I was first introduced to the guys remotely by Lin, the editor-in-chief of Kiwibox, he had already walked into the room they were in, as I was still talking outside, finishing up some business. All of a sudden I hear my name being shouted extremely loudly from within, by five guys known now by most of the teenage girls around the world. They were the five guys of O-Town. As I was heading into the conference room at J records to actually meet O-Town face to face, I wondered how many girls would burst into tears, faint, or give their right arm to be in my exact position.
Ashley was the first to greet me, shaking my hand and introducing himself as if I would not know who he is already. I figured that it would be kind of awkward for people who are stars to introduce themselves to other people. If they act like they are already known, it could be mistaken for a big ego; if they introduce themselves, it almost seems silly. Next was Trevor, then Dan. Erik and Jacob were on the far side of the room’s long conference table, so they waved. They were all busy signing autographed posters the entire time or doodling on the posters and giving each other goofy faces. We actually scored one of those doodles, signed "To Kiwibox." (see pic above)
As a surprise for Lin and I, O-Town played their new video for us, which will debut on Monday, August 20. It is for their song on the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack "We Fit Together," which will also be featured on a collector's edition O-Town CD. The guys themselves had never actually seen the final copy of the video, so we were all watching it for the first time together. It was a great way to kick off the interview.
KB: What do you all think of the video?
All: “It’s cool,” they replied. “Happy with the way it turned out." "We look like we’re having a good time." "It’s like a song that makes me want to go have fun." "It’s the exact opposite of “All or Nothing.” “All or Nothing” was all sad, and break-up.”
KB The video was set on the boat, was it fun to film it on a boat?
Erik If it was just a party on the boat, it would have been cool, but it was difficult because the boat was moving, and it was cold.
Ashley Two of the girls I was dancing with got sick and had to be replaced, they threw up. Actually at the way end of the day, it was late, and dark. It was like 2 in the morning and we got onto this little dinghy. We got on it, and the Yacht took off and the dingy wouldn’t start (the guys all chuckle remembering the incident).
Okay, let me pause this interview, imagine this: Ashley says they got all five O-Town guys, on a little boat, stuck, in the middle of the water. Can you imagine being the one girl on the boat with them? Or how many girls would LOVE to have been the girl to have passed at that instant on another boat and save all of them. Okay, ladies, don’t let you imagination run away with you…back to the interview.
They all continue the story…
So there were like 15 of us [including managers, etc] on this little tiny dinghy, and we’re getting ready to paddle.
Trevor The funniest thing is that we got on the little dinghy because we were done, and we wanted to beat everyone else back. So we’re taking the dinghy back and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t start. All of a sudden, they get done, and so they’re like, heading back. We’re about half way there, and we’re like, they better not beat us back.
Dan Yeah, we were just like, floating. We were out there in the middle of the night, it was dark, and it was cold. SO the dinghy boat was pretty scary, we didn’t like the dinghy...Dan looks up with a huge smile “ I just like saying the word ‘dinghy.’" and laughs.
Noticing that the video did follow some of the “Liquid Dreams” themes, I asked them about it.
KB What is up with the dreams thing in your videos? First it was liquid dreams, and now it’s triple X rated dreams.
Erik (obviously trying to think of the first thing that comes to mind) Actually, a lot of fantasies happen in dreams. Jacob looks up and laughs at him. Dan turns around and says sarcastically, “That’s a good one Erik, You win!!”
Ashley We didn’t want to be the type of group rated G.
Trevor breaks in, (making fun of that answer) Yeah, we wanted to be a group rated triple X.
Ashley continues, “No no, but we’re mature, we’re all from the ages of 20-21. (another point the guys make fun. They point out that it’s not a huge range, just say 20 and 21.) What we sing about is reflective about what people in our age group think about: Love, relationship, and attraction to the opposite sex.
Not to jump way back, but if you remember the last Kiwibox interview done with O-town, it was done with Erik. Erik told us about their near death experience on the airplane. I was curious how life was now that they had a tour bus.
Dan The bus is so much better than the airports. We sleep so much more. After the show we just hop on our bus. It’s like our home. Like, I almost consider it home.
Ashley The bus has, a dvd player, play station 2, microwave, a fridge, bunkbeds, a bathroom...
They all start laughing all of a sudden and launch in about a mysterious person in the group who did “number two in the bathroom, which is forbidden.” They all start making fun of the mysterious person, sitting ”at this table” who did number two on the bus.
Erik then takes it upon himself to explain to me why you never do number two on the tour bus. “Number two is forbidden on the bus, one because…“ Ashley jumps in, “guys, lets not talk about this right now.” Erik ignores him, and continues, snickers are heard by all the guys around the table…“ because we have a very strong relationship with the driver, and he’s the one who has to empty it out, and he doesn’t want to empty that out. And, sometimes we’re on the bus for about 15 hours, and it gets to smell.”
So the golden rule, stated by the guys: Anyone who wants to go on a tour bus, or anyone who ever wants to go on a tour bus, know the number one rule, DON’T GO #2 on the tour bus.
KB So you all seem to get along pretty well. What are some of your pet peeves?
All”poopin’ on the bus,” “Ashley spiking my punch,”
Dan Trevor singing really loudly with his headphones on.
Trevor Actually, Trevor hasn’t done that in several months…
He continues mumbling.
Dan Hey, hey, hey, Trevor jumping down your throat when you tell him he sings to loud.
Well, at this point, there was slight tension between the two. They all move on.
Ashley, then says that he doesn’t really have too many pet peeves with these guys.
Obviously in on an inside joke, Jacob finally picks up his head from doodling on the pictures, looks directly at Trevor, and says, “I don’t like it when people from the record companies call me on my day off.” Trevor just looks at him and laughs.
KB So now that you’ve gone this far, were you shocked when you were chosen, way back when you were in making the band?
Trevor I was. I never really thought I would be in the music industry. It’s always a dream of everybody’s growing up, but I never really thought it would be something I could grasp, so I never really focused on it, I focused on becoming an actor, because I knew that was something I was a hell of a lot better at. And now, WOW, here I am.
Jacob I was kind of at the opposite end of the spectrum, I was starting theatre, but I knew I wanted to be in music. I wanted to have a garage band, play my guitar. That was something I was dreaming for.
Dan I was studying to be a garbage man.
Ashley gets back to the question-I am in between Trevor and Jacob. I grew up acting and doing music. My mother was a piano teacher, and I grew up playing piano and guitar, and also writing songs. I also grew up acting. NO, I don’t play the drums.
Ashley continues: So we all basically grew up wanting to do this, but our paths collided, and here we are now, realizing this together, and we all had our own individual starts. Which is actually the strength of our group. Our diversity, our individuality, we draw into the strength of our background to create a dynamic range in what we can do.
KB How do you like getting the instruments put into your show?
Jacob Well, they aren’t being put into our music; we’re putting them into our music ourselves.
He seemed to really take offense to the question, as if I was implying that they were just handed the instruments to make them look good. As the conversation grew, I realized that they must have been hearing that implication a lot, because it seemed extremely important to them to get out the fact that they love music, and play instruments on a regular basis as part of their lives.
Ashley adds to the statement to get the point across, It’s not, ‘Hey, let’s play guitar so we can look diverse, so that we can look like we’re musicians,’ you know? It’s not like that. Jacob plays guitar, he grew up playing the guitar, and so did I.
Trevor adds, I honestly think that Jacob would go crazy if every night he got on stage and he didn’t get to play the guitar. He would probably kill himself.
Ashley It’s just something about himself that he wants to show. So we do it in our stage show. I grew up playing piano, so I play piano in our stage show, sometimes guitar. But we’re not doing it to be, you know.
Erik A lot of people think we’re doing it to be like other people, and they need to realize that we’re not doing it to do what everyone else is, we’re doing it because this is what we do. One of the major problems that we had was that in our series, our television show, is that a lot of the concentration wasn’t on our music and our musical ability, it was mostly on why is Ashely breaking up with Shelly, and who was late. Those are things that really don’t matter.
Check out their new music video, it’s going to be here on Kiwibox on Monday the 20th of August. Look for it here!
Erik replies- well you’re working on it, since that was garbage.
Ashley- yeah, you are working on it, cause that one stunk.
