6 days to go before the katy perry concert: Red, white and boom
MANILA, Philippines - When Boys Like Girls first bumrushed the scene in the summer of 2006, it was already clear that the Boston-area band was precision-tooled to win over legions of listeners in the under-20 category. With a fistful of major-chord love songs, their self-titled debut brought along a wave of chart-friendly singles and prepped the boys — Martin Johnson (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Paul DiGiovanni (lead guitar, backup vocals), Bryan Donahue (bass guitar, backup vocals), and John Keefe (drums) — for total MTV domination. Fixtures in end-of-summer mix tapes the world over, The Great Escape and Thunder still sound as awesome as they did three years ago.
Mixing their perky, Cali-casual vibe with frontman Martin Johnson’s late 90s alt-rock stylings, Boys Like Girls’ sophomore album, “Love Drunk,” promises even more catchy hits. The video for the title track features Disney doll Ashley Tisdale and is only the tip of a teentastic iceberg. Taylor Swift also guests on Two Is Better Than One, an acoustic track that points the band towards a slightly country direction.
“I like to listen to music that makes me feel a certain way — either it reminds me of something important that happened or a certain time in my life,” Martin says. “If kids are feeling that way about our songs, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Supreme caught up with the band in Malaysia, where the foursome took turns talking about their visit to the Philippines in 2008, lyrics they wish they had written first and shaking their booty to Cobra Starship.
Manila mania: “We just loved it, man! The fans were psycho — they were crazy! It was completely fun being able to travel across the globe. We didn’t know what to expect. We just showed up and they were there, screaming their lungs out and trying to rip our clothes off. It was fun playing in a mall. It was like we were playing this giant coliseum!”
American idols: “We all have our heroes and people we look up to, but we aspire not to be anybody else but ourselves. Our true heroes are the people in our everyday lives, like my father. He taught me to be a better person and inspired me to follow my dreams in every single way.”
Band crushes: “What? We don’t have crushes on any other dudes. (Laughs) I know it’s kinda cliché right now and everyone tries to get the cool points for saying it, but I’ve really been into the Kings of Leon record. It’s so raw and real and organic and you can hear the pain in his (KoL lead singer Jacob Followill’s) voice. And Cobra Starship just came out with a new record. I’ve been shaking my booty to that.”
Under cover: “We covered Frou Frou’s Let Go on AOL Sessions and it kinda became a viral thing for a while so it was cool. I wish I had written that song. It just hit me so hard, that lyric ‘beauty in the breakdown.’ And it’s not just Imogen Heap’s voice. There’s just something about that line ‘let go, jump in,’ kinda ‘What are you waiting for?’ It just grabs me. That’s why we wanted to cover it so bad.”
Stop, collaborate and listen: “It would be great if we got to do a music video with Steven Spielberg. They actually still play music videos on MTV here so it’s cool. Go, Asia!”
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Katy Perry and Boys Like Girls Live In Manila takes place at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds on Saturday, Oct. 3. This one-night-only concert is brought to you by the fine folks at All Youth Channels. For tickets, call Ticketworld at 891-9999 or check www.ticketworld.com.ph.
