - well there ain't no party like that. *laughs* I'm just being cocky." Johnson comes from a scene, with a proud tradition of savvy frontmen. I'm looking at you - the Madden twins of Good Charlotte, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship - & Co. Frontmen for whom the word 'complacent', does not exist in their understanding, or even their vocabulary. But it's pure, it's simple; even the Old Boys of the Music Industry recognise the glistening gold. It's fans who build up their favourite bands onto pedestals, brick by brick. But give each fan their very own brick - and you've gifted every fan with their own personal, vested stake in the band's success. The powerpop bands of this decade, revolutionised the concept and ideals of 'give-backs'. But not without a personal cost to the band-members themselves. The miscommunication that arises from original fans rioting a backlash once their darlings have broken into the mainstream, is like an arrow straight through the heart. When all's been said and done, a musician's still got to eat... "It changes from country to country. It's especially like that, in the States. A fan that comes to three or four shows, immediately expects an afterparty. A lot of times we have family there. Or a lot of times we're not ready; we're not going to have a party night because me and Paul [ DiGiovanni ] have to get up at 6AM to do a morning show. And it's tough because you create relationships with fans; we have fans who have been there sixty-five shows. When you can't give them the twenty minute chat after the show, sometimes it's taken personally and that sucks. It makes you feel really bad. It's hard - on both parties." COUP DE MAIN: You've toured Australia already... when can New Zealand hope to expect a visit from Boys Like Girls? BOYS LIKE GIRLS: MARTIN JOHNSON: I have heard rumours flying... that I cannot confirm yet. But I! *starts singing* "I got a feeling..." It's going to be before Summer. CDM: Our Summer? Or your Summer? MARTIN: Our Summer! So your Winter. So, within the next months or so - we will be there with you guys. We can't wait! We are counting down the days. We had so much fun in Australia... and we heard it's even SUNNIER and BRIGHTER, and the girls are even HOTTER; and it's just even crazier in New Zealand. So I really just can't wait. CDM: Boys Like Girls gained an early fanbase thanks to music websites such as Purevolume. How do you think social networking sites, have affected Purevolume as a source for discovering new bands? MARTIN: I think it's pushed it a little bit behind. Our first start was a viral - crazy, crazy thing. We posted a couple demos online, on an online music blog called AbsolutePunk.net - posted really late at night. "Go check out this new band, Boys Like Girls." I think it was probably how straightforward and eye-catching our name is, that caught people's attention to go check it out and launched it to Number One on the [ Purevolume ] Unsigned charts within a couple hours. Then ended up shifting over to Myspace, and then when Facebook picked up the music thing it shifted over to there too. But I think the whole Internet revolution with music has been crazy and amazing for us in terms of - it's the reason we got a record deal. It's the reason we're here. A lot of artists really shoot it down because it's overexposing everything. It's difficult to make it in; there's a lot of artists. But to us, it's not about the money. To us, it's about people having our songs. You can't get mad at a kid in a crowd who's singing along - if he [ /she ] downloaded your record for free. To me, that's exactly the same sound as if they'd bought it. The Internet is a blessing and a curse to music, but hopefully enough record companies will be able to stay alive - that will be able to keep releasing new records. But what's especially cool about the Internet, is that it's changing the way that bands get signed. We got signed, because of the attention that we got from the fans - it's not a demo tape put on a desk by a manager that's manufacturing a product. It's the kids and the fans and the viral word of mouth. Through telling your friends, buzzing a band and creating a networking explosion - that catches the eyes of the people at the record labels; the gate-keepers that can really make a band blow up. I think that's cool, because it means that the kids are truly... and the fans! Are truly the ones that decide who gets to make it. CDM: That special relationship between fans which results in 'staying power', is especially obvious in classic examples of bands such as Fall Out Boy! MARTIN: A huge, HUGE special relationship! With the Internet, with Myspace, they were the first band to have a million friends on Myspace. And with the staying power it's awesome: I feel like fans feel that intimate connection. Like the thing we did on Facebook tonight. Things like blogging and twittering, are ways that fans get to really feel like they're part of it. And I think that's amazing. CDM: But then there's also the danger of going too far? Like recently, with Cobra Starship's frontman Gabe Saporta, leaking Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz's cellphone number publicly, as revenge for Wentz's MTV Video Music Awards t-shirt... MARTIN: *laughs* He definitely goes too far. My worry, and my big concern, about the whole thing - isn't necessarily [ that ] people like me, or Pete - or Gabe's privacy. 'Cuz we can deal with that. It's what we signed up for. We change our number and it's all good. And we choose how much information we want to share. But I feel like, it's the generation below our generation; I just turned twenty-four on the ninth [ of September ]. That I feel like kids who are just a couple years behind me, kids that are still in high-school and a little bit below that; I just don't want to see youth turning into robots and relying on text messages. I remember the days of calling a house phone and having to get up the courage to ask the Mom or the Dad who picks up the phone, to talk to your crush. Or your friend, to go hang out. It's over. It's [ now ] all about the text message. It's all about the status update. Twittering what you're doing, everyone always knowing; there's no element of mystery and people are starting to hide behind that. They don't have to shout and really truly grab another person with their personality, they can hide behind technology. And music is shifting in a crazy electronic way, vocally - with all the crazy effects that are going on vocals. Everything can be augmented and changed in the studio, which is allowing fans and musicians to - who don't necessarily have as much as talent as even ten years ago... I just don't want to see similar things happen to people who are going to be running the country in the future. Not having the same type of strength in their personalities, because they've been hiding behind their text messages and their twitter accounts.  CDM: Does it worry you that websites such as Buzznet, encourage kids to mature, before they may actually be 'ready'? - With each precocious and risqué photo posted, acting as a measure of self-confidence judged by the 'buzzes' and comments received... MARTIN: I think the Internet is a double-edged sword, because kids are growing up too fast with it. And at the same time, they're not growing up as fast. Their personalities, aren't developing as fast as their sexuality and their openness. It's like - if someone is able to waltz around in a bra and underwear in public; I think that's cool. That's great, go do whatever you want. But if you can't do that - I don't think that photo of you should be online. CDM: The 'Scene Queen' culture in America, only seems to add further fuel to this fire? MARTIN: Definitely. CDM: In relation to children forced to mature beyond their years, did your Mother's fight with cancer force yourself to grow up too fast? MARTIN: I think that it actually did the opposite. It taught me a lot of lessons. But I think it taught me also that the way I feel about losing someone; having lost a best friend to suicide, and having recently lost another who pretty much replaced the space of my Mother in my heart and became that Motherly role - just recently, a couple of months ago, while we were making this record. It's... when you have someone that's truly incredible in your life and you lose them, it's a blessing [ rather than a curse ]. My Mother could have been a runaway, an alcoholic, someone that didn't care about me. [ Instead ] My Mom chose to be a freelance writer who stayed home and set up the study as her office, writing chapters of social studies books for schools; when she could have been making twice as much money if she had an office job - and we had a babysitter. She wanted to raise me, and not have a stranger raise me. I was blessed with that. I was blessed with a truly amazing Mother. So I took that sixteen years that I got to spend with her, as a blessing. Not, her being taken away from me by the world and by lymphoma; as a curse. I think that definitely taught me lessons and taught me to grow up. But I think it also taught me, to slow down a little bit. And taught me to embrace every second that I have, and live life. Embrace your age, embrace the beauty of the moment and the time that you're in. Never hustle. Never skate ahead. Just try to stay there. And look ahead, and have goals and have beautiful dreams. Don't necessarily feel the need to push it all out, to be that older glorious kind of person that you see in the magazines or the movies. Or you see your friends walking around in outfits that are made for people, three or four years older than you. Maybe it's your turn to take a stand and say - "Hey, I'm still this age. I'm going to dress the way I want." CDM: Having been raised by your Father through the rest of your teenage years, do you have a close relationship with him? MARTIN: We're best friends. I tell him absolutely everything. Absolutely everything; and he does too. He's become a Father to everybody in my band, and all my friends too. We have a really unique and crazy relationship. It's just awesome and cool. CDM: I noticed that you only thanked four people in the 'Thanks' section of the 'Love Drunk' album booklet... Normally I'd find that unusual, but it makes sense now - that you only thanked the four mentioned; your bandmates and your Father... MARTIN: I feel like I got the people I really and truly wanted to thank, were thanked on the first record. This record, was really really difficult and it was a lot of pressure. I felt that I really wanted to isolate the people that I needed to thank the most, and not clutter it with shout-outs and the need to impress my friends. My Father truly helped me through the pressures of making this record, and the band supported the songwriting process and were the most amazing people I know - and are my best friends. I just felt, that was enough people to thank. Everyone's thanked in the band thank-you's, but for my personal ones on this record? It was a really hard record for me to make and I just felt like I needed to properly thank them for all that they do. CDM: Taylor Swift features on your new album, in the duet 'Two Is Better Than One' - which is also your latest single from the 'Love Drunk' album. How did you hook that up? MARTIN: She mentioned us when she was up for her first Grammy, in the Wall Street Journal - for 'Hero/Heroine'. I'm a huge fan of all types of music and I feel like I connect to country music in a sort of different way, because I feel like lyrically it's so personal and it's so straight to the point; that I go through phases where I love listening to country music. I love everything from musical theatre, to rap, to rock, to... throwback everything. But I was just so in love with her first record and couldn't stop spinning it at the time. And when she said at the time; this is my favourite song right now - 'Hero/Heroine'... I felt like our writing styles were so similar, and I was just so stoked, and found a way to contact her and thank her for that. And we ended up writing a bunch of songs together. And then John our drummer; she asked him to play a couple songs on her 'Fearless' record. And the band and her, all became friends. When we were in production for 'Two Is Better Than One' the song, she was already out at the beginning of the 'Fearless' tour... and it was really missing something. It was missing a piece of the puzzle. It didn't stand alone with just the male voice. It needed that confirmation, it needed the both-ways thing. Obviously our dream was to have Taylor on it, with her honest, really amazing, pure... her voice just really speaks. It's the most honest, natural, totally unique thing. It's moving, no matter what lyrics she's singing. So that was our first choice. We called her up and asked her to do it and we're so blessed that she said yes, and was able to come in and record the song, and record her lines. We're just so happy to have her on the record. We're huge fans of her. CDM: Can you confirm or deny, whether yourself and Taylor Swift used to date? MARTIN: I don't really like to talk about my love life... I can tell you right now that - every member of Boys Like Girls is single for the first time in our history! Yeah. Every member of Boys Like Girls is single and it's the first time it's ever happened. CDM: Obviously being Team Taylor, what were your thoughts on the Kanye West incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards? MARTIN: He went a little overboard. I think Kanye has always been a little bit class-less. At awards shows he always makes such a scene if he doesn't win. I feel like his attitude and his ungratefulness and disrespect for other artists, has showed in the past. But no-one had ever seen anything like this. This was Taylor's year; first VMA. It was a special one you know - as a country artist coming out and getting recognised by the pop-world and the MTV world. It was a really special moment, for her, and for music. Drunken buffoon Kanye, comes up and makes the moment all about him. It wasn't about Beyonce. And Beyonce proved that later in the night when she goes out and does the classiest thing ever, and lets Taylor have her moment. I feel like at this point, especially in the States, it's a dead-horse that's been beaten. Jay Leno took it a little bit over the top when he had Kanye on his show to give his official apology, to his fans and to Taylor's fans. He didn't ask what Taylor was thinking, and I think that was crossing the line a bit. Kanye was putting tears on national television with the world watching in. I think that's where the world should say; okay, he made a true class-less move. But I think it's time that we just say - okay that happened, Taylor got to make her speech, Beyonce looked great, and it was a moment in time that's fast. And maybe it finally taught Kanye his lesson that he can't be that ignorant in public anymore. CDM: Amen. Now, back to your new album 'Love Drunk'... How do the lyrics of the new album, compare to your 2006 debut, self-titled album? MARTIN: The first record was written through my whole life. Pieces of 3000 songs that I've written since seven, and inspirations from every little, last piece of my life - went into that record lyrically. Songs that made that record, were songs that were written really meaning something to me. It was a broad stream. It was youthful, bracing together high-school, going through love and first heartbreak. As we grew up on the road and had three years with those songs; as the crowd grew, those songs had to grow. They grew out of that compressed box of a CD, into a live setting. When those songs graduate from clubs and really huge venues, they became different songs. The band really developed; into who we really had always been, and had been underneath. We said; alright we really need to get this down on a record. I'd written eight songs on tour, about different relationships that I had experienced through tour; the hard and lonely times of tour. Most of it's relationship-based, whether be it ups, or downs - it's where I found most of the lyrics from. But musically, it was our time to step out of the box and step out, and really take some chances sonically. It was really hard to do that. I felt like I was never going to be able to crack the code. It wasn't important to me to impress reviewers, or sell a bunch of records, or write a hit song. Knowing I was going to be touring on those songs for the next three years again; I really needed to create lyrics that my three best friends and I, could share an equal passion with. I was so scared of it. Going into writing a record, even with new songs and the band ready to crack the code on it... it made me feel like sonically, they were progressing the band forward. So I hid in bed for forty-eight hours at a time, just completely scared of it. Hiding from, just going in and attacking it. I rustled up the courage and went into the studio and we cut the demo for 'Heart Heart Heartbreak', and just decided to take as many chances as we possibly could. It was totally the turning point. And then everything came together. We realised that we could sonically, go wherever we wanted on this record, and stay in the Boys Like Girls spectrum. Because the Boys Like Girls spectrum was totally embedded in our blood. Based on the best of the best of those eight new songs that worked, which was basically all of them, and wrote six new ones in the process while we were in the studio. It was a long and hard six months, but we're really proud of this piece. It's a piece for each other, for us as best friends, and for our fans. Hopefully, for a lot of new fans too. To be able to experience Boys Like Girls, as a wider, sonically... I think the sound is a little bit more approachable, but at the same time still stays true to what we come from.  CDM: Is the song 'She's Got A Boyfriend Now', based on a personal experience? MARTIN: It's about my high-school sweetheart actually. It's about looking back at a time; looking through my eyes, when I got back from my first tour, then telling the story of the whole thing. My first girlfriend in high-school, we were together for about a year and a half. When you're in high-school, you feel like the world's never - like that's never going to end. Every moment feels like the end of the world and you feel like no matter what, you're going to marry your high-school sweetheart. And no matter what, that's how it is. I set off for my first tour, me and Keefe (John) our drummer, were both in separate bands at the time - and set off when I was sixteen on a Summer tour; sleeping in the van, sleeping in parking-lots, taking showers in sinks at rest-stops. I left her behind. I said - "I gotta go do this. This is what I want. I feel like this is going to weigh me down." - I got back and asked for her back, and it was too late. She went off to college and met someone else. I was never able to forget that. It was almost more of a nostalgia for childhood I think, than me still having feelings for her. But the song, it's based on that relationship. And choosing one thing over that, and not being able to go back. The lyrical piece of that song that I'm particularly attached to, is how the first verse mirrors the third verse. With the - "We were seventeen... and then still in high-school" - the relationship of when you're in high-school is invincible. When you're older, you almost become more clueless, than when you were a kid. When I say that I'm twenty-three and I'm invincible, it's sarcasm. Instead of the girl on my shoulder; [ it's now ] the bird on my shoulder. It's like - "Hey I'm here alone, 'cuz she's got a boyfriend now." I chose the road, over my high-school sweetheart. But it's a piece in a cool moment of time, it's a cool little staple; I'm stoked. It took a really, really long time to write; about a year and a half to get right, lyrically. I'm excited that it made the record. CDM: You mention Jesus in the lyrics of 'Someone Like You' - which strays from the norm of Boys Like Girls lyrics... How religious are you? MARTIN: I don't define myself with a religion. I was raised Catholic by my Mom, and my Grandfather was a Luther Minister, but my Dad doesn't hold a religion really at all. I consider myself more of a spiritual person. That line, I'm using Jesus more as a metaphor - from a set of life... a figured out life, figured out books. Booked with religion. Like my life is in the rear-view; I'm running from Jesus. Meaning, almost like I'm running from security. And I'm running from something that will keep me safe. Like I'm taking off my armour, that's what that lyric means. For me, I feel like religion gives a lot of people answers. And for me, I'm enjoying being just turned twenty-four and not having those answers yet. It's part of what inspires me to find out more about my personality everyday; as I grow up, I become more and more spiritual everyday. So maybe in the future I'll find religion and be able to define it. But right now, I can't define whether I'm truly religious or not. Spiritually; yes I believe in fate. CDM: I read your recent blog on preconceived notions of celebrities, by people that haven't met them face-to-face. You wrote about the example of Sean Kingston, whom you found to be a genuinely good guy upon meeting him in real life... Similarly, you are a much talked about man; Martin Johnson - claims of black eyes given to girls, claims of complaining about fans. But c'mon! You love your fans, don't you? Let's set the record straight, once and for all... MARTIN: We love our fans more than anything in the entire universe. Every single night after we play, we go out and I have to literally get dragged away from the barricade; from signing for hours. We wouldn't be anywhere, without the people who care about us. I set up that blog myself, to show my true personality to the fans. I've always came off since I was young, as a very upfront, very confident person. I think it rubs people the wrong way because I'm very straightforward, with everything I think. I'm not afraid to wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm not afraid to say anything about my personal life in my songs; I'll tell you exactly what it's about. I think a lot of people are scared of reality. And are scared of an enormous confidence and I think - a lot of times my very, very prominent confidence in myself and who I am as a person, and self-assurance, is mistaken for cockiness. I think that's true of a lot of people in the mainstream. We've toured with... I've heard so many stories about - like the stories I heard about Sean Kingston, but you hear stories about bands like Good Charlotte - I used to jump up and down at their shows like a crazy person. They're one of my favourite bands. In the States they came and they played before us on the last Summer's tour, and they were the most humble, amazing, patient-teaching people in the whole entire universe. Bands like New Found Glory. HUGE bands take you under their wing; Aerosmith even when you meet them, it's amazing. When people are nervous of something, I think sometimes they put an immediate label on it. In that way, I wish I could have a five minute conversation with every single person who listens to our music, so they could know exactly where I'm coming from and every lyric of my songs. And they could know, at least a piece of what I'm about. And that's why I take every little bit of press I can, and that's why I put myself out so much on the Internet. I hope to really deliver a true personality across and have a real true relationship with our fans. Because they're the only reason that any of this, is possible - any of us making music and travelling the world, and being able to make a second record... and have dreams that I've had since I was only three years old, come true. It breaks my heart when I hear stories of fans saying negative things about me, or any of the band members not having respect for the fans. We talk about everyday about how grateful we are, and how blessed we are. We chose to be a viral band. We chose to not go to radio at first. Our fans, are the reason we got a shot. When we signed to Columbia; we said hey - we want to go out on the road and develop an indie-fanbase. We'd sold 250,000 records when we let 'The Great Escape' go to radio. And that was all from word-of-mouth. That was all from fan interaction. That was all from us putting ourselves so far out there. Our gratefulness for that will never be jaded, and never go away and never be missed. Right now with this record, even to be able to get a second shot and be able to do it a second time, we're more grateful and humble than ever. We're just so happy to be put in this position. I stage-dive all the time and sometimes, I do it with my guitar. So if I've knocked you in the face with my guitar before? I'm sorry. I've never in my life hit a girl. No-one in the band has, ever. We get a little rowdy at our shows sometimes, so if I've stage-dove and hit you in the face with my guitar, or if I've jumped off some balcony and I've knocked your eye with my elbow, I am very sorry. But in my entire life, I've never, never touched a female [ violently ] ever. I've been in two fights in my life, and I pretty much lost both, and those were just to defend friends. And before, the band even started. Just stupid high-school scrapping stuff. Every member of our band is a complete pacifist. If we hear any form of a fight coming on, we immediately walk away. CDM: Ashley Tisdale of 'High School Musical' fame, stars in your 'Love Drunk' music video! How did that come about? MARTIN: We met at a radio show in New York City about two years ago, right when 'The Great Escape' was first coming out and 'Hero/Heroine' was just starting. I was backstage and this girl ran out of a dressing room and goes - "Oh my god! You're Martin from Boys Like Girls. You guys are my favourite band!" And I double-taked and I go - "Oh my god! You're the chick from High School Musical." She starts bursting out laughing, and since then we became friends. We needed somebody who would totally step completely out of the box, and be completely comfortable in front of the camera in any situation. And take risks, and not second-guess any style or direction. And we felt like we wanted a face in the video. We were brainstorming and I was like; oh! I should just text Ashley real quick and see if she'd do it. And she said - "Hell yeah! I'd love to." She was out in L.A. and it worked out. It was great. And it's cool to have a BLG fan that big of an icon in a lot of this society, to have stepped out and star in a Boys Like Girl video - that's really, really cool for us. It was awesome and she was good to work with. CDM: Complete this sentence - "I used to be love drunk, but now I'm..." MARTIN: ...lovedrunks.com - the answer's on there. We created a website called lovedrunks.com where everyone, and a bunch of our friends who are in the spotlight too, can go and share their hangover stories. I'll give you the preview of mine, but the whole bands is up their. And you can put yours up too, kinda like the F My Life site; in a similar format to that. I used to be Love Drunk, but then he did this, or she did that. Mine was something along the lines of - and then your insecurities and non-stop phone-calls took away all the fun out of the relationship, and made it more about convincing you that I still had feelings for you, than it being about us having fun. CDM: It's now been forty-three minutes and forty-four seconds counting of your night, so I bid you adieu, adieu... MARTIN: You were wonderful. Thanks so much for hanging and listening to me rambling on. It's the worst feeling in the world being misconceived. I think it even comes down to just swagger and how you handle yourselves, and how you dress. It's the simple things, but if I've learnt anything from this record - I think it's our time to prove that every member of this band is just so thankful to just have this opportunity to be where we are. We've never been in such a good mood in our entire lives. We just walk around smiling and hugging each other, all day and everyday before we go on stage. Nothing's a burden. We even on our first record cycle, used to complain about stuff; like if we stayed in a dumpy hotel. Now, it's like - if I go back to sleeping in the old apartment where me, Bryan [ Donahue ] and John, shared it - and John slept on the kitchen floor with a rug that we found in somebody's trash; and cut it to size, so that we could create a bedroom in the back of the kitchen, and shelves in the closet. Just so we could practice eight hours a night before we went to our day-jobs. I would live there right now, if I could just continue doing what I'm doing for this many people. Just sharing this with the world; it's our dream.  |
