December 4, 2006
Boys Like Girls – Bryan Donahue, John Keefe, Martin Johnson

C = Cath, B = Bryan, J = John, M = Martin

C: For the record, can you state your name and what you do in the band?
J: I’m John & I play drums.
B: I’m Bryan & I play bass.

C: What’s the best thing, in your opinion, about being in a band?
J: Being able to tour and hang out with my best friends everyday, basically.
B: Couldn’t have said it better myself.

C: When you guys first started up, did you set out with any particular goals?
J: The goal was just to do what we’re doing now - to put out a record, tour on it, and meet a ton of people. That sort of thing.

C: How does it feel to be called an Internet success story?
J: I don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with it. A lot of our so-called “success” has come from the Internet so I don’t think it’s a big deal at all.
B: I don’t really think we’re successful yet but…
J: Yea.
C: Well other people would disagree with that.
J: We’ve got a long way to go, I think.

C: What sets you apart from other pop punk bands around right now?
J: I don’t really consider us a pop punk band.
C: What do you consider yourself?
J: I consider us a rock band. We just happen to fit in an area where some people would say we’re pop punk, and some people would say we’re straight up pop, emo, or alternative. We’re just a rock band. We’re all best friends and we love what we’re doing. Every band’s situation is a little bit different so… that’s us.

C: What was the inspiration behind the song “Thunder”?
J: Martin wrote the lyrics to that one so I think he can answer it.
M: It’s just about a relationship that fades out, but you know that deep in your heart they’ll always be the person that – it’s like when you have a first love you never really forget it – everybody’s always compared to that person and its kind of remembering that and going back to that place and being back with that person again.
J: We should have answered like, “It’s about a rainstorm.”
-Everyone laughs-
J: “A horrible thunderstorm.”
M: It’s just going back to that place and –
J: “Being scared in my basement.”
M: I guess sometimes it’s wishing you were back there but… just remembering it.

C: Lyrically, what’s the most important song you guys have ever written?
M: I think they’re all important, because they all come from different aspects of my life and our lives. The two songs on the record that mean the most to me are “Top of the World” and “Holiday”. “Holiday” is me on a platter, throwing my personality out there. It’s who I am, my flaws, and where I stand. “Top of the World” is about my mom, who passed away when I was 16 from cancer. It was my way of putting that behind, and putting it down on paper and getting it out of my system.

C: You guys just finished up a tour with Spitalfield and now you’re touring with the All-American Rejects. Is it hard constantly being on the road?
J: We’re pretty exhausted, because we’ve literally been on the road for the past 8 months. It’s hard, but it’s something we’ve always wanted to do. Sometimes you’re really tired when you go up there, but as soon as we go up, it’s totally exciting. If you’re tired all day and you have an hour of energy, it’s to get up there and do it. Obviously it’s a little different going from that tour to this, because this is like a whole other world, which is insane. They’re both fun, equally, but they’re both very different.
B: Once you really get out on the road, that’s what becomes familiar to us – that’s home. We’ve been so many places around the country that when we do get to go home to see family, that seems foreign to us because we’re used to everywhere else. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

C: How have you been getting along with the other bands so far? Have you had enough time to really get to know them yet?
J: Yea! Well, we’ve hung out with them and everyone’s super nice. The All-American Rejects are the best dudes in the world. We couldn’t be happier to be on the road with them. The Motion City guys like to throw cake at our van and laugh at us… The Format are super sweet guys. All the bands are really fun to watch and bro down with.
M: They threw cake at our van?
J: Yea.
B: A small piece. It’s right on the windshield, very bottom.
J & B: It needs to be washed anyways.

C: On that note, do you have any interesting tour stories you could share?
M: So far we just drive, get to the show, load-in, and then relax a little. As far as tour stories we just sort of hang out together.
J: The other night was actually kinda awesome. We were backstage at the Gibson Amphitheatre. A lot of really cool bands that we like were there. The Academy Is was there -
M: Good Charlotte, and one of our friends from Midtown were there. It was cool to hang out with everybody. As far as the day-to-day stuff, we don’t really go too crazy.
B: We don’t have time to. Seriously, it’s: drive to show, load-in, sound check, play.
J: It’s a pretty normal life, but it’s also not, at the same time. All the other bands have crews and stuff, but we’re kind of our own crew –
B: We have to do it all.
J: It’s a long day.

C: In your opinion, what’s the most memorable show you’ve ever played?
J: The first one on this tour was pretty memorable. It was crazy, there were thousands of people and we’ve never really played in front of that many before. As of right now, I would say that was probably one of the most intense.
B: Not the first day, I would probably say the second, in LA. It was huge.
J: Well the first one was 2,500 people, and it was completely wall-to-wall.
M: I like when the kids are all on the floor, though. You feel the energy off the kids. When they’re in seats, it’s a little harder. When a group of people are passionate about music and they get together and they are all there for the same reason and their bodies are pressed together, there’s this total surge of energy amongst them. There’s this mutual feeling that’s spread across a bunch of strangers that they’re there for the same reason. Being able to look out across that energy and feel that coming onto the stage is really awesome. You don’t really get that when you see fans in seats.
J: It’s cool looking up and seeing all the cell phones, when it’s all completely dark. That’s pretty wild.
B: People come to watch bands play, we come to watch the crowd as we’re playing.

C: What are your plans for after this tour is through?
J: Our plan is to go home and relax for a little bit. To do Christmas and stuff.
B: Only for a week.
J: Then we drive out to do our video for “The Great Escape”.
M: We’re playing a couple headlining shows with really good friends of ours called All Time Low.
B: Across the south.
M: Then we’re going on tour with Cobra Starship and Cartel.

C: There’s a livejournal community where fans come together to make you guys gifts. Do you guys know about this?
B: I think we’ve heard something about it, yea.
J: I’ve heard something about it, but I don’t really know…
M: Yea! We got a care package from the gift thing. It’s cool. The kids are awesome & are amazing to us.

C: What’s the coolest thing a fan has ever done for you?
M: I don’t really think it was a present, yet. It’s a promise. It’s also the craziest thing a fan has ever done. There are these 2 girls that drive to a lot of our shows… They’ve made a promise to us that they are going to drive 100,000 miles in total to see Boys Like Girls shows. They’ve already racked up about -
B: 90,000 –laughs-.
M: 16,000 miles. If we end up doing Warped Tour this year, they are going to do the whole thing. It’s crazy. They have already started a scrapbook with pictures and a log of the miles and all of the distances they have driven to follow tours. It’s cool. We’re going to be bearded and old when we finally get the scrapbook, but we’re excited for it.

C: How does it feel to have such a strong fan base?
J: It’s awesome! The kids are great and we love them all. They’re a big reason why we’re doing this.
M: I think the most amazing thing about our fan base is that they are such good kids and such good people. I’ll see a couple groups of fans and then at the next show, they’ll be hanging out together. They make friends at our shows, through music and through passions. People who didn’t know each other met at Boys Like Girls shows, and they’re staying at hotels, driving in cars, and picking each other up on the way to come to shows. It’s really awesome that we had a part in that connection between people, because seeing people relate like that through music is really amazing.

C: What’s one band that you think everyone should be listening to right now?
J: The Killers, because I love them.
B: Valencia, Permanent Me…
J: Mute Math.
M: Mute Math’s a good one.
J: You go to should see Mute Math, because they’re amazing.
B: Yes!
J: Obviously all the bands we are on tour with, because they are all awesome guys and awesome bands. Cartel, Cobra Starship…

C: If you had the chance to interview your biggest musical influence, who would it be, and what’s one question you would ask them?
M: Oh geez…
B: I’d probably say Paul McCartney, and it would be “Remember that time that you were in The Beatles?” –laughs-
J: I don’t know… I actually got the chance to meet 4 of my biggest drumming influences. I have about 20 guys that are my favorite, and I got to meet 4 of them in the same day, sitting at the same table that I just happened to be sitting at. I was watching this other drummer, who I’m totally passionate about, about 2 feet away. It was kind of weird. What do you even ask them? “How did you get that good?” –laughs- I have no idea what I would ask them. I would just say “Thank you for being so good”.

C: If you were stranded on a deserted island with no food and no one but your band members, who would you eat first and why?
J: I’d definitely eat my cousin, Paul.
B: That’s a really gruesome question. I’d probably just starve.
J: Yea, that’s kind of weird. Why would we be eating each other?
C: There’s no food…
J: Why wouldn’t there be food on an island?
C: It’s a deserted island!
J: Have you ever seen LOST? They find food.
B: We can go have some fish.
C: Well you can’t find food this time. It’s just sand.
J: Just sand? You’d die anyways!
C: Well, if you wanted to live a little longer…
B: You’d dehydrate before you starved. You can’t drink seawater.
J: This is not very realistic.

C: That was my last question, so do you have any closing statements?
J: Yea –
M: I’d eat myself.
-Everyone laughs-
Steph: That would be productive?
J: … I’m not going to say anything. Uh, closing statements.
B: Say it!
J: No! Thank you for having us do this interview and thanks to everyone who’s coming out to the shows…
M: And to everyone who reads this.
J: Yea! Hit us up on myspace and our personal myspaces. Myspace.com/boyslikegirls. And our Purevolume. We have online stores and all that stuff, so check it out.