All Access Column 7

	ALL ACCESS Column 7 March 11, 2002 (Written over a three week period from February 11 to March 8) 2/8/02: "You know I’ve gotta end, you’re jealous of me." I’ve listened to that clip of "Jealousy" quite a few times by now and that line is pretty nifty the way they put it together. Get it? Jealousy, jealous of me? Maybe I’m just amused easily. It may be hard to believe, but there was a time where Matt hadn’t even considered himself being a lead singer. Matt wasn’t sure if he could do lead vocals because he had never tried it before, but look at him now. I’ll be checking my mailbox pretty avidly after February 19th. The wait is probably a good thing for me; it will help me to learn how to be more patient. Oh what am I kidding, I’m still antsy to hear the album. Hey and did you notice that "Close Your Eyes" kind of rhymes with "Just Say Goodbye"? They kind of tie in together. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to have the opportunity to record in a studio. Writing, producing, recording into the wee hours of the morning, that’s a dream. It looks like a whole lot of fun to me. Now I know the fans back at home and out of state have been wondering what those middle school shows have been like down in Southern California. It’s already been a couple months that they’ve been on tour. Yikes! Well lucky for you the guys had some great stories to tell about life on the road during the QSP Fundraiser Middle School Tour. The guys were originally in the running for the QSP tour before it started; however, the gig was given to another band. But as luck would have it, there was a twist of fate and Townsend ended up with getting the tour. Ironically enough, it was just four years ago that the Backstreet Boys headed the QSP tour, and last year, Dream & Innosense, so it’s a big of a trip for Nick, Rye, Matt, Todd, and Dom. How would you like to get a knock on your door and get an offer to go on tour? *Wanna go on tour?* Nick: "That’s one of those things where it doesn’t even seem like it would happen this way. Actually, we heard that we were being considered for it through somebody. I forget how. But they had settled on another group called Triple Deep. So they said they wanted to use us for the Spring Tour and we were all oh that’s cool, sounds good. And then what happened was one day we were just chilling at my house. And this guy across the street from me who works for QSP came knocking on my door asking ‘Are you guys still a band, Triple Deep broke up, you guys wanna take their spot?’ And that was pretty much it. I called up our managers and told them about it. It was totally totally, out of the blue, that’s funny." *The Experience* Nick: "It’s been really, really good, it’s been really busy. It’s been a big learning experience for us. We’ve gone through so much practice and it’s helped our show a lot and it’s good since we’re coming out with our CD, so we’re getting exposed to people. They’re small shows but they add up." Rye: "It’s been an awesome experience. We get to meet tons of people and perform in different environments. There’s been a few where we had to perform in the basketball courts and I really liked doing that. It’s pretty crazy, some of the schools have these just immaculate gyms and other places just have like a two-foot stage. Each stage is a whole different experience." *Favorite Show(s)* Nick: "Oh wow, that’s hard. It was…I have two actually. Marine View and this brand new one in Las Vegas where we performed for the whole school. Their school was like three days old and so usually it’s only the people that sold enough magazines that come, but because it was a new school, they let everyone come. It was an awesome show. Then at Marine View, In-N-Out came and brought lunch for everyone to eat and we got to eat with the students." Rye: "Probably that one in Vegas, that new school. They let the whole school in, it was just crazy, really fun." Matt: "Every show has been different. I think that what makes the show good is the audience. And how they react. That totally plays a big role in how we perform. So if we get an audience that’s just screaming in the beginning, we know it’s gonna be good. Not a lot of people know who we are, because we replaced the old group and they think we’re the old group that used to be on the tour. But some of the schools know who we are and they’re just totally going crazy during the concert. That’s when I think we’ve had our best performances. We had one last week where only 45 kids sold magazines and they totally didn’t want to be there either. It was funny because all you heard after we finished the first song was "My ears hurt!" *QSP* Nick: "They do a lot of stuff. They sell chocolates. They sell magazines. It’s a company that comes to your school and gets you to sell stuff. We are the prize. There’s a lot of prizes, anything from bikes to food or pizza days or ice cream days to BMX bikers coming." *Reaction from the Students* Nick: "The guys are tough. They’re tough. But the guys have been really cool. Sometimes they’ll be giving the cold-shoulder during the show, but after the show they’re some of the first people to come up and say wassup. We’ve met a lot of cool guys that say anything from ‘Hey I really liked your stuff’ to ‘Hey that’s not really my type of music. I’d rather be watching girls dance than five guys, but you guys are cool, thanks for coming.’ At first, we really have to prove ourselves. It’s not like these people know who we are. Every once in a while we’ll go to the school and they’ll have posters up and stuff they’ve made because they’ve done research, but most of the time we have to prove ourselves. The first song is a little rough, then we do "Just Say Goodbye" and bring someone up and that creates a connection and the next two songs are pretty fun." Rye: "We can usually tell if the show’s gonna be good by the intro. When they’re screaming right off the bat during the intro, we know it’s gonna go well. If not, then we know we have to prove ourselves. But the other week we had a show that had maybe 25 kids and they were totally just punk-rock kids. And as the intro’s going on we hear just no noise at all. And we’re screaming "Hey, what’s up, how are you guys doing?"…no noise. We get up and do the first song and when it’s finished…no claps at all. And all we hear is this person going "My ears hurt!" And we’re used to hearing the crowds screaming and being loud, so it was pretty funny when there was no reaction. The hardest crowd to win over is the punk rock kids. But there was one girl that had a Slipknot sweatshirt on. And they are the complete opposite of Townsend and she was screaming pretty loud, so I was all wow she likes Slipnot and us." Matt: "I think what we’ve gained from this tour is that we’ve learned how to get in touch with the audience a lot better, how to work the crowd, perform a lot better. And we’re getting really into it. A lot of the guys are saying ‘You guys put on a really good show and I’m gonna buy your CD’. The first few preorders for the EP CD were actually from guys. But I think with "Pour Some Sugar on Me" out, all the teachers have been really digging it because it’s in their age range and that’s what they used to listen to. It’s really interesting to see who we appeal to." Dom: "We never know how the students are going to embrace us. Because we’ve been in anywhere from upper upper class, really rich schools out in Malibu to inner city schools. And we never know how they’re gonna accept us, especially because they’re there because it’s a select few students that get to be there since they sold enough magazines. And there’s a variety of different kinds of students, and it’s kinda scary since most of them haven’t even heard of us. But generally, even some of the schools that we think we might get booed at like some of the inner city schools, by the end of the show, they’re yelling and screaming and chasing us down the driveway. We’ve been very fortunate to be accepted by everyone really." *Planet Hollywood Show in Las Vegas* Nick: "That was a lot of fun. Dream came and performed the Star Spangled Banner acapella and then we went on. We had a good time, the stage was probably only four feet deep. So me and Dom were performing on the floor and the guys were on top, so there was some stuff we had to work around but it was a lot of fun. We had to get out in the crowd a lot because they were all in seats and it was an open area and it was just a lot of fun. They had radio winners and we got to eat dinner with them." Matt: "The trip was crazy. All the schools there knew who we were; they knew everything about us. We had one show where there were like 900 people there and they were just screaming in the gym. It was packed with bleachers on both sides. That was a lot of fun. And a lot of those kids ended up showing up at the Planet Hollywood thing and we had a packed house." *Work Before Play* Nick: "Sometimes we get up at five o’ clock in the morning, load the car up, drive sometimes two hours to our first show, set up all our gear, do a sound check, do a show, break down all the equipment, load it back into the car, and hopefully have time for lunch, drive to the next show, unload the van, do a soundcheck, do the show, do a meet-n-greet, breakdown the equipment, load it in the van, drive home. There was one week where we were averaging about five hours of sleep per day. Plus doing two shows a day, loading our own equipment, and two meet-n-greets. And then I get home around six o’clock and you know me, I like to try to go to the gym. And we still have to do an hour of vocals, so it’s incredibly hard to check our email because we only have one computer between the five of us and it’s our manager’s and she has to do a lot of management work on it. It’s easier for all of us to look on the messageboard and respond to the messages there. The weekends right now have been used to recuperate because by the end of the week on Friday, we are all dead tired. We’re beat from all the shows and getting up early, and going to bed late and rehearsing. There really is no down time right now, very, very busy." Dom: "At first it wasn’t that bad because we had been doing more centrally located stuff, but the last few weeks, we’ve had like an hour and a half to two hour drive to the shows in the morning. And we have to get to the morning shows an hour earlier. We’re trying to get on the messageboard and keep up with our emails as much as possible. But it’s real limited and hard to get on. We’re trying to stay in contact with people as much as possible, and then go to the gym and rehearse, so we have full days. But even at the end of the day, no matter how tiring it was or how early we’re up and how hard we worked, it still feels really good. We feel real fortunate to have the opportunity to be performing and making people smile." *Funny Stories* When you see an empty seat in a big crowd of students, you might want to ask if something is wrong with the seat first. Just ask Nick, he would know. At one of the shows Nick decided to get a seat for himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t know that it happened to be broken so that’s why no one was sitting there. So it’s in the middle of "Just Say Goodbye", the serious ballad, Nick sits down and *whomp*, down he goes. Nick: "I tried to sit down in a seat that was broken. It was theater style seating. It was one of those chairs that fold. When I sat down, it like totally flipped the other way, so I fell straight to the floor. It was in the middle of ‘Just Say Goodbye’." Joy: I think we can all admit to that happening to us. I was just in the computer lab last week and made the mistake of leaning over. It was one of those chairs with wheels and an adjustable back, and you can pretty much guess what happened. Thankfully I am able to laugh at myself…a lot. Nick: "One time Todd went out in the crowd to do a rap. And he turns around and this girl just jumps on his back, wraps her legs around his waist. Just latched her legs around him. Oh and at one of the shows, we did it in a cafeteria/auditorium room. There was a stage on one side and they put a bunch of seats and benches in for the kids to eat lunch. So there were these cafeteria ladies cooking in the back. Well we did our show and we looked back and some of them were holding up signs saying ‘We want a hug’ or ‘Come get cookies’ and these are like forty year old ladies. Then after the show, one of them actually picks me up and she was just like, ‘Oh I love you guys, you guys are so great, you guys are so cute.’ And she picks me up and starts spinning me around like a baby. I couldn’t even move because I was laughing so hard and didn’t really know what to do because I was just like ‘Oh my god, this lady just picked me up.’ Then the same lady just runs up and straddles Ryan, just jumps up, wraps her legs around his waist and says ‘You’re not going anywhere.’ We had some funny stuff happen." Matt: "Nick just fell. It was in the front row. He was all talking and had just gotten there. There was an open seat there, so he’s all ‘Oh I’ll take a seat’. The reason why it was open was because it was broken. And he just sat there for a while. Pretty funny. He had some battlewounds for that one for a while. And about the lunch ladies, they were swaying to the music while we were performing. And after we were done, they brought out cookies for us and then they were telling us how cute we were. And one of the ladies just picks up Nick and starts carrying him around. They totally cooked us lunch and everything. I guess when we were leaving, I didn’t get to see it, but the same lady jumped on Ryan and put her arms and legs around him and wouldn’t let go. It was pretty funny." Todd: "Whenever I do my rap, I go out in the middle of the audience to just kinda chill with them. Well at one show, I went out, and all the kids just bum-rushed me. I don’t mean like ran over me or anything, I was just surrounded by kids. Then everyone started jumping, so it was this big mosh pit and I just did the rest of my rap and the song from there. It was crazy but pretty cool." Dom: "Nothing humiliating has happened, just funny stuff. We were at this one show. Nick was giving away this Valentine candy gram to this one girl. He said ‘Yea I have to give it to her because she’s got a Pooh sweatshirt,’ meaning Winnie the Pooh, except he left out Winnie. He said something about a Pooh sweatshirt and Matt goes "Who doesn’t love Pooh?", but just the way it was being said, me Todd, and Ryan are looking at each other like whoa. It just sounded really, really bad. But little stuff like that, just little things happen, that keep us laughing and smiling. Just not taking ourselves too seriously. Ryan and Nick also seem to make a very good impression on the lunch ladies." *Oh the Memories* Nick: "I’d have to say for me, it was at this huge school in Vegas. And these kids were fired up! They were all about it; they were going nuts. And it’s my job to go pick someone to bring on stage for ‘Just Say Goodbye’ and I’m sitting there after ‘Understand This’ while Todd’s introducing everybody wondering how the heck am I going to pick. And low and behold, as soon as I walk out, Matt’s all ‘Hey Nick, this girl is screaming for a hug’ so I was just all alright she’s the one. So I go over to pick her out and we do the song for her. And then the next morning QSP rep comes up to us saying ‘You know you guys, the principal of that school wanted me come to you guys to let you know how big of a thing you did. That girl you sang to yesterday was homeless, her mom’s a drug addict, she just got out of a second chance home, and she had a lot of issues.’ But she’s just been talking about what you guys did for her all day about how much that meant to her and how much you’ve changed her life around and how it feels to know there’s good people out there. And so that for me just like made whatever frustrations or hardships I had or working through being sick or being injured, made it worth it. It was just all wow, that to me is what it’s all about, being able to touch somebody that way. The morning after that, we did another show. And there was this guy, he was really, really cool, really nice, kind of mellow and the teacher comes up and says ‘You know, that kid’s mom died two weeks ago and this is the first time I’ve seen him smile", so it was just a really really touching two days right there." Matt: "I think the least memorable part is sleeping on the way to the show. I really don’t think there’s a moment that stands out the most. I think it’s just that at each school you pick up something new. You meet somebody new, we meet almost every kid at each school. There’s so many experiences, it’s hard for just one to stand out. I got an email the other day from a girl that goes to high school in Jefferson. She said during lunch….everyone has lunch together, it’s a small school, there’s only like 300 kids. The principal was all "Can I have everyone’s attention? This is a former student of Jefferson High School and I want you all to watch this." And he played our performance from the halftime show. Everybody was pretty pumped about it. And then my little brother’s in elementary school and my little sister is in middle school. I think everybody in my little brother’s school is gonna buy the CD. I think it’s pretty funny. For his birthday, my mom brought in cupcakes for the whole class and he’s like "All I want you to do mom is to bring the CD in," and so my brother sat in front of the class and sang. He’s a cool little guy." Dom: "Vegas was fun just because it was one of our first experiences that made us realize ok we’re on tour now, we’re out, we’re in different areas. And we’re out and we had the Planet Hollywood show and we’re doing on-air radio, which was really exciting. And in Vegas, there were two days in a row, kinda just found out about it this one morning where we touched these two kids lives without knowing it. It’s kind of a wakeup call. We’re just talking to these kids and I don’t know, none of us know what’s going on in anyone’s lives and to see that you can have a small impact on somebody like that, even if it’s for five minutes…It may seem like just another conversation to us, but to see that it makes a difference to the kid, that’s really rewarding. And it keeps us wanting to talk to the kids and everybody, try to do something positive with our music." *Message to the Fans* Nick: "Miss you guys a lot and please don’t think that because we haven’t been around we don’t care. And I know we’re busting our butts off, so we’re not out here having fun without you. Don’t get me wrong, we’re having fun, but we miss you guys a lot." Rye: "Can’t wait to see you. Sorry I haven’t been able to reply to all the emails, everyone’s really hardcore on the computer and there’s only one. And by the time it’s free, I’m already passed out, falling asleep. I try to get to as many people as I can. I just hope people understand in order for us to be successful we have to work really hard and so there’s really no time on my hands. I try my best." Todd: "We miss all you guys! Hopefully the hard work we’re doing now will pay off and we can make everyone proud. Go buy the CD!" Matt: "Oh we miss you guys so much. Everybody up there, and even the people that aren’t even from California, we totally miss everybody and can’t wait to get back up there. I hope everybody enjoys the CD because we put a lot of time into it and I think everyone can appreciate it. From what’s on the internet, I don’t think it does any justice to what the final product even sounds like. It’s really good. The pictures are pretty funny too. We didn’t want to be totally serious so we put a little comedy picture on the back." Dom: "Miss everybody a lot and I can’t wait to get back and say hi, and constantly wanna thank people for everyone’s support and remind them that they’re a big help. And that everything they do doesn’t go unrecognized. It makes a huge difference, not just in our success, it makes us want to work harder." Oh and this is totally random, but I found this part of my conversation with Matt really funny. He asked if I wanted to know something awesome and of course I said sure, and he goes, "I just found six dollars in my pants. That is fantastic! I wanna find more. I’m gonna put on five pairs of pants." Best way to find money, go through everyone’s pockets in the laundry. The hamper is a diamond mine! And I actually have an interesting story that connected me to the guys while they were on their Southern Cali tour. In the beginning of February, I got an email from my second cousin Ashley who lives in Arcadia, CA. Apparently her school had been one of Townsend’s stops. Total surprise to me! Ironically, I had just been telling her about the guys during Christmas when I was down there. Well actually my dad told them more about the guys than I did. Haha But I’m telling you, this girl is all into sports and pop music are totally not her thing, but she was really excited about it. Instantaneously Nick and Dom were her favorite…of course, I know why. =) That was a shock to the guys too because they met her. But I sent her this package of Townsend stuff like pics. So Ash’s friend saw the Townsend pics and had a look on her face like she’d just seen an angel or something. That’s a new one. Weird how these random things happen. This is what she had to say about her experience: "Well first this might not count as part of the performance but during lunch they did a sound check kind of thing and everybody ran to the cafeteria window. That was the first time everybody in the lunch area started to get really excited. Then during the beginning of 5th period we went to the cafeteria to see the concert. Before they started they kind of went around and we got to talk to them for a couple minutes. After that the concert started. I can't remember the first song that they sang but I know that they sang "Just Say Goodbye" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me". I can’t remember the third song. Then after the performance we all got in line, and got to meet the guys and get their autographs. We got to talk to them for about one minute or you could just get their autographs, but they were really nice to talk to. Even though they perform in concerts or open for really big groups and artists, they didn't see themselves as being better or higher up then everybody else. They just saw themselves as normal people. Everybody else always sees bands as somebody higher then everybody else. They took their time with everybody and it was one of the best experiences of my life." Continued March 4th, 2002… The show at Diablo View Middle School today was a very interesting experience for me. That’s the first school show I’ve seen the guys do, so it was definitely intriguing to see how the kids reacted to Townsend. First of all, the screams…wow that was loud! High-pitched screams in a small place really hit you hard. Those girls had some vocals on them. It was a nice crowd of little over a hundred boys and girls. The guys did their set of "Understand This", "Just Say Goodbye", "Tonight is For You", and "Pour Some Sugar on Me". This girl was called up during "Just Say Goodbye" and Dom was urging her to sing Rye’s part. The girls absolutely loved it when the guys came down into the crowd to mingle, give hugs, and sing to the crowd. Then when the kids were invited to come up to the stage and dance during the last two songs…whoa, major rush to the front. Even some boys worked up the courage to come up to the stage to watch. Good job! It was just really cute, I couldn’t help smiling seeing the reaction from the kids. Dom and his auctioner introduction of Nick, "Hesmytwinbrotherthecutestguyintheworldand4minutesyounger". It was all meshed into one long word in about 5 seconds. I did not understand a thing he was saying. Haha But remind me to get picked up right away after the show next time. These 6th grade boys were interrogating me…"Why are you here? You go to Clayton Valley don’t you? Is that your actual size backpack you take to school? Do you like them (the guys)? Do you think they’re cuties?" I was laughing inside but silently sending an ESP message for my dad to hurry and pick me up. Haha It amazes me sometimes how similar middle school boys are to boys in high school. Go figure. =) Continued March 8, 2002… The show at WCI went really well. You could already sense it was gonna be a good show when the kids were coming in. The guys were going around talking to the students and just hanging out. Rye’s second cousin was there too and it was cute to see the looks on her friends faces when they found out who she was related to. Everyone had a big laugh when Matt was talking about how he told this girl there were twins in the group. Her immediate response? "They’re mine!" The meet-n-greet afterwards was crazy. There were a lot more kids at this show than I had see at Diablo View, so I was pretty much smushed in a corner with all the kids waiting in line in front of me. I had a nice conversation with a sixth grader named Zoe. Some of those kids can really carry on an good intelligent conversation for someone their age. It made me laugh when someone asked if I was Townsend’s choreographer. Oh wow, what a compliment, but all the honor goes to Paula Henson. *sigh* One long week has gone by in a flash. I had lots of fun and am glad to have gotten to spend some time with the guys which has been rare with their busy lives. The next three weeks the guys will be back on tour in Southern California. Keep up the great work guys. Props to all the fans for doing an excellent job promoting. And a big thank you to Julie for doing everything you do, of course you’re a Wu! :) Return To All Access Column Index